Category: Book Chapter

An excerpt from In a Dog’s World.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or  skip ahead to the next chapter.

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In the wake of the fight, Papa contrived to work all day Saturday, the day of the prom.  In fairness, there was an unforeseen pileup on the freeway.  Those often involved crushed ribs, broken limbs, and other serious problems requiring doctors.  However, Katasha couldn’t help but feel that it made for a strange conflict.  He’d made a lot of noise about worrying over her, but, in practice, he hadn’t bothered to even ask the name of her prom date.  Now he wouldn’t be there to meet him.  Sure, Papa was busy, but Katasha had trouble believing that was all of it. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 6”

An excerpt from In a Dog’s World.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or  skip ahead to the next chapter.

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Katasha didn’t pay a lot of attention to the polite conversation Corina and Mama made with Blue as they followed his directions to drive him home.  They parted amicably, agreeing that they were both looking forward to seeing each other in the fall.  She watched him climb the stairs and enter the front door of his apartment building.  If his whole family lived in an apartment — a two litter family — they must be quite crowded.  Perhaps the older liter had already grown up and moved away.

Either way, Katasha found herself feeling grateful for the relatively small size of her family.  Money could be tight enough covering the six of them as it was. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 5”

An excerpt from In a Dog’s World.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or  skip ahead to the next chapter.

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The cat mixer was in the large back room of a dimly lit tapas bar.  Platters of bite-sized chimichangas, meaty albondigas, and fried calamari were set out on tables for everyone to enjoy.  There were a dozen or so cats milling around, mostly recognizable breeds like Siamese and Abyssinian.  Like Katasha and Corina.  Perhaps half a dozen prospective students, each with a parent, littermate, or two.  Near the front table, an overweight Mastiff with a booming voice seemed to be running things.  He was just about the biggest dog Katasha had ever seen, and he introduced himself as Bruce the Dean of Admissions. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 4”

An excerpt from In a Dog’s World.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or  skip ahead to the next chapter.

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The week turned out to be long too.  Katasha had trouble concentrating in her classes, and she felt really weird around Hickory and his friends now.  She wasn’t sure at first, but it seemed like he’d started glaring at her.  He had to know she’d gotten into Isleywood, because Dominic had proudly stuck a pin with her name on it, coupled with the words “Isleywood College,” up on the big map in the hall where seniors posted their college acceptances.

Then, right before the weekend, Katasha found out for sure:  Hickory had been glaring at her. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 3”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Discovery of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, or skip ahead to the next chapter.

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The next day, Katasha felt like a whole new cat.  On the outside, she looked like the same angularly boned, strikingly colored, somberly dressed (the only colors Katasha wore were black and gray) Siamese cat, but on the inside she carried her secret — her new identity, the future engineer who would attend Isleywood College and splash those dogs right out of the water.  Metaphorically, speaking, of course.  Literally, she had very little interest in water.  She was a lot more interested in space, and she had every intention of taking that engineering degree and becoming one of the first cats in the space program. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 2”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from In a Dog’s World.  If you’d prefer to read in e-book or paperback form, learn more here.  Or if you want, skip ahead to the next chapter.

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The school day was almost over, and everyone in the class could feel it.  The archeology teacher, a bloodhound with drooping jowls, pressed on gamely at the front of the room, but very few of the restless high school students listened to her.  Mostly, tails wagged, whispers were woofed, and eyes turned to the clock.  A few of the feline students still took studious notes about the importance of archeological study for uncovering the secrets of ancient human pre-history, but the dogs had trouble even staying in their seats. Continue reading “In a Dog’s World – Chapter 1”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter.

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Sojourner burst out of the ocean first, splashing the blue-and-green algae-laced water aside.  The Wanderlust followed, emerging from the alien ocean into the clear atmosphere of a world with a pale yellow sky.  The turtle and ship continued flying and growing, upward toward the yellow sky, carried by the last dregs of their momentum from the exploded asteroid base just far enough to coast into orbit above this random world in the Tetra Galaxy.

“Of all the places to end up,” Lt. Cmdr. Vossie observed pedantically, “a habitable planet was quite unlikely.” Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: Regrouping”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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All eyes on the bridge turned from the viewscreen — as fascinating as Sojourner’s fight with the outsized tardigrade was — toward Lys, since everyone knew the caterpillar had the best chance of understanding what was going on.  Lt. Diaz expected the caterpillar to be doubled over, her squiggle of a body bent into the shape of a hook, as she wrestled with overwhelming feelings of fear or anger.  Any kind of emotion that would make sense during a fight.  But that wasn’t what the Xolo-Lupinian saw.

Lys looked blissfully, peacefully happy.

“What the hell is going on?” Captain Carroway yeowled at the caterpillar. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: Large Friends in Small Places and Small Friends in Large Places”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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During their time traveling at the nearly quantum level, the Wayfarer’s child had learned how to fly close enough to the Wanderlust to share her hyperspatial slipstream without having to cling to the ship with her flippers.  She had also chosen herself a gender and with a little help from Lys, a name:  Sojourner.

When Lys passed along the message to Sojourner that it was time to get large again, the baby world turtle was excited.  She’d found the fizzy frothing of Hawking radiation tickly against the underside of her shell where it was softer, and she looked forward to the universe returning to a scale she could more easily understand. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: Several Sizes Up”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Regardless of the captain’s orders or their stations, all of the crew onboard the Wanderlust had gravitated to the bridge by now to watch the main viewscreen with openmouthed awe.  Many a muzzle gaped at the fizzing, crackling static on the viewscreen.  It didn’t look like the emptiness of space.  It looked like they’d broken open the universe and found pop rocks fizzling in soda pop under the veneer.

“What are we looking at here, Captain?” Korvax asked, his squeaky voice unusually low and sedate.  The gravity of their situation, the sheer bizarreness of it all seemed to have subdued him.  Though, his pointy snout kept twitching, and his prickles stood out more than usual. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 20: The Sudsy Fabric of Space”