An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
In celebration of Mother’s Day, we bring you two stories about mothers — one about a cat and one about a dog. They both undergo journeys — losing control of their lives both to their human masters and to the love they feel for their new little ones. Continue reading “Happy Mother’s Day!”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Allasso, Volume 2: Saudade, April 2012
Heavy with kittens, Magtwilla made a choice. She’d been a housecat before, and she’d spent time being feral. Although she disliked the restrictive interference of the clothed primates, she had to admit that their houses with reliable food and warmth would be the better environment for a litter of kittens. So, Magtwilla selected a nice house and set about the work of charming the clothed primate who lived there. In mere days, the primate took her in, strapped an offensively pink collar around her throat, and took to calling her Jenny. Todd was laughably easy to manipulate with a simple purr. Magtwilla felt she’d done well by her unborn kittens. Continue reading “Magtwilla and the Mouse”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, Issue No. 15, May 2014
The hospital lights flash in my eyes, and a man wearing blue scrubs injects me with a needle. I can’t feel my body anymore, and all I can see is his blue-clothed back and the nervous faces of my owners, Geoff and Bree, looking down at me. I can see them holding my paws, reaching to pat my ears, but all the sensations are distant. Continue reading “The Best Puppy Ever”
Thus far, Deep Sky Anchor has been a web-zine for reprints. We’ve taken you to the stars, the future, and to the world all around you — but seen through other eyes. Yet, all those paths had been tread before. Now we’re forging a brand new path, leaving fresh footprints.
Our first original story comes from the universe of Mary E. Lowd’s Otters In Space series. Join the young high school cat, Katasha, at a school dance. Imagine what it’s like to be a cat in a world of dogs, surrounded by “High School Dogs.” Continue reading “Original Story: “High School Dogs””
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original, March 2016
The dance was over, like most high school dances, around eleven. The music stopped, and amid barks and yips of outrage, the lights came on. Without the blasting music and strobing lights, the crowd dissolved into a mass of individual dogs standing around awkwardly. Katasha’s ears flattened, and she drifted away from the bandstand, suddenly feeling weird as the only cat in the audience. The band playing tonight, Dog-Step, didn’t exactly have a lot of feline fans. Continue reading “High School Dogs”
What can I say about “All the Cats of the Rainbow“? It’s the last story I wrote for The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats. I hadn’t planned to write another story, but “Cold Tail and the Eyes” turned out so much sadder than I expected…
I wrote “Cold Tail and the Eyes” at the Wordcrafters Ghost Story Weekend where everyone writes a ghost story between Friday and Saturday dinner — then Saturday evening, we all read our ghost stories aloud to each other. Continue reading “Spotlight on “All the Cats of the Rainbow””
Sometimes fiction is a way to process real life pain. That’s the case with “Cold Tail and the Eyes.” It was inspired by a cat named Ray.
My mother and I rescued a litter of kittens from under her house. There were four of them, so we named them after the Ghostbusters — Ray, Peter, Winston, and Egon. Three of them adjusted very well to their new lives. Ray… did not. Continue reading “Spotlight on “Cold Tail and the Eyes””
Occasionally, my writing group runs out of stories to critique, so we have a writing session instead. One time, another writer brought cards from a fairy tale story-telling game for us to use as story prompts. We all drew five cards, and my cards read:
For the final Shreddy story in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, it seemed only right to bring the character back to where he had started — chewing on plants. And it needed to be a big finish, since — while I occasionally entertain ideas of writing a Shreddy novel — this might be Shreddy’s last story ever.
I listened to the soundtrack for Little Shop of Horrors a lot while writing “Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant.” A lot. My eight-year-old daughter, who wants to be an actress, became so enamored of the musical that she declared her life goal was to play Audrey on stage some day. Continue reading “Spotlight on “Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant””
The main character from “Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon” has a history of running afoul of modern technology. So, it was only a matter of time before the cantankerous tabby Shreddy went up against a Wii/PlayStation/Xbox-like video game console.
However, the final form of the video game villain that Shreddy would face stayed up in the air until the editor of an anthology called The Dragon’s Hoard expressed her fondness for Shreddy. Thus a beautiful marriage was born. Continue reading “Spotlight on “Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon””