Dannii Elle > Recent Status Updates

"He went into the bathroom, set his Coleman lamp on the sink so that it illuminated the mirror, and for the next fifteen minutes he practised smiling. He was getting very good at it."

"Society will reappear... notice I didn't use the word 'reform'. That would have been a ghastly pun. There's precious little reform in the human race."

I'm calling the five stars now! I can't remember ever being so moved by a prologue before.

"Avery would like to be all backbone, but she is tender flesh too."

"We can strengthen our bodies and fortify our minds, but the heart is a monster of its own."

"in this moment, we are two souls, marooned.
That was life, wasn't it? A collection of moments, a menagerie of people. Everyone stranded everywhere, always."

"You are the compass in the storm, the guide in the dark. You will always find your way, Zafira bint Iskandar."

"Sometimes the most truthful words were merely elaborate lies. And if one was banned from lying, that was all the more reason to learn a new way of stringing words together."

"Fear breeds death. Confidence breeds freedom."

"Umm was no storyspinner like Baba was, but mothers were always good at spinning fears."

"Not even the moon will dare to rise tonight. How could she, in the face of such beauty?"

Everything and nothing has happened so far and I'm here for all of it!

"It was nothing like the prelude to madness she had gone through before. That had been like passing through some gray, foul tunnel full of shapes more sensed than seen"

"the country would come alive in all its glorious possibilities, a body politic with its network of roads embedded in its skin like marvellous capillaries, ready to take him, the dark speck of foreign matter, anywhere or everywhere - heart, liver, lights, brain. He was a clot looking for a place to happen, a splinter of bone hunting a soft organ to puncture, a lonely lunatic cell looking for a mate"

"It doesn't matter what you are. You are your own strength. Why must you prove the lie that they are better than us by deluding yourself and hiding beneath a man's clothing?"

"Sometimes we must pay a terrible price to protect the things we love."

"I can keep them mesmerised for hours recounting the tales of my people. They hang on every word like thirsty men; I can keep them entertained until the sun rises. On those nights, I've gone to bed drunk on the feeling that I've been seen for the very first time."

"There are no friends in the Miracle Court, only allies."

"Every horror story is about power. Whether it’s blatantly displayed or more discreet, every horror story is about power."

"Justice is a fire that rages through your bones. The law hangs upon your heart like a burden."

"You're mad," I say.
"Perhaps, for only the mad would see the endless darkness, the great evil that reigns around us, and stand against it."

This has got to be one of the greatest ever fantasy series. My second reading of it and I am just as astounded!

Fearlessness, as Logan Ninefingers had once observed, is a fool's boast.

'Our mother the City is not a merciful mother,' she says as she gathers my hair in one hand. 'To be a girl in this city is to be weak. It is to call evil things down upon you. And the City is not kind to weak things. She sends Death the Endless to winnow the frail from the strong. You know this.'

The release of book two has been pushed back so many times now and I've pushed back my reread of book one too, but I'm hopeful this is the last time and we will finally have new material in this world, by the summer!

Crafting your vision requires writing as if you were living in the future, three to five years from now, and have already achieved your goals... Knowing the end of the story will allow you to write the chapters that get you there.

Plan and prepare two solutions for every obstacle in life. Find a coach or mentor to hold you accountable. Get social support that will give you encouragement to get through tough times and that will kick your butt on days where you hold yourself back. Give yourself a meaningful incentive that will inspire you to action. And set a Big Deadline to put urgency into your action and keep you pushing to the finish line.

it’s going to be hard at first, but you will come to appreciate your new power of habit. The benefits are well worth it. You must look at the work and the struggles as blessings. Practice (i.e. training) is the only way you can build up your delayed gratification muscle and earn the rewards.