Existentialism
“It is only in our decisions that we are important.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
The stories in The Jump all stand alone. No linking characters or settings at all - each is its own weird ride.
Similarly, my novel, The Contract, is completely different from any of my stories.
Humor (often very dark), irony, and self-delusion are frequent guests, but if I had to point to an overarching vision, it would be the existential backdrop against which all the action occurs. Characters constantly define themselves by their actions - and by their conviction or lack of conviction in those decisions.
To quote from Ernst, in "The Jump":
“On The Jump, you have four seconds to decide. There is no compromise, only decision. You are the only one with the power. What anyone else thinks doesn’t matter. What everyone else thinks doesn’t matter. For those four seconds, you hold the universe in your hands. That is the lesson of The Jump.”