Author: marylowd

Alright, I’ve posted links with blandly positive comments to all of the songs from my soundtrack album for THE OPPOSITE OF MEMORY. I think people should go listen to it! I’ve found it to be a very fun album to play on repeat, and if people want to bug me about individual songs…

It might be possible to unlock more interesting comments from me about the behind the scenes of it all. But otherwise, I have things to make, and so I’ll keep just posting in this way and mostly not engaging a lot. Shrug.

Sometimes when I put a song into Suno, what I get back is pure magic. My Flowers for Algernon-esque story, “Techno Babel” (co-written with Daniel) is one of those cases…

Also, new wave as a genre of music can be kind of amazing.

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I just love the part in “The City in My Toaster Oven” where the lead sings “and I’m oblivious and cruel.” This was a fun one to make.

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I wasn’t sure how it would go converting such a weird sci-fi story as “The Hand-Havers” into song… but I’ve gotten the “mother of children I didn’t ask for” refrain from this one stuck in my head soooo many times. So, I think it went well!

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A lot of people in my writing group have told me that they think “Foreknowledge” is my best story. It was originally written to submit to the Machine of Death anthologies but actually landed in Apex. And now there’s a song inspired by it.

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I love, love, love how “Heaven is the Best Moment of Your Life, Infinitely Remixed and Played on Loop” turned out as a song. The story itself was originally inspired by the song “Yeah Sure Whatever” on The Afterparty, make of that what you will.

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Translating my story, “Two Roads Diverge,” into song was tricky, because unlike a lot of the others I’ve done, it’s not driven by either plot or place… it’s absolutely about capturing a very specific idea.

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I wrote “Where Have All the Mousies Gone” after the 2020 election about how I wished my grandma could’ve been there. Then it won an Ursa Major Award. It was really meaningful getting acknowledgment like that for such a personal story. And now it’s a song!

I had to be really careful when turning “My Magic, My Spell” into a song, because I wanted to be able to enjoy listening to it… but it’s also, at its heart, about a traumatic moment. My first few tries… were too raw. But the final version landed beautifully.

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My story, “Anger is a Porcupine, Sadness is a Fish,” caused such a kerfuffle in my writing group with people breaking the foundational rule that we don’t assume fiction is about the author that I’m still not really over it. Anyway, it makes a powerful song. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – The Opposite of Memory, Disc 2”

It’s hard to get people to read fiction.

It’s hard to get people to listen to music.

Me: I know! I will make soundtrack albums for my books with a song to accompany each short story! Continue reading “Multiplying Challenges, the Mathematics of Art”

I may not post a lot any more, but I think it shows from when I do that I’ve been keeping pretty busy. And my work is usually findable if you go looking.

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I haven’t watched Babe (‘95) in soooo many years, but also, it’s so deep in my psyche. And you know? I think the subconscious memory of Farmer Hoggett standing firm in his belief in Babe’s abilities in spite of the judges’ clear condemnation… Continue reading “Busy and Babe”

“Forget Me Not” is a song inspired by the first story I ever sold (of the same name) which is about a man addicted to a memory drug. I love how jazzy and catchy it turned out.

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My short story, “The Screen Savior,” really always wanted to be an animated short video… well, I guess, now I have a song ready for when I get to figuring out making videos. It has a lovely early 70s kinda vibe. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – The Opposite of Memory, Disc 1”

I created my first music album! “I Need a Unicorn” has eleven tracks with a mix of sci-fi, furry, and fantasy lyrics performed as light, catchy pop with a blend of mid-60s and early-00s sounds, featuring layered vocals and strong harmonies.

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I’ve been trying to fall asleep listening to my new — and first! — album, “I Need a Unicorn,” but I keep waking up in startlement every time I start to drift off… simply too amazed in my sleep-addled state to believe this album is finally real. Continue reading “The Day My Universe Changed”

Brian Wilson’s final album: “Life goes on and on, like your favorite song.”

Taylor Swift’s most recent album: “Life is a song, it ends when it ends.”

Also, that same song, “Opalite,” has a vocal reference to Ronnie Spector’s “Be My Baby,” famously Brian’s favorite song. Continue reading “A Turning Point”

After much research, at the age of 6.5, my cat Piper has invented the concept of sitting on laps. It has been an arduous journey and extremely counterintuitive to her beliefs, and yet, at long last, this innovative thinker of a feline has finally arrived at the inescapable conclusion — after years of study — that the best way to get scritches may in fact be by sitting on a human lap. A previously inconceivable thought.

She sat on Daniel’s lap for seven minutes. An astonishing breakthrough in this weird and vaguely immoral new technology.