I’m up to the last Animorphs book, and oh my god, I can’t imagine how this would have messed with me if I’d read it at the age these things are aimed at.
I thought Martin the Warrior was a tough book at that age.
An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
I’m up to the last Animorphs book, and oh my god, I can’t imagine how this would have messed with me if I’d read it at the age these things are aimed at.
I thought Martin the Warrior was a tough book at that age.
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1 or skip ahead.

Paw prints marked the golden, glittering sand. Tiny, perfect kitten prints danced flirtatiously up and down the line of wet beach, slowly dissolving under the soggy, sloppy wavelets lapping at the land.
Larger canine paw prints marched straight into the oncoming waves, and the dog who made them — a wiry-furred, beard-faced terrier wearing blue and yellow swim trunks — splashed wildly in the surf. Sea foam clung to the fur on his ankles and his furiously wagging brush of a tail. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 2: Kipper”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. 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 two.

The pale glow of Jupiter lit the moon’s watery surface. Europa’s recently melted ocean reflected the gas giant’s ruddy face back at itself, broken by ripples where Brighton’s Destiny disturbed the water on takeoff.
The dark metal V-shape of the two-man spaceship skimmed over the ocean before veering upward in a sharp climb out of Europa’s gravity well. Spacesuit clad paws eased off on the throttle, and Brighton’s Destiny leveled off into a smooth arc toward Jupiter. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 1: Jenny”
Me to DALL-E3: Great, but could you try again with no American flags, since these raptor/octopi are from Jupiter and not Earth?
DALLE-3: AMERICAN FLAGS EVERYWHERE
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original

Emerald and Amber were each named for the rich, gemstone color of their eyes. Other than that, the sister cats looked the same — each with fur as black as the night sky and elegantly curving whiskers as bright white as shooting stars.
Other cats in the neighborhood shared whispered rumors that those bright white whiskers could grant a wish to a cat brave enough to fight the pair and yank one out. No cat had ever tried. The other neighborhood cats knew better than to challenge Emerald and Amber. It was too important to stay in their good favor. Continue reading “Their Eyes Like Portals”
I’m working on a short story I planned and started nearly twenty years ago. As originally conceived, it was supposed to be a novel, but I gave up on it several times.
So every word I add is both so much more and so much less than I feel it ought to be… Continue reading “Unfinished Novel to Short Story Conversion”
I just saw someone bragging about how the nice thing about AI art is that when you see it, you’re free to be as mean as you want — that it’s an appropriate outlet for cruelty.
And really… takes like that really ought to make a person wonder, “Are we the villains?”
Me: struggles with writing a story for 20 years, never making real headway
Me: finally manages to write 3000 words of this ultra challenging story
Spouse: reads the words and says, “Oh, this is your version of Real Genius” Continue reading “That Wespirtech Story That Kept Eluding Me”
The first novel in our space opera horror series — Hell Moon by Mary E. Lowd — and the first volume of our Zooscape anthologies had a spectacular launch earlier this month at Furvana!
You can order your own copies in e-book or paperback form online. We’re also looking into dealing at a couple of upcoming conventions. Continue reading “Now Available: Hell Moon & Zooscape Volume 1”
If someone buys a copy of your book, they have every right to rip it into shreds, burn it in a trash can, roll it into cigarettes and smoke it, or scribble swear words on every page, regardless of how you feel about it.
If someone buys a copy of your book, they have every right to prop it up in front of a typewriter and retype it word for word, just for the fun of feeling how their fingers dance as your words flow through them. They have a right to read it out loud to their child. Continue reading “The Freedom to Do What You Want with Books You Buy”