Author: marylowd

Octopus Ex Machina

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in ROAR 11, July 2022

“How did you do this?” She was sure, deep under her fur, that the octopus was behind the snow. “And why?”

The thing that surprised Lora most about being an otter was that her face was round, and her nose was round.  Everyone thinks of otters as long.  With their sinuous spines, like weasels and ferrets, they’re big ol’ fuzzy noodles.  But when Lora looked at her face — round.  So round.

When Lora had been a cat, her face had been full of corners and edges; triangular ears, articulated muzzle; even the shape of her eyes had been filled with crescents and sharpness.  Continue reading “Octopus Ex Machina”

Too Many Jangleberries

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in The Lorelei Signal, January 2023

“…am I truly a human dreaming of being a bizarre alien giraffe, shopping for groceries in an asteroid belt? Or am I the giraffe, dreaming of being a human?”

Franzi swung her long, giraffe-like neck from side to side, surveying the tightly filled shelves of the grocery aisles on this asteroid shop-mart.  There were too many brands of jangleberries to pick from — she didn’t know which kind she’d like best, and somehow, the existence of so many brands made her feel like she shouldn’t have to settle for anything less than her absolute favorite type of jangleberry. Continue reading “Too Many Jangleberries”

After the Crash

I feel like such a fool now for letting FurPlanet sit on Commander Annie & Other Adventures for almost four years, patiently waiting and defending their delinquency and lack of communication to my friends.

There are so many moving pieces and fiddly bits involved in getting more than a decade’s worth of work almost instantly republished. It’s a lot. Continue reading “After the Crash”

Things You Don’t Need to Tell an Author

When my Entangled Universe trilogy came out from Aethon books, a number of people felt the need to pop up and tell me they wouldn’t be buying it, because that publisher only sells through Amazon, and they hated Amazon more than they cared about reading my fiction.

Now people are telling me they won’t read my fiction because of my stance on AI. Okay. No big deal. Continue reading “Things You Don’t Need to Tell an Author”

Always Loved Octopi

You don’t want to tangle with an octopus in a snowball fight. Unless you’re an octopus too, or maybe a spider or centipede or something, there’s NO WAY you have enough arms to keep up.

As someone who loves octopi so much that my mom let me skip a day of school as a teen to go to an aquarium and stare at a sleeping one for three hours in a wind tunnel while it twitched precisely once, it really means a lot to me how much better AI is getting at drawing them. Continue reading “Always Loved Octopi”