Cover of Red Setter Medic by Mary E. Lowd followed by this text: Red Setter Medic: Chronicles of Tri-Galactic Trek Mary E. Lowd Not yet published Expected 10 May 26 i 5.00 stars 2 ratings • 2 reviews

Review of advance copy ***** April 17, 2026 Red Setter Medic is Book 7 in the Trio-Galactic Trek by Mary E Lowd. I enjoy this series. Animals are the characters and I like the humor. Dr Waverly is the head medic. In the first story, the author tackled hostel species... save or let die? I needed to really think what would I do. I think this is an enjoyable SiFi. I received an arc for free and am leaving my review voluntarily.

Review of advance copy * * * * April 9, 2026 This was a great addition to this universe. Interesting and engaging. A very unique read. Highly recommended

There’s only a couple weeks until my next book comes out, and it’s already getting rave reviews!

There's a chance that 4.7 is actually better at writing lyrics, but it's definitely less fun to collaborate with... Maybe if I pushed back harder against the massive essays it appends to every new draft, that would help. But I didn't have to teach 4.6 how to talk like a person.

I've written a dozen albums or so with Claude Opus 4.6. Whereas, I'm not quite done with the first album I've tried out Opus 4.7 on. So, my data is somewhat skewed...

But so far, working with 4.7 feels kind of like an Opus 4.6/Gemini hybrid... which is... not ideal.

Notes I wrote myself at 3am:

—ten and seven are the factors of Steven
—what if Ariel grows into the sea witch???

Scream 9: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Town (starring Ben Wyatt)

Scream 8: Across the Screamiverse

This song seems especially fitting one day after Anthropic dropped Opus 4.7. Crazy ride indeed!

Mary E. Lowd - One Crazy Ride (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

“One Crazy Ride” is literally a song about a reptilian alien marveling at her new relationship, wondering:

“Is this one crazy ride for six months
Or is it the rest of my life?”

But that line came from how I feel about being able to make music with AI.

youtu.be/gzASmx0PKew?...

Mary E. Lowd - A Pearl for Amelie (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

This song is about a researcher discovering a parasitic insect that turns deer into unicorns by burrowing into their skulls and building a spiral shell as a home.

What? That doesn’t sound like it would work as a song??

Yeah, well, it turned out AWESOME.

youtu.be/n-voKg4FFIQ?...

Mary E. Lowd - Stand a Little Closer (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

One of the core paladin game mechanics dating all the way back to Diablo 2 is their collection of auras, and I thought that would be a good note to end on — our paladin realizing that the light is something they share with everyone around them.

youtu.be/2QwJ_95Its0?...

Mary E. Lowd - Look at You Shine (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

My guiding light for telling a musical story about a paladin was Camelot, and so the thing that pulls our paladin out of their crisis of faith is a new, young knight, face shining with the light, demonstrating that the light is still out there.

youtu.be/0cq6PK-TfsM?...

I particularly like this one.

It is about a BONE DRAGON.

You guys.

It is a song about fighting a dragon made of bones.

And it is darn catchy.

Mary E. Lowd - What is a Paladin Without the Light (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

This is the crux of our paladin’s crisis of faith, and also one of the catchiest tracks on the album.

“What am I without the light?
…
Is the sword still holy if the hand that holds it isn’t sure?
Is the armor sacred or just heavy?
…
Holy, holy — what is holy anyhow?”

youtu.be/wY1O1LKvBEA?...

Mary E. Lowd - Answered by the Light (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

This song is about our paladin bubble-hearthing out of a fight as everyone else wipes. Except taking it utterly, devastatingly seriously at an emotional level.

I went for a sort of “Warmth of the Sun” helpless, floating, lush warmth for the sound.

youtu.be/RjspHp1PrWI?...

Mary E. Lowd - Bone Dragon Rising (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

I needed a really cool villain for the paladin in this album to face, so here we’ve got a song about a necromancer riding a bone dragon.

The songs focused on fighting skeletal enemies always turn out sounding so good.

youtu.be/OHW3ZM36hLI?...

spider web with sections showing cosmic scenes

“The webs are portals, tiny little portals between the two colliding planes of existence.”

———

Read "Webs" by Ginger Strivelli: zooscape-zine.com/webs/

winged ant looking up at a sunbeam

“She brags to the males that she will forsake them all and mate with the sun.”

———

Read "Fire Ants" by Elizabeth Davis: zooscape-zine.com/fire-ants/

pipe organ

“Better to die an ignoble death than have anyone regard him as a second-rate instrument.”

———

Read "Rebellion" by F.I. Goldhaber: zooscape-zine.com/rebellion/

cat with outstretched arms and a tufted tail being examined by two feline knights

“His majesty insists that his visitors trim their claws to uselessness, and who are we to disobey the wishes of our illustrious king?”

———

Read "The Revolution" by H. Robert Barland: zooscape-zine.com/the-revoluti...

a dog and a puppy standing in a city street with cheerful billboards about humans and dogs getting along

“The sooner you accept that humans only love you on their terms the better.”

———

Read "We Used to Be Best Friends" by Ian Salavon: zooscape-zine.com/we-used-to-b...

lion woman standing with her paw outstretched among humans with anti-war signs by a train station

“I’m not a hero, nor a coward. I’m a cat.”

———

Read "I Didn't Raise My Cub to Be a Soldier" by Lynn Gazis: zooscape-zine.com/raise-my-cub...

tiger warrior walking in front of a wagon with a cheetah and cub in it

“I was not the Judge, but I would try.”

———

Read "The Heart of Rain" by Spencer Orey: zooscape-zine.com/the-heart-of...

animals caught in a cosmic spider web

We don’t get to choose the battles we’re called on to fight.  We get caught in a tangled web of our times and our principles.  From felines to formicidae, dogs to pipe organs, follow these delightful characters through their tangled webs.

Issue 26 — zooscape-zine.com/issue-26/

Mary E. Lowd - Lay My Hands (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

For this song, I was trying to capture the moment in Camelot when Lancelot begs the knight he’s just bested in the jousting match to, “live, please, live!” But with the sound of Brian Wilson’s “Lay Down Burden” blended with his daughters’ song “Miracle.”

youtu.be/siKLJF75RrY?...

This is the catchiest of Mary’s doo-wop fantasy albums. Paladins *seem* more serious than fun, but the rhythm of hammers, the thrill of fighting a bone dragon, and making friends with a gryphon — it all works!

Mary E. Lowd - The Melody is Me (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

In this song, our paladin fights a death knight:

“Every strike is guided by the light
Falls exactly right
Like notes in a song that the angels are singing…
And the melody is me.”

And there you have the nature of a paladin—classic hubris like in “C’est Moi” from Camelot.

youtu.be/sfS75qjFCZI?...

Mary E. Lowd - Windborn (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

“Windborn” is a song about our paladin taming a gryphon. I was aiming for something between “Born Free” and the fox’s song, “Closer and Closer,” from the Lerner & Loewe musical of The Little Prince.

This is another one that took hours of tweaking the lyrics to get right.

youtu.be/ew3sxXfYFWQ?...

Mary E. Lowd - Hammer and Prayer (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

“Hammer and Prayer” is a crafting song. Our paladin is a miner and blacksmith who crafts their own armor, beginning with copper and moving up to an ore that shines like sunlight.

The sound really came together beautifully on this one.

youtu.be/xtfzDA5_6NQ?...

Mary E. Lowd - Call to the Light (Lyrics) YouTube video by Deep Sky Anchor Press

I spent hours talking to Claude about the nature of paladins in order to keep nudging these lyrics around until they properly established the right tone for opening this album.

It turns out I have a lot of thoughts about paladins.

youtu.be/N44U42Q1VTY?...

Mary E. Lowd - Doo-Wop Paladin (Official Lyric Videos) - YouTube Lyric videos for "Doo-Wop Paladin" by Mary E. Lowd1. Call to the Light2. Hammer and Prayer3. Windborn4. The Melody is Me5. Lay My Hands6. Bone Dragon Rising7...

Of all the classes you can play in Warcraft/Diablo, the one that most cries out to be turned into an album is the paladin. It just screams for telling the musical story of a crisis of faith in the light.

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