I’m excited and honored to have a short story each in the Summer 2018 issues of The Southern Review and Confrontation — two of the literary journals I most admire!
“Alone or Someone Else” in The Southern Review is about a young woman who gets pregnant after a one night stand with an action film star. Here’s a short excerpt:
Even after I was showing, I kept working at the lingerie shop, the trashy one in Westwood. All my coworkers were UCLA students a half decade my junior. They were nice to me. Carly told me not to worry, they’d never fire me while that Nasty Gal lawsuit was still news. Lana confided that her mom had raised her kids alone by going back to stripping: “And we turned out just fine!” Between Lana and Carly, I always had someone to hold my hair while I puked. “It’ll be hard sometimes but totally doable,” Lana would say, rubbing my back.
Is your interest piqued? Get 25 percent off this issue or a subscription by using the code FRIEND543 at The Southern Review’s store.
“Hands” in Confrontation is about a guy who, well, doesn’t like his hands — an insecurity that ends up having deep repercussions on his life. Here’s a short excerpt:
The first memory of your shame, though you didn’t realize it as such at the time, is of your mother. She looked old even then, in her forties, sitting in her nightdress next to you half-tucked into bed, massaging a medicinal lotion into your hands. It was a nightly ritual you were used to, something your seven-year-old self assumed all mothers did with their sons, although the sensations of this particular night are the first ones you remember because there was a twitchiness in her eyes. This made you uneasy, enough so that when your father also came in the room, holding your baby sister Annie, and stood leaning against your desk, you realized you’d almost been expecting this.
Pick up a copy of the issue at Confrontation!
Both stories are part of a longer collection I’m working on called Defects — though honestly, I’m not actively working on it, since I’m trying to focus on the novel I’m also writing. It’s so hard to find time for all the projects I want to pursue —
I hope you enjoy these stories —
Near the end of the month, 
