Michael Anderson studied journalism at the University of Rhode Island. Following a string of odd jobs after graduation, he is offered a job at a webzine, Neon Circus, based on a joke obituary he wrote for an actor who died of a drug overdose. The editor of Neon Circus, Jeroma Whitfield, gives him the obituaries column. After Whitfield denies him a raise, Michael writes her obituary as a way to vent his frustration. A colleague later calls him at home to tell him that Whitfield is dead. He tries to rationalize it as a coincidence, but when he writes another obituary for a living person, it becomes clear that he actually has some sort of power. The power becomes like an addiction. With each use, Michael feels a stronger compulsion to use it again. Eventually, he finds that he can kill not just specific individuals, but simultaneously anyone who shares the same name. He leaves Neon Circus, moves to Wyoming, and takes a job painting houses. He stops using computers for the most part, but he keeps a tablet to read Neon Circus occasionally. He remembers that one of his professors taught him that the end of a story is only the end „only for now.“