Excerpt from Escape! by Stephen Fishbach, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"You're not originally from California, are you?" I asked.

"Iowa, actually."

Nailed it. I feigned surprise. "I'm from Chicago. Look at us, two Midwesterners. What brought you out west?"

"The same thing that brings everyone, I guess."

"Fame?"

He nodded, suddenly wary.

"When I moved here from Chicago, I figured I'd be an Oscar-winning director by now." I shook my head and laughed, though I was never interested in following a script. Reality television lets you tie a bow out of the tangled ribbon of life.

"I wanted to be an actor," Dave said.

"Let me guess. You were a high school theater star who moved to Hollywood?"

He shifted on the sand and ran his fingers through his spiky hair.

"You can imagine how my doctor dad feels about reality TV," I said. "My mom-she passed away. Aneurysm. When I was four."

Sharing your tragedies is a tactic. You make the subject comfortable by showing that you're vulnerable too. The trick is that you have to show real feeling, because people have sensitive barometers for BS. I pictured the tickle of my mother's hair falling on my face as she read to me in bed. The rough corduroy of her skirt in my hand as I hid behind her legs. I had to come at it sideways-fragments, discrete sense memories-or I'd lose it for real. A lone tear slid from the corner of my eye. I could see the sympathy well up in him.

"I was the same. A ... disappointment," Dave said tentatively, not performing anymore but genuinely sharing. I had him. "I thought if I made it big, I could show everybody back home."

Normal producers would end the conversation there. I was sure Dave would give me more. I said nothing and let the silence build. Silence exerts its own pressure. It demands to be filled.

At last Dave whispered, "If I can give Buster his moment in the spotlight, maybe I didn't fail."

If my cameraman wasn't zooming in on Dave's face, I'd have to strangle him to death later.

Excerpted from Escape! by Stephen Fishbach. Copyright © 2026 by Stephen Fishbach. Excerpted by permission of Dutton. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.