The stories that move me are about people shaped by moral dilemmas, love, and the sheer absurdity of everyday life. I'm intrigued by people smart enough to know how stupid they are—but unable to stop themselves from obeying their compulsions. That is, until a critical event shakes their foundations and opens a fissure in their rock-solid view of reality. How do these people think, what's driving their emotions, as they hurtle toward the trouble lurking just around the corner? Sometimes success starts with a patch of bad luck. And sometimes what looks like a windfall turns out to be a rampaging hurricane, lifting them up and out of everything they believe in. At both extremes are situations absurd enough to look tragic and grave enough to look ridiculous—if only we slap on the right pair of lenses. Yet within this skewed matrix we like to call "The Way Things Are," every random occurrence opens a world of possibility to people with vision. My favorite characters lie just within that range. Heroes? No. Just people driven by nature to poke around in destiny’s darkest shadows.