Reflections on the A-Z Challenge

My husband compared finishing the A-Z Challenge to throwing good money after bad, and he was absolutely right. My world is too crazy for this right now. So I'm throwing in my towel. It has been fun, and maybe I'll finish next year. In the meantime, I've found several great new blogs to follow and met a few people that I think I would love to know in real life. Hopefully we can keep in touch. Thank you for being part of this with me.

Today was my day to post over at The Prosers, so if you would like to see  my reflections, you can actually go there.

T Is For Thank You

   Although I am feeling a
Teeny
Tiny bit
Timorous about this silly post, it has been
Thrilling to
Transcribe the T section of the dictionary and
Transform it into coherent
Thoughts.
     As I mentioned yesterday, I've been feeling a
Teeny
Tiny bit
Torpid about this challenge. All day
Today I've felt
Terribly
Taciturn about the whole
Thing. In fact, I was
Tempted to not participate at al.

Then I
Thought about my sweet friend Miriam. She's been
Tenacious about reading every single post I've written this month, and made comments about the
Things I've written.
Therefore, I am
Tethering myself to her enthusiasm so
To make it
Through one more post.
Thank you, Miriam, for being such a
Thoughtful friend, and
Taking the
Time to be interested in something that is important to me.

S Is For Success

I'm feeling more than a little discouraged today, about a lot of things, including this challenge...So here are a few of my favorite success quotes to buoy up anyone feeling the same way.

Success is failure that tried one more time.

--Winston Churchill

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. 

--Truman Capote

#135577924 / gettyimages.com

R Is For Rejection

R Is For Rejection

Or "How To Avoid Making the Writers In Your Life Feel Rejected"

Chris Dixon said, "If you aren't getting rejected on a daily basis, then your goals aren't ambitious enough."  My goals probably aren't ambitious enough then, because I haven't been rejected very often. It's not because I don't deserve rejection every bit as much as the next person, but because I unconsciously (well, semi consciously) shield myself from it. 

One day, several years ago, in a fit of productivity, I sent out a batch of query letters to prospective agents. The rejection letters weren't nearly as painful as I'd expected them to be, but still, I never did it again. I should. I know I should, and I plan on it, with my very next book that isn't a part of a series that is already self-published. (Translation...in about a decade, I might try it again.) 

Hidden Magic has had its share of rejection. It starts too slowly, and people who weren't invested enough to push through the first few chapters had some scathing things to say about it, things that did hurt. But then enough people liked it that I noticed the trend--people who read through chapter 5 usually ended up finishing the book and liking it. That soothed my feelings and taught me something that will help future books. So it's good. Not fun, but good.

Alchemy, on the other hand, has done shockingly well for itself (knock on wood). So I haven't yet developed that thick skin writers are supposed to have. With that in mind, let me give a bit of advice to all you non-writers out there: 

I know you don't want to make the writers in your life feel rejected. But it is OK if they write a kind of fiction you aren't interested in. If every time you see them you say some variation of, "I'm still reading your book--um, I've just been so busy. But I'll get back to it. I got the newest Raven Boy book, and I stayed up all night to finish it. Have you read it yet?" eventually they are going to feel rejected, in spite of your good intentions. 

If they write chick lit, and you only like high fantasy--don't read it. Or even better, read it in secret, so they don't know you've started, because it might take you a long time to finish, and when you're done you can surprise them with a "I finished your book! Did you see my rating on amazon?" And they will be thrilled. And feel all the love that you intended for them to feel.

Q Is For Quietly

Oops! In all the Easter chaos, I accidentally posted this on The Prosers website instead of here, where it belongs. My apologies to Karen, since it was her day for posting on The Prosers.

Today, Six Word Saturday Meets the A-Z Challenge:

Quietly, and without fanfare, we finished.

For the A-Z Challenge, participants blog every day in April except for Sundays, and each post corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is Q. For the challenge this year, my topic is LOVE, because it's my favorite topic ever.

For Six Word Saturday, we post 6 words that sum up a piece of our life each week. We can add pictures or explanations if we feel so inclined.

Sheena said she was done, and then wrote a whole other section. I thought I still had more to write and then realized I was wrong, and instead of saying The End, Sabrina started revising. And then, all of a sudden, we realized that the rough draft was done. Sheena ate an Oreo milkshake in celebration, as per the plan. But I'm holding off--an oreo milkshake on an already sugar-laden weekend doesn't even sound appealing. I'm not sure what Sabrina's plans are, but one thing is certain--that woman likes editing a lot more than she likes writing. Hurray! We're kicking Pyromancy to the next level.

P Is For Pyromancy

The word pyromancy comes from the Greek words pyros, which means fire, and manteia, which means divination; so its definition is the art of divination by means of fire. If you've ever become mesmerized the flames in a fire it will come as no surprise to you that pyromancy was probably one of the earliest forms of divination.

But of even greater importance to the world at large is the fact that Pyromancy is the name of the sequel of Alchemy, and will be coming out in the fall of 2014.



Pyromancy is the continuing saga of Ana, Sam, Juliette and Seb. After nearly destroying Chebeague, the school for magic in rural Maine, the intrepid foursome is sent to the Army Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, along with Ana's ex-boyfriend James and Juliette's um--what is he? boyfriend? crush? Zach. ANA is not the school for rich, privileged mages that they have come to expect. ANA accepts anyone with the magical infection, but is much less prepared to deal with the insanity that is sometimes a side effect.

While they are there, they find out more about the Six, and learn that Dr. Child is not the only one with plans for them. Pyromancy is filled with excitement and adventure, but I would be lying if I didn't tell you that Pyromancy is actually a love story--several love stories actually. It is chalk full of kisses and heartache, and a surprising amount of happiness too. And of course moments that will make you laugh out loud.

I'm doing a terrible job describing it. You should go check out my pyromancy pinterest board. It explains it so much better than  I can.

Even though there are a lot of repeats, you should look at Sheena's board too.

O is for Obsession

Writers are obsessive people. Steven Saylor said, "Writing a first novel takes so much effort with such little promise of result or reward, that it must necessarily be a labor of love bordering on madness." I would add that writing a second novel, with the full knowledge that writing the first one was even harder than you'd feared is probably a sign of a completely deranged mind. By the third novel though, I imagine most people are starting to feel more at home obsessing about their novel than not. 

I know I am. Yesterday I finished Ana's rough draft of Pyromancy...

(Long pause for applause. Oh, please, please...no standing Ovations. Not yet. Well. If you must...) This reminds me that O is also for Oreo milkshakes, which I promised myself once I finished. 

As I was saying, yesterday I finished Ana's part of Pyromancy--and I'll tell you, I spent the rest of the day having no idea what to think about. In the past few months I have begun dreaming Ana's dreams, thinking Ana's thoughts. Sometimes I even forget I could not run a marathon on a beach and then hurry off to my boxing class. (Snort.) It's obsession, pure and simple, and I don't know how to write a novel any other way. I wish I did. I'm a big believer in balance. But somehow balance and novel writing have never gone hand in hand in my life.

And I'm not alone. youknowyoureawriter.tumblr.com is a website devoted to this kind of obsession. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

You know you're a writer when...

• your mood depends on what's going on in your story.

• you forget your real life for your fictional world.

• you know your characters better than yourself.

• you sit down to write for half an hour and before you know it 5 hours have gone by.

• you shut down your computer and get into bed, only to think of something that you have to write down, so you get out of bed and start your computer up again.

Which reminds me of one of my own. You know you're a writer when...

• you're trying to write a grocery list, but every scrap of paper you can find is filled with random snippets of dialogue or beautifully worded phrases that make no sense at all out of context.

N Is For Nuggets of Wisdom

N is for Need To Know.
At my son's request, I've deleted the awesome story of his awesomeness.
Sigh.

M Is For Mmmmmm...

We three authors of Alchemy have made a pact that we'll finish the rough draft of the sequel before Friday. It's rough, so don't get too excited, but it's still an important step in the right direction. Today I got up with high hopes that I would write my little tail off, but fate has intervened. 

I haven't felt good for several days now--no real symptoms, just kind of off. My youngest son woke up this morning with a fever, so he stayed home from school and we watched Kipper until I fell into the deepest sleep ever. 

Mmmmm....it felt nice to wake up from an unexpected nap. I feel sort of dreamy and lethargic now, and I doubt I'll get a whole lot written. In fact, I may go back to sleep...

Miserable looking people

L Is For Love

L Is For Love

With no words at all...

K Is for Keep

Today, six Word Saturday meets the A-Z Challenge:

Keep on writing, we're nearly done. 

For the A-Z Challenge, participants blog every day in April except for Sundays, and each post corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is K. For the challenge this year, my topic is LOVE, because it's my favorite topic ever.

For Six Word Saturday, we post 6 words that sum up a piece of our life each week. We can add pictures or explanations if we feel so inclined.

Last week I predicted that we'd be finished with the rough draft of Pyromancy by this week. I was wrong. We're close though. Maybe this will be the week. I thought I was done and that only Sheena and Sabrina had sections left to write. But now I need to add a section in Ana's point of view. Last night Sheena came up with such an off-the-wall idea about something I could add to my section that I can't decide if it's ridiculous or genius. I'm leaning toward genius at the moment. We'll see.

J Is For the Journey

A-Z Challenge visitors, I apologize that this is such a long post. I usually try to keep my April blog posts short, but when a friend asked me to write this, I couldn't resist putting it here.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be a keynote speaker to a group of women at church. My topic was Following Your Dreams. As part of the speech, I was asked to share my journey to accomplishing my dream of becoming a published author. This is kind of what I said:

When I was a child, I had a plan for my future, I was going to be a ballet dancer in New York, an archaeologist, a famous actress, a marine biologist (translation: one of the people who got to swim with the whales at Sea World) and a mom. But of course I would mostly be an author. I loved books so much, there was no doubt that I would someday write some, and yet I didn’t. I was absolutely NOT one of those children who were constantly writing stories. Being a writer was always some future event. In fact, in college I didn’t even take an English course. My ACT scores were high enough that I didn’t need one and to tell you the truth, I was at college to play, not to take extra classes just because I was interested in the subject (oh silly Melanie. If only I could go back…)

I was in my last semester of my Master’s program at BYU when I realized what an opportunity I was wasting. There was a class on the course schedule called “Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” and I realized that I needed to take that class, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with my degree in Special Education. So I signed up, blissfully unaware of how foolish I was being. It was a 400 level class, but I was in a master’s program, which somehow made me feel overqualified for any undergraduate class.

So here I am, with a full master’s degree course load, working on my thesis, with a full time job. Did I mention I was also engaged? Our wedding date was two days after the semester ended. Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy was taught by the amazing Dave Wolverton, though years went by before I realized how cool that was.

My favorite part of the class was our textbook, a book full of short science fiction stories, including “It’s A Beautiful Day” by Isaac Asimov, which is still my favorite short story ever. My least favorite part of the class? Writing. I had no idea how to pull a plot together, how to assemble a cast of characters…And this class was not about how to write a story, it was about how to perfect a story, and how best to add fantastical elements to it. I was hopelessly out of my depth. And busy with my “real” school life, and my jobs. And addlepatedly in love with my fiancé. A few days before the end of the semester, I realized I was getting a C in my writing class. A C! As a master’s student, I could not get a C on my transcript. It would be dreadful.

So I met with Professor Wolverton. I explained my situation, in the hopes that he would give me an extra credit project or something. He was very nice. He said that he thought it was awesome that I had taken the time to take a class out of my program of studies, and that he had done the same thing as a student too. He agreed that a master’s student could not get a C on their transcript and promised to take care of it.

And he did. He gave me an A, no strings attached. When, years later, I found the Daily Kick In the Pants, and realized that my former teacher was an icon in the science fiction world, this little blip in my path to writing took on even more significance to me.

But I stopped. I finished my thesis, of course, and I never stopped dreaming about writing fiction, but I didn’t. I loved being a mom, but it wasn’t something that came naturally to me. In those early years of parenting, I have so many memories of driving down the street with tears streaming down my face, trying to figure out how I was going to survive the soul-crushingness of parenthood. Don’t misunderstand me. It was hard, and not something that came easily to me, but I desperately wanted to be a stay at home mom. It was the best choice I ever made.  But that didn’t stop my driving down the street sobbing about how hard it was, and praying that God would tell me how to make it work.

His answer? Time after time after time I would feel the quiet prompting that I needed to write. But I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t, and I don’t know why.

We moved across the country and had more children and they started to grow, and one summer while my older children were taking swimming lessons 4 days a week, my youngest son would splash around in the kiddy pool. And as I stood in the kiddy pool, day after day under the blazing sun, a story started to form in my head. It became an obsession, this snapshot of a moment I could write about. Characters developed, and my story grew to fill every moment of my day until I knew I had to figure out how to get it on paper.

I checked out a book called “Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” by Orson Scott Card, and began the laborious process of figuring out how to write a novel, including world building and all that jazz. On every page of that book, OSC offered advice about things you needed to think about before you began, and I would spend days imagining how to fit those ideas into that snapshot of a girl standing in a kiddy pool waiting for something…

That year I decided to homeschool my oldest daughter. We were at the library one day, and I found a homeschooling magazine. The feature article was about Nanowrimo, and although I’d never heard of it before, I felt an immediate connection to the word. I knew, even before I had any idea what it was, that Nanowrimo was going to change my life.

Sure enough, it did. Nanowrimo, as you probably know, is National Novel Writing Month, and its main event is held during November each year. Participants are challenged to write an entire novel in a month. The goal is to write 50,000 words. That first year, I participated on the forums, and I wrote and wrote and wrote. I finished the challenge, and then I kept writing. It was January before I finally stopped, and I think I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night during that time. It took me years to fully recover.

When I finally wrote “The End” I was so proud. I edited it. I’d changed from first person to third person midway through, and going back to fix that was a beast. And I made rookie mistakes like head hopping. So much head hopping. Blurg. But it felt shiny and beautiful, and so I gave it to everyone who showed the slightest inclination to read it. Those poor, poor people. So many of them gave me good advice, though some of it was painful. And there were several people who thought my story was absolutely amazing and kept me going through the pain of learning how to fix it.

Another year came, and I did Nanowrimo again, this time on the sequel. I still wasn’t a great writer, but I’d learned a lot. And another year came, and I finished Nanowrimo again. I came to realize that my first drafts were dreadful, but that was what they were supposed to be. And rough draft got a little less dreadful than the last one. My mind morphed into a writer’s mind, and everywhere I went and everything I did became a story. I’ve got two novels stuck inside my head based on washing dishes—and one of them is good enough it might someday become a real thing.

I found a community of like-minded people at Hatrack Writer’s Workshop, and learned how far I still was 

from perfection. We critiqued each other’s stories, and I learned so much from that. I was thrilled when Sheena invited me to join The Prosers.

Then one day, Sheena, Sabrina and I decided to write Alchemy. Sheena had self-published her first novel, and she guided me through that maze. Alchemy was so much more successful than I’d expected it to be, not that it made us any money or anything, but people read it, and share it, and tell me that they love it, and it is so much fun to watch it grow and take on a life of its own.

So I decided to publish that first novel, Hidden Magic. That had been my dream for nearly six years, and even though I knew it was a story that had gone out of fashion when Twilight went out of fashion, I wanted it out there. It hasn’t done nearly as well as Alchemy in the blogging world, but it does have its own group of followers, people who looked past its little flaws and learned to love the characters. So publishing it turned out to be bittersweet. But I wanted it out there so badly, and there comes a point when you’ve got to stop tinkering with a story and call it done. I learned so much from publishing it. I am excited to use that knowledge to publish something else of my own someday.

But for now, Sheena, Sabrina and I are hard at work on the sequel to Alchemy. We’re planning to release it this summer. All those times God told me that I needed to write? Well, it turns out he was right. Being a writer has brought me so much joy, so many interesting friendships, and helped me through so many hard spots in my life.

I’m still on this journey to achieving my dreams. I hope it never ends.

I Is for I

'

I is for I...

as in

I 

am letting this particular letter slide so that 

I

can do some laundry and clean my house. So that 

I 

can visit some extra blogs today, and so that 

I 

can read a book.

This book:

which

I 

am loving. 

And since LOVE is my topic for this month,

I

think this counts.

H Is For Happily Ever After

As the happily ever after usually comes at the end, be warned--there may be a spoiler or two.

My favorite happily ever after ever comes from Howl's Moving Castle:

Howl said, “I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl. 

 "And you'll exploit me," Sophie said. 

"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me.” 

From Fangirl:

“Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.” 

From Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

“Mr. Wonka: "Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted."Charlie Bucket: "What happened?"Mr. Wonka: "He lived happily ever after.

From The Fellowship of the Ring:

“Have you thought of an ending?""Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant.""Oh, that won't do! Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?"
'It will do well, if it ever comes to that,' said Frodo.'Ah!' said Sam. 'And where will they live? That's what I often wonder.” 

From If There Be Dragons:

“But in real life, happily-ever-after is just the beginning. It's where life starts.” 

G Is For General Conference

I think of myself as a religious sort of gal, but I am pretty private about it, especially as an author. However, as I listened to the talks in the April 2014 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this weekend, I heard many truths that I hope shine through my writing, even if you never see a reference to God in my stories. Here are a few:

• Whoever you are, and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can imagine.

         --Henry B. Eyring

• Who we are is not who we can become.

        --Donald L. Hallstrom

• In His plan, there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings. 

        --Dieter F. Uchtdorf

• The gospel is not weight. It is wings. It carries us.

        --Jean A. Stevens (I doubt you could get this out of one of my stories.
        But it was my  favorite quote, so I'm keeping it here.)

• We are not, and never need be alone. We can press forward in our daily lives with heavenly help.

         --David A. Bednar

• Today's complexity demands greater simplicity.

        --L. Tom Perry

• Faith requires work.

        --Marcos A. Aidukaitis

F Is For Fire

Welcome to the second week of the A-Z April Challenge!

The letter F stands for FIRE.

In case you didn't know, the definition of pyromancy is "divination by fire, or forms appearing in the fire." With a little help from Sheena and Sabrina, I've put together a very eclectic playlist about fire. Here are a few of my favorites.

E is for Eventually

Today, Six Word Saturday meets the A-Z Challenge:

Eventually, they'll live happily ever after.

For the A-Z Challenge, participants blog every day in April except for Sundays, and each post corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is E. For the challenge this year, my topic is LOVE, because it's my favorite topic ever.

For Six Word Saturday, we post 6 words that sum up a piece of our life each week. We can add pictures or explanations if we feel so inclined. My sentence this week describes my elation and frustration that we are so close to finishing the rough draft of Pyromancy, and yet we never seem to get any closer. Maybe this will be the week we finally get it done.

 Pyromancy is a love story, so this sentence totally counts!

D Is For Danger

When I was in college, I spent a summer working at a national park.
I worked at the lodge in the gift shop with a bunch of sweet little old ladies. One of them, a free spirit named Vivian, thought I had terrible taste in men, and decided to set me up on a blind date with guy she'd just met. Paul wasn't really my type, but at that point in my life I was inclined to agree with Vivian that my type was stupid, so I allowed myself to be set up.

He took me out of the park, which was an unexpected treat. We drove for an hour and a half until we found a small slice of real civilization. We shopped and went to dinner and wandered around. On the way home he tried to talk me into buying a car, which seemed a little fatherly, actually, and I realized I wasn't very interested in him. Still it was a nice time.

The next day, I had a date with the other guy--the one that gave Vivian such a low opinion of my taste in men. That date is one of the stories you wouldn't believe, so I won't tell you about it, except to say that somehow I ended up on a date with two men at the same time. It was a lot less fun than it sounds, and I wish I could say that it wasn't my fault, but it was.

As we looked at our menus, one of the men said to the other, "Speaking of Melanie, I have a funny story to tell you." Apparently Paul had bought some semi-precious rocks, and was attempting to make me some jewelry.  This surprised me, because he really hadn't seemed that interested. But he was not my typical guy, so I thought maybe this was how regular men acted. How could I know? It's not like I'd ever dated any.

To make my jewelry, Paul needed super glue (funny how little details get etched in our minds at moments like these, right?) and had gone to this guy's apartment to borrow some right as he was getting ready to go out with me. My two dates (who were very good friends--did I mention that? Oh I was an idiot, even if it was a mistake) spent the rest of the evening asking the waiter, and the bus boy, and the wine steward, and anyone else who came within speaking distance if they'd had the pleasure of meeting me before, and if perhaps they had a date scheduled with me for later that night.  Paul had inadvertently made a bad situation even worse.

But I digress...back to Paul. For a day or two we only spoke when he gave me the jewelry, or when he came into the gift shop to say hi. Although he was flirtatious in public, he never asked me out again, and I was secretly relieved. Then one day, I showed up to the employee dining room and found him on the front steps surrounded by a small circle of people. apparently he'd opened a bleach bottle and realized too late that someone had mixed other chemicals into it. He'd inhaled the fumes and burned his lungs. He spent the day at the hospital.

A day or two after that, he vanished. Reports started trickling in, about how he'd promised to fix one man's transmission and had been given money for parts, and how he'd borrowed money from this woman to pay his hospital bills, and how another man had given him some money so Paul could pick something up for him the next time he was in town...I don't remember how much money he'd managed to bilk from people by simply acting nice, but it was a sizable amount. It turns out his wife had been waiting for him in the next town over, and he was a con man wanted in at least eight states.

I get cold chills when I think about how cheerfully I agreed to drive through the middle of nowhere with this man. Even though it could have been so much worse, this experience left me scarred. The night before I married my wonderful husband, I had myself pretty well convinced that it was all a big joke, that I'd wake up in the morning and he would be gone. It was several years before I stopped thinking of our marriage as a long con--though I was never quite sure what Roger thought I had that would be worth that kind of effort. As near as my imagination could spin it out, he'd made a mistake, and I wasn't the heiress he'd thought he was marrying, and when a better opportunity presented itself, he'd be gone. Nearly twenty years later, I know that LOVE is the only thing that could make being married to me worth the effort. It's all I've got to give to him.

Falling in love is a dangerous business. Love involves sharing and trust and other things that don't come easily for most of us. Anything this important is worth a little risk. (On the other hand, a little caution in the beginning is SO important. My story could have turned out so badly. Be careful!)

C Is For Change (kind of)

For this year's A-Z Challenge, all my posts will center around the topic of Love.

I've been stuck on C all morning.

I was going to write about how Love Can Change us, but while "researching" the topic I accidentally spent half my day watching Chuck clips on youtube. But really, Chuck is the best example of how love can transform someone that you'll ever get in a television show, so why fight it? (The last clip is the best thing you'll watch all day. For real.)

Chuck and Sarah meet for the first time:

Chuck and Sarah rob a bank:

Sarah steps in to get the job done:

And just for fun, because it is the best action song ever-- Mr. Roboto

If you don't watch anything else, watch this one, even if it has nothing to do with change.

B Is For Broken Hearts

Day 2 of the A-Z Challenge:
I had WAY too much fun with this one...

B Is For Broken Hearts

"Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."

--Augustus Waters, From The Fault In Our Stars

(Can you even read that quote without bursting into tears? If so, then you haven't read the book, and you are missing out.)

"It shattered something inside me that hadn't been broken before."

--Ruby Oliver, The Boyfriend List

"Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?"

Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."

"At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection Jace Wayland."

"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.

--Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

"I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead."

"Well," said Luke, "you're doing a fantastic job."

--Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes.

"The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed."

--Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

'He does something to me, that boy.Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry."

--From The Book Thief

"Theoretically, Blue Sargent was probably going to kill one of these boys."

--The Dream Thieves, Maggie Steifvater (Best first line of a book EVER)

Logan: "I thought our story was Epic, you know. You and me. Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. Epic."

Veronica: You really think a relationship should be that hard?

Logan: No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.

--Veronica Mars

And of course, the epic heartbreak that is 

Chuck

What are your favorite heartbroken moments?