by Sabrina Philips, author of The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride (Harlequin Presents Extra, August 2009)

Since I devoured my first Harlequin Presents about twelve years ago, the way I approach reading them has undoubtedly changed.  It began, as it does for many teenage girls, as a secret pleasure — hiding them behind my school textbooks, losing myself in this grown-up, adult world.  Later, as a student, Presents became my summer holiday reading, an annual relief from the heavy texts of my English degree.  Later again, I began to read Presents with an eye for the way they were written as I set my sights on the goal of publication.  Now, I’m reading books written by authors I’m honoured to share the shelves with, some of whom I’m lucky enough to have met, and as well as being for pleasure it’s also about watching emerging trends and continuing to learn.

But even though much has changed, what’s always remained the same is my favourite part of reading a Presents.  What is it?  Quite simply, it’s starting a new one.  Sitting down – in my bedroom, in the bath, on a plane or on a train, then pushing back the distinctive cover, and beginning a fresh, new Chapter One.  (And please no one remind me I can now read as many chapter ones as I like for free online or I’ll never get anything done today!)  I like it better than any other part of the experience, and I always have done — even when sex scenes were such a novelty to me, even when I was reading to try and work out how on earth an author managed to write such a devastating black moment, and even when I forget to concentrate on the writing and just lose myself in an emotional happy ending.

Of course starting to read any new book is always a pleasurable experience, but I’ve always found starting a new Presents is that extra bit special.  I think it’s because I don’t have to worry whether the story will be my kind of story, whether I’ll get into it straight away, whether I’ll be glamorously swept away from wherever I am and into the arms of a gorgeous hero.  I already know I will be, and that’s why I can just sit back and enjoy the ultimate in escapism — because as per the Presents Promise, international affairs, seduction and passion are guaranteed.  I just couldn’t sit so comfortably if international affairs, seduction and passion were only a possibility.

What’s more, when I meet the hero and heroine, even if they’re in a situation where their chance of having a happy ever after seems impossible (and so much the better if they are, in my opinion!), I can enjoy wondering how on earth they’re going to get to there without having to worry about whether there’s a chance they might not.

It’s no surprise then, that I’m a big fan of opening scenes themselves — particularly those in which I can barely imagine how the hero will ever be redeemed, how the heroine can really be innocent, or how either of them will ever find their happy ever after.  To name but a few that will forever be vivid in my mind….

A masked ball in which the heroine was dressed as Carmen and the hero as a pirate king in Emma Darcy’s Claiming His Mistress.  Susan Napier’s The Mistress Deception in which the hero is sent compromising photos of himself being tied up by the heroine, a whip beside them, and can’t actually remember what happened that night because he was too drunk at the time (I loved wondering how both the hero and heroine were going to come good in that one!).  Secret Admirer, also by Susan Napier which sees the heroine trapped in a lift with the hero wearing a fur coat getting hotter and hotter, until the hero finally tears it open to prevent her passing out and discovers she’s wearing nothing but a tiny pair of knickers underneath.  (Thanks to Annie West who led me to that one — I know it’s been mentioned on here several times too — just brilliant!)

Talking of Annie West, her recent title The Desert King’s Pregnant Bride has a fantastically memorable opening: a heroine out in wellies and a raincoat in the middle of a storm, having gone to make love to her boyfriend for the very first time only to find him in bed with someone else.  Then there was India’s Grey’s award-winning Mistress: Hired for the Billionaire’s Pleasure which sees the heroine running away from her own wedding in the first chapter — utterly compelling!  I could go on, but I fear I would be here for some time…

Perhaps unsurprisingly, composing the opening scene of a new book happens to be one of my favourite parts of writing too.  In the case of my current release, The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride, it was also the very first scene which came to my mind and inspired the rest of the book: a sheikh covertly watching a model pose for a photo shoot, appalled at the exposure of female flesh and yet at the same time, turned on.  As I began to ask questions about that scene – who are they, and why are they there? the answers became my story.  The sheikh was Kaliq Al-Zahir A’zam and the woman Tamara Weston, whose actions in Kaliq’s eyes were all the more shameful because she once rejected his proposal of marriage claiming she wanted to live her life out of the spotlight of his!  And now he knows that was a lie, he’s come to claim the wedding night he was previously denied…

However, although I love writing first chapters, that’s not to say — particularly for those who have already begun their entries for the Presents Writing Competition — that I think it’s easy.  Trying to work out how much to give away about your hero and heroine, deciding which ideas not only work as a great first scene but which will also have enough potential for sustained emotional conflict is tricky, but I do know that thinking about the opening scenes I’ve most enjoyed, and remembering that as a reader I want the Presents promise to be fulfilled from page one, always helps.

So good luck to everyone entering the competition, happy birthday Harlequin, and here’s to many more fabulous opening chapters!  In the meantime I’d love to hear about Presents openings which have particularly stuck in your mind….

Plus, read the opening of  Sabrina’s newest book The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride by clicking “Browse this Book” below:

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