An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
Merry holiday season!
It’s been a long, hard year for a lot of us, so we’re sharing three stories today as a Christmas present for anyone who needs one. These three flash fiction stories fit together, following the voyages of a starship carrying scientists from world to world, making first contact with alien species, bringing small touches of hope and connection from the stars. Continue reading “A Small Present in Three Parts”
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original, December 2020
The short, stout, furry alien stared out the starship’s curving bridge window at the star-studded black sky. His black fur blended into the sky like a shadow, but the blaze of white over his forehead stood out like a brand. His rounded ears splayed, and he curled his heavy claws into fists. “I don’t belong here,” he muttered, and the ship’s computer translated it. “None of my people do.” Continue reading “Treasure in the Sky”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Boldly Going Forward, March 2020
A’loo’loo swam eagerly back and forth, impatient for the spaceship above her, floating on the ocean’s surface, to open its hatchway. There had been so little warning — A’loo’loo had only discovered the burst of radio waves coming from her planet’s orbit three tides ago. Everything had changed since then. Continue reading “Somewhere Over the Ocean”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Typewriter Emergencies, June 2018
Rerin jostled the control panel while rubbing it down with a rag. The raccoon-like alien didn’t know how the day-crew got the bridge controls so sticky. They were supposed to be searching the oceans on this world for signs of sentience — not snacking and boozing on Eridanii brandy. Rerin had expected janitorial detail on a starship full of human and s’rellick scientists to be an easy job. Instead, the naked-skinned primates partied all day, and the s’rellick shed scales everywhere — not to mention the extra work involved in tending to their live food. Ugh. Terrarium after terrarium filled with scuttling insects and rodents. Rerin would not be signing on with this ship again. Continue reading “The Night Janitor and Alien Oceans”
Writers are taught not to write wish-fulfillment—it’s too easy, boring, or low stakes. But that reasoning is wrong. It only seems that way because we’ve all already read thousands of wish-fulfillment stories about cis het able-bodied white males, so they’re very… predictable.
For every other demographic? Continue reading “Wish-Fulfillment”
I am so burned out. I’ve been writing at a breakneck pace for more than a year, and I’ve had the kids home, bouncing off the walls, dealing with loss and fear caused by the pandemic for nine months.
But I keep dragging myself forward on the novel I’m writing.
I keep wondering if I should take a break. Surely, after writing three novels in fourteen months, I’ve earned a break?
And yet, writing is what holds me together. Believing the books I write matter is what pulls me forward. And I need to be held together and pulled forward.
Apparently, today is the day that I can’t take it anymore and start ranting wildly about Universal Basic Income.
Years ago I was asked while on a panel at a convention, how can a writer best go about making money with their book?
My answer remains the same: put your book aside, go into politics, and fight for Universal Basic Income.
Writing is a terrible, awful, horrible way to make money, and it always will be. Continue reading “Universal Basic Income is Tenure for Writers”
I’m so glad to have Grey’s Anatomy & Station 19 back after all these months. They’re such a bright spot in my week.
The thing about great art is that it helps the chaos of life make sense. And when you find a piece of art that can do that for you… it’s like a friend, a teacher, a warm comforting blanket, and a place where you can go to feel safe all at once.
I know every episode of Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t been brilliant. But many of them have been, and it’s grown over the years
And there simply are stories you can tell after 16 years (+ 6 of Private Practice & 3 of Station 19) that you just can’t tell without that kind of history. Continue reading “The Value of Longevity as Demonstrated by Grey’s Anatomy and Baby Yoda”
One of the best things about Gilmore Girls is that it normalizes the possibility of being a fantastic mother while not cooking AT ALL or even knowing how.
I know how to cook. I can cook. But most of the time, I don’t want to. It’s easier, quicker, and more fun to order out.
So, I think about Lorelei Gilmore a lot. Because she’s the best possible mother for Rory, and they only ever seem to eat at Luke’s diner or get pizza. Continue reading “Lorelei Gilmore and Not Cooking”
by Mary E. Lowd
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” — Groucho Marx
There’s a question that floats around the furry writing community occasionally: how do you define furry fiction? At first glance, this question seems similar to the age-old, what’s the difference between sci-fi and fantasy? A nit-picky question about the borders of a genre that can be endlessly debated. Hours can be lost to arguing over whether Star Wars is sci-fi because of spaceships, or fantasy because of the Force. I would expect arguments about furry fiction to fall along similar lines. For instance, does Robert T. Bakker’s Raptor Red anthropomorphize the raptors enough to count as furry? Or is it simply a piece of speculative naturalism? Continue reading “Am I Furry? — Fandom vs. Genre”