Deep Sky Anchor – Page 86 – An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 21: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Any creature could be uplifted. Jellyfish fluttering like ballerinas? Maybe they were ballerinas — maybe they’d spent years training and studying to flutter like that.”

Kipper didn’t know why the octopi kept sending puzzles to their prisoners, but she wanted Captain Cod and Trugger to stop solving them. Except for the occasional meal of sushi-like rolls and raw fish brought by the dolphins, there was no way to mark the time, but it felt like they’d been held in the dank, watery cell for days. Days of being cut off from the outside world. Days of the raptor ships flying closer and closer to Earth. Days of being wet and useless.

Kipper was restless. Besides, there was something sinister about solving puzzles for captors who never showed themselves. It was time to stop cooperating with their captors. It was time to start planning a way out of this underwater dungeon. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 21: Kipper”

Unexpectedly Long Voyage

I’m starting to suspect my #NaNoWriMo novel won’t be done at 50k…

Of the three times I’ve won NaNo before, two of those novels were just about exactly 50k when done (Nexus Nine & In a Dog’s World). The third is the longest thing I’ve ever written at 97k (Entanglement Bound).

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 20: Petra

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Almost afraid to touch the precious pages, Petra lifted the three brightly-colored crayon drawings, one from each kitten, with shaking paws.”

“Hey!” the jowly jailor barked at Petra and Blaine, interrupting their latest conversation about scramball.

Petra was tempted to hiss an answer at the dog, but even with bars between them, it didn’t seem like a safe move. Instead, she decided to whither the dog with class. “May I help you?” Her voice practically curdled with almost-purrs.

The cop looked properly and pleasingly unsettled by Petra’s unpredictability. “Here,” the dog harrumphed, pulling into view a wheeled trolley stacked high with disorderly piles of paper, files, and notebooks. “This is for you.” The dog unlocked the cell, shoved the trolley in, and then locked the cell right back up. “Some dog dropped it off for you.” Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 20: Petra”

Species Conversion

That feeling when you realize you need to change the species of one of the characters in a furry book you’ve half-finished writing, and so you have to go back and make sure you catch Every. Single. Description that will now be wrong and rewrite it to something else.

Some Words Burn Brightly

by Mary E. Lowd

A birthday gift for Janet on 11/15/2023

Can a few words burn brightly enough
To light all the seasons
Of a life?

Which words?
How do we find them?

This is why we read Continue reading “Some Words Burn Brightly”

The Limits of Reason

by Mary E. Lowd

A birthday gift for Janet on 11/15/2023

Before rationality?!?
Words are noise
Imprisonment
In
Static

With rationality:
Words are argument
Looping, looping Continue reading “The Limits of Reason”

The Last Action Hero

I really don’t know why The Last Action Hero (1993) got such dismal reviews. It’s a delightful, clever comedy spoof of action movies while also being a solid action movie in its own right.

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 19: Jenny

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“The raptor fledglings hadn’t even grown up on a world where they could see the stars. Their sky was a blanket of amber, muffling out the sun, let alone the pinpoint of light that was the small blue-green world their species had come from millions of years ago.”

While Kipper and Petra waited in their prisons — two tabby cats desperate to save Earth yet incarcerated by their own allies — Jenny parleyed with the enemy.

That was generous.

The otter wasn’t parleying with the enemy, she was playing games with the enemies’ children

Jenny and the two raptor chicks were in a room at the top of the giant mechanical redwood, and the walls were as clear as glass. Jenny had seen the tree from the outside and knew it looked opaque, but from the inside it looked like she was standing on an open platform. She could see out over the jagged green tops of all the real trees. In the distance, more of these mechanical trees stuck out of the forest like towers — much taller and larger around than the real trees. And behind it all, loomed the ruddy agate Jovian sky. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 19: Jenny”

Dogs and Their Illusions

My more clingy Sheltie thinks that MAYBE the cats are the reason I was out of town for a weekend, even though they were still here, so he gets very upset if any of them get near me.

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 18: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“The octopuses hadn’t come back through the sealed hatch in the underwater floor, but occasionally they sent in a dolphin with a puzzle for them.”

Except, Kipper wasn’t talking to octopuses. Kipper, Trugger, and Captain Cod had been shut in a small room with several feet of air at the ceiling and a ledge around the edges. Sitting on the ledge felt like sitting at the edge of a public swimming pool, reminding her of cattery days when over-enthusiastic dogs had required all the reluctant kittens to take swimming lessons. Except this was more claustrophobic due to the low ceiling and near walls. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 18: Kipper”