Tag Archives: pandemic

Pandemic Wordle #271

snow

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Ben found himself wistful in recalling the green and growing Spring, the triumph of life in its myriad expressions. The world had been a lively place back then, marked by the paint of the Sun’s light upon the world.

But life eventually will falter and bend under the forces of time and circumstance. As much as he wanted to lift above the sorrows, he sank back down in his nakedness. The icy hiemal that was now existence ruled everything. He doubted he would see another Spring, even when the season actually arrived.

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Who Is That Unmasked Man?

Promotional image from the 1956 TV show “The Lone Ranger” starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels

Anymore people’s avatar photos or other images depict a lot of folks wearing masks. I see this on Facebook, twitter, various blogs, and other social media venues. I’m calling BS on this.

No, I’m not an “anti-masker” (funny how the word “anti” usually means either “stupid” or “evil”). I do wear a mask whenever I go out in public (although * gasp * I don’t wear a mask to check the mail, go out into my backyard, or when I go to bed…oh the horror…yes, I’m being sarcastic).

Let me explain.

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“The Babel Project” Has Been Accepted Into the Terror Tract Anthology “7 Deadly Sins”

7

Promotional image from Terror Tract Press

Yesterday, I published a bit of a tease, but have since been given permission to make a more complete announcement.

My short story “The Babel Project” has been accepted into the Terror Tract horror anthology “7 Deadly Sins”. Not including the Sweetycat Press contest winner and the Reedsy publication, that’s nine stories accepted into anthologies and periodicals so far for 2020.

You may recall that my short story From Deep Within the Skin has been published by the same press in the anthology Infestation.

Both horror stories are presented in a science fiction context, but where the former included both homegrown and alien creepy crawlies, this one, like so many other stories these days, focuses on a global pandemic threatening to wipe out all human life.

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Coronavirus is no laughing matter…or is it?

bleep

Sorry about the “language”

I’ve read a number of social media memes that have suggested the death rate due to COVID-19 has been exaggerated. I also read a New York Times article that said New York City added more than 3,700 additional people who were presumed to have died of the coronavirus but had never tested positive, which seems to support that suggestion.

And yet, when I tried a Google search on overestimates of Coronavirus death tolls, all I came up with is info on how the death rate is underestimated.

Here we have more or less the same news from ABC News, Nature, and CNN among others.

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This Probably Isn’t Funny, But…

tp

© James Pyles

…we’ve got plenty of toilet paper in Boise, Idaho.

Addendum – March 13, 2020: Idaho’s first case of coronavirus has just been confirmed. While an Oregon doctor said that 82% of cases are mild, there is also information about how it is different from the flu.

This is off the cuff. No research (or damn little) involved. I’ve been listening to the hysteria over coronavirus for weeks it seems. No cases in my little corner in the world, but I can’t ignore that thousands have died. I also can’t ignore that this isn’t anything like Stephen King’s The Stand, either.

Look, I’m sorry actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson contracted the virus while on a trip to Australia, but on the other hand, being celebrities doesn’t mean they are any more victims than the rest of the world.

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Long Climb to Sanctuary

passage

© Sue Vincent

The cities were lost to the Grendels and most of the human race was dead. The early news reports Neville Smith heard said that the disease had been introduced to Europe and the Americas by groups of refugees from Somalia, but the conspiracy theory websites released documents stating that something got away from the CDC and it was their own staff that spread the infection causing a global pandemic.

The last report before all telecommunications and the electric grid went down was that up to 94% of the human race had died. Only one percent of humanity was immune. That left the Grendels, well, that’s what Neville called them. Human beings who were mutated by the virus becoming…what? In the poem “Beowulf,” Grendel was cursed as a descendant of Cain from the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The creature was said to devour live warriors and in the real world, the mutants consumed the dead.

But that was over three months ago.

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