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As many of the longtime Twin Cities folks know, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's annual MayDay Parade and Festival is one of the most anticipated events in town. Thousands of people gather in Powderhorn Park to watch the puppet parade, the different contingents of dancers and musicians and other groups, then go down to the park for the pageant to dance and drum to welcome the sun back as it is rowed across the lake. But HOBT has been struggling and losing grant funding for a while now and they've had to announce that this will be their last MayDay unless a partner steps up. Their theater needs renovation as well and they need funds for all of this. MayDay has always been one of our reasons for living in south Minneapolis; it is the soul of our city. I'm sure that there are lots of plans afoot to try and save the event and the theater and I know a number of folks who are donating directly to HOBT and I think this is a great idea. I split my donation, gave some of it directly t the theater, and used the other part to start a Facebook fundraiser. It'll take a bit longer to go to them, but there's potential for raising a helpful sum of cash if it gets boosted enough. Every bit helps and donations can be as low as $5. It will run until 1/31/19 so there's some time to contribute, if you're interested. I've boosted it on Twitter and NextDoor so please like my post and/or RT so more people see it. Thanks for your help!
In other news, Queen of Swords Press is celebrating its second birthday this week (which also happens to be Jana and my 24th anniversary and my 6th year at my day job)! There'll be a party at Bingley's Tea Salon in Minneapolis on Saturday from 2-4 with books and tea and munchies and there will be a prize drawing for newsletter subscribers. You can sign up at the website or at the tea (current subscribers are automatically entered), and prizes include free books, a Queen of Swords Press mug, some tea from Bingley's, a literary candle from Frostbeard Studios and other fun stuff. The drawing will happen on 1/20 so I can announce it when I send the newsletter out. Hope to see some of you there!
I was interviewed last week on the British horror/dark fantasy/weird fiction site, greydogtales, for their portion of LGBTQ Horror Month, and as part of the wrap-up to the festivities, I'll be putting my short fiction collection Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories, on sale from 1/21-1/27.
Now back to organizing for talks and classes and getting a new story written and submitted.
In other news, Queen of Swords Press is celebrating its second birthday this week (which also happens to be Jana and my 24th anniversary and my 6th year at my day job)! There'll be a party at Bingley's Tea Salon in Minneapolis on Saturday from 2-4 with books and tea and munchies and there will be a prize drawing for newsletter subscribers. You can sign up at the website or at the tea (current subscribers are automatically entered), and prizes include free books, a Queen of Swords Press mug, some tea from Bingley's, a literary candle from Frostbeard Studios and other fun stuff. The drawing will happen on 1/20 so I can announce it when I send the newsletter out. Hope to see some of you there!
I was interviewed last week on the British horror/dark fantasy/weird fiction site, greydogtales, for their portion of LGBTQ Horror Month, and as part of the wrap-up to the festivities, I'll be putting my short fiction collection Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories, on sale from 1/21-1/27.
Now back to organizing for talks and classes and getting a new story written and submitted.