{"author":"Jake Vander-Ark","author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark","total_quotes":23,"quotes":[{"text":"Someday they would discover that the stars were not sacred, but made from the same material as their bodies. They would learn it was the stars that created their worlds, that worlds created their minds, that minds created tools, and tools could create stars. Growing, sprawling, thriving until they too became masters of their own understanding, chasing enlightenment with the fervor of having nothing to lose, launching from their homelands like fireworks with glorious yellow tails.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["cosmology","creativity","extraterrestrials","globalization","humanism","living-life-to-the-fullest","singularity","technology"],"id":46341,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"Any earthly production would have been cancelled at the slightest suggestion of rain, but this was William’s Stage—it was William’s call—and if the children danced and the congregation remained transfixed, the show would go on.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["dance","obsession","theater"],"id":53829,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"You know that moment when you hug somebody, when your heart feels warm and high in your chest and tingly? When you feel just for a second like a baby in a womb... That nothing matters? That's how I want you to feel. That's what a girlfriend should do, I think.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["castle","hug","paranormal-romance","puppy-love","rooftop","the-perfect-girl"],"id":80124,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"But in the end, black can never be white, one plus one must always equal two, and Mara Lynn was a normal little girl.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["beauty","fantasy","fiction","logic","paranormal-romance","young-love"],"id":117515,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"Judge that boy if you must; for debauchery, for objectifying innocence... But before you finalize your verdict, oh innocent reader, I beg you to scan again that last stanza. What you and I overlooked in our cloud of perversion and nasty objectification was the unrestrained joy of a little girl playing dress-up for the very first time.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["beauty","coming-of-age","judge","narrator","perfection","puppy-love"],"id":136756,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"Every time I think about that girl, my mind commits a sin.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["catholic","coming-of-age","perfection","puppy-love"],"id":137370,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"Sometimes life isn’t worth the pain. I’m going for a swim. Goodbye, my love.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["death","drowning","romance","suicide","tattoo","teen","thriller"],"id":173925,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"94 was a good year to be twelve. Star Wars still had two more years as Box Office King, cartoons were still hand-drawn, and the Disney 'D' still looked like a backwards 'G.' Words like 'Columbine,' 'Al Qaeda' and 'Y2K' were not synonymous with 'terror,' and 9-1-1 was an emergency number instead of a date. At twelve years old, summer still mattered. Monarch caterpillars still crawled beneath every milkweed leaf. Dandelions (or 'wishes' as Mara called them) were flowers instead of pests. And divorce was still considered a tragedy. Before Mara, carnivals didn't make me sick.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["90s","coming-of-age","nostalgia","paranormal","romance"],"id":192857,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"William looked up... Through his tears... Past the catwalk and lights... Past the sky... Through the dark and clouds and stars and into the void where he once knew God existed, then turned himself outside-in, alone, and asked, 'Why?","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["obsession","prayer","silent-god","stage","theater"],"id":193074,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"},{"text":"She had a woman’s swagger at twelve-and-a-half. Hair: strawberry-blonde, and I vaguely recall a daisy in the crook of her ear. She was an inch taller than me, two with the ponytail; smooth cheeks and darling brown eyes that marbled in luscious contrast with her magnolia skin; cream, melting to peach, melting to pink. She beamed like a cherub without the baby fat; a tender neck; pristine lips that would never part for a dirty word. Her body--of no interest to me at the time--was wrapped from neck to toes with home-made footie pajamas, the kind they make for toddlers, but I didn’t laugh; the girl filled that silly one-piece ensemble as if it were couture.","author":"Jake Vander-Ark","tags":["coming-of-age","paranormal","perfect-girl","puppy-love","singing"],"id":201003,"author_id":"Jake+Vander-Ark"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}