Living by the Wayside and Other Stories explores the tension between control and dependence and how that tension affects the ability to sustain intimate relationships. These are stories about women who struggle for independence, but experience the cost of self-rule as isolation. Living by the Wayside and Other Stories focuses on the disparity between what its female protagonists say or think and how they act. In the title story, "Living by the Wayside," we experience that irony when the psyche of a woman moving away from one man and toward another is exposed. Sasha cannot become intimate with any man because she relies on the excitement or safety provided by her relationships. In this character and the collection, one of my goals has been to capture that state of being we have all experienced, those moments when we lose the ability to direct our lives. The collection invites the reader to look within for salvation.