The grass he walked through was new and a sweet smell clung to his clothes. There was blue dye on his hands from the wild irises... that the color of the sky was a shade that could never be replicated in any photograph, just as Heaven could never be seen from the confines of Earth.

Those you love will not drown or burn. They will fly away.' ...'Now we both have people we love who are like birds. They have flown far from anything in this world that can hurt them. They're flying away still.

That is how you know you've left childhood behind-when you wish for time to go backward.

No barrier was strong enough to keep out the movement of time.

Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.

When I write for teens, I feel I can cut through everything and get to the bare bones. I can get straight into the emotional world of the character.

That was the way love was, invisible, there whether or not you wanted to see it or admit to it.