An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
Falling asleep is a delicate butterfly. Hold perfectly still, breathing softly, and maybe it will land on you, gracing you with sleep.
But one wrong move? You scare the butterfly away and have to begin all over again. Or worse, crush its wings and you have to await a new one.
That feeling when you’ve spent months tossing balls in the air—in the form of subplots & character arcs—and now they’re all coming down, but they keep hitting the ground in the wrong order and bouncing away so you have to chase after them, and it’s supposed to LOOK ELEGANT.
I’ve written 200 short stories & a half dozen novels… but I’ve only written a novel longer than 80k once before, and tying up all the threads of a piece this large into neat little bows, without getting them tangled up in each other, seems to be a skill all of its own… Continue reading “Trying to Finish My Longest Novel Yet”
From my novel-in-progress: “But daggers aren’t sharp when they’re inside out.”
I think this is going to be my favorite sentence from this book. Continue reading “Close to the End”
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) is not quite a good movie… but I feel like if it got a sequel, that movie would be awesome.
Forget the goofy origin story. Just let Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon be awesome, off-the-wall, best friend spies.
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Galactic Goddesses, July 2019
Annie squeezed the mechanical hand of her robo-nanny. The hand was cool and silvery like metal, but the smooth surface had a soft give to it like real flesh. Annie felt safe when she held Rononia’s hand.
“I need to take you home,” Rononia said, her voice low and even, but not mechanical. For all of the metallic gears visibly built into her elbows, shoulders, and anywhere else that hinged, Rononia had been given a deeply feeling, emotion-laden voice. And she was programmed to love the child she cared for. “We can’t go looking for Sparky.” Continue reading “Sparky”
That feeling when you need to insert a semi-random number into the sci-fi you’re writing, and so you look up a list of prime numbers and then bizarrely get stuck on staring at them and imagining the different emotional connotations that each of them might hold if you pick it.
I was driving my car, and there were warning signs put up on the road…
then pieces of wreckage…
then a yellow school bus on its side… Continue reading “Surreal Experience”
Star Trek: Picard starts today!
I’m excited & nervous. It feels like going to a family reunion w/aunts & uncles you used to be close to, but haven’t heard from in decades.
Will the connection still be there? Will you still like each other? Or will the changes just be too much? Continue reading “When Star Trek Lurched Back to Life”
I like being asleep. Being awake is okay.
But going to sleep and waking up? Both terrible.
Test for replicants, I mean, writers:
“There’s an unfinished novel, in the desert, on its back. But you aren’t finishing it. Why aren’t you finishing it???”
“A cupcake’s never as funny the second time.”
—The Comeback, S1E12
I just finished watching the first season of The Comeback, and OH MY GOD WHAT A JOURNEY.
I would fight for Valerie Cherish. I want all good things for her. Continue reading “The Highest Stakes”