Author: marylowd

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 5: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“She found it was easier to agree with Trugger’s bird metaphors than try to understand or fix them.”

As soon as she laid eyes on the curly-furred mop of a dog — bizarrely wearing one of their USSA-specific blue-and-silver uniforms — Kipper could tell that Amelia was not a dog who had any patience for waiting.

The gray tabby cat captain closed the laptop computer that she and Trugger had been working on — writing emails, searching directories for officials who could help them, and downloading form after form that didn’t quite fit their situation.  Nothing fit their situation.  She put the laptop aside and got up from the bottom bunk bed she’d been sitting on.  “Can I help you?” she asked the dog. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 5: Kipper”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 4: Yvette

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“The way the pipes twisted made Yvette think of the etchings by the ancient human artist M.C. Escher or maybe a machine by Rube Goldberg.”

As soon as the scruffy white dog insisting she was the ship’s new second in command left the engine room, Josie signed with her delicate hand-like paws, “That is one grumpy mop of fur.”

Obsidian’s color shifted from the angry shade of plum he’d become to a self-satisfied shade of soft peach.  He signed with the tips of three tentacles — which grew so thin at the very ends that they weren’t much larger than a mouse’s paw:  “I’ll believe she’s second in command when Captain Kipper tells us so.  Besides, I’m here as an independent advisor, directly from the octopus oligarchy.  I don’t answer to dog politicians.” Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 4: Yvette”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 3: Amelia

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Amelia wondered idly if the octopus changed his patterning in purposeful ways to bluff the other players into thinking he had good or poor hands.”

The Lucky Boomerang squatted on the tarmac like a half-melted scramball.  The name of the spaceship had been hotly contested for a few months while it was being built — a lot of dogs and cats had wanted to name it The Lucky Frisbee for the flying disc-shaped toys, because deep in the cultural consciousness of the Uplifted States, spaceships were still expected to be flying saucers.  Even though they never were.  Even The Lucky Boomerang was only vaguely disc-shaped, and that was largely because the committee who had approved the hull design had added non-functional wings to either side.  For aesthetic reasons. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 3: Amelia”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 2: Sequoia

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1 or skip ahead.

“Sequoia had been thinking about moving from Earth up to one of the otter space stations for some time, to be closer to the stars.”

Sequoia collected stars like other squirrels collected acorns.  Not really.  Because squirrels didn’t collect acorns anymore, except for kits on the playground.  And no matter how much Sequoia wanted to gather all the stars in the sky — all the red giants and blue dwarfs; all the pretty yellow and orange ones — up into a pile and bury them deep inside a black hole where they would be hers, all hers and only hers forever and forever, you just can’t do that with stars. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 2: Sequoia”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 1: Yvette

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer to read in e-book or paperback form, learn more here.  Or if you want, jump back to book one or return to the end of book three.

“Yvette had never won first place at a competition — second sometimes, third often. Never first.”

The mouse whirled through the air, paws hitting the gym mat in rhythm as she flipped:  front paws, back paws, front paws.  Head over tail.  Her long tail streamed behind her, making fancy curlicues in the wake of her carefully practiced routine.  Finally, Yvette pirouetted up to the high bar, spun around it and launched even higher into the air — nearly flying.

When she came down, the mouse landed — perfectly — in the center of the mat, all four paws on the ground.  She drew a deep breath, and then rose up, standing just long enough to smile at the crowd, before taking her bow. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 1: Yvette”

Moving Forward, Moving Up

One advantage of having FurPlanet/Argyll unceremoniously dump twelve of my books back in my lap is that I’ll be able to start looking into advertising my books sooner. I don’t have to wait for Deep Sky Anchor to build up a catalogue of its own first now — it just inherited one.

My goal with advertising will just be breaking even. What I’ve always really wanted for my books is just for people to read them, so I’m really just trying to find more readers. That’s why I’m working on releasing serialized web versions that can be read for free too. Continue reading “Moving Forward, Moving Up”