But If You Try Sometimes …

As the old Rolling Stones wisdom says, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need. The Stones are one of a number of musical acts referenced in my new novel, Wrecks and Ruins.

In the short novel, men and women of a certain age rummage through the ruins of their wrecked relationships to create something beautiful … and a main character finds beauty in the byproducts of automobile wrecks and the ruins of dilapidated homes and buildings. What’s this book all about, besides just telling a story?

People today tend to idealize what a relationship is supposed to be. Our instant-gratification, post-and-like mentality, coupled with images of what we “deserve” in a mate perpetuated in movies, shows, magazines, and on social media, give people the impression that if things aren’t perfect, then end it and search for that perfection. But relationships aren’t about getting everything you want. They’re joy and sadness, pleasure and pain, compromise, and work along with the play. Working at a relationship—whether a marriage, friendship, or professional one—is not “settling.” It’s being an adult and a realist and being part of the effort. We should all do our part to make meaningful relationships work.

Readers of Wrecks and Ruins will get to know characters who are not perfect and who do not have perfect relationships. But like a phoenix from the ash, they flourish.

Learn more about Wrecks and Ruins at www.EricDGoodman.com.