From: Jennifer
This question might be inappropriate since it is a small spoiler-type, but I have wondered about it. Why don’t you let Aud buy the painting she likes in Always? I wanted her to have that.
I wanted her to have it, too. But in fiction it’s important to not give your character everything she wants, or she becomes a wish-fulfillment/Mary Sue character, and readers hate her. In Always Aud got just about everything she actively set her mind to; giving her the painting (above: ‘Antique Dressing Table’ by Lu Jian Jun), too, would have been too much. Besides, Aud can’t have it because it’s mine :) Kelley and I call her Flossie.
Nicola Griffith 
Hmm. Ok. Well Aud does get a lot of what she wants in Always, but in my mind, she had a lot of catching up to do in that area. And of course, while she did end up with Kick, there’s still the MS to deal with. But ok. I’d been thinking maybe there might “another fucking learning experience” intended there. But really, I guess you and Kelley just came into the gallery and beat her to it. And there’s my lesson. She who hesitates….Readers hate characters who get everything? Interesting. Do they love characters who get absolutely nothing they want?
Some do. That’s why they suck up those awful, daddy-done-beat-me, my dawg-is-dead-and-momma-she-drinks memoirs and read dsytopian novels. No accounting for taste.
Maybe it makes them feel better about their own ‘quiet desperation’ to read about people with even more miserable lives/problems.
I think it might make them feel less alone, yes.It’s not how I use reading. The worse I’m feeling, the more likely i am to seek out escapist stuff, stories utterly unrelated to reality.