Munich, 1955 - (SaucyVox, Spring, 2004) "This is, ironically, the first short story I ever wrote, and I probably wrote it over twenty years ago. Last spring, which doing some virtual spring-cleaning, I took it out, dusted it off, and sent it off to an editor I respect, who in turn made me her featured writer for that quarter. I find the short story form enormously difficult: it's everything I'm not, precise, to the point, and pithy. So it's the best exercise in the world for someone like me! This was inspired by my own train journeys in Europe, and the sense that one has, sometimes, of connecting briefly and yet meaningfully with a stranger. It's an experience that is both odd and exhilarating."

The Odyssey Tree - (SaucyVox, August, 2004) "Another story written in the 1980s, The Odyssey Tree tries to capture something of the sense of longing, of yearning, that we all have inside. Sometimes we know what it is that we long for; sometimes we don't. My character, Amelia, thinks that her days of longing are over; she thinks that she's put all of her feelings in drawers and cupboards with the same neatness she uses to care for her ancient lace anticamassers... only to find that there's something more to want."