A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. It is a loss that turns to arthritis and settles deep into her bones.

It's not intentions that matter. It's actions. We are what we do and say, not what we intend to.

It's not a date. I bought my own drink and I didn't shave my legs.

Honestly, when you start talking about genres, you're talking as much about the business side of writing as anything else. Certainly there are elements of reader expectation that play into various genres, and those are important, but it also becomes about packaging, placement, audience....In the end, I'm not a fan of labels. I think the best fiction blurs the boundaries between genres, stretches and breaks them.

Promises were a lot like impressions. The second one didn't count for much.

Some stories don't have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.

She still felt shell-shocked by all of it, numb. Beneath the numbness, though, was a raw and terrible anger that was unlike anything she'd felt before. She had so little experience with genuine anger that it scared her. She actually worried that if she started screaming, she'd never stop.