Where I (and Queen of Swords Press authors) will be in 2024

2024 - Updates as I get 'em!

January:

• We're taking January a bit slow. Catherine did a book club appearance is updating our TikTok with some short videos about our books and our history to celebrate our 7th birthday. Also going on: edits! And planning! We're putting out 7 books this year - Terror at Tierra de Cobre by Michael Merriam (Weird West novella with ensemble cast) and Melissa Scott's Astreiant Series, which includes 5 previously published books (Point of Hopes, etc.) and a brand new novella! It's going to be a great year!

February:

• Capricon 44 - February 1-4, Chicago, IL. Catherine Lundoff is one of the Guests of Honor and on a bunch of programming items. Author Michael Merriam will also be attending.
• Queer Writes - February 25, 12- 5PM. Urban Growler Brewery, St. Paul, MN. New local event for writers, publishers and bookstores hosted by Twin Cities Pride. We've got a table and will be there with books.

March:

• MarsCon - March 8-10, Minneapolis, MN. Author Michael Merriam is a Guest of Honor as no we’ll both be on programming  and we'll be there with a book table and his latest books and more!
• Cleveland Concoction - March 8-10, Ohio. Author Melissa Scott is a Guest of Honor!
• Minicon - March 29-31, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine Lundoff, Jennie Goloboy and Michael Merriam will be there and on programming. We have a Queen of Swords Press reading on Saturday from 3-4!

April:

• Story Hour - April 3rd. Online, 7PM PST. Author Dee Holloway will be reading along with another guest writer to be announced.
• "Current Trends in the Publishing Industry" - April 9th, 6-7:30 PM CST. Online panel hosted by PEN. Catherine Lundoff will be one of the panelists.
• 13 Gears Steampunk Festival - April 13-14, Roseville, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table with authors Michael Merriam and Patrick Marsh.
• DreamHaven Books Reading - April 18th, 6:30 PM, Minneapolis, MN. Michael, Jennie and Catherine will be reading.
• Can*Con Virtual - April 20th. Online, Ottawa, Canada. Jennie Goloboy will be on
  “Agents Are Just People (No, Really!).

May:

• "In Conversation: Caitlin and Cadieux and Dee Holloway" at the East Greenbush Library - May 9th, 6:30-7:30PM. East Greenbush, NY. Dee and Caitlin will be talking about Little Nothing and more.
  
• Rochester Pride - May 18th, 12-5PM. Rochester, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a booth.
• Balticon 58 - May 24-27, Baltimore, MD. Melissa Scott will be on programming.

June:

• Pride Month StoryBundle - Kicks off May 31 and runs through July 1.  14 books by amazing queer authors and we're raising funds for Rainbow Railroad again!
  
• Story Hour – June 5th. Online, 7PM PST. Author Dee Holloway will be reading along with another guest writer to be announced.
• 4th Street Fantasy - June 14-16, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine Lundoff will be attending.
• Midwest Book Awards - June 22nd, 6:30-9:30 PM, Minneapolis, MN. Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold is a finalist.
  
• Temporal Textual Talks Virtual Book Club - June 23rd, 4:30-6:30 PM PST. Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold is the featured title and Catherine and at least one of the authors will be there.
• Twin Cities Pride - June 29th-30th, Minneapolis, MN. We'll have a table in the Queer Writes tent (over by the bridge to the Sculpture Garden)!

July

• Golden Crown Literary Society Conference - July 10-14, St. Paul, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
  
• Michael Merriam Reading – July 17th, 6:30 – 7:45PM at DreamHaven Books, Minneapolis.
• Raedial Reads Book Fair - July 27th, 11-5PM. Harriet Island Park, St. Paul, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

August:

• Mythcon – August 2nd-5th, Minneapolis. Michael Merriam will be tabling with a selection of Queen of Swords Press titles and his other books.
• Boom Con – August 10th, Minnnetonka, MN. Michael Merriam will be tabling with a selection of Queen of Swords Press titles and his other books.
• Glasgow Worldcon - August 8th-12th, Glasgow, Scotland. Some of us will be there online and some will be there in person. Catherine, Alex, Jennie and Heather will be there in person!
• Carver County Pride - August 31st, Carver County Fairgrounds, Carver County, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

September:

• Pagan Pride Fall Festival – September 7th. Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• Columbia Heights Pride - September 21st, 11-4PM. Columbia Heights, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• St. Cloud Pride in the Park - September 22nd, 12-5PM. St. Cloud, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• "Crafting Irresistible Opening Pages" - September 28th, 10-1PM, The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN. Jennie Goloboy and Catherine Lundoff will be teaching this workshop.
• Flights of Foundry - September 27-29th, online. Catherine Lundoff will be in the Dealer's Room and probably on programming.

October:

• Saratoga Book Festival – October 5th-6th, Saratoga Springs, NY. Author Dee Holloway will have an author table.
• Queer Writes Book Fair - October 13th, 12-5PM, Utepils Brewing, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• Twin Cities Book Festival - October 19th, 9:30-5PM, St. Paul, MN.
  
• World Fantasy Convention - October 17th-20th, Niagara Falls, NY. Catherine Lundoff will be participating in the online portion of the con.
• Speculations Reading Series - October 23rd, 6:30-7:45PM, DreamHaven Books, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine Lundoff will be reading for her work.
• WROTE Podcast - October 25th. Catherine will be back as a guest.

November:

• Fediverse BookFair - November 2nd-3rd, online. Mastodon - Catherine Lundoff will be posting on Wandering Shop. Follow the hashtag #FediBookFair to see all posts.
  
• Writers Drinking Coffee - Air date, 11/1. Catherine Lundoff was this week's guest.
• Odd Mart Odd Market - November 24th, 12-4, Minneapolis. Catherine Lundoff will be selling books at Minneapolis' emporium of the weird.

December:

• Modus Locus Expansion Holiday Market - December 7th, 11-4PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• Nicollet Island Winter Market - December 15th, 10-4PM. We'll be sharing a table with Michael Merriam.

The Rest of 2024 in Review

So! I started out 2024 by wrapping a year and a half of effort by me, 2 social workers and a paralegal to get Jana's care funded and Jana moved into a memory care facility in one of the burbs. By that point, she was frequently getting lost, was losing motor skills, had no interest in anything she'd always been interested and was, shall we say, not very in control of anything. 2023 was hideously stressful; I slept very poorly, had norovirus and other fun things. But I got Jana placed in January (HUGE thank you shoutout to everyone who helped me move her in), set up various backup systems and went off to be a Guest of Honor at Capricon 44 in early February. This was a fun trip to Chicago with friends, a lovely time at the con and a thoroughly good trip. So, of course, I contracted COVID on the way back for the first time (lockdown was pretty intense in our household so dodging contagion was made a bit easier).

Fortunately, I was able to get my mitts on some Paxlovid and it cleared up a few days. Only one of the friends I was traveling with caught it and he also had a mild case, so best possible outcomes. But I was down for a bit with the lurgy. It did clear up in time for me to go and cheer Michael Merriam on at his Guest of Honor stint at MarsCon in Minneapolis in early March, so that was fun. But all of it, added to illnesses and job changes impacting other people and my own job change at the end of March meant that we had delays on putting out the new edition of Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. And do you know what happens when you commit to releasing a 5 book series, that then becomes a 6 book series in a calendar year, and you have delays? You put out a book a month! Which was...a Lot.

I was still on call for Jana's stuff, not to mention checking on her regularly, working full time at stressful job and trying to manage life on my own for the first time in 28 years. Most of which went better than I feared, but I had to farm out the yardwork to Mother's Earth's Gardens and plunged headlong into Swedish Death Cleaning, the way of life. 5.5 sales later and I have dented the mess in Jana's former studio by a lot and other parts of the house by a noticeable amount. I bought myself a new bed with a state of the art mattress and a frame that raises and lowers to help with my growing back and hip issues. I replaced the dining room furniture with chairs that were'n't falling apart and a table that wasn't too big for the space. I gave a lot of stuff away and made a tiny bit of headway on organizing things.

I also decided that I was going to do one new thing a month and one thing I hadn't done since before lockdown. I finally got my roadtrip to Alma, Wisconsin for a great weekend with friends. I got to go to Iceland (a revisit) and Scotland for Glasgow World Con (first time in Scotland), which was generally a delight except for the part where I was sick for 2 weeks before I left and pretty exhausted for the first part of the trip. But got to meet lovely people, had a great time visiting the Highlands, had fun rooming with Heather and generally enjoyed myself.

Then came back to find that Jana, who had been going downhill fast, no longer recognized me or knew where she was. She had adapting reasonably well, but within a few weeks of my return, we were already talking about hospice. More wrangling ensued, but I was able to get her moved over in the same facility and same room. Then she plateaued for a bit. Now we are apparently in end game, where she's having a series of ministrokes. This, of course, is happening at the same time that my beloved boy kitty, Shu, is having health issues and the day job is on fire. Good times?

But, I have awesome friends and I put out those first 5 Astreiant novels and am working on publishing the brand new 6th one. I'm writing again and working on new projects and a novel. I've gotten to see a lot of things from theatre to places I hadn't been before or in a while. All things considered, it has had some real high points. Now we'll ride out the next wave and see what we can make of 2025, if anything. Many, many thanks for everyone who's helped me get through this.