“Don t live the life you planned. Live the life you never imagined.”
“A novel is a writer s rant disguised as entertainment...”
“If a story is only what it seems to be about, then somehow the author has failed.”
“Rejection is simply redirection to the greatness awaiting for you.”
“The constrained lives of his characters made me wonder how my own existence might appear in his hands.”
“The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.”
“Always make sure to write down whatever you can remember dreaming about. Dreams are just dormant ideas. It s up to you how you use them.”
“Sometimes writing everyday is like pulling teeth, painful, but necessary.”
“To master magical realism, one must make the real seem unreal but, more importantly, make the unreal seem real.”
“Yeah, I write Urban Fantasy, but its more like Die Hard or Indiana Jones with Fairies, Mummies and a Vampire who uses guns more than his teeth.”
“Toni s Talk: When you invest in yourself, you have instant credibility with your biggest critic...you! As soon as you let doubt creep in---you lose that investment. Make a daily commitment to assess your worth with positive affirmations and watch your investment grow.”
“Cruel Prince James strode into the chamber, his cape flashing behind him and his terrible, terrible mustache askew with rage,” Lucie narrated the moment James walked through the door. “Does it need be said twice that it’s terrible?” James said. “He required a hot beverage to soothe his throat, parched from barking out his wicked commands all day. Tea, he thought, yes, tea and revenge.” “I’ll just go put the kettle on,” James sighed.”
“Do not put statements in the negative form. And don t start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all. De-accession euphemisms. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.”
“If you wait to live you will never succeed. Living begins today and it begins within you.”
“The brave princess Lucretia raced through the marble halls of the palace. I must find Cordelia, she gasped. I must save her. I believe Prince James holds her even now, captive in his throne room! Sir Jerrod exclaimed. But Princess Lucretia, even though you are the most beautiful and wise lady that I have ever met, surely you cannot fight your way through a hundred of his stoutest palace guard! The knight s green eyes flashed. His straight black hair was is disarranged, and his white shirt entirely undone. But I must! Lucretia cried.”
“I used to always read with a pen in my hand, as if the author and I were in a conversation. ”
“You ve got to be smart enough to write and stupid enough not to think about all the things that might go wrong.”