The goals of science and myth go hand in hand. Both seek to see beyond the senses. Both seek to understand the environment and the human mind. Both seek patterns. Both invent, through narrative, reasons for things happening the way they do. This considered, how do writers use myths in contemporary literature? How do they use science? Myth and science are stories that belong to everyone, stories that are shared. For those who are brought up learning science in school or who are raised in a religious society, how can writers take advantage of these shared associations, these shared memories, when writing fiction? What is the power of science in fiction? This essay seeks to answer these questions.

In this collection of stories, people find themselves face to face with great trouble: a house lost to flood, a brother lost to the river, a girl on the edge of an adulthood she can't possibly survive. Set in Northern California along the banks of the Sacramento and American Rivers, the stories feature characters who live below the radar of the middle-class. Central to the narratives are notions of loss, lust, pleasure, and struggle.

A collection of six stories. Each story features a different cast of characters, ranging from high-school-aged girls to 70-year-old women in retirement communities. Most stories are told in the third-person limited point of view, and adhere to a traditional narrative structure, occasionally utilizing "found" text, such as letters and an entry in the DSM to advance plot and set the tone. This collection explores the lives of characters afraid to articulate their desires and unable to communicate as they grapple with loss, suicide, trauma, illness, and the dissolution of family.