I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.
And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.
Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.
My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.
I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.
Isak Dinesen said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. I like that.