"Our Lives Were Supposed to be Different" is the first prose collection from Janice D. Soderling. It will be no surprise to those who have read Soderling's previous eight poetry collections and chapbooks that the short stories and flash fiction herein deal mostly, but not solely, with the everyday interior lives of women--married, never married, divorced, women in and out of love. Nearly all the stories first appeared in literary journals including New Walk (England), Chimera (Australia), Subtle Fiction (New Zealand), Boston Literary Magazine (USA); some are published here for the first time. Janice D. Soderling, born in the US and longtime resident in Sweden, was selected by Rattle as the European reader in the first podcast of the acclaimed "TransAtlantic Poetry Series" founded by Robert Peake. Her poetry and flash fiction is often anthologized, published in translation, and has been curated into moving poems. This collection, issued under the imprint of Kultivera Production, is designed and typeset by Britta Thurfjell; cover and interior illustration by Jennifer Hawkins; Series Editor, Colm Ó Ciarnáin.