Neighborhood Sketches

The reason I have labeled the stories in this collection 'sketches' is because many of them are quite short. I have focused on paring them down--a virtual law in any creative writing workshop. A number of the stories also highlight the way that setting becomes the "place" from which the characters can never really escape. That is one of the reasons the word neighborhood is also in the title. Getting away from the title, the stories address the unrrealized dreams and the missed chances at romantic happiness for which no explanation can suffice. The characters know they must simply go on.