Sometimes I can better describe a person by another person's reaction. In a story in my first book, I couldn't think of a way to sufficiently describe the charisma of a certain boy, so the narrator says, "I knew girls who saved his gum."

I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry.

I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequence: right here, nowhere else! Right now, never again!

For peace of mind, I will lie about any thing at any time.

As soon as I knew that I would be all right, I was sure that I was dead and didn't know it. I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. I waited for the moment that would snap me out of my seeming life.

And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the waves feel that much colder.

An idea might spark an essay, but never a story.