All the Sad Songs

I like sad songs. I like sad films. I don't enjoy up-tempo numbers, and I hate contrived happy endings. I don't apologise for this. It's just me, the way I'm wired. Horses for courses, and all that. I suppose I merely have a melancholy outlook.

I have a pet hate. Actually, I have many pet hates - way too many to list here. But the one I'm going to mention today is this: I hate it when people say "Have you ever tried writing something happy?" They usually smile glibly after that, the kind of smile that makes me want to hit them in the face for an hour.

Well, glib-smilers, the answer is No. No, I've never tried to write something happy. I've never tried to write something unhappy either. Or something scary, or something sad. I just write the stories that want to be told, the ones that interest me, the tales that get their hooks into me.

I write the stories that are inside me.