There are all sorts of losses people suffer - from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more than just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion.

there's something nice about knowing that i'm not the only one who doesn't quite fit the part.

It's a fallacy that writers have to shut themselves up in their ivory towers to write. I have all these interruptions, three of which I gave birth to. If I was thrown for a loop every time I was distracted I could never get anything done.

What being home-schooled has taught me, more than anything, is what a waste of a life high school is.

Read a ton. Take a workshop course so you learn to give and get criticism.

People believed what they wanted to believe, no matter what was right in front of their eyes.

What makes a treasure a treasure." Marine replied, "is how rare a find it is, when you need it the most.