 McCorkle is the author of books including the New York Times bestseller, Life After Life. She's been called one of our wriest, warmest, and wisest storytellers. McCorkle probes the misdeeds and secrets she says can haunt us forever in a collection called Old Crimes and Other Stories. In the first story, there's a young woman who's in a writing class. Her assignment is to think of an everyday object that can be used in different ways in different stories.