Enslaved by their own fears, the characters in this riveting collection are straining for redemption. Their choices reflect the well-worn patterns we carve for ourselves through our idiosyncrasies-our dominant traits. A basketball coach teaches moral ambiguity; a divorcee clutches at sanity; a mother struggles with her son's paternity; a childless man regrets his youthful onanism. Through their shared experiences these tangible characters undergo the sad, hilarious search for wholeness and security. Set in the stark isolated landscape of Southern Alberta, Eric Freeze's debut collection is a deftly-crafted study of desperate mortals careening through their liminal moments, grasping for certainty. "An honest record, a way to trace the passage of time and understand the little stories of our past"—Boston Review "Freeze Builds his sentences with the intricate grace of the snowflakes so often falling from the sky in these stories, all of them peculiarly sad and funny and beautiful."—Ben Percy "The fiction in Dominant Traits seems grounded in the quirkiness that is the everyday, that is where we learn about the human heart and its odd acts of defiance, generosity, courage, ineptitude."—Darrell Spencer "Excellent stories... Freeze produces realistic, believable people and delves deeply into their psyches to create truly enjoyable character studies."-Booklist