We women. as glue for the family. lead lives that are important and conflicted. What we women choose to give up for our families is important and valid.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.

Lately he'd been seen going out less and less, becoming that strangest of animals in a small town: a loner.

...This fear was unbearable. It unwrapped who she was, as neatly as he'd unwound her bandage, leaving too much pain and ugliness exposed. Nerve endings; he'd said they were the problem [causing phantom pain in the amputated limb]." Things that cut off, that ended abruptly or died--like parents and marriages--kept hurting forever.

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.

Sitting around and waiting for your muse is not the best choice.

A romance novel focuses exclusively on two people falling in love. It can't be about a woman caring for her aging mother or something like that. It can have that element, but it has to be primarily about the male-female relationship.