Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Presents Karen Neches

Still sick. Ugh. I'm on my fifth day of fever, which may drive me mad. I'm still wondering how I even got sick, since I hadn't left the house for a week before I started having symptoms. Maybe my mailman was sick and coughed on my mail. I thought being a hermit would shield me from germs (unless I go to a hermit convention and swap stories about caves). I may attempt to venture out today because I need soup, more drugs and, most important, I have a five-dollar coupon at Borders that expires today. I can pull myself off my deathbed for five bucks off a book. I think I need me some Terry Pratchett, even if laughing does tend to set off coughing fits (as I learned when making the mistake of watching a Doctor Who episode with David Tennant's audio commentary).

So, while I remain fever-addled, coughy and sniffly, I'll fill space with a Girlfriends Cyber Circuit entry (no interview this time because I'd have to think to come up with questions, and that ain't happening any time soon). Our book this time is Earthly Pleasures by Karen Neches (aka GCC founder Karin Gillespie).



Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures (Simon and Schuster, February 2008, $14) great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth.

For more info, visit Karen's web site. Or, you can order from Amazon.