Educator, Media & Design Guru, Author, and Public Speaker
“Then the mosquitoes whined out in
attack formation and we went inside.”
“Sonja tucked a sheet across the cushions and gave me a
plaid sleeping bag with a broken zipper.”
“And there was that moment when my mother and father
walked in the door disguised as old people.”
“his vowels thick and strong as big city blocks,”
“Hearing Mrs. Muriel Snider speak, I reflect, is better than being shot. But not by a terribly wide margin.”
“His face is pale mulatto and as blanketed in freckles as New York summers are populated with mosquitoes. His irises are green, peering from behind what some would call spectacles and I’d call a set of awfully sturdy beer steins. Wire-brush grey hair bristles from his pate. I smell cheap whiskey, a sweet-sour cloud, which may or may not be emanating from him. Since he wears only a robe and pajamas, he either resides at the hotel or else doesn’t plan on running for public office.”
“…tense as a high-wire act.”
“…my head seemed to balloon out and fill with bees.”
“Linda Wishkob was magnetically ugly.”
“Travis’ father had taken him into the city to see the Catholic president and his elegant first lady, who was wearing a suit the exact mute pink as the inside of a cat’s mouth.”
“There was a ringing in my ears like the sensation you get when swimming near the bottom of the deep end.”
“The air was suddenly full of the scent of apple blossom and horse sweat, lemonade and old hose pipes, dusty roads and the sound of children laughing. All of it strong enough to make me take a step backward in surprise.”
“Her accent was cut glass.”
“My stomach instantly fluttered. ‘You,’ he said, ‘are so pretty. But when we’re at Yellow Feather, and I’m staring at you from across the room, and you’re bent over some novel, you’re beautiful.’ A heated exhale was my only available response.”
“I peered at a blue-jean sky and a watercolor horizon.”
“I shut both my locker and my eyes, leaning against the metal door.”
“…with the barkeep whose mustache makes him look so wonderfully tragic. Like he lost his one true soul mate years ago, and that soul mate was a devoted sheep dog.
“Harry was always dour, but I’d never seen his face turned the color of molding cheese previous.”
Bet he could charm the skin off a tomato in person.”
“And now he’s going to… His mouth pressed over mine.
So this…this was a kiss…”
“I bolted back out into the hall with the kind of thoughtless movement people make when they expect an empty space and no company. But I was wrong. There was company—the female kind—and I smacked right into her with an, “Unf. Sorry.” My bowed head crept upward from platform heels and bare legs to black knitwear that hung an inch too long for a sweater but a few too short for a dress.”
“Asher drives a black truck, not a white horse. Even the best guys aren’t storybook princes. They’re messed up and flawed.”
“My father’s chin jutted, his hands tightened on the wheel. He had a profile that would look Indian on a movie poster, Roman on a coin.”
“…a life that had worn itself into bachelor grooves
and a house of womanless chaos.”
“She often exuded faint undertones of hay, dust, and the fragrance of horse, which once you smell it you always miss it.”
“I know you deserve someone who wants to carve your name
LINDSAY FAYE, Fatal Flame
in every tree he ever encounters.”
“I liked her and admired her the way I’d esteem a
LINDSAY FAYE, Fatal Flame
newly discovered species of jungle predator…”
“Sally Woods emitted a laugh like a cracked bell in a church tower—broken but pure as hymns.”
Lindsay Faye, The Gods of Gotham
The door sliced open, and a stylish and inky cowboy boot pressed into the gravel drive. Moments later, a figure loomed taller than the car. A thick, gray mustache hung over the man’s lip like an inverted frown. Bushy eyebrows shaded gray and unreadable eyes. The man cleared his throat with a guttural scoop and spit the contents in the dry grass.
“You must be Dakota. Dakota Moore.” He raised one eyebrow as if it were a cap he was tipping politely. His voice was strong, crisp, and not unpleasant, like wind scattering dry leaves.
“I’m her mother, Elu,” Mom answered behind me, stepping into the evening with a boy behind her hip. “What can we do for you?”
Suddenly Rural Girl is the Christian YA Novel I’m close to wrapping up. Publishers are elusive, but they’re not fantasy. I’ll start my journey toward finding the right agent and publisher next, and would love to have you follow me and that process. For more quotes from SRG, other authors I’m reading, and updates on Suddenly Rural Girl, follow my blog at https://dannhurlbert.com/littletips or my Facebook page @Dann Hurlbert, Author. Thanks in advance!
“Beverley came running onto the wharf as if there was a set of stairs hidden under the water. She was as dark and sleekly naked as a seal and you could have fired a shotgun past my ear and I still wouldn’t have looked away.”
“I need you to make sure your brain is engaged
before you put your mouth into gear.”
“I’ve got nothing against using cocoa butter, it’s just that you end up smelling like a giant Mars Bar for the rest of the day.”
“Footsteps sounded. One set neat and delicate and
the other smaller, like its echo.”
“‘I need a police man,’ she said. She didn’t. She needed a miracle.”
“That glance seared the air like a lightning bolt.”