One theme in most of my stories has to do with the lonely or abandoned heart. In this book, the abandoned hearts seem to be the children’s or their mothers’ but I hope the idea that John Drake’s heart was at least lacking something based on his actions as a younger man were conveyed.

I do feel a certain and particular need to speak to young men who for whatever reason find themselves absent from the lives of their children. A child depends upon a father obviously for financial support but for emotional support as well. As The Magic and the Mayhem began to take form, I realized that when men walk away they’re virtually cutting part of their own life’s growth away. At the end of the day the void turns inward leaving them with an angst that cannot be healed or reversed. The part of the psyche that could have been formed is empty, except that the rest of the world celebrates fatherhood, something that, even though they bore children, they have unwittingly bowed out from the right to participate.