Stray Thoughts on Star Wars and New Years Eve

The twelve-year-old to the six-year-old: “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I can’t read minds. You’re thinking mind reading is impossible. You’re thinking I’m lying to you.”‬

‪Six: “I was thinking about cookies.”‬


Inheritances should be a whole lot less of a thing. And Universal Basic Income should be a whole lot more of a thing. Continue reading “Stray Thoughts on Star Wars and New Years Eve”

Preparing for “Rise of Skywalker”

Watching Phantom Menace when you’re the same age as Natalie Portman playing Padme: What is this nonsense? She’s a grown woman, and Anakin’s a baby; how could they possibly EVER be romantically involved?!!‬

‪Watching it 20 years later: They’re both tiny babies.‬ Continue reading “Preparing for “Rise of Skywalker””

Geese and Gingerbread

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Fantasia Divinity Magazine, January 2018


“Shanna took her new wishing stone to the mint field, stood surrounded by her geese, and wished to be one of them.”

A hundred-some baby geese wandered through the field of mint.  Shanna watched them from the river’s edge where she was busy washing the kitchen rags and tablecloths.  She’d heard stories about geese who laid golden eggs and brothers transformed into swans, but she had no brothers who’d gone missing, and when she finished with the washing, she found no glints of gold hidden in the mint.  Only a smooth, round stone that felt nice in her hand, so she slipped it into her pocket. Continue reading “Geese and Gingerbread”