The four-year-old is entranced by his discovery that there’s a character with the same name as him on Star Trek TNG.
Companions
Four-year-old, muttering sadly: “The daleks shot my companions, so now I don’t have companions. I can’t save the world anymore.”
Me: “Would you… like help… finding new companions?”
Four-year-old: “Oh yes! I’m happy now!”
Perhaps Too Many Scream Dreams
The line between my brain helpfully inventing a new Scream movie for me to watch while sleeping and just plain old having a nightmare is getting kind of thin.
The Best and Worst of Worlds
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Dogs of War, January 2017
Five officers of the Tri-Galactic Navy and one exchange officer from the planet Cetazed teleported down to a clearing on Planet 328’s surface. The cats and dogs of the Tri-Galactic Navy were good people, and Consul Eliana Tor didn’t regret leaving her homeworld to become an exchange officer. Not exactly. But she missed the flavor of the sunlight on Cetazed, and not only did her empathic abilities make her a fish out of water around these cats and dogs with their non-empathic minds, but they let her read the cats’ and dogs’ emotions — especially their feelings about her — constantly. Continue reading “The Best and Worst of Worlds”
Struggling to Write
I’m pretty serious about finishing up the story I’m writing tonight… but the story seems pretty serious about not wrapping up.
It’s a battle of wits between me and my own story. Continue reading “Struggling to Write”
Writing While Watching a Four-Year-Old
*summons the willpower and concentration to tune out the singing socks on Sesame St. and instead work on writing my Tri-Galactic Trek tale*
I’ve failed to tune out the Sesame St… This message is brought to you by the letter W and the number 0, representing my word count. Continue reading “Writing While Watching a Four-Year-Old”
So Much Flash…
At the end of 2016, we had big plans for publishing a lot of flash fiction this year. Well, we have good news and bad news… Obviously, it’s September, and we haven’t published a lot this year. However, that’s because the stories we were going to publish have instead been picked up by other markets — many of them by Daily Science Fiction! Continue reading “So Much Flash…”
Yellow
Hidden Intentions
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April 2017
S’lisha drew a deep, calming breath through her scaly nostrils. She didn’t understand why humans brought their children on spaceships. Her species kept their larval offspring in caves on their home world until they matured and their adult scales grew in. Continue reading “Hidden Intentions”
Visiting the Oregon Air and Space Museum…
The kids think the Oregon Air and Space Museum — a small, eclectic airplane hangar filled with planes and mannequins — would be a good setting for a Doctor Who episode.
The four-year-old likes the planes but is creeped out by the mannequins. The ten-year-old is now completely lost in recounting episodes of Doctor Who. Continue reading “Visiting the Oregon Air and Space Museum…”