“But Why Do You Write About Such Terrible People?” - a brief book talk and reading from Transcendent Gardening.

I've been asked this question many times throughout my writing life: why do you often write about such deeply flawed characters? Since one of the central characters in Transcendent Gardening is the perpetrator of a mass shooting, I thought I'd take a few minutes before reading from the novel to discuss that question. Essentially, I often write about terrible people because I don't believe anyone is born bad, and exploring the circumstances of a flawed character's life is a way of exploring the causes of his or her behavior. My brief talk will expand a bit on that notion.