Author: marylowd

Somewhere between Sonic the Hedgehog and the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, the seven-year-old’s favorite word has very much become “sonic.”

Everything is sonic. Continue reading “Sonic”

—green jello
—feral cat
—cauldron of bees
—swiss cheese
—babbling toddler
—easily distracted but stubborn dog
—evil sorcerer whispering from other dimension
—writer swearing they’ll never write again
—writer’s boss refusing to accept resignation letter

Regularly having your fiction nominated for awards is obviously a good thing, and it’s probably basically not cool to say this…

But regularly losing awards is kinda hard.

I used to have the energy to excitedly congratulate everyone who actually won awards I was up for… But after more than a decade of losing multiple awards per year, I kinda just want to hide under a rock and ignore the whole thing.
Continue reading “Labels, Nominations, and Things We Don’t Say”

I wish I could have enjoyed The Mitchells vs. the Machines. It spoke directly to me in so many ways, mirroring little pieces of my own life and family.

But by midway through, I could barely stand seeing the dad onscreen. He treated Katie with such utter disregard and disrespect. Continue reading “The Dad in The Mitchells vs. the Machines”

The Mitchells vs. the Machines is mostly delightful, BUT

It should NOT be a minor daughter’s job to reach out to, connect with, and manage her father’s emotions.

Animated kid movies about boys don’t make their hero work 1% as hard to earn their dad’s respect. Continue reading “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”

That feeling when you’re trying to write and suddenly… scintillating scotoma time!

What is that, you ask?

Well, it’s related to migraines and looks like an upside down comma built from pulsating, cut-glass, fractal triangles, exactly in the middle of your field of vision. Continue reading “Scintillating Scotomas”

I can’t tell if the viewer is supposed to see Angel getting himself turned back into a vampire rather than being happy with Buffy as noble… but I can’t see it as anything other than weak, insecure, arrogant, & controlling.

He can’t stand being weaker than her & relying on her. Continue reading “When Buffy Visits Angel”

I need to describe an underwater party, thrown by crab-like aliens, attended by a collie dog & photosynthetic otter. Which is just an amazingly cool thing to need to write… but my brain refuses to focus on it.

Come on brain! Write the fun scene for me! I want to read it! Continue reading “You Have to Write It Before You Can Read It”

I want to talk about how much I love Teen Beach Movie & Teen Beach 2.

Yes, those are ridiculous titles. Yes, they’re squeaky clean Disney+ movies aimed at tweens.

BUT… Continue reading “The Greatness of Teen Beach Movie & Teen Beach 2”

There’s a meme joke about how unrealistic it is that “Padme chose Anakin” when Obi Wan was right there, but…

Padme didn’t choose Anakin. Continue reading “Padme’s Lack of Choice”