My Short Happy Stories series was created in response to two challenges: time and function. Like many people, I enjoy novels but struggle to set aside time for reading. This is frustrating, because novels are useful. A good one widens our perspective and increases our capacity for empathy.

But, again…time.

As a fiction writer, I was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore a certain question: “Is it presumptuous to expect people to spend hours and hours reading my novel, when they could instead be using their limited time on indisputably valuable works like The Brothers Karamazov?”

So, I decided to transfer my efforts to very short stories — the kind that would fit into my own daily life. Stories to read while drinking a morning cup of coffee, or when riding the bus, or right before going to bed. Inspirations for this endeavor were Lydia Davis and Robert Walser, who proved it’s possible to craft compelling fiction that can be fully experienced in a very small window of time. A kind of fiction more like a song or a painting.

I also wondered about the purpose of my work. What was I trying to accomplish? For years, it was interesting to explore the strangeness of the human mind, but eventually, I recognized that my psychological stories didn’t contain many original insights and were probably only serving as reminders of the obvious. Would I ever be able to explore the human mind as effectively as Dostoevsky? No.

Did my fiction have any value?

These literary questions, of course, sound indulgent and irrelevant when placed next to the news of the world. There have been times in recent years when the sheer quantity of distressing events has been overwhelming. Why should anyone even care about fiction at this point? It started to feel absurd to spend so much time placing words on paper. What could fiction actually change?

Then, while reading the paper one day, it occurred to me that I wanted to read something very different. That’s when the Short Happy Stories idea was born. P.G. Wodehouse’s wonderful writing frequently improved my mood, and it suddenly seemed worthwhile — or at least possibly worthwhile — to write my own uplifting stories, ones that would offer a respite from all the bleakness. No, the stories themselves wouldn’t always be happy, but they’d confront universal uncertainties and try to reach authentic moments of gratitude.

The first volume of Short Happy Stories (comprised of 50 compact tales) was recently published by Manaatti Books. Like the Beatles’ White Album (another inspiration), there’s a lot of variety in it — all sorts of characters and places are waiting in its pages. No, they’re not always happy, but they make room for joy.

Evan Pellervo lives and writes in Monterey County, California. Short Happy Stories is available in bookstores and online.