Can words help you sleep?

I missed a few days weeks of sharing some of my favorite quotes with you.  April's not over yet and I am awake in the middle of the night with things on my mind, so what better way to ease myself back into a deep slumber than to read some soothing, romantic words?  In case you are having a night of insomnia too, I'll post this now, at 3 AM.

I feel in love with this author and her writing when I read THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE a few years ago.

“When he plays
all the flowers swap colors
and years and decades and centuries
of rain pour back into the sky”

― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere


What better way to try to fall asleep than to read a children's picture book?

"I love you to the moon--and back." by Sam McBratney, Guess How Much I Love You


If not, do you have any advice for me?  What do you do on nights when you're stressed or have too much on your mind and wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back to sleep?

This Thing We Do

So this month, in the midst of editing most of TTM and rewriting parts of it, Christy and I decided to start blogging again.



Um, yeah, sounds like we could use some inspirational writing quotes! Do you? Here you go! (all quotes taken from Goodreads)

“Sometimes a writer, like an acrobat, must try a trick that is too much for him.” -E.B. White

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” -Madeleine L'Engle

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” -Sylvia Plath

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” -Robert Frost

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” -W. Somerset Maugham

“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard.” -Neil Gaiman

And THIS just because it will make you feel good.

Have a happy weekend!

My First Love

No, not that kind of first love. Although that does make for an interesting and at-the-time-cry-my-eyes-out-tragic kind of story. . .but no, not that. I (erica) might be a 37-year-old mother of two, but I still love Contemporary YA, particularly those that include less awkward first romances than mine was. Hey, you guys are writers, you know what I'm talking about, right?



So, today, I bring you some quotes by one of my favorites. . .Sarah Dessen. And if you haven't read anything by her - what are you waiting for? I suggest starting with The Truth About Forever. Or Just Listen. Or maybe Along for the Ride. Or. . .never mind, just go read her! (all quotes taken from Goodreads) And in the comments, let me know if you save quotes. It's super easy on my Kindle, I just don't think of it as I go!

“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.” (Someone Like You)

“It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.”  (The Truth About Forever)

“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.” (Keeping the Moon)

"...the bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more, you're all good." (Along for the Ride)

“It was like when you're a little kid and you run into your teacher or librarian at the grocery store or Wal-mart and it's just so startling, because it never occurred to you they existed outside of school.”  (Just Listen)  (and I HAD to include that one because as teachers, christy and I know it's true!)