“In the real world, villains too often succeed and heroes, too often die,” says writer James McBride — and that’s one of the great things about being novelist. “In novels you can move matters around … you get to show the best side of people. You get to show redemption, and forgiveness, and you get to show the parts of people that most of us never get to see.” I loved this quote from Scott Simon’s interview this morning on NPR. It articulates so well what I’m trying to do.