On Openings

I just returned from Barnes and Noble, and I have discovered my new favorite opening line, from a Steampunk novel called The Friday Society, by Adrienne Kress:
"And then there was an explosion."
First off, this is a great use of in media res. Explosions don't happen on a daily basis in many places, so you start with a question of what the hell is going on.
Then it continues:
"It was loud. It was bright. It was very explosion-y."
That bit sets the tone for the rest of the story (or at least, for the page and a half that I have read) - for what I have read so far of The Friday Society, the 3rd person narrator is rather sarcastic and witty, and keeps up a similar narration to what has just been displayed, even if it only involves the development of the focus character, who caused the explosion (it wasn't on purpose, but... she's a lab assistant in a Steampunk universe; explosions are bound to happen).

A good opening, my friends, is more important than a good closing.  Why?  If you don't have a good opening, your readers are never going to make it to the end, so you will never know whether the readers will celebrate a good end to a good book, or complain of a terrible end to a decent book.  They're not even going to make it to the middle bits, even if the middle bits are of a higher caliber than the ending or the beginning.  Though it is important to develop every part of your writing, and to edit (which, unfortunately, I have displayed a severe lack in the writing of this blog), open your book well.