I've spent more time on this blog talking about how to get an agent than about how to write. So yesterday I posted a spare short story I had lying around.
"Helen" took me two days to complete and I cried for most of them. It's very important to me but I don't think it's saleable. It's too shmaltzy.
Tolstoy said: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Then he wrote a novel about an unhappy family. Happy families are boring.
What interests me is the ephemeral nature of happiness. Either you die, or you get old and everyone else dies. Either way, it's all over while you're still moaning about whose turn it is to wash the dishes.
"Helen" is my attempt to capture the tragedy that's built into the human condition. The sadness concealed in the heart of the good times.... I still cry every time I read it.
Poor Helen. She can never go home.
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