I did not select winners myself because too many of you chose dialogue written by friends of mine and I didn’t want anyone to think there was bias going on. The winning comments were decided by randomly generating numbers at random.org. :

• 7: Celia:
  From Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens:

  Eventually Crawly said, “Didn’t you have a flaming sword?”
  “Er,” said the angel. A guilty expression passed along its face, then came back and camped there.
  “You did, didn’t you?” said Crawly. “It flamed like anything.”
  “Er, well–”
  “Lost it, have you?”
  “Oh no! No, not exactly lost, more–”
  “Well?”
  Asiraphale looked wretched. “If you must know,” he said, a trifle testily, “I gave it away.”
  Crawley stared up at him.
  “Well, I had to,” said the angle, rubbing his hands distractedly. “They looked so cold, poor things, and she’s expecting already, and what with the vicious animals out there and the storm coming up I thought, well, where’s the harm, so I just said, look, if you come back here there’s going to be an almighty row, but you might be needing this sword, so here it is, don’t bother to thank me, just do everyone a big favor and don’t let the sun go down on you here.”
  He gave Crawly a worried grin.
  “That was the best course, wasn’t it?”
  “I’m not sure it’s actually possible for you to do evil,” said Crawly sarcastically. Aziraphale didn’t notice the tone.

• 110: Zayas:

  Buckley followed the three of them into the kitchen and asked, as he had at least once a day, “Where’s Susie?”

  They were silent. Samuel looked at Lindsey.

  “Buckley,” my father called from the adjoining room, “come play Monopoly with me.”

  My brother had never been invited to play Monopoly. Everyone said he was too young, but this was the magic of Christmas. He rushed into the family room, and my father picked him up and sat him on his lap.

  “See this shoe?” my father said.

  Buckley nodded his head.

  “I want you to listen to everything I say about it, okay?”

  “Susie?” my brother asked, somehow connecting the two.

  “Yes, I’m going to tell you where Susie is.”

  I began to cry up in heaven. What else was there for me to do?

  “This shoe was the piece Susie played Monopoly with,” he said. “I play with the car or sometimes the wheelbarrow. Lindsey plays with the iron, and when you mother plays, she likes the cannon.”

  “Is that a dog?”

  “Yes, that’s a Scottie.”

  “Mine!”

  “Okay,” my father said. He was patient. He had found a way to explain it. He held his son in his lap, and as he spoke, he felt Buckley’s small body on his knee-the very human, very warm, very alive weight of it. It comforted him. “The Scottie will be your piece from now on. Which piece is Susie’s again?”

  “The shoe?” Buckley asked.

  “Right, and I’m the car, your sister’s the iron, and your mother is the cannon.”

  My brother concentrated very hard.

  “Now let’s put all the pieces on the board, okay? You go ahead and do it for me.”

  Buckley grabbed a fist of pieces and then another, until all the pieces lay between the Chance and Community Chest cards.

  “Let’s say the other pieces are our friends?”

  “Like Nate?”

  “Right, we’ll make your friend Nate the hat. And the board is the world. Now if I were to tell you that when I rolled the dice, one of the pieces would be taken away, what would that mean?”

  “They can’t play anymore?”

  “Right.”

  “Why?” Buckley asked.

  He looked up at my father; my father flinched.

  “Why?” my brother asked again.

  My father did not want to say “because life is unfair” or “because that’s how it is”. He wanted something neat, something that could explain death to a four-year-old He placed his hand on the small of Buckley’s back.

  “Susie is dead,” he said now, unable to make it fit in the rules of any game. “Do you know what that means?”

  Buckley reached over with his hand and covered the shoe. He looked up to see if his answer was right.

  “My father nodded. You won’t see Susie anymore, honey. None of us will.” My father cried. Buckley looked up into the eyes of our father and did not really understand.

  ~”The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold

  (sorry I chose such a tragic one! But it’s such a great scene.)

• 113: john cash:

  Having grabbed their towels and placed them in the proper position, Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent ar about to travel. Arthur wonders if it will hurt, etc.
  Ford: It’s a lot like being drunk.
  Arthur: I’ve been drunk before, it’s not so bad.
  Ford: Tell that to a glass of water

• 23: Kiera:

  This was the first book that ever made me want to highlight a passage, something I used to be very opposed to. This is from THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING by T. H. White.

  “If I were to be made a knight,” said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, “I should insist on doing my vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it.”
  “That would be extremely presumptuous of you,” said Merlyn, “and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it.”
  “I shouldn’t mind.”
  “Wouldn’t you? Wait till it happens and see.”
  “Why do people not think, when they are grown up, as I do when I am young?”
  “Oh dear,” said Merlyn. “You are making me feel confused. Suppose you wait till you are grown up and know the reason?”
  “I don’t think that is an answer at all,” replied the Wart, justly.
  Merlyn wrung his hands.
  “Well, anyway,” he said, “suppose they did not let you stand against all the evil in the world?”
  “I could ask,” said the Wart.
  “You could ask,” repeated Merlyn.

• 131: Qasi:

  Into The Fire by Richard Laymon

  “Get her,” Boots said.
  “Preferred mode of driving,” Duke added.
  “At least the cops won’t be able to see us in the dark without lights.” Norman risked another peek back.
  “Give the kid a doughnut.” Duke casually teased a cigarette from a pack with his teeth. “Hey, miss?”
  “The name’s Dee-Dee.”
  “Miss Dee-Dee. Do you know where these tracks are headed?”
  “They run for miles. Only people use them are farmers.”
  “You don’t say.”
  “I’m trying to help, you lummox.”
  “Lummox.” Duke grinned back at Norman– an alarming action, as he wasn’t looking where he was driving. “You’ve picked up a live one there, boy.
  Dee-Dee fumed. “He didn’t pick me up!”
  “Say, he’s not boned you yet?”
  “No!”
  Boots turneed around to smirk. “He will soon enough. Normy can’t get enough. The guy’s a fucking love machine.”
  Duke laughed. “That’s ’cause he’s been saving it up for years.”

• 125: Koatha:

  “You’ve been so brave.” (Lily)
  He could not speak. His eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand and look at her forever, and that would be enough.
  “You are nearly there,” said James. “Very close. We are…so proud of you.”
  “Does it hurt?”
  The childish question had fallen from Harry’s lips before he could stop it.
  “Dying? Not at all,” said Sirius. “quicker and easier than falling asleep.”
  “And he will want it to be quick.He wants it over,” said Lupin.
  “I didn’t want you to die,” Harry said. These words came out without his volition, “Any of you. I’m so sorry-”
  He addressed Lupin more than any of them, beseeching him.
  “-right after you’d had your son…Remus, I’m sorry-”
  “I am sorry too,” said Lupin. “Sorry I will never know him…but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand. I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life.”

  “You’ll stay with me?”
  “Until the very end,” said James.
  “They won’t be able to see you?” asked Harry.
  “We are a part of you,” said Sirius. “Invisible to anyone else.”
  Harry looked closely at his mother.
  “Stay close to me,” he said quietly.

  Harry talking to his parents, Sirius and Lupin using the Resurrection Stone before he walks to his death.

  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling, pg 560-561, Chapter 34: The Forest Again, UK edition.

Congratulations!

If you won please send me your snail mail address here or DM on Twitter.

List which of these books you would like in order of preference. Select at least three. (I only have a few copies of some of these):

Advanced Reader Copy of First Kiss anthology signed by me and Scott
US paperback of Love is Hell anthology signed by me and Scott
US or Aus paperback Magic Lessons (sequel to Magic or Madness)
US or Aus paperback Magic’s Child (sequel to Magic Lessons)
HC Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction