Hey there! I’m Lou Sylvre enjoying the hospitality of Love Bytes once again. My post today is all about the front matter! No that’s not a euphemism, really! I’m talking about the little bits some authors (myself included) feel we just must express before the novel starts, which most <p>often consists of some or all of four parts—acknowledgements, dedication, author’s note, and epigraph.

But, because I can, I’m only going to talk about my favorite one: the Epigraph.

First, a note. You would think “Epigraph” would come at the end of the book, like “Epilogue.” But no, “because the world is round” (as the song by John Lennon says for a totally unrelated reason), it comes at the beginning. Go figure. Regardless, I love them. I love reading the ones other authors have chosen, and I really. truly love finding them for my books. 😉

Here’s some I’ve enjoyed from other authors.
Sci-fi author and physicist Gregory Benford for In the Ocean of Night:

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot
(Perfect for sci-fi, right?)

Harper Lee, for To Kill a Mockingbird:

“Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.”
—Charles Lamb
(No more need be said.)

And here’s a poignant one from M/M romance author Vastine Bondurant, for Glory Lands:

“Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.”
—Will L. Thompson
(Quite fitting for the story!)

And the use of an epigraph is most definitely not limited to fiction. This is from The Friendly Guide to the Universe by Nancy Hathaway:

“Nothing is too wonderful to be true.”
—Michael Faraday
(Yes, that Michael Faraday, 19th century scientist)

I love these, and many others, but you’ll never guess which ones I love the most. Oh… it wasn’t that hard? Well, okay, you are right—they are mine. What I love about using an epigraph—actually about the whole process of putting the front matter together—is that I do it after the book is written, and it forces me to look at my story through a different lens. To see meaning in it. To see what in it came from my core, if you will. To what reflects my observations, fears, wonders, and hopes in regard to lovers and thieves and warriors and wise ones—all of our improbable human world. Believe me I’m not thinking about any of that while I’m writing. In fact, if I didn’t do front matter, I’m not sure I’d ever be able to answer any of those wonderful questions interviewers and readers ask. Not even the ones about Muppets! 

For the Vasquez and James universe, where I have an epigraph, I’ve chosen not one, but two or more quotes to better illuminate the interwoven stories. Here are three of them, and this is what my contest today is about, so if you want a paperback book (in the US), or an e-book (elsewhere or by preference) of any one of the original series or A Shot of J&B, read on.

One set:

“Long have they pass’d, faces and trenches and fields, Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure, or away from the fallen,
Onward I sped at the time—but now of their forms at night, I dream, I dream, I dream
—Walt Whitman “Old War Dreams,” Leaves of Grass

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.
—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

***

Another set:

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
—Mark Twain

“No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say ‘Oh, my gosh,’ and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop.”
―Marisa de los Santos, Love Walked In

***

And one more set:

“I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest… because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.”
―Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest

The contest question? Match the epilogues to the books, please, and note them in the comments. Cheating is possible, I know, but more fun maybe if you don’t. (And you wouldn’t, right?) Your name in the hat for each one you match up right. Winner gets a paperback or e-book from any of the V&J universe books. Hint: It’s not terribly difficult, even if you haven’t read the books. You can find the blurbs and excerpts at the Dreamspinner Press store. Furthermore, here’s one you don’t have to guess about, a free entry, so to speak. 

From: A Shot of J&B:

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear

The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.
–T.S. Eliot The Wasteland

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear;
–e. e. cummings—Being to timelessness as it’s to

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing

–e. e. cummings—I like my body when it is with your body

I’ll be back next month with another of my Lou Sylvre brand strange topics. For now, au revoir!