An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
Twenty years ago today, I stayed up all night talking with my spouse about whether we could afford for me to quit the horrifyingly bad coffee shop job that I’d had for one day and instead write full-time.
We walked around Green Lake at dawn, and I dropped off my resignation letter at 6am. I haven’t quite written full-time during the twenty years since then, because I’ve also been parenting two kids, now sixteen and ten.
During the last twenty years, I’ve written: Continue reading “Twenty Years”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
Kipper packed a few clothes and pictures of her littermates, nephews, and niece inside plastic sleeves to protect them. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she’d taken with her the last time she went away. She was in more of a hurry this time, but it was less hectic. More purposeful. More planned.
Trudith drove her to the airport. It had been hard saying goodbye to her family. It was awful saying goodbye to Trudith, her best friend on Earth. There’s nothing like a sad black lab mutt with melting brown eyes to crumble your heart to pieces. Even three cute kittens couldn’t compare. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 5: Kipper”
by Mary E. Lowd
The stars in her scales
Keep her in health
Twinkling & sparkling
Devouring any inkling
Any glimmer of danger
The slightest
The smallest Continue reading “The Blue Dragon Sparkles”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
Petra hated waiting. The waiter was taking forever, and her three kittens were crawling all over her and Lucky, grabbing at the silverware and condiments on the table. The paper packets of sugar had already been counted, arranged in patterns, and finally scattered across the table top. Why did kittens have to make restaurants so hard? Why couldn’t they sit still? Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 4: Petra”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
Safe inside the ancient octopus base on Europa, Jenny itched to be back in Brighton’s Destiny, flying free, but the little Whirligig ship was parked, inert on the roof of the floating base. Jenny was stuck inside one the plethora of spherical rooms off of the main central chamber of the base. It was a reasonably sized room until someone had decided to shove a table into it. The curved walls and ceiling hadn’t been designed to accommodate a rectangular table with four otters, two dogs, and a cat seated around it. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 3: Jenny”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1 or skip ahead.
Paw prints marked the golden, glittering sand. Tiny, perfect kitten prints danced flirtatiously up and down the line of wet beach, slowly dissolving under the soggy, sloppy wavelets lapping at the land.
Larger canine paw prints marched straight into the oncoming waves, and the dog who made them — a wiry-furred, beard-faced terrier wearing blue and yellow swim trunks — splashed wildly in the surf. Sea foam clung to the fur on his ankles and his furiously wagging brush of a tail. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 2: Kipper”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer to read in e-book or paperback form, learn more here. Or if you want, jump back to book one or return to the end of book two.
The pale glow of Jupiter lit the moon’s watery surface. Europa’s recently melted ocean reflected the gas giant’s ruddy face back at itself, broken by ripples where Brighton’s Destiny disturbed the water on takeoff.
The dark metal V-shape of the two-man spaceship skimmed over the ocean before veering upward in a sharp climb out of Europa’s gravity well. Spacesuit clad paws eased off on the throttle, and Brighton’s Destiny leveled off into a smooth arc toward Jupiter. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 1: Jenny”
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original
Emerald and Amber were each named for the rich, gemstone color of their eyes. Other than that, the sister cats looked the same — each with fur as black as the night sky and elegantly curving whiskers as bright white as shooting stars.
Other cats in the neighborhood shared whispered rumors that those bright white whiskers could grant a wish to a cat brave enough to fight the pair and yank one out. No cat had ever tried. The other neighborhood cats knew better than to challenge Emerald and Amber. It was too important to stay in their good favor. Continue reading “Their Eyes Like Portals”