"I was thinking about despair when I wrote that story. Mr. P. was at the end of his rope. There was no help for him, the pressures were too much. I wanted to show how the loss of love can bring it on, can bring on very strong emotions. Grief can kill you, I mean literally, it can. When Harry Crews talked about his boy drowning, he said you think you are going to die. That you couldn't survive that. Most of the time, you can, but sometimes you can't. When our baby died, in 1977, I didn't think I would survive. It was a very rocky time . . . tough. You meet other people who have suffered the same thing. It comes up in conversation--it's the same each time--you never get over it.

But my fiction is about people surviving, about people proceeding out from calamity. I write about loss. These people are aware of their need for redemption. We all spend our time dealing with some kind of hurt and looking for love. We are all striving for the same thing, for some kind of love. But love is a big word. It covers a lot of territory. I try to tell it in a fresh, new way, to be innovative.
--excerpted from book