Mother who suffers from severe bouts of depression

"Yes, my kids will think I'm crazy. That's the right of kids. It's what they do when not shoving the cat into the dryer or marking walls with impressionist crayon art.

"This book will give them plenty of fodder for future arguments, for which they'll neglect to thank me. Perhaps they'll be pissed that I made their eventual rebellion too easy."

- Martini, Adrienne. Hillbilly Gothic.

Working to feel worthy of love

"I lived my life in pursuit of perfection, because that was the only way that I felt the world would deem me worthy of its love.

"Now, I just don't give two shakes about making the world love me. I know who does and that it is based on who I really am, not who I want you to think I am.

"I spent too much time in my twenties running, denying that the past could have any influence on my present. Screw that. I'm too tired to play that game anymore, especially since striving toward being honest is so much more rewarding."

- Martini, Adrienne. Hillbilly Gothic.

PTSD triggers as described (accurately) in a juvenile fiction book

Pain and sadness are homeless beggars in my life, displaced feelings that come and go, plopping down for their own reasons, sleeping in any corner of my brain. They wear at me with a constant tiredness that I have to chase out.

"Sometimes, though, a trigger pulls inside me, and the pain goes off, getting bad. It isn't like I know all the triggers, but school newness is a definite."

- Clinton, Cathryn. The Eyes of Van Gogh.