Daniela > Recent Status Updates

"It seems different in books somehow. In stories the suffering leads somewhere, it means something… In your world, suffering means nothing. Nothing good comes from it... One thing fiction has over real life."

I apparently have been getting great sleep- this needs to move further from the bedside because I should be onto the next one in the series by now. Then again, it's garden season- so that's also a factor.

I love how Holly Black expands my vocabulary. My biggest annotation (something new I'm doing since my Chicago book retreat w/ Penn Cole & amazing group ladies) is vocab to look up. Many new words!! Love learning

"This! This feels like a home. A place worn down by memories. I can see them in the scuffs of the floorboards, in the scratches on the walls, the sagging of certain cushions in the furniture....

but as I walk through... I can almost hear laughter stored in-between the floorboards. This house wears its memories just like mine did."

"She had simply foreseen a day when [×] would come and had left an entire wardrobe for her - a gift for the beloved female that she would never call daughter."

Awww! So heartwarming 💖

"You act like being Pharaoh is a burden, not a gift..."
"If it felt like a gift, then I would never truly be in service to the people of Egypt. With a burden, I must work hard to alleviate the strain."

"It is no small thing to touch the past through the lives of those who remember it. "

"We exist in a world that demands too much of some and too little of others.

But in this we are all made equal:
We live to forget,
we forget to live.

We capture special moments in our palms and cling to them until they slip through our fingers- a daily sensation so normalized that we don't even notice the loss.

But without those ephemeral experiences that make up the fabric of the soul, who do we become?"

"It was amazing how belligerent people could twist any situation to blame *their* own bad attitude on those who had to deal with it." 💯

"HEY! Can you let her speak before you hurt yourself jumping to conclusions." 👏🏼👏🏼

"Never doubt your powers, sweet one," she'd told me. "Each one of them is a gift. Each one will prove exactly enough when you have need of it. Have faith in yourself. You will *always* be enough."

Meh- 2-3☆ for now. But this is a nice philosophical passage that I'll poorly reference intentionally.

"The library sensed my need for more information and set a new book down in front of me... 'Philosophy of Sacrofices Throughout The Ages' :

Is a monster born or created? ...who are we when we are stripped to our core?...

It felt like a connection that I was hovering near..." Read this & you will hover too ;)

This isn't for me.

"You can't put a person in a box...especially when they get older. You gotta judge them by the totality of their lives. You do bad shit when you were young that you regret. You don't good shit when you're old that you hope makes up for it."

"I wish I could wear eyeshadow again. I get in front of the mirror and it's like drawing crayon on a ball sack."😆

Well isn't this relatable from a few diff angles⁉️

"Every kid gets a different set of parents. Even if they grow up in the same house."

Not my go-to genre but this is a good hook.

Started strong but it's work to get through this & so it'll be a no from me... 1☆

"It was hard being perfect in an imperfect world. But Aurienne managed. If she had a flaw, it was that she was the best and she knew she was the best. Some called it arrogance. **She called it competence untainted by performative humility.**"

"Home isn't where you're from. It's where you find light when all grows dark."

Wow, Brown is on 🔥

"We all have our own tides inside."
👆🏽love this quote!

Teetering between lots of detail dragging on & shorter dialogs/niceties that my mind checks out for but it's like there's intentionally something missing in the story telling. Feels like a trap because it is- it's a hook in disguise of world building hiding behind shadows of tropes & plots found popular in fantasy, sci-fi, & mythology. Buckle up, buttercups.

》Swearing is an emotive language《
to illustrate anything from enthusiasm to emotion to dominance.

Yet people's adherence to the social rules around swearing... appeared to focus disproportionately on women being protected from at all costs. The mechanics in dad's garage would swear, then turn to me & apologize that I had to hear it.

》Let emotionally volatile ppl use emotive language when they need it. 《

Audiobook as preparation for Brimstone.

"It's hard to be culturally effective without feeling. ... In fact, real progress usually begins when we develop emotional, social, & spiritual intelligence - when we humble ourselves to learn what we don't know. " (pg 116)

Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Shirley clark, & The Rolling Stones - such stars witnessed the magic. Performers who also would just *get it.* As if they weren't already fortunate, add seeing Marsha perform on top.

Every convo takes place on 2 lvls: the official & the actual.

The official convo is represented by the words we say about w/e topic we are discussing.

The actual convo occurs in the ebb & flow of underlying emotions transmitted as we talk. At every comment, you're making me feel a lil more safe or a lil more threatened. W/ every comment, I'm showing respect or disrespect. W/ every comment we reveal intentions.

"If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell."
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An uncompromising literary agency:
Strong main character’s profiles acts as a mirror, revealing the integrity in my partner. This appreciation isn't just about the present; it's recognizing when the desirable character which literature idealizes is real to me. A storm of gratitude that this fictional standard is embodied & not everyone can witness such reality.