Peter looked up when a buzzer rang. His whites were dry. A minute later, a second buzzer rang: the dark-colored clothes were done. Something's wrong! he thought, knowing that in the past these two machine's cycles ran no more than ten seconds apart. He spotted a sticker on the top of the machine, with a number to call if it did not work. He wrote down the number, thinking he should call when he got home. As he folded the laundry, placing it carefully in the newly cleaned laundry bags, Peter felt more and more anxious, afraid to call yet knowing he should. It's my responsibility. I'm going to call. He looked at his clothes. They were clean and perfectly dry. He pictured himself talking on the phone, "Hello, this is Peter Branstill." "Yes, sir. How can I help you?" "I just came from your laundromat on Broadway. There's a terrible problem. Dryer No. 7 ran a minute too long." Peter hears a gasp. The man's breath sounds heavy. "We're on it," he says, hanging up as sirens sound, the Laundromat team on it's way. All the way home, Peter replayed this scene in his head until finally they took him, not the dryer, away.

Ken Goldberg is the author of Peter Squared, a Pulitzer Prize nominated first-time novel, a tale of mathematics, madness and masturbation. Without credentials in writing and literature, Goldberg spun his funny-sad tale of human nature by relying on his experience as a clinical psychologist and training as a mathematician. Goldberg attended Tulane University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1969, He won the Glendy Burke Award for excellence in mathematics, and went to Columbia University as a Woodrow Wilson and National Science Foundation Fellow where he earned a masters degree, He then studied clinical psychology at Long Island University, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1976. A seasoned psychologist in private practice, Goldberg has also specialized in the treatment of seriously disturbed people in community-based programs, and abused and neglected children under the supervision of the state. Through his unique perspective, he developed a team-based treeatment model called the Quilt-Work Theory and presented it in his 1988 volume, Differing Approaches to Partial Hospitalization. Having lectured extensively and consulted with many treatment programs, in 1995 Goldberg chose to begin his literary novel, Peter Squared. In the process, Goldberg found fiction a better vehicle than science in finding the truth. Ken Goldberg practices psychology in Haddonfield, NJ, just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Living with his wife and three children, he enjoys tennis, chess, and coaching children's baseball.