Only Happy Endings
Author: Molly Day
Only Happy Endings is an emotional journey of loss and healing with plenty of love and laughs along the way. Readers love the stories within a story, calling the premise “a fresh new creative twist” and “a fantastic story idea”.
Best-selling author Astoria Declan is touted as the queen of modern tragedy. Her editor gets on her case about writing something happier but she can’t do it. After experiencing horrific personal losses, she no longer believes in happy endings. Writing them is impossible!
After a visit from Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, the impossible needs to become possible. She tasks Astoria with fixing the broken worlds of all ten of her abandoned writing projects from the inside and giving them happy endings.
Armed with only her outlines and visualizations of what is already written, she has to take over the roles of various side characters to accomplish her mission. If she doesn’t stay in character, the worlds will collapse and she will never be able to go home.
She isn’t cut out for this! How is she supposed to do something so difficult all by herself when these abandoned story worlds are triggering her trauma left and right?
Maybe Astoria isn’t as alone as she thinks. A nameless side character keeps appearing exactly where she needs him to help her along the way. Who is he? Why does he appear in every story world? Is he working for Melpomene?
Astoria has so many questions but is too grateful to have help during something terrifying to let them deter her. She couldn’t do this without him. Could he be what she needs to believe in happy endings again?
Excerpt:
“Look, you have the wrong person. I may have created these worlds but I abandoned them because I didn’t know how to finish them,” Astoria managed to get out.
Melpomene stared straight into her soul and she flinched again. “You are the only one who can do it. They are your worlds. No one else can intervene. You have the tools that you need. You will fix these worlds but ensure that no one in them discovers that you created them. It will create a paradox and the world will collapse instantly.”
Honestly…that didn’t sound so bad. Astoria didn’t see a way out of this crazy goddess’s domain. If she died failing her mission, her suffering would finally end. She didn’t have anything to live for anyway.
Melpomene seemed to read her mind because she addressed what Astoria was thinking. “Know this: if you cease to exist within a world that is not your own, you will not be able to reunite with your loved ones in the Underworld. Your suffering will not end. It will only truly begin.”
Astoria clenched her fists and they began to shake in fury. “How dare you use them against me to play your sick game? What kind of twisted goddess are you? You said I’m your loyal patron so why are you toying with me like this?!”
“I am sick of tragedy and want only happy endings from this point onward. Accomplish your mission and your suffering will end.”
That gave her pause. It would end? How cryptic could Melpomene get? Astoria had been suffering for most of her life. The happiness that she managed to find was so fleeting and once it was gone, she was left in a worse state than ever.
She narrowed her eyes. “How am I supposed to believe you?”
“I will swear on the River Styx. It is the most powerful vow that one can make. Even gods have to heed them or face horrific consequences,” Melpomene said, once again staring into Astoria's soul. “I swear on the River Styx that if you accomplish your mission, your suffering will end.”
