A man beset with the problem of an overfull fishpond, a student who has to face a grinning skull as he eats his Froot Loops, and a young girl preparing for the Rapture which is due to begin in a couple of hours. These are all characters in Minnesota writer Scott Dominic Carpenter's new collection of short stories "This Jealous Earth." Carpenter claims the stories came about as a distraction from other writing.