An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
That feeling when you turn on an album you haven’t listened to in a while and realize you first got hooked on it when you were three years younger than your elder kid is now.
As it turns out, when I can’t remember anything useful, my brain is still storing a ton of lyrics to Frank Sinatra songs that I listened to repeatedly when I was ten but haven’t listened to for possibly a decade or two. Continue reading “Misspelling Cardboard and Remembering Frank Sinatra”
That feeling when your brain lapses and so you hush the TV and try to turn down the dogs with the remote.
It’s way past time for a massive toppling of current copyright law, huge resurgence of unions everywhere, universal health care, and universal basic income. Continue reading “Soul and Surviving”
Merry holiday season!
It’s been a long, hard year for a lot of us, so we’re sharing three stories today as a Christmas present for anyone who needs one. These three flash fiction stories fit together, following the voyages of a starship carrying scientists from world to world, making first contact with alien species, bringing small touches of hope and connection from the stars. Continue reading “A Small Present in Three Parts”
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original, December 2020
The short, stout, furry alien stared out the starship’s curving bridge window at the star-studded black sky. His black fur blended into the sky like a shadow, but the blaze of white over his forehead stood out like a brand. His rounded ears splayed, and he curled his heavy claws into fists. “I don’t belong here,” he muttered, and the ship’s computer translated it. “None of my people do.” Continue reading “Treasure in the Sky”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Boldly Going Forward, March 2020
A’loo’loo swam eagerly back and forth, impatient for the spaceship above her, floating on the ocean’s surface, to open its hatchway. There had been so little warning — A’loo’loo had only discovered the burst of radio waves coming from her planet’s orbit three tides ago. Everything had changed since then. Continue reading “Somewhere Over the Ocean”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Typewriter Emergencies, June 2018
Rerin jostled the control panel while rubbing it down with a rag. The raccoon-like alien didn’t know how the day-crew got the bridge controls so sticky. They were supposed to be searching the oceans on this world for signs of sentience — not snacking and boozing on Eridanii brandy. Rerin had expected janitorial detail on a starship full of human and s’rellick scientists to be an easy job. Instead, the naked-skinned primates partied all day, and the s’rellick shed scales everywhere — not to mention the extra work involved in tending to their live food. Ugh. Terrarium after terrarium filled with scuttling insects and rodents. Rerin would not be signing on with this ship again. Continue reading “The Night Janitor and Alien Oceans”
The thirteen-year-old has learned to make one of my favorite kinds of cookies.
Piper spent several days informing the other cats that she would murder them if they crossed her…
…now she doesn’t understand why they won’t play with her. Continue reading “Tidbits from the First Pandemic Christmas Eve”
That feeling when you realize the guy famous for raising the price of a lifesaving drug by 5000% reminds you of your dad…
Of course the other people who remind me of my dad are Bill Cosby (but less funny) & Dr. House (but less life-savey). There’s a reason we’re not in touch. Continue reading “Dark and Light”
Writers are taught not to write wish-fulfillment—it’s too easy, boring, or low stakes. But that reasoning is wrong. It only seems that way because we’ve all already read thousands of wish-fulfillment stories about cis het able-bodied white males, so they’re very… predictable.
For every other demographic? Continue reading “Wish-Fulfillment”
Staying up past 3am playing Diablo and listening to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is healthy…? Yes, yes, I’m sure it is.
The highest levels of coolness I’ve ever seen achieved:
— Jordan Peele in The Twilight Zone
— Rachel Bloom in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s “So Maternal” Continue reading “Late Night Thoughts on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”