A good life

I love to read novels about adventure and love and mysterious happenings. And yet, when these things happen in real life I tend to think there is something wrong with me, or life is irredeemable.

It's so easy to read these stirring stories because I know my favorite authors will never let me down and write a bad ending.

The tiny black and white pictures drawn in words by talented authors resemble people I know and sometimes even me. They are the adventures I would never really want to have.

Real life is not compact and predictable like books. The time implied in 500 pages can sometimes take years in real life. But that doesn't mean the struggles are not just as heroic.

That's why people write memoirs of "the good old days," and grandparents tell stories about when they were young . . . it's really all one long story.

So don't be afraid to throw in as many adventures and mildly outrageous maneuvers as you have room for.  They lighten up the moments and make for great tales later on.

No one wants to read page after page of sunshine and light, or chapter after chapter of goodness and joy -- it's the contrast that makes it all interesting.

It's the conquering that makes it moving.