Do readers want happy endings? This question plagues me. I think they ultimately do or commercial fiction, movies and television wouldn't revolve so heavily around things working out. We want to be convinced that there are reasons for hope, that we are correct to believe in that greener grass around the corner. People getting married and having babies and forgiving their evil family members and winning lotteries and saving people and giving people second chances...this is what commercialism is built upon.

I'm in limbo deciding what to write next. I think I'm going to print Self Serve out and start working on it bit by bit, revising it, plumping it, making it feel more final. But I want to write something else. I've got three or four serious ideas that keep biting at me, but I admit, it's hard to know where to begin when I don't know the fate of Shaky Grounds. Plus, ultimately I'm rather exhausted lately. I don't know if it's cumulative from a year's worth of pushing really hard on all fronts. I've got a year of graduate school behind me, a year of writing freelance journalism, a year of doing the radio show. My god it was a busy fucking year! It feels like all that stuff started "back then" but really it's been this past year. No wonder I'm tired! Jesus.