Occasional reflections on the experiences, observations, and difficult human questions that find their way into my fiction.
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The Things We Learn to Regard as Ordinary
When I was growing up in rural Alabama, my maternal grandparents lived next door. My grandfather raised hogs, and I remember watching him slaughter them. I don’t recall being particularly troubled by what I saw. Slaughtering hogs was simply something people did. The animals were raised, fed, and eventually killed for food. There was nothing…
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The Questions That Won’t Leave Me Alone
I’ve written sixteen novels, and although their stories and characters differ, I’ve come to recognize something they have in common. They begin, in one way or another, with questions I can’t quite leave alone. Some come from things I’ve experienced. Others from something I’ve read, witnessed, or heard someone say. Sometimes the beginning is no…
