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My Works

The Sweet, Sad Songs of W. F. Pine

My novel-in-progress about a songwriter and con man opens in Kansas in 1913.

The Orphan Game

As brush fires blacken the California foothills and the war in Vietnam escalates, the Harris family shatters and its members are driven to find new ways to live with one another.

Set in a quiet Southern California town in 1965—where the rules of the fifties haven't quite departed and the new mores of the sixties are fast encroaching—this rueful tale is told in the intertwined voices of three women.

As they tell their tales, it becomes clear that each has, in her own way, played the orphan game - taken the risk to leave home and claim her life.

Slow Burn

Read from the first chapter of The Orphan Game.

Short Fiction

His Lost Life, written for Writers on View, in response to sculpture by Varda Rotem at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City

"I Love My Wife!", Ecotone

Dinero, The Manhattan Literary Review

Pity My Simplicity, Prairie Schooner

Quiet and Listening, The Malahat Review

Beulah, Hazel, Lillian, Ruth, StoryQuarterly and The Best of StoryQuarterly

Black Light, Organica

Pink is Sitting in Blue, Organica

Civil Defense, Blue Light, Red Light

Light of Things, The Northwest Review, Organica

"Pity My Simplicity," an excerpt from The Sweet, Sad Songs of W. F. Pine, appeared in Prairie Schooner and received a Reader's Choice Award. It is listed among the Recommended Stories in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2005.

Reviews, Profiles, Articles

Include a profile of Natalie Angier and a Q&A with Alice Sebold in Publishers Weekly and a tribute to the choreographer Elizabeth Streb in Post Road.

The Dollhouse Murders: A Forensic Expert Investigates 6 Little Crimes

Ever wonder what it's like to walk into a real crime scene? Inside The Dollhouse Murders lies a strange world of razor-sharp stories that show exactly how serious crimes are investigated. Walk through these miniature rooms with the Detective, who thinks instincts just get you into trouble, and his younger partner, who seems to have them all the time, to witness the state of the art in modern forensic techniques and the simple genius of an effective investigation.

Programmed Cell Death: Natural Cancer Suppression

Cell division—the central process of life—has long been a focus of cancer reserch because unhindered cell division can lead to cancer. About 10 years ago, however, sicentists began to pay particular attention to the process that counters cell division: namely, cell death. — from Scientific American Cancer Smart, Vol. 4, num. 2, April 1998.

Bugs for Drugs

Although "bugs" such as viruses and bacteria are commonly regarded as agents of disease and scourges of humanity, they may yet turn out to be useful allies in the fight against cancer. — from Scientific American Cancer Outlook, Vol. 5, num. 1, 1999.

Having Children After Cancer: Preserving Fertility

Survivors of cancer are often concerned about the long-term effects of cancer treatments on fertility. A number of advances in both cancer and fertility therapies are offering hope for many such adults who wish to have children. — from Scientific American Cancer Smart, Vol. 4, num. 3, 1998.