"The brush was rescued from an antique store on the verge of closure. The shop was empty except for herself and the owner. Behind the register, the man looked as though he were part of the store’s collection."

"Since that time I remain here. From the window I gaze at the yard below, sometimes I shout but no one seems to listen to me."

"Homeostasis is not equilibrium. It’s a balance, a delicate flowing exchange, an everlasting metabolic dance. Neither dancer is permitted to stop. The music cannot end."

"I was the summer help that year, hired largely to deal with the sudden influx of tourists poking through the labyrinthine barn that was the store."

“Not all planets are places people like you and I can go to. I wish we could, honey, I really do. But we just can't.”

"Everything went as planned in Alex's life until this sudden.... Bang. Plain. Dry. Neither melody, nor rhythm."

"That comment was even enough to cause the mage and the rogue to pause, and suddenly all of the birds ceased their squawking.  All of the eyes were on me and the jungle was eerily silent."

"Now that she lived in Monsterville, a town that was meant only for things that go bump in the night, the ghostly ritual carried a new gravity to it."

"The woman nodded and the wolf shook his shoulders. A soft whispering carried on the wind, the pastor’s prayer."

"Bad bargain for us in the end, just one kid instead of a dozen, but what’s done is done.”