Happily Ever After is VALID (020)

I don't talk about this too much in this podcast but one the most important influences in my life for learning to love Happily Ever After (HEA) endings is fanfiction.

I know, not a surprise, yeah?

In one sense, I've always loved HEAs, from the time I was a child through college and up through my adult life. In the podcast I discuss the value of HEA stories but honestly I enjoyed them long before I understood WHY.

But fanfiction helped me accept that love. Fanfiction and the fanfic community gave me the confidence I needed to know that HEA stories also give readers something important emotionally and psychologically: hope, optimism, escapism, joy.

Too often, bad writing gets equated with a genre, but the truth is that terrible writing exists in all genres (even, if not especially, literary fiction), and so does fantastic writing. That was such an eye opening realization for me, and I hope this podcast resonates with you!