Where to Find Queen of Swords Press/Me in 2026

Dec. 31st, 2026 04:40 pm
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Updates as we have them!

January:

  • Tomes and Treats - The Lodge of Lazarus Crowe, St. Paul, MN. January 18th, 12-5PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table.
  • #SmallPitch - Online small press pitching event January 19th - 26th. Got a manuscript and a pitch ready to submit? Queen of Swords Press is one of the participating presses.

February:

  • "To Market, To Market" - The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis. February 28th, 9AM-12:00. Join Jennie Goloboy (a successful literary agent) and Catherine Lundoff (an award-winning small press publisher) for a workshop on their perspectives on what makes a manuscript marketable.

March:

  • MarsCon - March 6-8, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will be there with a book table and Michael Merriam and Catherine will be on programming.

April:

  • Minicon - April 2nd - 5th. The Hotel Formerly Known as the Radishtree, Bloomington, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
  • Rewind Book Fair - April 18-19. MN State Fairgrounds Grandstand St. Paul, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

May:

  • Sharing Our Stories: Central Minnesota LGBTQ Literary Festival - May 9-10th, St. Cloud, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table and Catherine will be doing a presentation on LGBTQ publishing past and present. - CANCELED
  • Rochester Pride - May 16th, 12-5PM. Rochester, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a booth.
  • WisCon - May 21-25th. We'll be in the online Dealer's Room and Catherine will be on programming.
  • Balticon 60 - May 22-25, Baltimore, MD. Melissa Scott will be attending virtually.

June:

  • Pride Month StoryBundle - Kicks off end of May and runs through end of June. Lots of books by amazing queer authors and we're raising funds for Rainbow Railroad again!
  • Wolfe Tome Books & Oddities/Chisago Lakes Pride - June 13th, 10-3PM, Lindstrom, MN. Catherine will be reading and signing books at Wolfe Tome Books in conjunction with Chisago Lakes Pride.
  • 4th Street Fantasy - June 20-21st, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine will be attending. programming TBD.
  • Twin Cities Pride - June 27th-28th, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will be back in the Queer Writes Tent.

July

August:

September:

  • Dragon Con - September 3-7th, Atlanta, GA. Catherine will be an Attending Pro and will be on programming.
  • St. Cloud Pride in the Park - September 19th,  11AM-4PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table.

October:

  • Haunts and Horrors - October 4th, 1-5PM. Bad Weather Brewing, St. Paul, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table. 
  • Fall Mini-Market - October 10, 10-2PM. Cream & Amber Bookstore, Hopkins, MN. Michael Merriam will be there with his books and selected Queen of Swords Press titles.
November:

December:


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September Wrap-up

Sep. 29th, 2026 07:39 pm
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Been a lively month. It included:
  • Dragon Con and the recovery from same.
  • A meeting with the head of publishing programs for Kickstarter. Looking at a couple of options and reading up on options now.
  • A failure to have a third meeting for voice narration (I need to reschedule), but I did acquire a new fancier mike that I'm going to try out for podcasts and short readings to get an idea of how workable this narration idea is for me.
  • I've hit the dreaded middle of Blue Moon! Will I finish it by the end of the year? No idea. One can but hope.
  • I've gotten hooked on an Estonian historical murder mystery, The Noble Detective, on PBS Passport, watched a splendid documentary on Mary Oliver and watched half of Blood Fruit, about a group of Irish supermarket cashiers who kicked off what turned out to be a three year strike opposing apartheid by refusing to sell fruit imported from South Africa and ended up with them being a lynchpin in the campaign to drive Ireland to divest, meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more. Looking forward to watching the rest of it!
  • Read submissions and did sundry Queen of Swords Press tasks.
  • Finished and submitted a memorial piece for a memorial anthology for author M. Christian 
  • Did trainings for various grant reviews.
  • Worked at DreamHaven - we now have a Bookshop store and we're on the brink of getting a new website with a competent host. Very excited about this as I've been working on it for a while now.
  • Took another fun mini-bookcase class with Wit and Flowers.
  • Overall, a decent month.
And now back to end of month wrap-up.
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LA Worldcon and Dragon Con - thoughts

Sep. 13th, 2026 09:28 pm
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 So virtual Worldcon and in person Dragon Con in one week was a LOT! Much admiration for the various pros who did both in person. I absolutely could not have done it. 

My two panels at virtual LA Con went pretty well. One of the panelists decided that the anthology editing panel wasn't for her and, as I suspected, Asimov's editor Sheila Williams' daughter Irene was there to assist her mother in participating (more on Sheila's Go Fund Me for her care after her aneurysm and stroke here) so it was less huge than it appeared initially and Irene did a great job keeping her mom on track and participating. I hope the other panels she was on went well too. My other panel went well and I enjoyed the panels I attended, I need to try and watch at few more of the other streamed ones. And, oh hey, I made the Hugo Awards Long List for Best Long Form Editor! Squee!

My friend Jody and I took off for Atlanta on the Wednesday before Labor Day. No issues coming in and we were able to take the subway (MARTA) direct from the airport to the general vicinity of our hotel. After some wandering in the heat (which was dire), we eventually got to our hotel (about 20 minutes on the train from the main Dragon Con sites) only to discover that their system was down. We grabbed comfy chairs in the lobby and ate the goodies they bribed us with until we could check in. The hotel turned out to be conveniently located for less expensive breakfasts and a nearby supermarket so we stocked up on snacks and water and fruit.

Thursday we headed down to the main hotels and I went off to go pick up my registration stuff from the fancy VIP area and Jody went to go get hers at main reg. This turned out to be quite the Thing. I got my stuff within 30 minutes and had time to hydrate. Jody was stuck in line (outside in the sun and the sweltering heat), but declined my offer of company or respite, so I went to go check out the first of the hotels where I had panels. Then the second hotel where I had panels. Finally, after 2.5 hours, Jody was able to get her reg stuff and meet me. Throughout the weekend, we heard about people who had fainted in line, waited 3+ hours for preregistered badges, got sent back to the regular line if they had a disability sticker but no wheelchair or scooter, etc. It was not a great start to the con and I hope that Dragon Con sorts this out for next year.

At any rate, we grabbed lunch and went to a panel and wandered around some more. The cosplays were pretty stunning - if you do cosplay, this is definitely a con for you. The crowds were quite large and the lines for many things, quite long. The Vendor hall had a 2 plus hour wait every time I tried to go and I never got to see it. We did make it to the Art Show however and that was quite good. We eventually grabbed dinner and went back to our hotel. Friday began with a delightful breakfast with author Darrell Grizzle, his husband and some of their friends. We roamed a round for a bit, separately and together and then I went off to my 4PM panel, which went well. Then I had to race like the wind through ridiculous crowds to a different hotel for my 5:30 panel. It worked out, but I was almost late.

Saturday, we went to the parade and actually got a spot to sit in the shade, thanks to a tip from one of Darrell's friends. The parade was a lot of fun and the costumes were great - we loved the marching band wearing the colors and pattern of the old hotel carpet in one of the main hotels. We split up after this, me to meet my friend Sara Amis and her husband George for lunch. George meant to go do something else, but he and I got into a lively discussion of Minneapolis politics (he's a journalist) and we all ended up hanging out. 

Then I had to head to my 1PM panel, which went well. It was a panel on editing and I brought up She Who Will Not Be Named as an example of writers who let the middle of their stories sag and clearly needed editorial help. Got wild cheers and applause at that. After that, I found a reasonably quiet chair and a cup of hot tea and vegged out for a bit. Then I met up with Jody again and we walked walked a few blocks down to a lovely historical hotel and had a delightful dinner in the restaurant before my 10PM panel on Women as Werewolves. This was glorious fun and one of the attendees showed up cosplaying a female werewolf (in the company of her girlfriend, Mothman) and it was a delight. Lots of fun to be had, though I was sorry we had to leave in a hurry because our Lyft was coming. If you were the person who wanted me to signed her sweatshirt, a. apologies and b. let me know if you would like a signed bookplate.

Sunday, we tried to be tourists, after a failed attempt to get to the art museum a few days before. This time, I figured out the hotel shuttles and we took one over to the Aquarium. It is a a great aquarium, but packed on a holiday weekend and we were both pretty exhausted when we got out. So we got on the shuttle back...and then spent over 45 minutes trying to get to the hotel across the street through the skyway. Only to discover that after we survived that and made our way downstairs that we were in the wrong tower for the panels we wanted to attend. Sigh. So we hit the art show again, then wandered out to grab dinner in the food court, then back to hotel. By then we were so wiped out, we laid around watching the Hallmark Channel for a while before going to bed. The trip home was incident free and our friend Tony was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and drive us back to our respective homes.

Things that went well:
  • The costumes and cosplay!
  • The panels that I was on and that we made it to
  • People were quite friendly.
  • I love how into it Atalanta gets. We even got badge ribbons for riding on MARTA and the hotel carpet jokes were pretty brilliant.
  • The Art Show.
Things that could have gone better:
  • Crowd management, particularly with regard to registration. I'm told the Vendor Hall line went through a parking garage so there was shade, at least.
  • So much walking! Both of us were wiped and had very sore feet and backs by the end of the trip.
  • Connecting with people that I knew and hoped to see down there.
Would I go back? I dunno. It's kind of a "bring a gang of friends" sort of event. Or possibly, a rent a palanquin and get carried everywhere sort of event. I think my assessment that I absolutely could not have handled this at all in a couple of years was accurate. Thank goodness for my walking stick, Jody and the kindness of strangers!

Now that I'm back, I'm diving into grant review season and trying to finish my novel. We'll see how this goes. Fingers crossed!
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More good news!

Sep. 10th, 2026 09:45 pm
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I mean, I survived Dragon Con, which was a LOT and virtual LA Worldcon, but more on that later.
So back in the early months of this year when ICE was invading my city and murdering and terrorizing my neighbors, I got invited to submit to an anthology of queer Arthuriana stories. Naturally, I wrote about a queer English courier and spy helping the resistance in Nazi-occupied France with some help from a few familiar friends. I have just started writing fiction again on the regular this year and I’m getting my mojo back. I kind of love this story - it helped me get through some of the dark times. And I just found out that it got accepted! More news when I can share. :-)
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Exciting news!

Aug. 31st, 2026 08:30 pm
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So many panels at LA Worldcon went pretty well - good discussions, good info, good audience response. And I've enjoyed the other virtual panels that I've watched so far (and look forward to watching more!). And then this big of info landed - I made the long list for the Hugo Award for Best Editor - Long Form! I'm hugely excited about this - thank you so much to the folks who voted for me! I also want to thank my small press colleague Emily Bell from AtthisArts, who pushed hard for more small press rep in this category.

And I have a new article out! "Rediscovering Joanna Russ" is out and free to read in the September issue of Trollbreath Magazine. I reread all of Russ's collected short fiction (and read a few I hadn't read before) and wrote this piece with my various thinky thoughts. Short version: read more Russ! Her work holds up and is well worth tracking down.

Dragon Con is coming up and I am off on Wednesday with my friend Jody to the wilds of Atlanta (and my lovely housesitter will be home with kitty). My schedule:
Title: We're 40! Welcome to Perimenopause! Exploring Characters With Experience
Description: These characters are not young and naive; they all have long since learned how to drink. Leave saving the world to the children? I don't think so!
Panelists: Theresa Glover, Candy Atkins, Stuart Grosse, Catherine Lundoff, JM Paquette(M) 
Time: Fri 04:00 pm
Location: Embassy CD Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)


Title: Age is Just a Number: Older Protagonists in UF
Description: Our panel of authors discusses their use of protagonists older than the average age typically seen in much of the genre.
Panelists: Jennifer Blackstream, Doug Burbey, Beth Dolgner, Catherine Lundoff, Aleksandr Shvartsman, Anna Puerta(M) 
Time: Fri 05:30 pm
Location: Chastain 1-2 Westin (Length: 1 Hour)


Title: Working with Editors & Professional Readers
Description: Developmental editor. Copyeditor. Line editor. Proofreader. Sensitivity reader. What are the differences? How is working with a publisher's editor different from a freelance editor? A novel editor from a shorts editor? These pros will share their experience and help shed light on these things.
Panelists: Katherine Monasterio, Kevin A Davis(M), Preeti Chhibber, T. L. Trent, Neil Clarke, Catherine Lundoff 
Time: Sat 01:00 pm
Location: Embassy EF Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)


Title: Women as Werewolves
Description: Our panel of authors discusses the unique aspects of being a werewolf as a woman, and how that experience can be interpreted in various areas of their lives.
Panelists: Becca Lynn Mathis, Lindy Ryan, Catherine Lundoff, Patricia Briggs, Silas Reames, Carol Malcolm(M) 
Time: Sat 10:00 pm
Location: Chastain 1-2 Westin (Length: 1 Hour)

Let me know if you'll be there and we can try and connect!
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New Podcast Interview and LA Worldcon Schedule

Aug. 3rd, 2026 07:58 pm
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One of the various fun things I did last week was to be interviewed for author A.R. Marsh's new podcast, Fantasy Free Me. We had a fun discussion about Queen of Swords Press, queer books and censorship, the impact of AI and more. Give it a listen and please boost the podcast! I know the host would like to see it succeed.

So! LA Worldcon. I'm attending virtually because there was no way I could swing Worldcon and Dragon Con in the same two week time period and I've been costing along on sundry part time things for a year now so no budget for it either. And the owner of DreamHaven is attending in person which means I'm needed at the store for scheduling constraints as well. Thus 2 virtual panels which I am moderating.
My LA Worldcon schedule: 

Sunday, August 30, 2026

<input ... >
 
Catherine Lundoff (moderator)
Debora Godfrey
Henry Herz
Oriana Leckert
Sheila Williams
Vanessa MacLaren-Wray

Recorded
Streamed
Panelists who have assembled an anthology talk about what they learned from the experience - the challenges and discoveries, hard lessons about giving rejections, thrills of successful revise and resubmits, and advice they’d like those submitting to anthologies to really, really follow. Panelists will discuss how to choose the stories, including the nuts and bolts: rights, editing, copyediting, and types of royalties.
(And the moderator has some thinky thoughts about the impact of AI.)
<input ... >

Monday, August 31, 2026

<input ... >
 
 

Monday, August 31, 2026

<input ... >
 
Catherine Lundoff (moderator)
Lorraine Wilson
Olivia Waite
Rhiannon "Gibbitt" Rhys-Jones
Susie Williamson

Recorded
Streamed
The age of women characters in fiction used to mostly skew young or old, with heroines in their prime making up the minority. This trend has reversed in recent years, as middle-aged protagonists have become increasingly popular in fiction. Panelists will discuss how middle-aged women have been portrayed throughout literary history, and how and why this representation has been changing in more contemporary works.

My thoughts:

I will say that I don't think I'm going to agree to do any more anthology editing panels at other cons. Yes, I've edited or co-edited 3 to date, but not recently and the subject is beginning to bore me. I'm skipping Flights of Foundry this year because they will ONLY put me on a (single) anthology editing panel (and last year I was apparently too uppity because I complained about it, seeing as it happened two years in a row). The only reason I agreed this time was because various publishers and editors broke the news about the issues they were having with AI submissions and I want to get some convo going about that. That said, several of the panelists do not appear to have ever edited anthologies so getting any sort of cohesive conversation going may be a challenge. Older women, I'd rather talk than moderate, but so it goes. I'm sure the rest of the con will be full of interesting things, in any case!

Balanced against this, my Dragon Con schedule, which I can't reveal yet, is a work of art, with panels on almost every topic I'm interested in talking about currently. So something to look forward to!
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More of July

Jul. 31st, 2026 09:50 pm
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The month ended on a good note. I had a good event at The Curious Crow in Circle Pines, MN on Sunday  and recommend checking it out. It's a Gothy gaming space and small cafe with a store selling new and used equipment, books and games. What else have I been up to?
  • Went to see "Powwow Highway" again at the Trylon this week and enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommended!
  • I recorded a podcast episode of author A.R. Marsh's Fantasy Free Me Podcast on Monday which was fun. It will go live soon! Amy and I met online after the death of author M. Christian; Amy was good friends with them and trying to help their cat and their brother and I was trying to reach their next of kin so we helped each other out a bit. The podcast is her new endeavor.
  • Got a filling replaced - this was a big deal because I had the same dentist for decades until she retired last year and this is the first procedure by my new one. It went well! Here's hoping the tooth holds together since it was a deep filling and I have poor people's teeth.
  • Had a fun time on Saturday doing the Alice B. Readers Award Winners event at Quatrefoil Library, though it could have been better attended.
  • Interviewed for and got accepted for one of the grant committees run by the Headwaters Foundation for Justice. This is a local organization that funds a tremendous number of other groups involved in social justice issues around the state and I've volunteered for them in the past, as well as being a donor. This position comes with an honorarium and a fair number of meetings. Looking forward to continuing toward helping to keep the grassroots work going here in Minnesota.
  • Working on a new essay on reading Joanna Russ's short fiction for Trollbreath Magazine.
  • Getting hooked on this historical murder mystery series in Estonian on PBS Passport - "The Noble Detective" is worth checking out.
  • Prepping for Pages in the Vineyard Book Fair at Rustic Roots Winery in Scandia, MN on the 8th.
  • Reading submissions from #SmallPitch and more fiction in general.
  • Just got my LA Worldcon virtual panel schedule and will be getting my Dragon Con schedule this weekend and will post accordingly.
  • Got my new handyman in a couple of times - my sink now has legs, the tub caulking is fixed, the basement is rewired and has much better lighting, the security light on the front door is repaired, the garage has a new gutter, the garage windows are painted and I have a new free garden hose that he was gifted, but can't use AND he finished the puttying the concrete around the foundation project that I bogged down on. Next up: patching a big crack in the kitchen wall, trimming back the neighbor's tree from the gutters, a new washer on a leaky faucet, a new grab bar on the basement stairs, a bit of painting on the basement and possibly a fix for my bedroom light which shorted out and had a shade that was apparently too heavy for the fixture. It's been a lot, but I want all of this for whatever combination of ageing in place/prepping this place for eventual sale. And this guy has been really great and affordable thus far.
  • My Wolves books sold out at San Diego Comic Con! The nice folks at Sofawolf Press yook some copies for their table and they found their people. 💖
  • Plus a bunch more stuff and some brisk writing on Blue Moon, Wolves of Wolf's Point #3.
Stay tuned!
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Midmonth Catching Up

Jul. 16th, 2026 07:23 pm
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So it took a couple of days to recover from Hell Pride (see last post), but I did finish a new Holmes pastiche story and get it submitted in time for a deadline. I also cleared 30k words on Blue Moon (Wolves of Wolf's Point #3), got some sundry other things done like finishing evaluating a submission from earlier this year and meeting with the author. Here's hoping we decide we're a match, in which case we will have a new author for Queen of Swords. I have also begun talking cover art with my artist for the Wolf books and am aiming for release later this year, as my public is becoming impatient. 

Other than that, I survived another book event, this time the Inbound Brewing Book Fair for Grownups. Last year, this was our best single day even in Queen of Swords Press's history. This year, not so much. Some of it is the economy but the brewery moved us to a bigger space, added way too many vendors (many rather awkwardly/badly arranged) and hiked the admission while eliminating the drink ticket with admission. Very frustrating and less than half of last year's sales. And hot and noisy, to boot; the larger space doesn't have fans let alone A/C. So not great.

Apart from that, I've been on two good walking tours, one of a historical site and garden, the other of a very interesting historical cemetery. Turns out that the oldest cemetery in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, is chock full of interesting graves and history. It was economically and racially integrated and includes the graves of the well to-do, the deeply impoverished and even formerly enslaved folks. It was also designated as an Underground Railway Site last year. I heartily recommend the Hennepin History Museum tours of it if you're in the area.

Other than that, trying to prep some of Jana's books and her artist books collection to show one of the local museums, part for sale, part for donation. I also got "unstuck" on some things and have summoned a handyman to work on house projects and got the place cleaned. Overall, feeling better, at least until this week when the temperature soared and the air quality went with it a couple of days ago. Greg ended up closing DreamHaven for the week because our venerable A/C died at the end of last week. I was able to encourage moving author Will Alexander's reading over to Sister's Sludge across the street and take advantage of their A/C. tasty food and beverages and South Minneapolis solidarity. Will's reading went well and was a fun time so there's that in the success column.

Next up, I have talked a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master out of retirement for this event at Quatrefoil Library on 7/25! Ellen will be reading virtually while the rest of us will be in person and it will rock because we are all pretty damned amazing. Then the next day, I'm off to the Curious Crow in Circle Pines to peddle books. Make a weekend of it, assuming you're in Minnesota and the weather isn't trying to kill us.


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Pride nightmare, book sales and more

Jul. 1st, 2026 09:45 pm
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So Queen of Swords Press was a vendor in the Queer Writes Tent at Twin Cities Pride for the third and last time this weekend. Why? Well, because we keep getting screwed over. Year 1, we were over by the bridge to the Sculpture Garden near other artists. But there was no signage whatsoever and some of us had to be outside carnival barking to keep the traffic flow going. And bear in mind that Pride is two days long, plus setup on Friday in summer so we're talking 11-12 hours days on Saturday and Sunday when you factor prep time, travel time, setup, sales time, etc. This is a long time to do carnival barking to get traffic. But despite that, we still cleared about $1200 in sales the first year, which is respectable for an event table for a small press.

Year 2: the Queer Writes Tent got moved to...the medical section. With not a whole lot of signage, nothing called out on the map and an indie author with a giant banner blocking part of the path and line of sight. We weren't near the sidewalks and were blocked in by other unrelated tents, which made us hard to find and traffic slow. Despite that and the rain and a fellow vendor who was, shall we, say, very draining to be around, we soldiered on and pulled in about $900 in sales. So not great, but still profitable and worth it for the visibility. Almost all 15 vendor tables reps spoke to Pride representatives about the problems with the location. 

Year 3, this last weekend: Same crappy location, same signage and map problems, but this time, something special! The University of Minnesota had a giant inflatable rectum bouncy house (I'm not kidding, there are photos) that was kept inflated with an incredibly loud generator that spewed fumes into our tent. It started out about 15 feet or so away so we had to scream at people to sell books and that went as well as you would expect. We were completely blocked from the sidewalk so discovery was greatly reduced. Apparently the kind of people who want to go wander through a rectum bouncy house (with polyps!) don't necessarily gravitate toward book purchases, who knew? Sunday, it poured rain in the morning so we got a late start. We had a blissful hour and a half without the rectum, then they inflated it. Several people, including me, asked if they could move the generator over and explained the problem. Which they did for a little bit. Then they moved it CLOSER to our tent! That's right: the U of MN has a giant asshole staffed by giant assholes. At which point, I organized the other vendors to contact Pride accessibility all once to report them. Someone appeared, got the generator moved over a couple of feet and came over to inform me that this was the best we were going to get. Nothing would be moved, the bouncy rectum and generator had to be RIGHT there, because "space was at premium." We were right next to twenty foot length of empty grass and just down the road, several vendors hadn't made it so there were about 4 booths worth of empty space. I was then basically told that we weren't as important as the U. of MN so we should just suck up the asthma attacks several people were having, the migraine someone got and the other issues while we tried to sell some damned books. The entire weekend's take: $417. It takes $500 to cover the expenses of being there, what between parking, help, food, table and stock. Imagine my surprise to learn that "small businesses were the backbone of Pride" in the news on Monday. I am absolutely livid. I have contacted the rectum's sponsoring department at the U. to complain about their representative's behavior. Next up is a letter to both Pride Vendor Services and the Pride Board. I also want to look into city regulations on portable generators. I have been coughing for two days and I want to make enough of an impact so this doesn't happen to anyone else next year and beyond.

So! This would be a great time to get your copy of the 2026 Pride StoryBundle, which ends tomorrow around midnight. 16 books, including my werewolf books which won a lifetime achievement award for me just last year. I am currently 30k words into the draft of Book 3 and am aiming to get it out this year. It also includes Joyce Chng's BSFA finalist collection, Wolf's Path, R. B. Lemberg's World Fantasy Winner Yoke of Stars and M. Christian's Small Spec Book Award Semi-Finalist, Running Dry, amongst other great reads. And we've raised over $700 for Rainbow Railroad so far!

And the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale has kicked off! Get great deals on Queen of Swords Press titles  this month!

Otherwise, I have lots of events coming up, a new story submitted and lots of good things going on too. More news soon!

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New essay out today!

Jun. 24th, 2026 07:28 pm
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Some months back, I was asked to write a review of a story for the Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein website. Deep Cuts is a scholarly website that takes deep dives into classic fantasy and weird fiction, as well as some work that crosses in science fantasy (and there is some fascinating work out there, if it's not already on your radar). The story I was asked to review was Margaret St. Clair's "Roberta," a story which ran in Galaxy Magazine in 1962. I learned a great deal about St. Clair, who led a very unconventional life that included nudism, Gardnerian Wicca, raising dachshunds, a childless "by choice" marriage to a writer who claimed the honor of having written more short stories about bears than anyone else of his time and a number of well-regarded stories and novels. "Roberta" was her last piece of published short fiction before she began to focus entirely on novels and it is a fascinating and wildly problematic piece of work. It is also an sfnal first, as far as we could ascertain. But you have to read my piece to find out about that part. :-)
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4th Street Fantasy and a bit of catchup

Jun. 18th, 2026 08:28 pm
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This weekend is 4th Street Fantasy in Minneapolis and I will be attending on Friday night and Sunday and am on a panel on Sunday morning. Why am I skipping Saturday? I need to work at DreamHaven, seeing as last weekend I did an event in Lindstrom at Wolfe Tomes Books and next weekend, is Twin Cities Pride and that will eat the weekend. So, bit of a bummer and I won't get to see as much of out of town friends as I hoped.
At any rate, the panel I am on:

Don’t Feign the Reaper: How To (Fictionally) Cheat Death

11:30 AM
Catherine Lundoff, Scott Lynch (M), Phil Margolies, Merc Wolfmoor, Maureen Zahn

Reincarnations, resurrections, and outright retcons; identity swaps and confused narrators; convenient comas, handy misunderstandings, and when, all else fails, a big divine handwave. Killing a character and then taking it back might be quite literally the oldest trick in the book* and yet, to this date, it feels as if we still haven’t quite figured out how to do it right. A clumsy aversion of fate can leave readers feeling just as cheated as the guy with the robe and the scythe. And yet, a well-orchestrated escape from the noose, axe, or other instrument of death can be the most rewarding moment in a story. So let’s talk about how to cheat death, and how particularly to do it in fantastic fiction where characters faced with death may well indeed have the power to flip the chessboard and change the rules.

* It depends on if you count Tablet Twelve as part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, or an extra scene tacked on to explain things to the audience. Seriously, we’ve been doing that forever too.

What else is going on? Working at the bookstore, plugging the Pride StoryBundle, writing, trying to line up sources of income and so forth. I did get a short story that I liked completed and submitted, so there's that. 
 

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Writing update!

Jun. 9th, 2026 10:30 am
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Since I figured I was overdue for one of those.
I attended both Broad Universe writing sprints this week (thank you, facilitators!), plus some additional writing time. This produced:
- 1st editing pass on new sapphic Arthurian story for an anthology invite
- 900 words on Blue Moon, Wolves of Wolf's Point #3
- A start on my Joanna Russ article for Trollbreath Magazine (due in a few weeks)
- 400 words on a potential new Holmes/Carnacki story that is beginning to jell (due by the end of this month - we'll see how that goes).

Plus event planning, Pride StoryBundle boosting and other sundry things. Not a bad start so far!
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Pride StoryBundle lands tonight!

Jun. 3rd, 2026 09:03 pm
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Melissa Scott and I have been hard at work pulling together this year's version of the Pride StoryBundle.It will go live tonight and run through July 3rd. You can get 3 titles at the $5 level or all 16 titles at the $30 level and designate a portion of your purchase price (no cost to you!) for Rainbow Railroad, an international nonprofit that works with LGBTQ+ folks fleeing persecution. Needless to say, their services are needed more than ever right now. On average, we raise between $700 and $1000 for Rainbow Railroad every year so we hope to hit the high end this year. 
What's in the Bundle?
  • My Wolves of Wolf's Point books from Queen of Swords Press, Silver Moon and Blood Moon. Coming out a midlife, found family, menopause and lycanthropy! I won an Alice B. Reader's Award last year and these books were part of that. Blue Moon (Book 3) is moving along and I hope to have an update soon.
  • Melissa Scott's Master of Samar (Candlemark & Gleam)- gripping standalone gay fantasy with her usual brilliant writing and world-building.
  • J. Warren's gay science fiction novel, Worldburner (Queerspace Books). Like great queer space opera? We got you covered!
  • Office of the Lost by J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding (indie published). Hilarious gay romantic fantasy about opposites attracting.
  • We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2024 edited by Ryka Aoki and Charles Payseur, Embodied Exegesis: Transfeminine Cyberpunk Futures edited by Ann LeBlanc and Finding Echoes by Foz Meadows, all from Neon Hemlock. Lots of brilliant queer short fiction and a novella that's got a lot of buzz.
  • Running Dry by M.Christian (Queen of Swords Press). Chris' last published novel - stylistic, atmospheric, suspenseful tale of gay vampires on a roadtrip from hell.
  • Was by Geoff Ryman (Small Beer Press). A classic!  Generally considered to be one of the best gay fantasy novels ever written, Ryman brings together three different characters all drawn into version of the Wizard of Oz for their own reasons and needs.
  • Of the Emperor's Kindness by Chaz Brenchley (Wizard's Tower Press). A sapphic fantasy of manners by a master of the craft.
  • Yoke of Stars by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications). Birdverse tale about how language shapes this queer-normative world.
  • Reclaimed by Seth Haddon (Blind Eye Books). Mystery, high stakes and a romance between a gay man and a trans man.
  • The Rosewood Penny by J.S. Fields (Space Wizard Fantasy). Sapphic epic fantasy!
  • I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! edited by Trip Galey, C.L. McCartney and Robert Berg (Bona Books). Fun, pulpy anthology of tales of villainy thwarted and more.
  • Wolf's Path by Joyce Chng (Atthis Arts). A single author collection featuring queer poetry and prose, art and autobiography.
Hope I have piqued your interest! The annual StoryBundle is generally a big boost to the participating authors and presses, in additional to producing some fine reading material, so we hope you'll be picking it up.
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WisCon Schedule! And stuff!

May. 17th, 2026 10:00 pm
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Where in the world has Catherine been? Working mostly. Trying to keep track of ill, injured or moving out of the country friends (please stop with all this and the dying :-( ). Writing, reviewing SO MANY grant proposals, having a yard sale. In short, all the things. Had a very nice day tabling at Rochester Pride yesterday. And at the end of the day, the mom of a teen trans kid who I talked to at Rochester Pride some years back and gave some advice to about venues and marketing for her son's artwork (which was good even then - I still have one of his stickers). Turned out they took the advice, the son now has a burgeoning commercial art career, got a residency with TC Pride and all and is thriving. So that was lovely to hear. :-D

Anyhoo, this weekend is virtual WisCon!

Here is my Friday and Sunday schedule:
What's New in Queer Speculative Fiction
Online Zoom Room 3 • Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing Science Fiction • Fri 7:00 PM–8:15 PM
A discussion of everything new and exciting in queer science fiction, fantasy, and horror over the last two years. What great new stories are being told? Who are the exciting new voices to look for? What themes and tropes are popular right now? Panelists will share recommendations and analysis, as well as their thoughts on what they'd like to see more of in the future.

Never-Too-Late Futures
Online Zoom Room 7 • The Craft and Business of Writing • Sun 4:00 PM–5:15 PM
Publishing discourse loves "30 under 30," but many speculative fiction authors publish their first novel in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or later. This panel invites older debuts and late-blooming writers to talk about craft, career realities, disability and energy, caretaking, and ageism in the field. What pressures and freedoms come with starting "late," and what does a sustainable, politically engaged writing life look like beyond the hustle? 

Queen of Swords Press will also be in the virtual Dealer's Room with books and deals! Come say hi!
And now to bed in hopes of kitty letting me sleep in a bit past 4.
 
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Things I oughta post and what I actually will post

Apr. 28th, 2026 08:13 pm
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The last 4 months have been a LOT. I have passed my data analytics certification at the University of Minnesota so that's done, at least. I miss my buddy kitty, Shu a whole lot, especially since I am trying to sleep with his sister Ma'at so she doesn't get lonely and she is both loud and lively at unreasonable hours.

A bit more about the kitties: my late wife, Jana, and I adopted them from Feline Rescue back in 2009. They are/were rescue Egyptian Mau mixes so we named them Shu (Egyptian god of dust storms) and Ma'at (goddess of justice). They were bonded and absolutely gorgeous with white under fur and patterned black tips and random spotted patterns on their tummies. Shu was the smartest cat I've ever lived with (Ma'at is a smart kitty too, of course) and clocked in at an impressive 20 pounds. He adored pets and belly rubs and play time and liked to sleep wrapped around my ankles. He made it to 17 before his health began to fail and I had to send him over the Rainbow Bridge.He went out purring and content, but I am still bereft. Here's hoping Ma'at and I are able to adapt to the new normal soon. She is trying, poor little tyke, in her own way.

I lost another friend, this time to cancer, a couple of weeks ago. Rebecca Hranj was one of Jana's students and I met her after I moved Jana into assisted living. She helped me organize and clean out a lot of Jana's studio stuff and we got to hang out a bit around the time she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She fought the good fight and we went out to dinner, chatted on line occasionally and a few months back, I picked her up from an appointment and plied her with cardamom coffee and treats. I really, really wish we'd had more time to get to know each other. 2 years was way too short a time and she deserved better, as did her family and other loved ones, than to go out right before her 44th birthday. RIP to a good one.

What else is going on? I'm starting the spring grant review cycle this week (one of my side gigs) and am working on some stories and articles I have due later this year and of course, the novel. Everything this moving along, if not as zippily as I would like. I've done two bookselling events this month, hosted a yard sale and worked Independent Bookstore Day at DreamHaven. So it's been a very full month, One of my best friends is moving out of the country so I need to tackle mountain of paperwork (she's my emergency contact, among other things) as well as being sad that I won't see her much in a few weeks. I am working on making some new friends and meeting new people so not sitting around weeping into my tea or anything, but it would be nice if everything wasn't always literally or emotionally on fire at the same time. On the bright side, still pretty healthy and on year 2 of Not Being PreDiabetic. Or Diabetic, for that matter. 

And, ack, just realized that I forgot to post that Queen of Swords Press has just released Joyce Chng's terrific Sailing the Golden Chersonese! This includes 4 stories about a trans masc pirate and his/their lady love sailing on a fantastical version of the South China Sea, complete with magic, Naks and romance. The cover is by the amazing Dhiyanah Hassan and the interior work is by Terry Roy, who has done most of our interior designs. It is the most beautiful little book!

And with that, back to work on sundry projects.

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5 Things Make a Post

Apr. 6th, 2026 08:51 pm
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  • Wrapped up second convention of the year (Minicon 59). Slow, but better sales than feared and the one panel I was on was fun.
  • Surviving kitty (Ma'at) is very, very needy and loud and I am tired.
  • One more week and a huge project to complete to wrap up my data analytics certification.
  • I'm in charge at the store the latter half of this week while other responsible parties head to an out of town event. Am concerned about the state of the roof and misc. leaks, given the forecast.
  • Next werewolf novel is moving along with decent regularity, as is some short fiction. Huzzah for writing sprints!
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Driveby check-in

Mar. 25th, 2026 09:34 pm
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2026 so far:
  • Massively sick twice with colds that lingered for weeks (still recovering from the last one)
  • Had to put my beloved boy kitty, Shu, to sleep last week (he had a good passing, but it was hard on me). His sister, Ma'at, and I are trying to adapt to new normal.
  • My friend and former editor Lee Martindale passed away and I've been trying to support her widower. Next up: drafting her obit.
  • My city got invaded and two people were murdered by ICE within two miles of my house (I already live 4 blocks from what is now George Floyd Square). We're still dealing with all the after effects, trauma, financial disasters, etc. It's been...a lot.
  • I started a new job at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis just in time for owner Greg Ketter to get teargassed and turn into a folk hero.
  • I came into some money through Jana's dad's estate.
  • Co-taught a good class at the Loft Literary Center.
  • Got sick with the aforementioned cold during MarsCon.
  • Have gotten Joyce Chng's terrific queer pirate collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, into preorder status for release next month.
  • Did sundry fun things like an escape room expedition with the steampunk club, hung out with friends, saw plays and watched some entertaining TV.
  • Worked on submissions for Queen of Swords.
  • Campaigned hard for the Astreiant Series created by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett to be nominated for Best Series Hugo (please - Point of Hearts is the qualifying title!)
  • Wrote and got an article accepted for Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein. I wrote about a Margaret St. Clair story that is a fascinating historical artifact. And problematic af.
  • Got through Part Two and half of Part Three, so far, of my Data Analytics Certification program.
  • Wrote some thousands of words of new fiction, about which more soon.
  • I turn 63 on Monday, which is kind of wild.
More detail later after I get some sleep.

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Catherine Update

Mar. 15th, 2026 04:23 pm
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Where have I been? If you guessed down with another terrible cold, one that made the last one look like a walk in the park, you win! I starting getting sick on Friday and had to skip my panel, then lost my voice on Saturday during MarsCon so I skipped my morning panel and had to whiteboard it with the aid of Michael and Matt for the afternoon one. After that, I has just completely down so we packed up and I stayed home on Sunday. And I coughed and I coughed and I coughed and I did not sleep or talk very much at all for 4 days. Greg was kind enough to let me work from home on DreamHaven stuff so at least I'm not wildly behind on that. Everything else is another story. But in the middle of it all, a good friend died and hey, we put a spiffy new book up for preorder.

On the good side, we are planning on releasing Joyce Chng's mini-collection of queer pirate tales, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, on 4/9! It features beautiful artwork by Dhiyanah Hassan, gorgeous interior design by Terry Roy and lyrical prose by Joyce - who could ask for more! because 2026 is what it is, we have been beset by illness and delays so the print edition may come out a few days after the ebook one, but we are in progress. We will have review arcs for reviewers in the next couple of days so please let me know if you would like one. Preorders are love!

Also: so are award nominations. As I have mentioned a time or two, Queen of Swords Press released new editions of the Astreiant Series by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett and, because the latest new volume, Point of Hearts, came out in 2025, the series is eligible for the Best Series Hugo. It is not uncommon for books and people to make it on the ballot (and sometimes, win!) by only a handful of votes. Queen of Swords Press is my beloved little postage stamp-sized press - getting this series on the ballot would be HUGE for us! Plus, Melissa hasn't been on the ballot since she won the Campbell for her first novel, despite years of writing terrific sf and f. If you were a member of Seattle Worldcon or a voting member of LA Con, you can nominate! I know the series has a few votes already so please consider putting us over the top to make the ballot!

And I am out of steam and still need to work on a deadline piece. Friend's obit tomorrow. After I call the vet and get a rainbow Bridge appointment set up for Shu. 2026: the gift that keeps on giving.

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Life During Wartime, Part 2

Feb. 27th, 2026 08:40 pm
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This month has been a...LOT. So whatever you may have seen on the news or heard online, Minnesota is still being occupied and the impacts of both that and this administration's b.s. are pretty intense. Currently, the four biggest crises at the local level are rent (families have been forced to stay home and haven't been able to work and rent is due), legal support for families trying to get their kidnapped relatives back, impacts to rescues and shelters from pets having to be surrendered or just plain abandoned when their people are kidnapped and our major public hospital (one of the biggest networks in the state and a huge employer as well as the main provider of healthcare to people who are uninsured) teetering on the brink of closure. If you can spare a couple of bucks, here are some recommended fundraisers:
  • Stand with Minnesota has an up to date list of rent funds. I live in Bancroft, but help is needed in Philips, Central, North Minneapolis, West St. Paul, you name it. Throw a dart at a rent fund and it will help.
  • Women's Foundation of Minnesota Immigrant Rapid Response - I've been an annual donor to the Women's Foundation for a very long time and they do great work so they're my pick in the area. Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is another excellent chose.
  • Hennepin County Medical Center - they have a mobile pediatric clinic going to people's homes, a coat closet and a ton of other services, in additional to medical care.
  • ICE Hurts Animals Too - organization founded by several of my neighbors. In the first two weeks that this fund existed, they rescued 30 cats, got them vetted and fostered. In two weeks. They do house calls with vets, dog walking, emergency care, pet food and necessities delivered to families who can't go out, etc. Multi-species too.
What are we doing here, apart from patrolling, escorting, getting food to people, etc., etc.? There are about 3 benefits a day, every day, at a minimum, for all kinds of things. I haven't had full time employment since last July and I have contributed to 30 some odd fundraisers of one kind or another in two months. We're also holding space at DreamHaven Books and owners Greg and Lisa are donating to food banks, teachers who need books for their students who can't go to school, rent emergencies and more. MS Now broadcast the response to the State of the Union from the store on Tuesday night, which Greg and Lisa found very interesting. There are people coming from all over the country to meet Greg and visit the store with messages of support and more. It's been lovely so far, if very exhausting.

I'm teaching at the Loft Literary Center with Jennie Goloboy tomorrow morning and, snow permitting, going to the Lodge of Lazarus Crowe with the Diodes (local steampunk club) to try out a puzzle room or too, But in the meantime, also hosting an impromptu rent relief benefit on the Queen of Swords Press website - get a book by one of our Minnesota authors tomorrow (2/28): Jennie Goloboy, Michael Merriam, me or Emily L. Byrne and I'll make a donation to my neighborhood rent relief group.

Other than that, watching my boy kitty, Shu, slowly fade away, taking my data analytics classes, working on my next werewolf novel, an article I have due next month on a Margaret St. Clair story, a queer Arthurian tale set in Nazi-occupied France (go figure) and other sundry projects. Also: Queen of Swords Press submissions, Joyce Chng's new book, StoryBundle planning and more. Once I get a few more things picked off, it'll be back to looking at work options I can take on around the store. Good thing I have a fair amount of energy!
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Life During Wartime

Feb. 10th, 2026 04:32 pm
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How are things in Minneapolis/the Twin Cities/Minnesota and environs? Honestly: really bad.There have been some wins but people are burning themselves out to the core to foil kidnappings, help people who can't leave their homes, help children who've been kidnapped, help children who are left behind when their parents are kidnapped, help pets whose humans have been kidnapped, help small businesses survive, help people who can't pay rent pay rent, deal with legal challenges, etc.,etc. We're going on three months now and we have bus and train stop monitors, school bus monitors, people doing deliveries, people chasing these fuckers around despite harassment and retaliation, people doing donation drives, people doing fundraisers, people protesting at the Whipple Building (where they're holding folks who've been kidnapped), people waiting at Whipple to help folks who've been released with no winter coats (in MN winter) or phones, people protesting at the hotels hosting ICE (hello, Hilton chain!) and on  and on. There are so many heroes. 

But in three months, we have collectively been:
  • Shot and killed.
  • Regularly teargassed.
  • Threatened with guns.
  • Beaten (also by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, so not just ICE)
  • Had ICE kidnap legal observers, harass legal observers by showing up at their homes, harass businesses, etc.
  • Had a huge portion of our population go into hiding, which means they need food, toiletries, rent paid, pet food, diapers, and so forth.
  • Families have been broken up and traumatized.
  • There are horror stories about pets and livestock left to starve.
  • Small businesses are closing or on the brink because they've lost workers or their workers are stuck at home.
How long could your state's economy survived if the federal government wages war on you next? This is what we're up against. Add to that, Minneapolis's biggest public hospital network is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for a combination of reasons and if they go under, there goes most of the medical care for the uninsured, low income, etc, folks. Not to mention, it's a huge employer. I use their system myself and while I can go elsewhere, a lot of other people can't. That's the other part of all this: our systems for everything from housing to healthcare to the arts are taking/going to take a gigantic hit from all this. And where will the money come from to rebuild, assuming this ends soon? Not the feds, clearly. 

That said, here are a few places where small donations help a lot. Please donate if you can, book if you can't. "Everything little bit helps," as the bus stop monitor I spoke to the other day on my way to drop off toiletry donations at the Pride Cultural Center Pantry said. How am I personally? Well, I'm writing this despite having a horrible cold on the anniversary of Jana's death so please assume that I think it's pretty damned important. Big thank you shoutout to everyone who's been helping so far! More cheerful posts soon, I hope.
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