Has the feeling of doom become our weather? If so, Richard Bausch says he contends with contemporary life by writing about people coping with loss and sorrow in Living in the Weather of the World. The unexpected turns in his stories surprise him as they're being crafted. Although Bausch reveals that he has never touched a gun, his characters carry guns as easily as they might carry cell phones. But there are punch-in-the gut twists -- sometimes a gun is a toy pistol, sometimes it's real.
Photo by Sean Dellorco