My general writing preface is to write an outline and then ignore about half of it, both on a micro level with the individual book, and on a macro level with the series as a whole, and that's pretty much what's happened.

This knowledge sits in my heart, heavy as a paperweight.

I was stupid, the official descriptive phrase for happy.

Keep anyone with whom you can read in silence.

It was darker than a pitch-black panther, covered in tar, eating black licorice at the very bottom of the deepest part of the Black Sea.

Put your hair up, Min. The secret ingredient is not your hair.

But I must admit I miss you terribly. The world is too quiet without you nearby.