Best! Lines!

i am kicking myself right now, because i wanted to do a "best lines" post with all of the golden nuggets i read in the ARC of the upcoming ASHES, by Ilsa J. Bick.

unfortunately, i had to send that ARC along to another reader, and i forgot to jot down my favorite lines.
do yourself a favor and buy ASHES to discover those nuggets for yourself - just be sure to read it with the lights on!

fortunately, i just finished another book packed with great one-liners, so we still have a blog post today. :D

here are a few of my favorite lines from CRACKED UP TO BE, by Courtney Summers:

I take a deep breath. It smells suspiciously like bullshit in here.

(Jake questioning Parker about drinking)
"Do you have, like ...a problem?"
"Yeah, and that was my solution."

Next time Chris tells me to loosen the fuck up, I'm going to tell him to fuck the fuck off.

(there's another set of lines i LOVE but won't share here to avoid spoilers, but if you have this book, flip to chapter 16 and read the very last lines. most powerful moment in the story for me.)

see you at the end of the week with a new entry in the Revision Diaries!

best lines and blog contests

i was starting to worry i'd never do a "best lines" post again!

i read two books recently, one YA sci-fi and one YA contemp, both of which left me with no memorable lines.

i am still on my spoiler-free kick about Mockingjay, and my favorite lines are spoilers, so sorry i can't offer my picks from MJ.

but YAY! the book i am halfway through now is so loaded with one-line zingers that i already have more than enough to share.
these are my faves - so far - from L.K. Madigan's "Flash Burnout":

• "Fine. And hey, Garrett? Could you make sure to keep crushing my spirit under your boots of indifference?"
• My monkey mind flings a piece-of-shit joke at me, and I catch it gratefully.
• But I can't wait to get there and feel her up, I mean ask about her weekend.
• I watch him for a minute, and sure enough, his glance flicks over to Cappie with the regularity of a lighthouse beacon.

actually some of the real laugh-out-loud moments in this book aren't one-liners at all. they're setups and punch lines, which is a clever format for the humor in this book, since the MC wants to be a stand up comedian.

NOW LISTEN UP ALL!
if you've ever considered a career in publishing but don't know how to get a foot in the door, or if you've ever just wondered what really goes on at a literary agency, TUNE IN NEXT MONDAY! we're going to pull back the curtain and take a peek at the literary wizards who take your book from query to sold!
i'll have a Q&A with a fantabulous intern extraordinaire who spent the summer working with two highly coveted agencies.
PLUS - my first ever BLOG CONTEST! with a prize that could be invaluable to any writer in search of representation!

see you monday.

Best Lines I Wish Were Mine

i am one of those people who destroys her favorite books. i underline passages in pen and doodle stars next to bits i like. (not in all of my books – not even in most of them – but every so often, when the writing is so good, i just can’t help myself).

i am also one of those people who will connect with a quote on tv or in a movie and carry it around with me all day, until it becomes a permanent memory, taking up its own little corner of my brain, to be repeated to myself months, even years later – when it seems applicable or when i need a smile.

i love being the audience for these quotes, but as a writer, there is also that twinge of: “damn! i wish I’d written that!”

anyway, i thought I’d share a few with you.

TV:

“I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster, the woman with the chest hair, because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker.” – Cordelia, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (because i write young adult and think voice is so critical to writing, this quote is possibly my favorite TV line of all time)

“Perfume counter saleswoman: You know what the fastest way to a man's heart is?
Roseanne: Yeah. through his chest.” - Roseanne

“Oh, man. I feel like I'm the middle of a really bad after-school special." – Darline, Roseanne
(i liked this line so much i stole it and use it all the time - have for years)

Too many from film to really get into, but here's just one for fun:

“Chunk: How's this?
Mikey: Oh, you idiot! You glued it on upside-down!
Brandon Walsh: If God made it that way, you'd all be pissing in your faces!
Chunk: Looks fine to me.” – Goonies
(love this line for subtle innuendo. very clever.)

Books:

"We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked at each other for the last time." - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
(the first passage i ever underlined - and because of that, possibly my favorite book quote of all time - the first one that "got" to me)

"It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen." - Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

"The Dursleys of Number Four, Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." - JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(my favorite first line of any book. i remember smiling the first time i read it and knew instantly that i was about to become one of those crazy potter fanatics)


finally, a smattering of quotes from my most favorite author for pure writing, if not always for storyline:

"Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind."
and on the very next page:
"I can have oodles of charm when I want to." - Breakfast of Champions

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance." - Hocus Pocus

"Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe." - Hocus Pocus

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." - Mother Night

...all by the late Kurt Vonnegut

"So it goes."

what are some of your faves?