My angel-boy is close now, as in five-feet-away close. There's no way I'm going to burst into song in front of him. But then the contrary part of me says, you're going to let a boy keep you from singing out loud? Sing, sister! Sing! So I do, and my angel-boy turns his head.

They're not chicks. They're ducks.

Suck it up. This is the life you chose for yourself, so buck up and deal.

Sometimes when we forget to do things for others, it's because we're too wrapped up in our own problems.

But you have to live in the present. You have to take the old and make it new -- that's my point.

Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.

I was just teasing," I say. "I myself don't like to eat plain butter, but hey, it's a free world.