New Story

My short story “Exposure,” based on the experience of viewing the 2017 total solar eclipse and on the later experience of the Covid-19 pandemic in Oregon, has been published in Ginosko Literary Journal.

I viewed the eclipse with my husband and two dear long-time friends, so the antics of the eight-year-old boy in my story were invented.

The wildfire that was burning near Sisters, Oregon during the eclipse was real. Sadly, another wildfire was burning in the same area this summer.

My main character, Rhonda, had to weather the pandemic as a single mother working as a hospital nurse. Bill and I were safe and comfortable at home, with the paths of Alton Baker Park available for daily walks and stress-relief.

I’m grateful that we survived the pandemic. I’m grateful that we viewed the solar eclipse during a time in history when science was trusted to explain what was happening. I wish we could trust science enough to make a stronger effort now to cool our hot planet before more people lose their homes and lives to flames and heat.