A lot of my stories involve older men or women reaching a breaking point because their lives are so banal and predictable. Is this autobiographical? Yes and no.
I am keenly aware that life can change in an instant--that in essence, life is never predictable. Moments of crisis can arise at any time, in any setting; and that is also a recurring theme in the stories. Sometimes a memory, juxtaposed against some specific thing that just happened, creates a life-changing emotion; something wells up and we decide, "No, things will no longer be this way," and there it is--life has changed, dramatically.
One of the things I wanted to say in these stories: moments of crisis and change occur throughout our lives, not just in our early adulthood, but right on into old age. Most of my stories involve people in their fifties or beyond.
If many of the stories are about suburbanites stuck in a dull routine, there are also stories which celebrate suburbia, routines, the everyday.
But it's true that on balance, most of the stories are about shaking up routines...and yes, that probably means something.
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