Category: Blog

Apparently, today is Unicorn Day.  So here’s a fresh hot cup of unicorn stories, newly available here at Deep Sky Anchor:

• Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn — The Dragon and Unicorn come calling.    [~1,000 words]
• Feral Unicorn — Janie’s in over her head when her pet unicorn’s horn comes in, and he starts working mischievous magic around the house.       [~4,800 words]

And if you need some more, we do have a few stories that have been rattling around the site a bit longer:

• Cyclops on Safari — A normal day on safari, in a different world.    [~800 words]
• The Carousel of Spirits — When Artie finds a ghost haunting his carousel, it’s time for him to build a new horse.     [~3,700 words]

Enjoy!

And Happy Unicorn Day!

It’s award season, and so we’re doing a round-up of Mary E. Lowd’s furry short stories published in 2017.  There are a lot of them!  All but one of these stories can be read online for free; four of them can be read right here at Deep Sky Anchor!  If you love any of these stories, please consider taking a moment to nominate them for the Ursa Major Awards, or if you’re a qualified nominator, the Leo Literary Awards.

On Deep Sky Anchor:

• The Moon Like an Unhatched Egg (The Symbol of a Nation)
• The Unification of Worlds (Arcana: A Tarot Anthology)
• The Best and Worst of Worlds (Dogs of War)
• Hidden Intentions (Analog: Science Fiction & Fact)

On Daily Science Fiction:

• One Alien’s Wreckage (Daily Science Fiction)
• The Crowds on Crossroads Station (Daily Science Fiction)
• Principles Over Profit (Daily Science Fiction)
• Inalienable Rights (Daily Science Fiction)
• Crescent Horns and Tall Ears (Daily Science Fiction)

On various zines around the internet:

• Many Tiny Feet (New Myths)
• One Alien’s Wings (Empyreome)
• Sky River  (Theme of Absence)
• Galaxy Shaker and the Celestial Rainbow Dragon (Every Day Fiction)
• An Aldebaran Sugar Cookie for Star Shaker (Fantasia Divinity Magazine)
• Treasure Moon (Fantasia Divinity Magazine)
• Elephatine Daydream (Fantasia Divinity Magazine)
• True Feast (Typewriter Emergencies)
• Chestnut Wish (Typewriter Emergencies)

Available for purchase, all money goes to support the SPLC:

• Moon Dust (Werewolves Versus Fascism)

As a special bonus, we have a coupon for free e-books of Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending, which is also eligible for awards!  Just use the code YP35J on Smashwords.  We also highly recommend each of the stories in ROAR Volume 8, and the anthology itself is eligible for the Ursa Majors in the Other Literary Work category.

The Ursa Major Awards are open for nominations through February 15th, and anyone can nominate.  It only takes a minute, and every nomination counts!

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Last week, we gave you a treat — two Shreddy the cat stories.  Today, we have the corresponding trick — a trio of bite-sized stories that add up to a mouthful of nightmare:

• FemCloud Inc. — Every action is a choice.      [~400 words]
• Birthing Class — Daniel has a sinister alien life growing inside him.     [~2,700 words]
• Take Them to the Happiness Zoo — A mother considers an impossible choice.      [~400 words]

Continue reading “Mouthful of Nightmare”

For the last week of Furry Book Month and the week before Halloween, we have two stories for you…

Mice raised from the dead!  Zombie puppies!  Foolish dogs!  And a grumpy cat who’s too clever for his own good!  Read the story that started it all, the very first story about Shreddy the cantankerous tabby cat — The Necromouser.  And then read the story where Shreddy first meets his unwanted companions, Cooper the empty-headed toy Labradoodle and Susie the lovable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel — Shreddy and the Zomb-dogs.

If you enjoy these two stories, there are more tales of Shreddy and his techno-mystical adventures in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, on-sale from FurPlanet for the rest of the month and also available through Amazon.  It would make a great book to read for the end of Furry Book Month.

Happy Furry Book Month!

This year, to celebrate Furry Book Month, I’d like to talk about an anthology series published by FurPlanet.  It’s called ROAR, and there have been eight volumes so far.

I personally discovered ROAR the first time I attended a furry convention.  I was still getting my bearings, trying to figure out what furry writing was all about, so I picked out a few books from the FurPlanet table to buy and take home.  One of them was ROAR Volume 2.  Perhaps that’s why I’ve always thought of ROAR’s role as being the perfect introduction to furry fiction. Continue reading “Let’s talk about ROAR”

At the end of 2016, we had big plans for publishing a lot of flash fiction this year.  Well, we have good news and bad news…  Obviously, it’s September, and we haven’t published a lot this year.  However, that’s because the stories we were going to publish have instead been picked up by other markets — many of them by Daily Science Fiction! Continue reading “So Much Flash…”

Three of our stories have been nominated for Best Short Story in the Ursa Major Awards! This is truly exciting news!  Thank you so much to everyone who helped nominate them!  Here are the three stories: Continue reading “Ursa Major Nominated Shorts!”

These are Mary E. Lowd’s furry stories that were published in 2016 — you can read all of them for free online:

• The Mouse Who Was Born a Bear — Maureen never felt right as a bear.   [~1,200 words]
• Marge the Barge — A Newfoundland dog is not naturally graceful on the ice, but perhaps a tabby cat can teach her to be.   [~6,600 words]
• Questor’s Gambit — Commander Bill Wilker, a Collie dog on the Tri-Galactic Navy ship Initiative, must protect his crew from a mysteriously powerful lifeform, and following his captain’s orders may not be enough.   [~8,000 words]
• Sheeperfly’s Lullaby — A sheep’s fairytale.   [~1,400 words]
• Of Cakes and Robots — Chirri gets her biggest order for a cake yet, from a surprising customer.   [~900 words]
• High School Dogs — Katasha is the only cat at the high school dance.   [~1,000 words]
  

If you enjoyed any of these stories, please consider nominating them for the Ursa Major Awards.  It only takes a minute, and award nominations and wins can make a big difference to authors.  Nominations are open through February 28th.

To celebrate the end of 2016 and the start of 2017, we bring you a pair of stories that were originally published in A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature earlier this year — this is the first time they’re available to read for free online.

Our first story, Sheeperfly’s Lullaby, is a snowy fable about a sheep and a wish that’s granted in an unexpected way.  Our second story, The Mouse Who Was Born a Bear, is story of transformation and becoming one’s true self. Continue reading “Happy New Year — Two Pieces of Flash!”

Our first year has been a long, dark year, but we published a lot of stories — 45 so far.  We even got a call-out from a story in Daily Science Fiction:  the story notes for The Empty Empire explain that it was inspired by Deep Sky Anchor, and it sent a few visitors our way.  (Welcome!  We loved getting your comments!)

In this dark December, we could all use a little brightness and cheer, so our present to you is a classic Christmas ghost story about that lovable, curmudgeonly, feline Scrooge — Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost. Continue reading “Merry Christmas from a Grumpy Cat”