Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 1: Premature Metamorphosis

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  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.

“The words echoed in Kynnis’s mind, larger than any thought she’d ever had before. As if someone was speaking to her.”

Kynnis put four of her pudgy green hands against her face and wrapped another two around her nauseated middle.  She could feel the soft skin of her face wrinkling and cracking, preparing to split open.  It was too early.  Much too early.  She wasn’t supposed to go through her chrysalis phase for years yet, but she could feel it happening.  “I’m scared,” she said. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 1: Premature Metamorphosis”

Sewing with a Different Fabric

I’ve been pushing myself really hard on the novel I’m writing, alternated with zooming through watching Everwood, but occasionally, I have a quiet, in-between moment… and I wonder why I feel so down. Before inevitably remembering the election I’m working so hard to block out.

I can see the changes in the book I’m writing this month caused by the outcome of the election. The outline hasn’t changed. Overall plot, characters, even their emotional arcs—all the same. But it’s a different book than it would’ve been. Like it’s stitched in a different fabric.

Over-Analysis of a T-Shirt Seen Advertised on Facebook

Perhaps it just means I’m very tired, but I found this very funny.

Usually I’m kind eh about jokes on T-shirts. Like, okay, sure, maybe it’s sort of funny, but is it really funny enough that you want to be looking at it and having people look at it for hours on end? Whereas, I’ve now been going on about the depth and different elements to this joke for like half an hour now. Off and on. But still. I’m either very tired, or I genuinely think this is a joke of unusual caliber, or both. Continue reading “Over-Analysis of a T-Shirt Seen Advertised on Facebook”

An Open Letter to My Brother-in-Law Andrew, His Wife, and Parents

We were in your back yard, eating a nice dinner at your picnic table. I think there was corn on the cob. It was sunny, because it’s California and the light was filtering down through leaves or a shade. You were all there, but Andrew is the one I’m addressing right now.

You tried to tell a joke about being on an airplane with Christy and being told that personal items could be held on your lap. It wasn’t a good joke. No one laughed. Actually, it was quite uncomfortable. Although, you grinned. The punchline was that Christy was your personal item. Continue reading “An Open Letter to My Brother-in-Law Andrew, His Wife, and Parents”

Rewatching Everwood

I’m handling this week by rewatching Everwood for the first time since it broke my heart by getting cancelled and the boxes of pinecones failed to save it. No other show being cancelled has broken my heart in quite that way.

So far, I’ve realized that Delia is almost certainly why I wear baseball caps, and I’ve rediscovered the line, “you’re talking faster than my brain can process language.” I can’t believe I’d forgotten that moment. I love it so much.