* In "Angels Fall," Nora Roberts has one of her characters who writes mystery thrillers think about how life sucks often enough, so why not have things work out well in entertainment fiction.

I sometimes get impatient when writers of literary fiction create a situation in which things could reasonably work out well for the characters, but the writer shows loyalty to literary fiction conventions of this moment by having things work out badly.

Take the generally terrific, you should read it "Losing Nelson." What a great way it is to learn much about an important person in history, Horatio Nelson. The main character in the novel is very focussed on Nelson, and is generally in life, barely holding on by a hair, mental health wise.