Michael A. Kahn

The Perfect Ending? Hollywood versus the Novel, Part 2

Posted on January 7, 2013January 9, 2013 by Michael Kahn

Following up on my last post, here is a look at the closing scene of the second of three classic Hollywood movies and the closing lines of the novel on which it is based. While almost all of us have seen and can even recite lines from the 1939 MGM motion picture musical, The Wizard of…

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The Perfect Ending? Hollywood Versus the Novel, Part 1

Posted on January 4, 2013January 7, 2013 by Michael Kahn

T.S. Eliot opened his poem “East Coker” with the line: “In my beginning is my end,” and he closed it, “In my end is my beginning.” I wrote about beginnings in my last Poisoned Pen Press blog post–specifically, the form and function of a great opening line to a novel. My next post for that…

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Schadenfreude and the Bad Sex Award

Posted on December 31, 2012February 19, 2019 by Michael Kahn

My last post was on the Bulwer-Lytton competition, where contestants submit a bad opening line to an imaginary novel. What makes that competition such innocent fun is that the contestants themselves compose and submit a sentence that they hope will garner first prize as the worst opener. And “worst” in that context means “funniest” or “cleverest.”…

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The Literary Lounge Lizard: Pick-up Lines Gone Wrong

Posted on December 25, 2012December 25, 2012 by Michael Kahn

My last two posts were salutes to the greatest pick-up lines in literature–those magical opening sentences that lure you into the novel. As in a singles bar, the best pick-up lines in novels feature a surprise twist at the end. George Orwell understood that rule in crafting the opener to his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four: “It was…

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The Great American Opener: More Thoughts on Literary Pick-up Lines

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Michael Kahn

Following up on my last post, I had some more thoughts on what makes a great opening line. Two contenders for The Great American Novel are also contenders for The Great American Opener. Herman Melville starts Moby Dick with the concise but enigmatic “Call me Ishmael.” Hmm . . . not your real name, eh?…

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The Art of the Literary Pick-up Line: “Hey, call me, Ishmael”

Posted on December 17, 2012December 20, 2012 by Michael Kahn

For an author, the opening line of a novel is the literary equivalent of the snappy pick-up line in a singles bar. Indeed, some of our greatest novelists are also some of our greatest pick-up artists. My latest post at the Poisoned Pen Press blog is on the great opening lines of literature. I end it with…

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Dead Lawyers, Pet Cemeteries, and First Novels

Posted on November 24, 2012December 12, 2012 by Michael Kahn

The two questions readers most frequently ask me are: 1. Why are so many legal thrillers written by trial lawyers? 2. How do you come up with the crazy ideas for your novels? I try to answer both questions in a recent piece I wrote for the blog on Poisoned Pen Press, which will be publishing my next…

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