The Fourth River has just published my short story "Marine Biology." Here's an excerpt.
Roxanne has lost track of the conversation. She hates having hot flashes in front of the students. She imagines the arctic seas, the pool at the hotel where they'll be staying, the beach, and braces for the post-flash anxiety. This time it is more sadness than anything. It separates her as if she were in a one-person submarine with a single portal that giant squid bump into and stare at her with their sideways eyes. She is never going to be a marine biologist. It's too late. For the first time Roxanne understands that choices have been made. There's no longer enough time for everything. Her knees weaken with the grief of it, and she reaches for the desk.
Here's how it happened. In July, 2009 I took a short story workshop with Lauren Groff that produced the beginnings of this story. By February, 2010 it was done enough to submit to Fourth River. In June, 2010 they accepted it. And just now, October, 2011, it was published. Yep, it takes awhile.
