She said writting novels was like childbirth: if you truly remembered how awful it got, you'd never do it again.

It's a big deal when you finally get the chance to do the one thing you want to do - need to do - more than anything. It can kind of scare the crap out of you.

I seriously doubt that the Santa police do an underwear check." -Cora

Fall in love with someone who truly deserves your heart. Not with someone who plays with it.

There's a kind of radar that you get, after years of being talked about and made fun of by other people. You can almost smell it when it's about to happen, can recognize instantly the sound of a hushed voice, lowered just enough to make whatever is said okay. I had only been in Colby for a few weeks. But I had not forgotten.

Looking at the pond, all I could think was that it is an incredivle thing, how a whole world can rise from what seems like nothing at all.

But it was too early to know: there were always more pages to go, more words to be written, before the story was over.