Author: marylowd

Fiction by Mary E. Lowd Published in 2023

This has been a busy year, and I’ve had a lot of fiction published — 3 novels, 3 novellas, a short story collection,  23 short stories, and a poetry collection. Except where marked otherwise, pieces were originally published in Deep Sky Anchor or by Deep Sky Anchor Press.

Everything on this list can be read for free online at the links provided, except for You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station and Hell Moon.

Continue reading “Fiction by Mary E. Lowd Published in 2023”

My Sister, the Space Station

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, August 2023

“Will a space station — where people just live their lives, instead of doing groundbreaking scientific research — be painfully boring after having been my own glorious self, inhabiting and haunting the computers of Wespirtech?”

The people walk my halls like it’s any normal day.  Scientists work on their research.  Administrators try to balance budgets without understanding why they’re constantly coming unbalanced.  (I unbalance them.  Humans don’t know what they should spend their money on as well as I do.)  And everyone acts like it’s a perfectly normal day.

But it’s not a normal day. Continue reading “My Sister, the Space Station”

Commander Annie – Part 6

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

[Part 1 2 3 4 5 6]

“It had been a long day, but it made her happy to spin with Callie.  It reminded her of the world with carnivorous purple dolphin creatures and how the two of them had spun on the slippery surface of an iceberg after slaying one.”

The Checkerboard Ultrarocket shot through the hyperspace portals linking Zorpa II’s location in the universe back to the Milky Way galaxy, the terran solar system, and finally Earth.  The greens of Earth’s continents looked richer and the blues more regal compared to the faded shades of Zorpa II’s honeydew green oceans.  Earth is a beautiful world, and all worlds are like gemstones set in the black backdrop of space.  Even dusty, rocky asteroids and icy hunks of comet, hurtling aimlessly through space, are the bits of gravitational color that make the universe complicated and exciting. Continue reading “Commander Annie – Part 6”

Commander Annie – Part 5

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

[Part 1 2 3 4 5 6]

Annie reached out too, but hesitated before touching the silvery surface.  “May I?” she asked.  “Is it safe?”

“Can I show you something?” Ootel asked, standing up from the bed and stepping toward the closet.  “I’ve been building something too…  Not a spaceship, but I had hoped it would let me travel to other worlds.”

Ootel scooped a bunch of the clothing off of the floor of the closet and dumped it in the corner of their room; then they kicked a few of the remaining robes out with their hind hooves.  Once the closet was clear enough for both of them inside, Annie followed them in.  Ootel pushed aside the hanging clothes, and behind them, Annie saw the two of them reflected in an oval mirror.  A green bipedal giraffe standing beside a human girl, both of them wearing simple, practical clothing.  Annie smiled.  She knew that Callie thought their space helmets looked goofy, but she loved how she looked in a bright red bicycle helmet.  Space helmets are cool. Continue reading “Commander Annie – Part 5”

Commander Annie – Part 4

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

[Part 1 2 3 4 5 6]

“Annie’s heart jumped at the idea of bringing Ootel back to Earth with her to visit.”

Annie resisted the temptation to explore the rooms more thoroughly and simply scanned each of them from their color-coded doors to see if her Roomba was inside.  Though when she came to the topaz paneled room, it seemed to be a pantry of some sort, filled with objects that her scans suggested were edible.  She grabbed a few handfuls of brightly colored blobs wrapped in some kind of foil paper.  They looked like candy, and she stuffed them in her shorts pockets and the empty spaces in her backpack.  She couldn’t turn down sustenance.  She might need it later.  At least, that’s what she told herself, but truly, after the deliciousness of the baby’s chocolate cake, she simply couldn’t resist stealing this alien candy. Continue reading “Commander Annie – Part 4”

Commander Annie – Part 3

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

[Part 1 2 3 4 5 6]

“By the time Annie craned her neck around to look over her shoulder, down at the ground below, she was easily three stories high.”

The more Annie thought about knocking on that door, the more she pictured the total chaos that would ensue if one of the alien creature’s she’d met on her journeys had shown up on her own doorstep.  Her parents would have freaked.  They didn’t like a harmless little garter snake; if they met an actual alien from another planet, they’d call the police or beat it away with a rake.  Something horrible. Continue reading “Commander Annie – Part 3”