The Solar Constant: Stories

Seth Muller has made something new. His voice is unique. His imperfections break open to reveal the heart of a geode, a galaxy, a dandelion going to seed on the Southwest wind. Shimmer. Mystery. Life. -Mary Sojourner, author of Bonelight and Solace, from the introductionThroughout The Solar Constant, scientists, displaced wanderers and broken dreamers struggle to find and maintain relationships-with other people, with the natural world or with themselves. An exacting astronomer stumbles through a botchy affair. An animal psychic finds a strange connection with a half-breed coyote. A geologist struggles to commit cataclysmic events with a secret love. A woman fights chemical drugs to maintain her connection with hummingbirds. An animal tracker finds herself making a pact with a vengeful mountain lion. A man faces a confrontation with ghosts and his own faith in the Mojave Desert. For some, shifts in the universe arrive and liberate. For others, they confine. But none are untouched by the cosmos, both within and beyond.