I think if I hadn’t been a writer, I’d have been a teacher like my dad. He was a college professor, and one of my greatest regrets is that he passed away before I was able to prove to him that I wasn’t going to be stuck working at Rax Roast Beef for the rest of my life!
I think you get so wrapped up in the book you’re currently writing, it’s hard to think about anything else. But I know as soon as I’m done with this book, I’ll move on to something else.
No one wants to pursue anything creative anymore, because that’s too risky. They may not get the kind of return on the financial investment they’ve made in their education that they think they should.
I like to think of my books and the movies of my books living in two separate universes. Each is very nice, but only one is correct – the book. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the other versions, and I always do.
My original inspiration was my mom: a few years after the death of my dad, she started dating one my teachers!
My favorite book of all time is Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons.
I won’t tell you how I managed to break in, since I don’t want the authorities figuring out, but let’s just say that if you’re going to make a gate, make sure it reaches all the way to the ground.
But it’s there. Just because I haven’t told anyone doesn’t mean it isn’t there, all the time, lurking in the back of my mind, like one those NSync songs you can’t get out of your head.
When I did see the story of Persephone, I was really drawn to it. Persephone, the goddess of spring, was kept from Olympus by her mother, Demeter, because Demeter was very worried that the gods of Olympus would do something terrible to her.
Aaron, in order to die you have to live a little first.
Oh my God. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm right there in line. Your hair smells really good? Your hair smells really good? Who did he think he was? James Bond? You don’t tell someone their hair smells good. Not in a mall.
It just goes to show that what one person considers a “bad attitude” might actually just be total frustration over being pushed beyond the brink of one’s mental and physical endurance.
Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible. She’s not dead. Not this time.
It’s what’s known as an origin myth. What happened to me? That’s no myth.
Did you see him? I know the photo was grainy, but he looks like one of those death metal goth heads, or whatever they’re called. All dressed in black with long hair I took umbrage at my mother describing my boyfriend this way. John was the Lord of the Underworld. How else was he supposed to dress?
Smiles like that should be against the law. Considering what they do to a girl.
Why can’t you just get married in Las Vegas like normal Americans?
Pretty isn’t the only thing that matters – being smart and kind matters more, of course – but all daughters should hear from their moms that they look pretty once in a while.
In order for people to be happy, sometimes they have to take risks. It’s true these risks can put them in danger of being hurt.
Of course. I was on the run from evil spirits that wanted to kill me and now, according to the local paper, the law. Yet Richard Smith, cemetery sexton and death deity scholar, had a book for me to read in all my copious spare time.