The Sealey Challenge #10: An Evening at Joes "Postcards from Alexa" Gillian Horvath & Donna Lettow

Sometimes good writing changes our lives, our very sense of self, and because of that, our writing. "Postcards from Alexa" is a series of short stories that I would love to have seen as creating a hybrid novel. I teach this work. I firmly believe that you don't need to know a damn thing about Highlander: The Series to learn what true love and relationships look like. Each time I read, I am at a new phase in life. I am grieving someone or expecting grief, or falling in love, or clinging to love, etc.

Alexa is a dying mortal woman who Adam Pierson (the immortal Methos) falls in love with. He knows that Alexa could have less than a year and without medical treatment, maybe even weeks. He offers her a chance to live versus exist while dying. She agrees to tour the world with him, and we see the awkwardness of learning each other's tempers and habits. How we have to test and test and figure out what a person is really thinking at a time and not assuming. In the end, of course, is tragedy. I cry every time. Breathe her last breath every time. Breathe his first breath after she has died every time. It is not ritually flogging myself with tragedy but the artistry in creating living characters. I "believe" very few of the characters I read. The way that character has changed my writing has a great deal for my success. I believe that character matters as much as plot. Not every author does. You can have a simple storyline though and if you have great characters and relatable characters with relatable problems--people will read.