My stories in Infinite Space, Infinite God

Today for the Infinite Space, Infinite God II tour, I thought I'd share with you a little about the stories I wrote for the anthology.

Antivenin: Three nuns from the Order of Our Lady of the Rescue offer help to a ship that is off-course and not answering hails. They find the ship crawling with venomous snakes who have killed their handler and bitten the pilot. When one bites her partner, Sister Rita must conquer her phobia and snatch the antivenin from their nest.

This is probably one of the creepiest stories I've ever written. Like Sister Rita, I hate snakes. Although I have handled pet snakes, I get very nervous about walking in the prairie for fear that I'll disturb one. I don't even remember how I came up with this story, but the research was grueling. I had the heebie-jeebies for weeks. I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking about it.

Otherworld: Father Jonas is haunted by the loss of his mother, who died while in a virtual reality world. As a priest, he's driven to evangelize to the players in Otherworld--to remind them of reality and the God who cares about what they do on both worlds.

"Antivenin" was supposed to be the only one of my stories for the anthology, but we really wanted a story with virtual reality or cyberpunk, and we didn't get any we liked. I had recruited my friend, Frank Creed, to write one in his Flashpoint universe, but he wasn't able to complete it; I don't remember why now. However, with the extended deadline passed, and no prospects in sight, I tried my hand. I really liked how it turned out. (BTW, check out Flashpoint; it's very cool.)

Frankie Phones Home: Sixteen-year-old Frankie was kidnapped by aliens who wanted to understand the mysteries of her human religion. Now, as they return to Earth to make First Contact, Frankie calls her family.

This is a flash-fiction piece, written in a script format, as a sequel of sorts to "Interstellar Calling" in Infinite Space, Infinite God I. I wrote it because I'd been scolded by a friend of mine who said no well-raised daughter would just up and leave her family with nothing more than a note on the dashboard, even if it was to preach the Gospel to aliens. So Frankie calls home to apologize and try to explain.