Todd Babiak was wrapping up his latest novel, Son of France, when his brother called him in tears. "She's dead. Paula's dead." His brother's girlfriend had been murdered.

"They were going to have this Brady Bunch future and it was all interrupted in one night," Babiak tells Shad.

This experience forced Babiak to address how he treats crime in his works of fiction, which feature explosions of violence. Prior to Paula's death, he tells Shad, he didn't really understand the profound severity of murder. With newfound empathy and understanding, the author reflects on what fiction can offer that reality doesn't.

WEB EXTRA | Read Babiak's personal essay on the murder that changed the way he looks at violence in stories.