Editing an anthology is like doing a puzzle by asking people to send their best random puzzle pieces to you and then trying to assemble a pile of mismatched, differently shaped and colored pieces into one aesthetically pleasing whole.
Author: marylowd
Querying Agents at the Turn of the Year
How to spend the last day of the year? Apparently sending out queries to agents…
Researching agent webpages is frustrating in the same way that I used to find cruising Petfinder frustrating… lots of promising leads to get your hopes up about… with very little likelihood of anything coming from any of it. Continue reading “Querying Agents at the Turn of the Year”
Welcome to the Arboretum, Little Robot
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2018
GY-30 extended his wheels from his mechanical feet and rocked back and forth, passing the time. He was waiting for Chirri, the felinoid who employed him, to finish her business in the wholesale outlet. She was a baker and would probably need him to carry a couple hundred pounds of Aldebaran sugar and Procyon flour back to her bakery in the merchant quarter. GY-30 was a small robot — only knee-high to Chirri, without his extendo-legs deployed — but very strong. Continue reading “Welcome to the Arboretum, Little Robot”
Rewatching Stargate
I’m re-watching Stargate — the original 1994 movie — for the first time since having watched all the ensuing TV series, and it is soooooo trippy seeing Daniel Jackson and Jack O’Neil played by James Spader and Kurt Russell.
I like the 1994 movie Stargate, but it is entirely unclear from watching it that it would work being spun out into 17 years of TV shows.
Christmas Quinn
You’ve been visited by the Christmas Sheltie who brings order and structure to all the good sheep. And the less good sheep. Really, just all the sheep.
The Christmas Chronicles vs. The Santa Clause
If I’d been asked — without watching either The Santa Clause or The Christmas Chronicles — whether Tim Allen or Kurt Russell would make a better Santa, I’d have definitely guessed wrong. Continue reading “The Christmas Chronicles vs. The Santa Clause”
Idea To Be Tested
I’m on my third time through watching #CrazyExGirlfriend (once with my husband, then my mom, now my daughter), and I think I’ve had a revelation about how to go about constructing a complex romantic comedy… I’ll have to try outlining a novel to see if it works out.
Possible Source of Inspiration?
I just made it up to S1E20 of Andromeda (“Star-Crossed”) and it is reeeeeeaaaaaaally similar to Anne Leckie’s “Ancillary Justice.”
The stuff about a living spaceship that has consciousness distributed across multiple different avatars that come to have slightly different loyalties is all there. Continue reading “Possible Source of Inspiration?”
Team George
I’ve re-watched all of George’s bits in the previous seasons, and he’s the only logical choice for a guy for Rebecca to end up dating. #CrazyExGirlfriend #TeamGeorge
This is a conclusion I’ve come to both from a fannish shipping which-guy-do-I-like-best? direction and also as a writer analyzing the show’s story structure. And if my theory is right, the creators have planned all along that Rebecca will end up dating George. Continue reading “Team George”
Apples to Apples Shenanigans
The kids convinced us to play Apples to Apples, and the highlight was an argument about what thing is the speediest that led to picturing a game of musical chairs played by a zebra and a ghost with cherries being thrown at them.