All Comments on 'Ficciones in a Time of Pandemic'

And NEVER return. You can't write a decent story to save your life.

Maybe dont use ONLY second person pronouns when discussing upward of maybe six individuals?

I normally like your stuff, but this makes no sense. If you are done with your relationship and don't want to see or have anything to do with your partner, why would you become so intimate again to have sex with them? I could understand a video call with mutual masturbation and using your imagination, but having sex with your ex? Sorry, but this pandemic is NOT the end of the world. It is an inconvenience. What they need to do is go get tested, and if they show negative then move.

Was this two separate stories, or are the linked somehow? Are both stories about the same couple? Both need work.

Your two short-shorts, while purposely exaggerated, catch much of the angst and frustration the pandemic has caused, along with the imaginative ways some have found to deal with it. Without being read in that light, they would make little sense; as lock-downs and fear of the corona virus have become our norm they reflect our times.

Not too bad...

That was interesting

Two strikes and a home run.

The first two vignettes -- Protective Covering and Surrogates -- are tongue-in-cheek and half-baked.

The third -- Mathematics -- is a very cool dialogue about an intriguing and topical dilemma for both the MC and the LW.

Author edrider33 is one of the recognized masters here, notably for his classic tale, Strange Car in the Driveway. I'm surprised that this offering hasn't received more attention... only seven comments to date. Maybe he should take this collection down and re-post Mathematics as a stand-alone story.

I must agree with helix247, above. The last tale was definitely a 5-star little vignette. The idea of eavesdropping in the middle of the teleconference turned out to be a winner as you managed to reveal the plot as you went.

Your mmanagement of the dialogue gives insight into how the two feel and relate to one another.

I'm sure many readers would like to hear how you think this episode turns out. Will the husband decide not to return to the wife? Will the reconciliation bug continue to bite or will the two tire of the long range attempt and abandon each other? Since the lock-down will last longer than the pregnancy, how will that affect the story?

All delicious inquiries!

More of Edrider's garbage.

Why should the husband just accept what his wife says. It casts things in the best light for her but feels full of opportunities for alternative interpretations of the wife’s actions. I am unsure why the husband does not treat her asan “unreliable narrator.” The thing I note about many of your female characters is the highly developed capacity for lying by omission and equivocation. And this is a case in point. Why do you paint your male subjects in this clueless way. Especially clueless to the possibilities of dissembling that the female characters indulge in on a consistent basis? There are plenty of intelligent women out there and you paint vivid pictures of their intelligence in action as well as their focus and drive (Trieb). Yet they are either clueless as to their own motivations or sociopathic narcissistic liars or some combo there in. And at the same time you have these female characters assert their undying increasing love for these pretty dense male characters. Why would they? There just feels to be something unbalanced and akilter about this…

The 3rd one was a masterclass in love, betrayal, compassion, and forgiveness.

Wow, this is evil.