Sirens & Muses

by Antonia Angress

“Just because something is meaningful personally doesn’t make it meaningful as art. It’s, like, just because something actually happened doesn’t make it a good story.”

She looked away, annoyed at his flippancy. Why were people at this school so averse to sincerity? Why did everything have to be coated in ten layers of irony?

“I think that the people we become infatuated with are the ones who have the qualities we want.”

“I think it’s easy, when…when you’re neglecting your own happiness, to inadvertently neglect the happiness of the people you love. It’s sort of like you think you’re being selfless or self-sacrificial or something, but really you’re just sowing misery everywhere you go. So I’m sorry for that.”

She is loved here, Louisa thought. Maybe that was why she’d stayed all these years. Why leave a place when you love it and—miracle of miracles—it loves you back?

I hope you’ll see glimmers of yourself in my characters if you’ve ever pursued a creative endeavor, or been in love, or felt consumed by aching regret. But like every other artist, I’ve had to make peace with the fact that my work here is done; what happens next, when you and this novel encounter each other, is ultimately out of my hands.