Habits And Love is a début collection of nine short stories that explores two of the most powerful forces that imprint our lives. Author Rod Schumacher paints portraits of everyday people as they struggle to understand themselves, the lives they've chosen, those they love and those who love them back. Schumacher employs simplicity of structure and a resilient, clear style allowing the subtext of human relationships to rise to the surface in these humorous and poignant stories. The protagonist of "The Vast and Greatly Huge" realizes why he has a desire for practical jokes, while teenage kids in "This Guy at the Laundromat" pull a lighthearted revenge prank on a grown-up foe and catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the laughter. In "Driving Home" a couple struggles to find a place for the memory of their dead child, while the title story, "Habits and Love," dissects a traditional marriage, revealing the tension between comfort and longing strung across fifty years of marriage.

Rod Schumacher is an English instructor at Red Deer College in Alberta, where he teaches Creative Writing. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications including The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, Pottersfied Portfolio and Cracked Wheat: An Anthology of Prairie Humour. Tired of big city narratives, Schumacher is currently devoted to western storytelling, representing the regional experiences of small-town people. Habits and Love is his first book.

Rod Schumacher's profile page