I made the rules I figured I could be the one to break them. I thought I would write about xenophobia, a hatred of foreigners. After I stated writing the story there was not a foreigner to be had. I did not want to just stick one in there so I could get a title out of it since it seemed like cheating. I never figured out how I could get out of this dilemma so I just called it X and weaved X traits into the story.

Lucky is the spouse who dies first, who never has to know what survivors endure.

I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.

You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.

A woman should never, never, never be financially dependent to anyone, especially a man, because the minute you were dependent, you could be abused.

grief is an illness I can't recover from.

There's nothing quite as irksome as someone else's mess.