It was only a loose thread, but when Jenny pulled on it, she got more than she expected. She was fed up with the chaos and demands, the lack of gratitude from people when she’d gone out of her way to deal with mundane tasks. Sure, it only took a minute or two of her time, but stacked upon each other day after day, they turned into hours that robbed her from taking care of herself. From breathing. Her own needs had now reached a staggering height and, too tired to help herself, she watched them topple over, cascading down, one after another. The harder she yanked on the thread to end the turmoil, the more things unraveled. Exhausted, she dropped the mountain of work, and it crashed to the floor. It’s not like it wouldn’t be there, haunting her again tomorrow. Today, she’d nap. Pretend the problems didn’t exist.

Being given the upmarket genre was like a dream come true. It’s the same genre I write in for my novel length pieces. There’s something satisfying about digging deep into a character’s emotions and splashing them across the page. I think the love for such writing comes from reading books where I could sit there and say, ‘This, this is how I feel and I’ve never been able to articulate it before!’

It’s the same passion I’ve passed on to my children. As a multi-cultural family with citizenship to more than one country, it means my kids are always separated from half their family. When they were younger, this was a hard concept for them. They found the words to express their emotions through books. Specifically, Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say. It became a favorite and quoted often. Grandfather was from Japan, and moved to the USA, but no matter which country he was in, he was always homesick for the other. The first time I read the story to my children, my eldest became quite excited and said, “That’s me, too. Grandfather knows exactly how I feel!”

Emotions are complex things, and sometimes we’re so lost int hem we can’t discern them until we hear someone else breaking them down for us. One of my favorite books last year was The Lonely Hearts Book Club. I understood Arthur the minute the author revealed he highlighted all the lines in his favorite book to convey his love to his wife because he struggled to put them together. Like Arthur, I save quotes from every book I read. Some are simple that made me laugh, and others sum up things I’ve never quite been able to put in words before. 

Genre: Upmarket Action: A character breaks something that matters Word: thread