My fursona is usually a cat with a tortoise’s shell. So, like, a turtle-cat.
But I’ve thought of a new fursona that speaks to me: an octopus who got ahold of an abandoned human skeleton, wrapped its tentacles around it, and wobbles about that way. Continue reading “My Fursona”
Tonight I rewatched Star Trek: TNG’s “Coming of Age” and “The Dauphin.” I’ve been trying to choose episodes that (1) I haven’t seen recently and (2) seem likely to appeal to my kids. And I remembered both of those episodes being compelling when I was young. Continue reading “Episodes of TNG with Kids”
This is a story about dealing with an abusive authority figure. Bear with me.
When I was a teen, my parents offered to buy me a computer. This was a one-time deal, so I waited until the last few months before college, so I’d have the most advanced computer possible for college. Continue reading “The Parable of My Dad and My Computer”
My dad, in addition to being a scary person, is a scary driver. I remember a time in college when I was old enough to be able to understand how scary his driving was, but I wasn’t old enough to be out from under his power… Continue reading “Sleeping Through Fear”
Originally published in All Worlds Wayfarer, March 2020
One of my scouts flies through the space station’s ductwork. Another flies out among the aliens who are crowding through the dock and maneuvers above them, looking down, seeing where I am, what this space station is like. Most of me clusters in a high corner out of sight, near the airlock I’ve painstakingly flown through, one body at a time, unnoticed, tiny, unimportant. The spaceship I arrived on doesn’t know it had a stowaway, let alone a thousand, bound together telepathically. A thousand tiny bodies, each many-legged with shimmering pairs of wings. One mind. I am Mazillion, and I am the first of my species in space. Continue reading “I Am Mazillion”
Originally published in Chrysalis: A Fairy Tale Anthology, February 2020
He was the kind of guy who would give a fake name. Clarity could tell by the way he tentatively tried sitting at three different tables before settling down on a seat at the bar; also, the way his bulgy, protuberant eyes kept glancing around nervously; and, finally, the way he glared piercingly at his mottled green, slumped reflection in the mirror behind the bar before answering her question.
When I was a kid, I loved the beginning of Adventures In Babysitting where Elisabeth Shue dances to the Crystals’ song “Then He Kissed Me”:
I also loved The Beach Boys and was excited to find they’d covered the song “Then He Kissed Me”… but bewildered by the way they changed the lyrics in gender-flipping it to “Then I Kissed Her.” Continue reading “Two Ways to Gender-Flip Songs”