Award Eligible Work by Mary E. Lowd in 2021

Here’s a list of all the Award Eligible work Mary E. Lowd released in 2021, including approximate word counts and links to where the pieces can be found.

In addition to these works, Mary is also eligible for awards as the editor of Zooscape and for the Deep Sky Anchor podcast.

(Whether or not a work is furry can be a subjective question, but we’ve done our best to mark furry works with an asterisk next to the word count.) Continue reading “Award Eligible Work by Mary E. Lowd in 2021”

Falling Into Reading

I don’t think I’ve read any books during my adulthood that brought me back to how much I loved reading — how I lived to read — when I was a child as much as Seanan McGuire’s.

As a child, I saw a copy of Watership Down with a starburst on the cover emblazoned with the words, “More than One Million Books Sold.

My child’s brain for one glorious moment interpreted that as one million -different- books.

One million sequels to Watership Down. Continue reading “Falling Into Reading”

Video Games and Regret

Sometimes when I’m playing World of Warcraft, I stop and wonder: will I someday regret all the time I spend playing this game? Will I feel like I wasted it?

And, no, I don’t think I will.

I genuinely love playing Warcraft.

There was a time when I hated playing World of Warcraft. And I know, nobody was forcing me to play… but it was almost a game I could love? It was like I could see its future, in its bones. Continue reading “Video Games and Regret”

Seeds That Have Already Grown into Novels

As a writer, it’s easy to get lost in the wash of goals and aspirations that always seem just out of reach…

What I find that helps is to think of one of the novels I’ve finished, and remember back to what my very first inspiration for writing it was — a character? an idea? Continue reading “Seeds That Have Already Grown into Novels”

The Cipher in the Middle

The show named after Buffy cares so much more about Xander’s feelings about her not wanting to date him than about her own feelings at having one of her best friends mess with her head and guilt her and show he thinks of her differently than she’d like.

It makes it hard to identify your own emotions — to even understand your own feelings & self — when so often looking in the mirror of pop culture shows the feelings of everyone around you… and leaves you invisible, a metaphorical vampire who doesn’t cast emotional reflections. Continue reading “The Cipher in the Middle”

Borrowing Plot Structure as a Stand-In for Outlining

I’m rewatching Moana, because I think its structure may be useful for the fantasy novel outline I’m trying to refine.

I find working with models for story structure really helpful, especially because I struggle so much with outlining. Continue reading “Borrowing Plot Structure as a Stand-In for Outlining”