My spouse, throws sock at cat: “Hazel, would you like a sock?”
Cat, does not care.
Spouse, looks at me: “This confirms Hazel is not a house elf.” Continue reading “Hazel is Not a House Elf”
Author: marylowd
Tailored Playlists
There’s a fine line between “Oh, fun, if I make a tailored playlist for a project, it helps me write!” and “Sigh, guess I’d better play the same album for the umpteenth time, cause last time I wrote it was playing, so if I listen to anything else, I won’t be able to write.”
AOL’s Star Trek Chat Room
Somehow it never occurred to me before today that I can just search “Star Trek” on Twitter, scroll through the results, and find totally random people to talk to about Star Trek.
Twelve-year-old me — who was heartbroken when my parents quit AOL (which charged by the minute) because I’d racked up $300 in one weekend on hanging out in a Star Trek chat room before they’d realized — would be THRILLED. Continue reading “AOL’s Star Trek Chat Room”
Sleeping Through Fear
My dad, in addition to being a scary person, is a scary driver. I remember a time in college when I was old enough to be able to understand how scary his driving was, but I wasn’t old enough to be out from under his power… Continue reading “Sleeping Through Fear”
The Ethics of Killing Robots
The seven-year-old, emphatically: “I would NEVER kill a robot.”
A few moments later, “Wait a minute, I WOULD kill a robot. If it’s evil.”
Permanent Ends
I’m up to season 7 of Girlfriends, and while it’s sad to lose Toni as a character, it’s really nice to see a show actually deal with a long term friendship ending in a sudden and permanent way.
Because that happens in real life. And I don’t see it reflected in fiction much. Continue reading “Permanent Ends”
Happy New Year!!!
You made it to 2021! Congratulations!
What better way to start the year than by reading a pair of space opera stories about new beginnings? Continue reading “Happy New Year!!!”
I Am Mazillion
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in All Worlds Wayfarer, March 2020
One of my scouts flies through the space station’s ductwork. Another flies out among the aliens who are crowding through the dock and maneuvers above them, looking down, seeing where I am, what this space station is like. Most of me clusters in a high corner out of sight, near the airlock I’ve painstakingly flown through, one body at a time, unnoticed, tiny, unimportant. The spaceship I arrived on doesn’t know it had a stowaway, let alone a thousand, bound together telepathically. A thousand tiny bodies, each many-legged with shimmering pairs of wings. One mind. I am Mazillion, and I am the first of my species in space. Continue reading “I Am Mazillion”
A Sense of Clarity
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Chrysalis: A Fairy Tale Anthology, February 2020
He was the kind of guy who would give a fake name. Clarity could tell by the way he tentatively tried sitting at three different tables before settling down on a seat at the bar; also, the way his bulgy, protuberant eyes kept glancing around nervously; and, finally, the way he glared piercingly at his mottled green, slumped reflection in the mirror behind the bar before answering her question.
“So, what’s your name?” she asked. Continue reading “A Sense of Clarity”
Two Ways to Gender-Flip Songs
When I was a kid, I loved the beginning of Adventures In Babysitting where Elisabeth Shue dances to the Crystals’ song “Then He Kissed Me”:
I also loved The Beach Boys and was excited to find they’d covered the song “Then He Kissed Me”… but bewildered by the way they changed the lyrics in gender-flipping it to “Then I Kissed Her.” Continue reading “Two Ways to Gender-Flip Songs”