In fit of writing procrastination I scanned through my published or soon-to-be-published stories, mostly looking at how they ended. What did I discover? Seven of the stories had unpleasant endings for the protagonist (or ambiguous endings that some readers, I think, would take as unpleasant) although one of those stories would technically be considered a happy ending by many readers as the protagonist is a real jerk. Eight stories have what I consider to be a happy ending. My early stories almost always had negative endings. This is ok sometimes — some stories have to end unpleasantly, if they are to end naturally. But I was finding that often I…