Visiting

VISITING is a collection of 12 stories, fantasy (F) and science fiction (SF), 11 of which have been previously published in magazines ("Space and Time," "The Palace of Reason," "Speculon," "Aoife's Kiss," "Delirium," "Alternate Realities," "Glyph," "Cyberthirst," and "Night to Dawn") and a never-before-published longstory at the end: 1) THE WAITING ROOM (F) - a young man in a wheel chair, an old ex-businessman, and a girl straight from her prom wearing a plastic crown meet in the after-life and 2 recapitulations result -- of civil society and of personal character development. 2) STATEMENT (F) - a situation arises when criminals want to use a young woman who dreams items to her and, so, kidnap her. 3) NEW WORLD ORDER (SF) - the war in America started over a drought, and then the rest of the world got involved; but this is the effort of one young woman to survive all the different sides. 4) RAIN (SF) - a young woman, a spy, trained to be a honey trap is bio-chemically augmented, resulting in some devastating unintended consequences for anyone who gets close to her. 5) FLIGHT (F) - a dream about flying. 6) Purgatory (vampire) - how might a vampire escape her fate, or does she embrace it and wait for the light of day? 7) EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (SF) - Adamina is a "britney," a Hollycrat rather than a Repugnant, of course, living by the Reiner Rules, and now seeking a job to get some "real world" experience before she starts endorsing Presidential candidates. 8) ENCHANTMENT (F) - an enchantment is freed to make her way in the world, until she's recognized for what she is. 9) WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENJOY LIFE? (SF) - a humorous advertisement for a new/old technique to make you happy! 10) LILITH (F) - the wife of Satan, condemned to wander the earth, helps free her sister, The Shekinah, from a blood-stained Nazi amulet, and then appeals to her sister to break the bonds holding Lilith on earth. 11) WHAT DID IT TELL YOU ABOUT YOURSELF? (F) - a patient tries to figure out with his therapist what is real. 12) THE GARDENS OF EDEN (SF) - longstory appearing in print here for the first time - a "Christian" settlement on a distant planet is attacked. An ex-Marine, retired to an independent weather station on the same planet, and his wife, who was essentially ex-communicated from that settlement and then set up by the senior with the ex-Marine so the girl could go live a life, come to the rescue ... with their children, including the little girl known as 'Hard Corp'.