You have to install the Serial Box app (or read them in your browser); it wants an email address but doesn’t require any permissions to work.<\/p>\n
One of the debates currently taking place over various creative spheres of social media is when it\u2019s appropriate to write stories about coronavirus\u2014now, in the middle of it, or once we\u2019re through it? While both sides\u2014allowing writers and readers the necessary space to either process the pandemic or compartmentalize for their emotional well-being\u2014are valid, Serial Box\u2019s new short fiction collection proves that it is<\/em> possible to craft engrossing fiction in this time of crisis. How We Live Now<\/a><\/em>\u00a0invites ten authors\u2014Madeline Ashby, Steven Barnes,\u00a0L.X. Beckett, Tananarive Due, Brian Keene,\u00a0Usman T. Malik, Sunny Moraine,\u00a0Malka Older, Kelly Robson, and\u00a0Catherynne M. Valente\u2014to document their feelings from the first few weeks of the coronavirus crisis through the lens of sci-fi and speculative fiction. That means quarantine and self-isolation, yes, but also zombie rats and government-mandated Blooms and sex robots.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most compelling about this collection is that each story is, as Valente put it, \u201ca snapshot of a moment.\u201d They are individualized, highly personal responses that nonetheless manage to fulfill the aim of all great SF and spec-fic: to look ahead to possible futures (many surprisingly hopeful, all things considered) while still commenting on the present.<\/p>\n
Best of all, the stories are all available with a free Serial Box account (sign up here<\/a> or via the Serial Box app). Below, get more information on each of the ten shorts, as well as the authors sharing their various inspirations and how cathartic it was to consider the topic of \u201cHow We Live Now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n