The Theory of Happily Ever After
by Kristin Billerbeck
The column is titled “Intersection: Where the Story-Behind-the-Story Connects with Your Story.” (This title is reader-centric. The “your” in the title is readers and retailers.)
Happiness is a Science. Who Knew?
As a novelist living in Silicon Valley, I’m definitely an outcast. I write in the local Starbucks across from the Apple Computer “spaceship” building. There are a few of us “regulars” who have our water cooler discussions about everything from politics to technology to pop culture. I often work beside a millionaire engineer/entrepreneur and a retired chemical engineer. I dumbfound them because I often have trouble finishing a story and getting “inspired” for that next book. They find that ridiculous and always ask me why don’t I start my own publishing business and stop thinking like an artist? As confusing as I am to them, they are equally intriguing to me 
because emotions don’t seem to enter into their decision-making process.
So I’ve always been highly entertained when logical people are forced to face the emotional aspects of life. Feelings are an unwelcome intrusion and yet none of us can avoid them completely. So when I overheard a happiness researcher questioning her own emotions against the backdrop of her data, I knew I had a story.
“The Theory of Happily Ever After” is about a happiness researcher who is essentially miserable. According to all of her data points and research, she should be ecstatic. I loved researching the science of happiness because I live in a place where people seem to have everything their hearts desire: Luxurious mansions, expensive cars, the best educations and yet, they still aren’t happy. Some days I just want to hand everyone walking around like a zombie, a prozac. Or a Bible. As a Christian, I know the pursuit of empty goals can’t possibly fulfill a person who needs Jesus, but I wanted to know what science had to say on the matter. The research for this book gave me that opportunity to ask the questions I wanted the answer to: Why are wealthy, sophisticated, educated people so often miserable?
It turns out scientifically that close relationships, a higher purpose and helping others is very high on researchers’ 
list of what makes people happy. Material items do not make people happier once they have enough. But what about my happiness researcher who isn’t happy? I knew from my daily talks with left-brain people, that in order for her to be happy, for once, she’d have to trust her instincts and ignore the statistics. That’s the payoff of writing intellectual characters for me. Every once in a while, we all do something counterintuitive because we feel the strongest emotion of them all, Love. I think that is something that left-brain and right-brain people have in common: Love is a risk that’s worth taking.
So that’s how I researched this book, but it’s not about science at all. That’s only the backdrop, but it’s important to me to get it right. My book is a lighthearted, romantic romp on a cruise ship. It’s meant to be frothy and lighthearted because the world needs to laugh. That’s my purpose. I don’t watch violence. I can barely handle the news. But I can laugh at myself, and I think if Dr. Maggie K. Maguire was a real person? She could laugh at herself too.