There's a mindset of flexibility and adaptability that comes with us. We don't mind hardship. We don't mind somebody saying, 'Go in and do this nasty job.' Whatever the job is, we can do it. That's why the nation has a Marine Corps.
My first novel, 'Leaving Atlanta,' took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.
I try to bring the audience's own drama - tears and laughter they know about - to them.

