Robert Heath

I was born in 1956 in Northampton, Mass. I have always enjoyed reading, and early on began to write my own stories, essays and poetry. My mother always had books and magazines in the house, from the Reader's Digest to the classics, including horror and suspense. In my younger years, I read more horror and suspense than classics, including authors featured in Alfred Hitchcock's mystery magazine, and Stephen King. John D. MacDonald was one of my favorite authors, I particularly liked his Travis McGee novels. What I enjoyed in King and MacDonald and in my other favorite authors was their skill in characterization. They also had a skill for creating a story that captured and held the reader's interest. Later on, I read more classic authors such as Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Dostoyevski. My goal for a story is to examine a life, a moment, a day, particularly our choices, how our choices are affected by previous choices, how our choices affect ourselves and others. I like to go simply but deeply into a mind and discover motivations, fears, hopes, and see how they form the person, how they direct the choices which can either build or destroy. Some of my stories appear to have no point. They are almost like word cameras capturing what the character sees, hears and does. But all of my stories do ultimately have a point: the person or persons depicted within them. Not every life, not every day is an adventure or a mystery, but they are often interesting. I don't believe in horror for the sake of horror, simply to shock. I look at evil as part of our common human experience. I believe strongly in right and wrong, and I believe evil can gradually take control of us, if we allow it. Many of my stories examine how the choice for evil can change a person and subsume his will, so that evil becomes almost inevitable and inescapable. Ultimately, as we define our choices, our choices seem to define our lives. I believe that there is always hope, but that sometimes we have so often chosen evil that hope seems impossible. And that is how some of my stories end. And some of my stories end with a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Like Saint John says, the darkness cannot overcome the light. Except when we refuse to open our eyes. As a practicing Catholic, I am very much informed by my faith when I write, as is especially the case with my Rosary Meditations and Stations of the Cross. While many of my short stories are dark and even preoccupied with evil, sin, despair and redemption, I believe that, in general, darkness is overcome by the light and light cannot be overcome by darkness. In individual cases, because of a series of choices throughout one's life, darkness does overcome, and despair or hatred sets in as almost irrevocable. In some of my stories, despair or hatred reigns supreme, while in others, a glimmer of light and of hope appears, giving a hint, or clearly revealing that the light will eventually overcome the darkness and evil will not conquer. Some may be troubled by the actions and the thoughts of some of my characters. It is important to realize, and I hope my stories make it clear, that I present evil as evil, and good as good. If a character says or does or thinks something evil, my writing the character in this way does not mean that I approve of the evil. The character is acting "in character" with his beliefs, his past choices, the ends he desires. While I do try to avoid graphic depictions of evil acts, I cannot avoid some description of evil and still remain reasonably realistic in my story-telling. Another thing to remember is that evil is not always obvious, and that is how some people make their series of choices. Evil can often appear quite attractive, but one choice leads to another, and the darkness begins to grow, and the hold of sin over the actor grows stronger and stronger. Sometimes a character may appear quite good, quite attractive, but eventually, it becomes very clear that he is neither good nor attractive. I hope that the reader will enjoy the fiction, and will find the meditations useful. In any case, I hope the reader is provoked to think, even if his thoughts disagree with mine. Whether by revealing the ugliness of sin, or the beauty of virtue, it is my hope that light and grace will, through my writings, turn some to the Truth, who is a Person, adorable and worthy of our love. (I am also the author of A Scriptural Way of the Cross, published by Liguori Press.)