Despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.

Sherwood Smith

Categorized in : Stories Hurt Gossip

Memory warps time, as it does the sights and sounds and smells of reality; for what shapes it is emotion, which can twist what seems clear, just as the surface of a pond seems to bend the stick thrust into the water.

sight memories reality

The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.

tangled passion rain

When in doubt, be ridiculous. by Sherwood Smith

When in doubt, be ridiculous.

when-in-doubt ridiculous doubt

When people first discover beauty, they tend to linger. Even if they don’t at first recognize it for what it is.

ifs people firsts

Except. What is normal at any given time? We change just as the seasons change, and each spring brings new growth. So nothing is ever quite the same.

normal growth spring

No, I don't think I could fall in love with him, handsome though he is, because I don't accept any of that huff he gives me about my great beauty and all that. I'd have to trust a man's words before I could love him. I think.

falling-in-love men thinking

It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I walked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.

gossip hurt ideas

One doesn't lose a self, like a pair of gloves or a pine. We learn and change, or we harden into stone.

gloves self stones

If more people recognized the difference between friendship and mere attraction, or how love must partake of both to prosper, I expect there'd be more happy people." "And a lot fewer poems and plays," I said, laughing as I splashed about in the scented water.

differences play water

We'll abduct Garian. Or Jason." "And—?" "And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them.

jason ransom ocean

I had seen ardency in men's eyes, but I had only felt it once. With Flauvic, false and therefore easy to dismiss. I suddenly wished that I could feel it now. No, I did feel it. I did have the same feeling, only I had masked it as restlessness, or as the exhortation to action, or as anger. I thought how wonderful it would be to see that spark now, in the right pair of eyes.

eye feelings men

Why is it the songs all end with the good people winning, but in life they don't?" They don't make songs when the good lose," I muttered. "They make war chants against the bad. So there won't be any songs for us.

winning song war

Why did I laugh at his sorry, bedraggled appearance? Because ridiculousness made a repellant situation more bearable.

appearance sorry laughing

Everyone is an idiot," I stated. "Except me. by Sherwood Smith

Everyone is an idiot," I stated. "Except me.

idiot

Because you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and ano... by Sherwood Smith

Because you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and another to me.

crown-duel faces world

Finally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of h... by Sherwood Smith

Finally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of honor, and it’s a villain.

villain enough honor

So let me end with the wish that you find the same kind of happyiness, and laughter, and love, that I have found, and that you have the wisdon to make them last.

laughter and-love wish

They're safe,'' he said. "And you're not made of glass". He swept me up in his arms. I laughed. "And I'm not made of glass." He carried me into our room and kicked the door shut behind us.

glasses safe doors

Angry men with pointy things sent to secure a foreign city are pretty much alike anywhere. That's what I've heard. So far nothing's convinced me different.

angry-man cities men

A wager?" I repeated. "Yes," he said, and gave me a slow smile, bright with challenge. ... "Stake?" I asked cautiously. He was still smiling, an odd sort of smile, hard to define. "A kiss." My first reaction was outrage, but then I remembered that I was on my way to Court, and that had to be the kind of thing they did at Court. And if I win I don't have to collect. I hesitated only a moment longer, lured by the thought of open sky, and speed, and winning. "Done," I said.

kissing winning sky