"Me writing about romance is like a vegan writing about a barbecue "
Kim uses this simile to explain the unlikelihood of her becoming a romance writer. Although she had been engaged twice and married once, none of these experiences gave her any experience of romance; in the same way a vegan, who eschews all animal products, has never experienced a barbecue and so would be writing about what he thinks it might be like, rather than writing from experience.
"The security line at Denver International looked more like the start of the Boston Marathon than any sort of civilized queue."
The security line was supposed to be a calm, civilized affair with people lined up in single file behind the person in front. It was not this way and looked like the start of the most anticipated marathon in the world where participants are stretched wide across the start line, jockeying for position and trying to get even the most imperceptible advantage over their competitors.
"I hated the idea that my mother had been here. It was like discovering snakes in Eden."
Kim loves Vermont almost as soon as she arrives at the Mistletoe Inn and finds the inn itself particularly exquisite. As she talks on the telephone with her father he tells her that the changing leaves in the Fall are beautiful and that he and Kim's mother once took a Fall Leaves Tour of Vermont. This ruins the beauty of the place for Kim who feels that she has now found something ugly and evil in her picture of beauty, as any reference to her mother immediately casts shadow where there was once light.
"I felt like a naive child being told there is no Santa Claus."
One of the elements to the writers' workshop that Kim is most excited about is the opportunity to meet literary agents and have them read her manuscript. Two fellow attendees, Heather and LuAnne, are jaded veterans of the workshop circuit and tell Kim there are two kinds of agent; the kind who love to kill an author's dreams of publication by assassinating their book, and the passive-aggressive kind who are nice to your face but never get in touch to follow up.When Kim asked about the third kind of agent who actually wants to publish your book they look at her as if she is a deluded child. Kim has believed wholeheartedly in the existence of the third type of agent and now feels line a child who is having her beliefs in a magical being shattered, and she also feels silly for having believed for so long in the first place.
"It's like using a map of Las Vegas to get around Vermont."
Zeke is explaining to Kim why using her past romantic experiences as a roadmap to navigate the next one will not work, as the people involved are different and each relationship will therefore be different. It is also why she feels lost when trying to understand her feelings - she is referencing her reaction to old feelings when trying to have faith in the new ones.
