Jesus and Dave is Published!

My story Jesus and Dave has been published on Diabolical Plots!

It's been a year since the second coming of Jesus, and Dave the atheist is Not Amused by all of his religious relatives flaunting their selfies with their lord and savior. But when Jesus comes to his door (flanked by two be-tentacled angles) and says He needs an atheist, Dave reluctantly teams up with the son of God to help save the world.

It's free to read, funny, and kind of sweet. It's one of my favorite things I've written.


First, let me thank Diabolical Plots, who has been amazing to work with. The editor, David Steffen, also runs the Submission Grinder, an invaluable resource for writers looking for places to submit their work. I'm overjoyed that my name and story are going to be on the top of the Submission Grinder for the rest of the month.

They've also accepted another of my stories, which will be published in January. Both of them are weird stories that I wasn't sure anyone would ever want, but the submission guidelines say "We like weird fiction."
Oh, I have that.

　

Jesus and Dave takes place a year after the second coming of Christ, and features Him teaming up with the world's last atheist to stop Satan.

You know. That old story.

This story came about when I wondered how people would react to incontrovertible proof that their beliefs are wrong. Would they believe something else, or stick to their old ways? Is there a middle ground? Believing in a god but choosing not to worship him? And what if that god was perfectly fine with you choosing not to worship him?

I myself am an atheist, and while I have criticisms about religion in general, I've tried to come at this story from a neutral place of love and respect (and good-natured fun-poking) for both sides.

Religion is a tricky thing to write about because it's so important to some people, and even though I ran the story by some of my more-religious-than-me family members, I'm writing about a culture that I am not deeply connected to. If it offends you, I'm sorry. It was not my intention in any way.

　

There's a few lines in this story about groundhogs being the most pious of God's creatures. This is a reference to a family friend, Aunt Rita. She was a sweet old lady, more Catholic than the Pope, who wielded her cane like a weapon.

And she had a groundhog.

It lived under her porch, and every day, it would come up to her glass door and stare at her. And she would stare back and say, "Why did God make you? Why did He look down at Earth and think we needed a fat little rodent that doesn't do anything but stare at me?"

We joked with her that God made groundhogs just to give her something to wonder all day, but I've always thought maybe God just thought groundhogs were the most perfect creature He'd ever made.

Aunt Rita passed away a few years ago, but some of her quirks and stories keep finding their way into my writing. I don't believe in an afterlife, but I get a kick out of thinking about her arriving at the Pearly Gates and saying, "But seriously, why groundhogs?"