Author: marylowd

I’ve received more than 1700 rejections. I keep track of them in a spreadsheet.

I’m really practiced at being rejected, and most of them roll right off me.

But even after all that practice, some rejections hurt more than others.

Sometimes, a rejection can still knock me flat. Continue reading “Knocked Down Flat”

Well, I watched The Blair Witch Project. I feel like the witchy stuff would’ve been more effective if I hadn’t spent most of the movie thinking those characters were doomed to die in the woods anyway, just because they were unprepared, lost, and running out of food & water. Continue reading “Blair Witch Project”

In a little over two weeks, Zooscape is going to announce that they’re raising their pay rate, with the goal of becoming a SFWA-qualifying market by the end of the year.

In order to afford the increase in pay, Zooscape will have to publish fewer stories. Continue reading “Zooscape Going Pro”

Somewhere between Sonic the Hedgehog and the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, the seven-year-old’s favorite word has very much become “sonic.”

Everything is sonic. Continue reading “Sonic”

—green jello
—feral cat
—cauldron of bees
—swiss cheese
—babbling toddler
—easily distracted but stubborn dog
—evil sorcerer whispering from other dimension
—writer swearing they’ll never write again
—writer’s boss refusing to accept resignation letter

Regularly having your fiction nominated for awards is obviously a good thing, and it’s probably basically not cool to say this…

But regularly losing awards is kinda hard.

I used to have the energy to excitedly congratulate everyone who actually won awards I was up for… But after more than a decade of losing multiple awards per year, I kinda just want to hide under a rock and ignore the whole thing.
Continue reading “Labels, Nominations, and Things We Don’t Say”

I wish I could have enjoyed The Mitchells vs. the Machines. It spoke directly to me in so many ways, mirroring little pieces of my own life and family.

But by midway through, I could barely stand seeing the dad onscreen. He treated Katie with such utter disregard and disrespect. Continue reading “The Dad in The Mitchells vs. the Machines”

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is mostly delightful, BUT

It should NOT be a minor daughter’s job to reach out to, connect with, and manage her father’s emotions.

Animated kid movies about boys don’t make their hero work 1% as hard to earn their dad’s respect. Continue reading “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”

That feeling when you’re trying to write and suddenly… scintillating scotoma time!

What is that, you ask?

Well, it’s related to migraines and looks like an upside down comma built from pulsating, cut-glass, fractal triangles, exactly in the middle of your field of vision. Continue reading “Scintillating Scotomas”

I can’t tell if the viewer is supposed to see Angel getting himself turned back into a vampire rather than being happy with Buffy as noble… but I can’t see it as anything other than weak, insecure, arrogant, & controlling.

He can’t stand being weaker than her & relying on her. Continue reading “When Buffy Visits Angel”