"Vishnu doesn't really want to go on vacation with us," says Carleen Brice, whose first novel, Orange Mint and Honey, is coming out from Ballantine in February. (Brice has also written and edited some nonfiction books, including Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color, which sold 100,000 copies in its Beacon Press edition; Brice is reissuing it soon through iUniverse.) "But open any door, drawer, cabinet, handbag, back pack, or suitcase and he's going in."

Maybe it's his name, she adds, pointing to a Wikipedia entry which cites commentary on the Vedas referring to "vishnu vishateh: one who enters everywhere."