Your help needed!

Happy Friday, dear readers! Man oh man, what a week it's been. I survived my first full week at my new job, I discovered my new regular bar (karaoke, check! hot Irish bartenders, check!), I found Nemo...

No, not that Nemo. This Nemo:

Richard Perry/The New York Times

I'm sorry, fellow New Yorkers, I am underwhelmed. There's barely enough snow for a snowball fight.

But I haven't sunken so low in my new blogging career (har, career. Like I make money doing this) that I'm going to devote an entire post to the weather, unless we get another Frankenstorm. No, today I need your guys' help on something.

So most of you probably don't know that Paladin has been selected to be a "Featured" story on Wattpad. As background for the one person who reads this blog who isn't from Wattpad and isn't also my mother, featured stories are hand-selected by the Wattpad editorial staff. According to Wattpad, "To be considered for featured placement, the story must be complete and full-length (30 pages). Other factors taken into consideration: should have a strong and unique plot, no major spelling and grammatical errors, and should be well written."

I'm pretty excited about it--I know there are readers who only read from the featured list, and in general it's great visibility since Wattpad promotes featured stories through their various social channels--and I'm rubbing my hands together in eager anticipation of the new readers and reads Paladin will get. Mwahahaha.

Here's what I need you for, Paladin fans--the powers that be at Wattpad have asked me for two things: 1) a 100-character--yes character, not word--teaser/description of the story and 2) three quotes from the story. I'll figure out the first part--eventually--but I would love your input on the quotes.

They didn't give me a specific character limit on the quotes, but they did say they the shorter the better. I'm trying to keep them to under 200 characters, in case Wattpad wants to use them for social media purposes. Which is too bad, because I tend to write in long sentences vs. short ones, which makes finding good quotes tricky!

I've pulled, with the assistance of Mommy Slater (my secret editor, consultant and #1 fan), some quotes from the manuscript that I'm thinking about including. Which three of the below do you like best? Remember, I can only give Wattpad three! And if there's a quote that you like better than these, by all means suggest it!

1. It's strange, thinking your life is going to turn out one way, then finding yourself headed in an entirely different direction.
2. Braeden began contemplating death, and he couldn't be sure if their demise or his own was preferable.
3. Braeden dragged his dagger along the length of his forearm, drawing a thin line of blood.
4. What blood runs through your veins doesn't matter to me.
5. I owe humanity a debt, for what I am and what I've done.
6. I don't feel I should have to ask for permission to follow my heart, though I find myself begging for yours.
7. Your father slept with women who couldn't say no to him any more than they could say no to paying their taxes.
8. Hunger makes thieves out of most men.
9. His hand twitched at his side, his fingers curling into claws, eager to rip away the flesh that contained his inner monster.
10. The demons fell on them in droves, colliding with one another for a chance to taste human flesh.
11. I can handle myself. Go find your own demons to kill.
12. Friends didn't eat friends, even if they were a little deranged.
13. "You should have killed me.” He brushed his thumb against her cheek. “But I’m glad that you didn’t."
14. This -- thing -- between them didn’t smolder; it burned like fallen leaves set aflame.
15. I would rather bleed until my body is dry and empty than draw a single drop of your blood.
16. Love is a fickle thing, but fear will never desert you.
17. If this were a fairy tale, I'd be my own damned knight.
18. He was beautiful to watch, a whirlwind of man and sword, blood spraying in a never-ending spiral as he moved.