Some time ago I posted the opening paragraphs from my first draft. Now that my second draft is done, I figured I’d post the new opening paragraphs. Here they are:
Like every morning, as soon as the sunlight pierced the eastern window Leopold awoke. It was a lesson passed down from father to son – arise with the sun and you would catch your enemies while they were still sleeping. Of course, that lesson was from the days in which the enemies the King worried about were the assassins sent by distant relatives. While Leopold did not need to concern himself with those enemies, there were larger problems.
Leopold looked over at the empty space on the left side of his bed. His wife, Lissanna, used to sleep there. In the mornings, he would roll over and give her a kiss on the cheek before beginning his day – she was always a late sleeper. Now, she slept on the other side of the castle, estranged by her duty to the kingdom and the burden it placed on them both. He still loved her, he always would, and he missed her warmth at night. But he knew they would never share the same bed again, and like every morning as he lamented the past, Leopold let out a great sigh.
Now keep in mind that these are (very) rough paragraphs. I decided to change around a few of the chapters, including moving what was the first chapter to later in the book. These paragraphs will definitely get rewritten during the next step of the revision, and I’ll share them here after the third draft is completed.
