It was only after compiling these stories, written over a period of 15 years, that I realized how constant some of the themes are that permeate them. There are characters trapped in death, and others who are trapped in life. Some escape, some fail. But all are pulled in directions they don't want to go by events in their own lives.The title story Life is Good presents a vision of the future where doctors no longer cure illnesses, they manage them. The Location Scout is a piece of flash fiction with a son who has to decide whether to share the news of his terminal illness with his senile father.The Doll Box, The Library and Bianca feature three girls who find different ways to escape an unwanted and sometimes threatening reality.In the longest story, Connections, a young man flies back across an entire continent and learns that the threads that hold a family together may not behave according to his beloved mathematical laws.The Bag sees two men fleeing the scene of a crime and drawn inexorably to their fate by the object they covet. The collection ends with another type of inexorability. This Is What Will Happen To You is a nightmarish premonition that will leave you with a shudder.From the 19th-century Bolivian jungle to the London blitz; from small-town Canada to San Francisco; Life is Good is a winding journey through the bars of eight different cages.- John B. Dutton After graduating from film school in London, England, John emigrated to Montreal in 1987, where he still lives with his two young children and their even younger goldfish. He spent over a decade as a music TV director before moving into the advertising industry as an award-winning copywriter for clients such as Cirque du Soleil. John has written novels, short stories, blogs, screenplays and a stage play, and is currently writing a trilogy of Young Adult novels. John speaks four languages and has been married three times in three different countries in three different decades. He therefore likes the odd pint of Guinness. And he's pretty keen on the even pints too…
