Dwelling in Probabilities

5 Things Make a Post

2026-04-07T01:57:30Z

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

2026-03-26T02:48:25Z

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

2026-03-16T00:18:55Z

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

2026-02-28T03:34:11Z

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

2026-02-10T23:14:47Z

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.

Twin Cities Pride has rainbow Resistance Loon t-shirts that they're selling as a fundraiser for the food pantry.
Music for Good - local musicians teamed up to produce protest songs for a mutual aid fundraiser.
DreamHaven Book GoFundMe - Greg Ketter is donating all new donations to local foodshelves and school book drives.
ICE Hurts Animals Too - animal rescue for abandoned pets/help for folks stuck at home.
The best overall fundraiser list - Stand With Minnesota
The multi-faceted approach, not just donations - Naomi Kritzer's "How to Help if You are Outside MInnesota"

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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Welcome to Minnesota/catch up

2026-01-22T03:32:50Z

Well, as a local friend said recently, "In 2020, it was us against us, and we're not very good at processing that. Now it's us against them and we know how to do that."

Okay, Me stuff first:

I have started working part time at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis. A longtime staffer is leaving so I'm stepping into their bookselling shoes, more or less. I'm on my second week and enjoying it so far. Stop by and see us or order online! But not on 1/23 (see below).
I applied for and got an invite to be a participating pro at Dragon Con in Atlanta in September. I figure that's the sort of thing I should try for now while I can handle it physically. Going with a friend and am quite looking forward to it.
Queen of Swords Press had a lovely first event of the year at the Lodge of Lazarus Crowe in St. Paul. Highly recommended!
Jennie Goloboy and I are teaching "To Market, To Market: How Professionals Look at Your Manuscriptloft.org/classes/market-market-how-professionals-look-your-manuscript-0" at the Loft Literary Center at the end of February. We have tons of good advice and pointers! Come join us if you can.
I have had 2 article pitches accepted and got an anthology invite so am plugging away at new projects and making progress on my novel and new stories.

Minneapolis/Twin Cities/Greater Minnesota:

God, where to begin?
So far: one known murder; many, many kidnappings; abandoned children, animals and cars; local people brutalized, beaten, gassed, shot and threatened; our streets are empty because immigrants and people of color are afraid to be out. Today, they kidnapped a 5 year old and a 10 year old and sent them from here to Texas. The impact locally is horrific. And we're getting the couch-fucker and more fascist shock troops this very week.
The plus side is that as a group, we are tough, hold grudges like watching Sisu on rewind and thanks to the local disasters of 2020, are super good at organizing. Everyone I know is doing something - donating, fundraising, monitoring bus stops, patrolling, delivering food and other necessities, rescuing abandoned pets, etc., etc. Oh and hey, we're having a general strike on Friday 1/23. It's being called by organized labor and lots and lots of businesses and organizations are participating (a partial list here). Big march downtown too.
What can you do? Call and email your Congress critters and demand that ICE be defunded NOW - Indivisible has a good setup. Author Naomi Kritzer has a good post up at about more comprehensive ways to help, including donation links. Please do these things. We are smaller than Chicago and have more immigrants than a lot of places our size or bigger - huge multi-generational communities of resettled refugees. This is part of why we're being targeted.
Speaking of Target, the protests there are pretty lit - 100s of clergy doing a sit-in at HQ, people doing sing-ins at the store, buying and returning icemelt to gum up the works and more. Ask your local Target manager to send a message to Corporate to take a stand and stop allowing ICE to hunt their own employees in their stores and use their parking lots.
In short, please help us. This is not sustainable and they're going to kill more people if this isn't stopped. Yes, it is real. No, Fox News is not real. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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RIP, M. Christian 😢

2026-01-12T15:30:53Z

This is a heartbreaker of a post to write. I don’t remember when I first met Chris online, but we were all part of a fairly large community of erotica writers who also crossed over into other genres from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, by which point the literary erotica markets largely disintegrated. Everyone knew everyone else to some extent or another. We all shared TOCs, appeared in each other’s publications and socialized in person, if we lived close enough. Since I am in the Midwest, I didn’t get to do much socializing in person, but I did meet Chris and a bunch of other folks at an erotica writers conference in Vegas in the mid2000s.

In my experience, Chris was kind and genial, loved to write, wrote very well and enjoyed supporting other writers. Their body of work, between erotica, horror, science fiction and nonfiction, was enormous and well worth reading. I appeared in at least 3 of the anthologies that they edited and they sent me a great lesbian ghost for one of mine. I also had a short essay in Chris’s nonfiction book about writing and selling erotica. I have no idea how many TOCs we shared, but it was a lot. I blurbed a couple of his/their books along the way, as well. Most recently, I released a new edition of Chris’s terrific gay vampire novel, Running Dry through Queen of Swords Press.

Chris’s fiction ranged from the smoking hot to the atmospheric and suspenseful. While they finaled for multiple awards, they never really got the wins and recognition outside the erotica writing community that they deserved, which is a damn shame. I was reaching out to Chris to tell them that I had just nominated Running Dry for the SSBA Awards in the Horror category when I got the bad news. 😢

As I’ve posted elsewhere, I’m trying to track down an estate contact. In the meantime, I plan to keep their book in print until I hear otherwise. Author royalties will be set aside until I have a designee or will be donated to some of the organizations they cared deeply about. In the meantime, remember them for their work. Read it, enjoy it and pass it along to your friends. Chris would like that.

https://books2read.com/runningdry

And their website: http://www.mchristian.com

UPDATE: I have spoken with Chris's brother and have gotten permission to keep Running Dry in print and to pay him the royalties. In the meantime, Samuel needs help getting to Eugene, covering associated expenses, etc. If you're in a position to help, his Venmo is @Samuel-AddisonMuncy

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Current state of the Catherine, etc.

2026-01-08T15:06:58Z

This was going to be a cheerful post, but then Minneapolis got invaded and a member of my community was murdered and a bunch of others were kidnapped, including local high school students. "Rage" is such a little word, it doesn't begin to cover it. And yes, as with 2020, I'm living blocks away from the epicenter.

But for those worried about me personally, I am living alone, unemployed and taking care of a sick cat who requires regular medical attention. Add into that a bum leg and ice-covered streets and I'm not out much at night except for planned activities where I am meeting with or being driven by friends. Am I going into areas where folks have been targeted? Yes. I was at the Mercado Central yesterday for lunch after a post office run. It was largely deserted because people are justifiably terrified, but I got lunch from the lady making pupusas (one of the very few places that was open) and toiling away to feed the 10 or so people who were there. The front door was locked and building security was much in evidence. This is a reminder to support local immigrant-owned businesses.They need all the help they can get right now. I am also planning on going to the rally this Saturday, but will skip the march. Other than that, I am supporting my good electeds and local organizations, writing emails and will be doing some volunteering on related things (online, etc.) as time permits.

What else is going on? Well, today I'm "auditioning" for a part-time gig at a nearby local bookstore. A long time staffer is leaving and they're hoping I'll be a good fill in option. Not the week I would pick to start a retail gig in Minneapolis, but that fault lies neither with the bookstore or me. It's close enough, I think I can work out the med and event schedule with the store's needs, but we'll see how it goes. Shu is still hanging on, albeit with a few more periodic bad days (no more seizures so far, at least) - he still wants loves and cuddles and food and brushing so I'll try and keep him going until he wants to go. A friend just sent me a Reedsy invite so I need to get my editing info together and post out there as the bookstore gig will not cover all of my expenses. I did get some good financial news recently so not desperate, just want to make sure I don't become so and I need to avoid going on Social Security for a while longer or life will get even more problematic.

Other news:

Queen of Swords Press is celebrating its 9th birthday this month! Also known as "Holy Shit! We Made it!" Huge thank you shoutout to everyone who's helped along the way! We are having a birthday sale this week - use code BIRTHDAY at check out to get a discount when buying direct from us through 1/11 and you'll get entered in our prize drawing!
Jennie Goloboy and I are co-teaching "To Market, To Market" at The Loft Literary Center on 2/28. Get help from a prominent literary agent and an award-winning small press publisher on getting your book submitted and potentially published and all that good stuff.
I just added some things to my Ko-fi store, including a couple of signed copies of an out of print award-winning collection.
I have a Patreon where I post fiction, nonfiction, Queen of Swords Press news and more. This supports me in the sense of paying me for my publishing work.
You can hire me to edit, teach, write and all that good stuff! Check out my Professional Editor's Network page here.
Blue Moon (the next werewolf book) has cleared 18k words, I'm working on a queer Arthurian story for an anthology invite, I'm starting on a nonfiction piece for a successful pitch and I have a novella and a short story in progress. Working on building my nonfiction portfolio and helping people remember that I used to be a pretty well known fiction author so definitely open to more projects!

More bulletins as we go along. Please stay as safe as possible out there and do good work!
EDITED: Looks like the bookstore gig will work out once we get schedules and stuff sorted. Which means you'll be able to see me at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis more often!

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Where to Find Queen of Swords Press/Me in 2026

2026-01-03T23:10:20Z

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.
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.
Balticon 60 - May 22-25, Baltimore, MD. Melissa Scott may be there - placeholder

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

Inbound Brewing Book Fair for Grown Ups - July 11th, 12-7PM, Education Building, MN State Fair Grounds, St. Paul. There is an admission fee with this one, but it comes with a drink ticket. Queen of Swords Press will be there with books.

August:

LA Con 2026 Worldcon - August 27th-31st, Los Angeles, CA. Catherine will be a virtual attendee and hopefully on programming.

September:

Dragon Con - September 3-7th, Atlanta, GA. Catherine will be an Attending Pro and will be on programming.
Pagan Pride Fall Festival – September 7th. Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis. Placeholder
Columbia Heights Pride - September 13th, Columbia Heights, MN. Placeholder
St. Cloud Pride in the Park - September 19th, 11AM-4PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table.

October:

November:

Twin Cities Book Festival - November 7th, 9:30-5PM. Union Depot, St. Paul. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

December:

Nicollet Island Winter Market - placeholder

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Year in review, Part the Second: Publishing

2025-12-30T03:29:55Z

It was one heck of a year!
We released 3 titles:

Point of Hearts (Astreiant #6) by Melissa Scott
Running Dry by M.Christian
The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett

Award News:

Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett won a Midwest Independent Publishers Association Award for speculative fiction
Catherine Lundoff won an Alice B. Readers Award for her body of work in sapphic fiction
Terror at Tierra de Cobre by Michael Merriam was a finalist for the Inaugural Small Spec Book Awards, Horror Category
The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones was nominated for the Indie Ink Awards in 2 categories, including Aromantic/Asexual Representation
The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett is eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Series this year

Other Cool Things:

The University of Minnesota Library Upper Midwest Literary Archive is officially collecting us, with a finding guide and everything, crossed listed with the Tretter Collection.
Point of Hearts was reviewed in Locus Magazine, our first title in Locus.

Apart from that, we did 36 events this year! That includes conferences, book festivals, bookstore readings, book events at breweries and other venues, podcasts and probably something I'm forgetting. It was a lot! If you were one of the folks who hosted us, bought our books, reviewed our books, supported our Patreon and/or generally helped us get the word out about our books, you rock! Thank you!

And a big thank you to our authors, cover designers, book designer and my assistant, Alexa, for all your hard work this year! Additional shout out to Kate Larking who did a bunch of marketing and publicity work for us! See you all in 2026!

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Year in Review, Part the First: The Personal Stuff

2025-12-29T01:08:53Z

Okay, so apart from the horrors at the national and international level, my 2025 was defined by the following events:

My wife and partner of 29 years, bookbinder and conservator Jana Pullman, died in February after a 5 year struggle with dementia (the same week as my mom's birthday, which will be super fun this year).
My boy kitty, Shu, got diagnosed with feline diabetes requiring multiple insulin injections per day at the ripe old age of 15 in early March.
I was awarded a 2025 Alice B. Readers Award in March. This is an anonymous juried award for an author's body of work in sapphic fiction, nonfiction, poetry and/or drama. Previous winners have included such "lightweights" as Joanna Russ, Dorothy Allison and this year, Emma Donoghue. I was floored and thrilled and floored again. It is a lovely thing and it made my year much better.
In June, my friend Anne Shaw died unexpectedly (I didn't find out about it until several weeks later, for reasons I won't go into now) and I miss her a lot. Other folks who passed in 2025 who were friends/colleagues to one degree or another: bi activist and organizer Lou Hoffman; poet and WisCon/organizer.volunteer Terry Garey; and Tiptree Award/WisCon/lots of other things artist Freddie Baer.
In July, my IT contract ended (this was expected). But in the ensuing months of unemployment, it has become clear that between my age, the fact that I have to work remotely due to kitty care needs and changes in the job market, I am probably involuntarily retired from IT after 25 years. I have some mixed feels, but acknowledge that I was completely and utterly burned out and that, money aside, it is time for a change.
Over the summer, Jana was awarded the first posthumous Laura Young Award for Service to the Guild of Bookworkers. I wasn't able to swing going to Iowa City for it due the job situation and the need to pay for cat sitting, so other folks were kind enough to deliver my speech on her behalf and bring back the award. Thanks to Parry, Madelyn and Chris!
I started writing fiction again! And nonfiction! I had a new story up at Heather Rose Jones's LHMPodcast, "An Encounter with a Lady" and an short nonfiction piece at New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, "Joanna Russ: Sword & Sorcery Pioneer?" I will have a second nonfiction piece out in New Edge in 2026, "Thula the Maid and Her Creator," date TBD. Thanks to embracing the writing sprint model, I currently have 2 short stories, a novella and the next werewolf novel in progress.
I am knuckling down on making Queen of Swords Press profitable enough to pay me on a considerably more regular basis, to which end, I have enrolled in the State of Minnesota's CLIMB Program for entrepreneurs and Hennepin County's Elevate program, which does small business mentoring. I am also attending a crap ton of classes and such and am trying to spin up an editing business (hire me!). You can also check out my Ko-fi store for sundry workshops, coaching, downloadable things to read, boxes by Jana, etc.
I set myself a goal of doing one new thing and one thing that I hadn't done since before lockdown in 2020 each month. This included some travel adventures: a weekend in Red Wing, MN, at a historic hotel by myself; going to Seattle Worldcon and coming back by sleeper car with friends on the train; and flying first class for the first time in my life to Readercon in Boston. I've also been visiting new to me places around the Twin Cities, like Raspberry Island for the Alebrijes show this summer, and places I keep meaning to check out again, like the new location of the Somali Museum of Minnesota and the Landmark Center in St. Paul. Lately, I've been working on making some new friends as well as connecting with my old ones.
I continued with my weekly online movement and isolation dance/exercise class with local Middle Eastern Dance maven, Cassandra Shore (apparently, I can now "Shimmy Like Your Sister Kate" at a very basic level). I found a massage therapist I really like. Apart from ongoing pain issues and the occasional migraine, I'm pretty healthy.
I started a 3 part series of classes at the University of Minnesota to get a certification in Data Analytics in October. I aced the first one so here's hoping I can do as well on the next two classes!
I'm ending this year with some hopeful financial news, which is lovely. So overall, a very mixed bag of year from devastating to stupendous and back again.

Finally, many thanks to the friends who've helped me get through this year. A lot of people helped in a lot of different ways and I want you to know that I greatly appreciate it!Next up, publishing news!

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Racing toward the end of the year...

2025-12-17T03:45:42Z

I have a huge number of updates and end of year things to post, but I'm scrambling to get things done and wrap up some deadlines. Here's a brief recap:

Queen of Swords Press has released the new Astreiant omnibus! The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett includes all 6 novels and is available in the various ebook platforms. However. Amazon is absolutely fleecing us on this, taking 65% of cover, so please, please, buy it direct from us or Smashwords/D2D or Kobo or even B&N or GooglePlay instead. I need to see if Weightless is interested too. At any rate, the Astreiant Series is eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year! Please keep it in mind.
I'm trying to wrap up the first third of my Data Analytics certification, with a final this week.
I'm doing Queen of Swords Press's 34th event for 2025 this Saturday - stop by AudreyRose Vintage in Minneapolis on 12/20 12-4PM for fun shopping with multiple vendors of various things!
I'm working on edits for Joyce Chng's fab collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, which we're releasing early next year.
I need to complete a new grant proposal in the next two weeks.
I have written several thousand works of new fiction, including working on the next werewolf novel in the last few week, thanks to writing sprints.
I have come to recognize that I will not be landing in an IT gig any time soon, if ever, due to needing remote work, my age and the state of the job market, so I'm enrolling in the State of MN CLIMB Program and have gotten myself a small biz mentor through Hennepin County Elevate and I'm doubling down on publishing.
New editing biz is open! Got a manuscript that wants some love or need some publishing coaching or know someone who does? Send them my way!

Okay, stopping there for the moment. End of year wrap up posts coming soon!

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Where in the world is Catherine?

2025-11-26T22:17:27Z

An endlessly valid question these days. I am not wearing a striped shirt (one has to have standards), but I have been a. Wrestling with Hell Cold for weeks now and b. Piling on all the events I can get into because no day job and c. Wrangling my data analytics class, Queen of Swords Press stuff, writing, job hunting and sundries.

Some things have begun to dawn on me, albeit quite slowly. I'm unbelievably burnt out. Objectively, I knew this, but I'm starting to reckon with the fact that 5 years of nonstop stress and 60-70 hours week have...dented me pretty badly. The last year of deranged boss and constant threat of being fired did not help either. Add to that my age, my cat who needs medical attention and feedings which require me to be at home (even if I wanted to go back to the cube farms) and the IT job market tanking and I'm starting to let go of it. I'm going to focus on ramping up the press, reviving my dormant editing business and seeing what kind of other WFH I can scare up here and there. Eventually, Social Security will have to be a thing, but even with Jana's added in, it won't be enough to live on and I'll have to work anyway.

On the jollier side, I'm writing again! I cranked out 1000 words of novel draft last night, the most I've written at one time in a while. I have 2 other projects in progress and am gradually getting some ideas for other things. I'm going to be pitching some talks and classes and articles as well and working on new story collections as well. I just reactivated my Professional Editors Network membership and will be rebuilding my profile in the next few days. I have a new small business mentor with the county and am meeting with her next week. I found a support group for unemployed older women and will meet with them next week.

And Queen of Swords Press has a terrific new gay vampire novel by M.Christian out and we'll be releasing an omnibus edition of the Astreiant Series by next month on 12/15! The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett is up for preorder now (please buy direct from us if you can; Amazon is going to crush us on their percentage for this book). The Astreiant Series is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year, so please keep it in mind when you are nominating. Melissa Scott has never won a Hugo and I'd love to change that.

Queen of Swords Press is also WisCon's Vendor of the Month for November so if you buy a backlist title (not the preorder) from us using coupon code WisCon26 at checkout, you get a sale price and we'll donate $ to the con. The proverbial win/win!

I'm adding Jana's boxes and journals to the shop on Ko-fi, along with some of my own projects and offerings. Please feel free to boost if the shopping aspects won't work for you.

More bulletins soon! Have a great holiday if you're celebrating! I'm going to veg out with my kitties and do some writing and editing, before enjoying a good takeout meal from the co-op. I'm booked every waking moment Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday so please don't worry that I'm being left to weep alone into my cranberries. I'm deliberately choosing to have a day off. :-)

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And back again!

2025-11-04T03:51:10Z

I kept starting posts, then getting too busy/distracted to finish them so here goes for an update:

I did not get the job I had a second interview for. I do not currently have any prospects for another IT gig at present. This is not...great from a financial standpoint. I am not in dire straits, but I would also prefer to avoid sailing into them in the not very distant future. Ways to help, if you are inclined and able, while I sort myself out: Ko-fi (posting once a week - there are also things in the shop); Patreon (I post a couple of times a month); or the ever popular hire me for things like editing, writing, teaching etc, and/or buy a book or two from Queen of Swords Press.
In fact, speaking of Queen of Swords, we are WisCon's first Vendor of the Month! Subscribe to the newsletter to get the sales code and when you use it on our website, you get a discount and we do a matching donation to WisCon. How cool is that?
What else is going on? I finished vetting 27 state arts board grants. For organizations. It was a lot. But some cool projects coming up and I look forward to seeing how they turn out.
I started my data analytics certification course the first. Having some issues getting the instructor to respond when there are problems (I can't get into the Zoom for university reasons) so hopefully we'll get that sorted this week. Otherwise, learning how to do some new things in Excel with data and it's pretty interesting.
Doing an ungodly number of events. Last week, I did a pop-up on Sunday, a reading in Anoka on Tuesday and a book fair at a brewery in Fridley on Sunday. Friday, I go set up for the Twin Cities Book Festival for Saturday, then do a reading at DreamHaven on Wednesday, then a Queer Writes events on Sunday, then a three day marathon of Fables & Flames, the romantasy con. I "only" have 2 events for December so far so probably picking up more. Why? Well, it's likely to be my income soon, but only if I can get it to pick up quite a bit.
Writing! I'm doing writing sprints with Broad Universe once or twice a week and it's helping get me back on track.
Going to art things with friends. So far, that's included a mural tour of Lake Street, Dia de los Muertos on Lake Street, a performance about the Fox Sisters and spiritualism, Lizzie Borden: A Punk Rock Musical, a play about the creation of Shakespeare's First Folio and sundry other things I'm forgetting about.
I went to the Careerforce meeting I was supposed to go to and now I need to follow up.
A metric ton of meet ups and trainings of various kinds - I finally finished the developmental editing certification that I've been working on sporadically for a while!
Cooking things from scratch like applesauce and borscht.
Went to a small No Kings event with some neighbors.
Winterizing the house, cleaning things out, embarking on the deep clean I haven't managed to get to for years now.

Cats are still hanging in there, though Shu is slowing down, poor boy. But otherwise managing for the moment.

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Moving into October

2025-10-05T02:39:37Z

So the big personal news for this week is that I finally got a job interview to wrap up last week...back at the same company I've been contracting at for most of the last three years. Different manager though, and more interesting-sounding position. Seeing as I know the ropes pretty well, I'm getting the second interview this coming week and we'll see how it goes. If I get the offer, I have to take it since my former contracting company is paying for my unemployment and frankly, I'm not very up for eyeing the abyss of "what happens if unemployment ends/savings have to be burned through/the entire social safety net finishes unraveling." I've been through enough of that over the last 5 years.

Apart from ageism, sexism, the economy and so forth, the main obstacle to me getting at least up to the interview stage is that my kitty Shu requires shots on a very regular schedule a couple of times a day, plus regular feedings--the cats are on a raw meat diet due to being allergic to chicken and somewhat delicate tummies so I can't just pop food in a feeder and let them fend for themselves. Paying my catsitter to come in a couple of times a week just so I can go into an office to make a manager feel more secure isn't particularly viable, not to mention the costs of gas and commuting. So it has to be full WFH and those IT gigs in my skillset are few and far between right now. Given all that, please wish me luck!

What's the backup plan? Well, I'm doubling down on publisher meetings, trainings related to book production and marketing and whatever I can glean from startup support/culture that is somewhat relevant to Queen of Swords Press. Today, for instance, I went to an Entrepreneur Expo at the Central Library and got some useful thoughts from one of the folks I talked to (from the county's Elevate program for small biz startups). I think she will probably be more useful for immediate advice than the guy I spoke to at St. Thomas a couple of weeks ago, and she did say that she wanted me to touch base with her soon. Last week was a couple of marketing workshops and a publisher meetup. Monday is a meetup for the the queer small business app we're now underwriting, Everywhere is Queer. Oh, and I added some events. And we're putting out a new book this month - Running Dry by M.Christian (gay vampires with a twist!) is up for preorder now. I'm also starting to add Jana's boxes to my Ko-fi shop, along with sundry services you can hire me for.

I've got some writing and teaching plans that I'm working on as well, including, you know, books. Unfortunately, some of the teaching venues I taught at before are no longer viable the way they were before or have shifted directions in ways that do not play to my strengths. So more research, more pitching, more work all around. But next month, there's paid grant vetting and I just turned in another article so I can start pitching more of those.

On the bright side, I'm making progress on patching concrete around the house foundation and almost succeeded in patching the leaking pipe. I've managed to clean out and shift some stuff in the house so that none of the heating vents are blocked any more and there's a bit more space to move around. Next up, tripping hazards and things that make it harder to clean (like books in weird places, etc.). Shu is relatively stable, Ma'at is great and I've been vaxxed and all that good stuff. I'm doing a lot of cooking from scratch and some preserving and such. All in all, as long as I don't look at the news, I'm doing reasonably well, under the circumstances.

Fingers crossed that it's the same for all of you right now!

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My, it's been a few weeks...

2025-09-13T02:43:19Z

I didn't realize it had been that long. So what have I been doing? Always a fair question.

Being unemployed. With no interviews. And a sick cat who hanging on enough that I have to work remotely since hiring my catsitter multiple times a week plus commuting costs so I can hang out and experience a germ-laden cube farm has lost any appeal it ever had for me. Alternatively, I'm not killing my cat so some dweeb can watch me in person instead of online. Plus, I am still absolutely crispy.
What am I doing instead? I have registered for an online Data Analytics Certification program at the University of Minnesota. It starts next month and doesn't look too painful. It's also not industry-specific in case I want to get out of healthcare. I am also dutifully signing up with contracting companies, lining up references, checking in with colleagues and all that.
I'll be vetting grants again in November for a small stipend.
I need to get a list of Jana's remaining fine bindings to show to her former boss. He's looking into getting some institutional support for a couple of artists and wants to include her work. On the one hand, not much budget out there. On the other, the man is a Macarthur Genius Award winner so that my well help.
I'm starting up a Ko-fi store for things you can purchase off me, like hour long consultations on things I know a lot about, some of my classes, Jana's handmade boxes (there are a lot) and fiction and nonfiction that isn't readily available elsewhere or under contract. At the moment, I'm trying to get a buffer by raising funds to pay down some not huge debts while I try to spin up some editing and writing gigs. Please consider bookmarking it, hiring me, throw a coin to your Witcher and all that. I'm managing, but if things go sideways, it will be unpleasant.
I have spun up a couple of writing gigs in progress.
Queen of Swords Press news! We just signed a reprint (gay vampires!) by author M.Christian (due out end of October) and a new collection of sapphic fantasy tales set in Southeast Asia by Joyce Chng (due out in February, if all goes well). Hoping to pull off an ebook box set of the Astreiant Series around Christmas.
Adding lots of events because for the first time in almost 9 years, Queen of Swords Press is actually covering my royalties! I'm parsing out old royalties by quarter so we don't run into cash shortages, but it is pretty fun to be collecting my dues on my books once again.
I have been to the State Fair, a couple of movies, tea in Anoka, MN, to see sundry museum exhibits, been out with friends, had friends over, started patching concrete around the house, begun fixing small things I can figure out by watching YouTube (I managed to trip the safety on the furnace on one such endeavor, which necessitated a tech visit today, but other things have gone a bit better).
I have signed up for lots of free trainings and entrepreneur stuff that the city and county offer.
I am writing again. Fiction and nonfiction. Slow and disorganized, but there's stuff on the page once more.

So lots of activity, none of which pays a living wage or close to it. If I can patch enough stuff together, to hang on until the end of March, I can apply for Social Security, if it still exists, and go from there.

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Good news!

2025-09-01T12:52:10Z

Queen of Swords Press News Flash! Just learned that author Michael Merriam’s terrific pulpy Weird West, TERROR AT TIERRA DE COBRE (Queen of Swords Press, 2024), is a semi finalist for the inaugural Small Spec Book Awards! It’s our first title to be a horror finalist for any award and we’re very proud of Michael and his book! The Small Spec Book Awards were launched earlier this year as a way to get more attention on worthy small press titles that weren’t getting any buzz for the bigger awards. They did a stellar job getting interviews and reviews out over the course of the year and I’m really glad I found them on Bluesky. You can read more about the awards here (they got some great submissions!).

Here’s a link to a fun interview one of the SSBA influencers did with Michael and a new review of the book!

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Back from Worldcon

2025-08-22T01:37:41Z

I took off a week ago Tuesday to fly to Seattle. The trip went well, apart from my flight being moved to 0 Dark Thirty, which was painful. I landed at our hotel, rendezvoused with the Merriams and we headed off to the Chihuly Museum and the Museum of Pop Culture. For those playing along at home, that means that on 4 hours of sleep, I rode in a car, a plane, a monorail and a train in a day. But it was delightful! I hadn't been to the Chihuly Museum before - many of the exhibits were lovely. I had been to the Museum of Pop Culture before, back when my friend Brooks was the curator of the sf and f collection and enjoyed it. This time was fun as well, if a tad crowded.

After that, I picked up my reg stuff and met Nicole Kimberling of Blindeye Books for dinner at the ASEAN Food Hall. We had a long chat and got caught up; we last got to hang out pre-lockdown so it's been awhile. She puts out some excellent books - check them out! And when I got back, my friend and roomie for the weekend, Hugo Award Finalist Heather Rose Jones had arrived so we got caught up. Next day, I was on the queer-coded villains panel, which was fun. Then it was off to a delightful lunch with the glorious "steampunk personalities" (as we were all dubbed in The Steampunk Explorer), Madame Askew and the Grand Arbiter and one of their friends. I puttered around the con running into people, including hanging out with with my pals Rob and Peter from D.C, and dropping books off at the Liminal Fiction table in the Dealer's Room before heading out to meet my friend Brooks and his sweetie Lisa for dinner. Then Brooks and I were off to the Clarion West party at Hugo House. Got to chat with a bunch of folks there, including Casey Blair, who I hadn't seen for a few years, including Charlie Jane Anders and more, as well as hanging out with Jennie Goloboy and meeting Astrid Bear.

Thursday was my "light" day so I went to Concurrent at the Union Theater for an interesting panel on publishing short fiction. A friend who was on the panel became ill so I sat with her for awhile after the panel. Multiple people checked in and fortunately, she was doing better after some rest so after checking a couple of times, I got her a Lyft and sent her back to her hotel. She was doing much better all weekend so I was very glad that things turned around! I think I went to a good panel on Medieval Women Writers after that and the art show and such. I had lunch with my former editor and friend, Evan J. Peterson, an hour or so before he found out that he was a finalist for the Endeavor Award. I did some more puttering about and spent some time with delightful pals Monica Valentinelli, Matt McElroy and LaShawn Wanak. After that, it was off to dinner with Heather, the Merriams, Jody Wurl and her friend Cynthia. Friday was my Table Talk, which was fun! Someone showed up to talk about my gaming, someone else stopped by to ask about the werewolf books and another person wanted to talk publishing. Then I grabbed lunch with LaShawn and worked a shift at the Liminal Fiction table, where I finally met J. Scott Coatsworth in person. Then I got to hang out with Martha Wells and her husband for a nice chat. After that, I went off to a fun-filled Seattle Underground tour with the Merriams.

Saturday was my reading, which could have gone better (I had a coughing fit), but was well attended. I chatted with folks and sold some books, which was nice. I met up with various folks (apologies for things blurring a bit by then), worked another table shift, did some other things, then went and did the Joanna Russ panel. It went well - lot of good discussion and some anecdotes.

I then grabbed dinner and went back to our room to watch the Hugo Awards. A brief pause from general goodwill: I watched the first 45 minutes of the ceremony with the sound on, got tired of the song repetition and the mispronunciations of finalist names and switched to captions. So I missed the part where the editorial staff of Khoreo got skipped over and the Lodestar finalist was skipped completely and a bunch of things covered elsewhere. I will just say that when GRRM mangled multiple finalist names at the 2020 Hugo Awards in New Zealand, there was an understandable hue and cry about it and it was deemed highly disrespectful (which it was). This is no different and the impacted finalists are due an apology. Also: for the love of whatever you hold sacred, Hugo Admins, address the damn issue. Hire transcriptionists, compel the hosts to practice names, record the names ahead of time, but DO SOMETHING so we stop experiencing this frankly xenophobic nonsense every year. EDITED: turns out the Hugo Awards Committee may have done things to address this and the issues lie more squarely at the door of the presenters and possibly the on the ground folks administering the awards.

Sunday, I went to a panel on romantasy, then had lunch with Heather (who did not win, but enjoyed herself anyway). Then we toddled off to the Amtrak station where Jody, the Merriams and I ran into local author powerhouse Pat Wrede. We all hung out until we boarded the bus to Spokane (there were train issues) for a four hour trip across the state of Washington. They did let us board the train and get into the sleepers around 10 even though the train wasn't leaving until 1AM. I got a couple of hours of broken napping, then roused Jody from the upper bunk so we could grab breakfast before watching morning over Glacier National Park. It was glorious!

The rest of the trip was lively. The dining car ran out of most food because they were supposed to stock up in Seattle, but couldn't. Staff was very stiff upper lip about it and did the best they could and we were sympathetic (and tipped). I didn't get much sleep what with the train rattling and all, but Monday night was better than Saturday. All in all, though, it was a fun expedition and I'm glad I did it! Big shoutout to Tony for picking up Jody and Kevin for picking up the rest of us to go home.

I'm currently in the midst of a two day women in publishing virtual conference and scrambling to get caught up on sundries. Still job hunting, but unemployment came through so that helps a bunch. Tomorrow, more conference and other things, before going to the State Fair with my friend Matt. More updates on the conference as soon as it wraps!

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Seattle Worldcon schedule and weekly update

2025-08-01T22:03:11Z

Seattle Worldcon is looming in a week and a half and I'll be there! I'll be rooming with Heather, who's also on the Hugo ballot so that'll be fun. I am beginning to make dinner and other plans so if you want to hang out with me or talk projects with me or both, now's a good time to schedule. What kind of projects? Well, hiring me for things like commissioning stories and articles, signing me up to teach classes, coach or do editing and writing projects would all be swell. I know a lot about book marketing and sales and the publishing process, just saying. And I'm an award-winning writer who's good with deadlines.

On the directly related to Queen of Swords Press front: I'm reading some fine queer horror and dark fantasy and historical fantasy subs and am awaiting at least one more for this year. But we are light on queer science fiction and I'd like to fill that gap, ideally with novel length work. It will be very, very helpful to be familiar with at least some of our existing titles. I have fairly idiosyncratic tastes and I drive what gets selected. Anything much over 90k words is a hard sell for POD and anything slow-moving is a hard sell for me. We are also a "fly by the seat of our pants" operation, which while it is totally on me, also has helped us be flexible enough to outlast many, many other presses. But this is not everyone's speed and I get it. What does the future hold? Who knows? We're still here right now and making stuff happen. Reach out to me here if you don't have the QoSP email. We are not officially open to subs so this is on an invite basis.Talk to me first.

Back to Worldcon:
Wednesday:

Why Are Villains Queer-Coded?

Culture/DEI; Horror; Streaming; Virtual
Room 435-436, Wed. 10:30–11:30 a.m.

Numerous genre traits, characteristics, and stereotypes have been molded into the modern idea of the villain, and many such quirks are directly tied to stereotypes of the LGBTQ+ community—but why? Is it because the status quo fears the growing acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, or because the status quo has always excluded and oppressed these individuals? Let’s break it down and discuss ways we creatives can alter that message for positive change regarding this misconception, even in the darkest of genre fiction.

Dr. Heather O. Petrocelli (M), Catherine Lundoff, David Demchuk, Sumiko Saulson, The Grand Arbiter

Friday:

Table Talks - You do need to sign up for these beforehand - limit of 6 per talk
Room 430, Fri. 10:30–11:30 a.m.

Have an intimate discussion (up to six participants) with your favorite creators. Advance sign-up is required (sign-up info coming soon).

Brandon O’Brien, Cassie Alexander, Catherine Lundoff, Daphne Singingtree, F. J. Bergmann, Melinda M. Snodgrass

Saturday:

Reading: Catherine Lundoff

Readings
Room 428, Sat. 11–11:30 a.m.

Blue Moon. Blue Moon is the third novel in Catherine’s Wolves of Wolf’s Point series, about a group of women from different backgrounds who turn into werewolves as they enter menopause. Blue Moon picks up where Blood Moon left off and traces the origins of the Wolf’s Point Pack. The books are sapphic dark fantasy.

The Radical Fiction of Joanna Russ

Genre History; Streaming; Virtual
Room 435-436, Sat. 6–7 p.m.

Joanna Russ, author of The Female Man, wrote some of the most radical fiction of the 1960s and 1970s. The Female Man has remained consistently in print and is one of the most experimental and challenging books of our genre. This panel will discuss her short stories and novels and their effects.

Sue Burke (M), Catherine Lundoff, Langley Hyde, Michael Swanwick, Rich Horton

I'll also be at the Liminal Fiction table in the Dealer's Room selling my and other folk's books on Friday from 1-2PM and Saturday 1-2PM.

What else have I been up to?

Some passive job hunting through contracting companies
Accepted an invite to do grant reviewing again in November (pays a stipend)
Followed up on numerous things that needed following up on
Read 1.5 submissions
Did some writing and made a writing date for tomorrow
Worked on my developmental editing certificate class
Laundry and cleaning things out, like old files and things that need to be emptied before I can sell them
Selling more of Jana's tools
Prepping for Worldcon
Went with friends to see the alebrijes sculptures at Raspberry Island, the current art show at the Cafejian Art Trust in Shoreview, the weird Renaissance show at the MIA and "Glensheen: The Musical" at the History Theater and by myself to the Minneapolis American Indian Center to see the queer/two spirit art show at Two Rivers Gallery.
Diagnosed a plumbing issue and ordered parts to fix it.
Followed up on some Jana-related things including turning over an unfinished project to the people it should have gone to originally, networking with her former boss about selling some of her bindings and finding more things for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts to sell in the Shop at Open Book.
Starting to get some ducks in a row for talk and class proposals.
Research for the article I have due soonish.

Okay, that was a lot. Hang in there, folks. It's Friday.

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Readercon write up

2025-07-25T02:59:24Z

Subsequent events notwithstanding, I had a swell time at Readercon. I opted to get in a day early to give myself time to adjust to jet lag and get in some writing time and seeing as I got my plane tickets five months ago when I was still employed, I opted to go first class for the first time in my life. It was indeed all that - the food is quite good, the seats are comfy, baggage check is included and people pop by to give you beverages and munchies on the regular. I watched the new Kathy Bates "Matlock" on the way out and back and took in an episode of "Elspeth" while I was at it since if I had Paramount, I'd be canceling it at home.

I also took Lyft for the first time - I was a loyal taxi rider until the local company I used for years abandoned Jana and me at the Amtrek station in downtown St. Paul on the way back from Chicon 8 and Jana tried to befriend the nice people smoking various substances and I had to call a friend to rescue us. The Lyft experience went quite smoothly and I expect to be using it again. Apart from that, the hotel was reasonably pleasant and I got some work underway. I do miss the days when there were things to watch on hotel TVs though; pickings were slim.

The convention kicked off on Thursday night and while wandering around the lobby after dinner with dave ring of Neon Hemlock, I ran into author Laura Antoniou and her wife Karen (Laura was one of my editors back in the day and I was in Laura's online play reading group during lockdown) and we had a delightful time hanging out. Friday morning, I was on the Sustaining the Small Press Ecosystem panel, which I thought went well - good discussion all around. My delightful roommate, Julia (SparkyMonster) arrived and got settled in and I went off to do the Broad Universe reading. That was a bit of a minor trainwreck as I had been added in the program, but the organizer was unaware of that fact and neither she nor I had signed me up for it. But apart from the that, the readings were good and someone fed me chocolate so that made up for the confusion.

I got into some good chats with Will Alexander, Cecilia Tan and various folks that I know from online and elsewhere. Con staff were very kind - I was sitting in the lobby waiting for something or other and a con staffer stopped by to see how I was doing, for example. My Saturday panels were fun as well and I loved having the chance to reconnect with Julia, who I've known for a zillion years. I also schmoozed a book dealer in hopes of getting us into the Worldcon Dealer's Room in Seattle and chatted with editor Julia Day for a bit. I got briefly swarmed by delightful fans of my werewolf books who had me sign copies and all, so that was extra cool.

All in all, got in a lot of quality time with old friends, met some delightful new ones, enjoyed the programming I went to, enjoyed the programming I was on and had a great time. 10/10 - would recommend!

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Anne Shaw RIP

2025-07-24T01:42:58Z

So this was going to be a post about Readercon and my trip, which was great. But today, I got some terrible news so posting about that first. I've been trying to reach my friend Anne in Des Moines for a couple of weeks now, which was not normal. We generally text at least once a week or so, but I figured that something was wrong with her phone or she was busy or something. Today I looked at our last texts and got worried. She had mentioned not feeling well, but thought it was a cold or the flu. I went looking for an alternate contact. And found her obituary. She died within 24 hours of our last texts.

I met Anne through her sister Beth, who I met through volunteering at KFAI Radio. Beth was a great friend and we shared a love of small theater productions, international music and fun cultural events, all of which we attended for a number of years.Unfortunately, Beth was diagnosed with ALS and chose to end her life rather than have her condition deteriorate further. I got to know her sister Anne a bit before Beth got sick, then a lot better as she took care of Beth, Beth got sicker and then left us. Beth died in 2019 and my mother died in early 2020, around the same time that Jana began showing signs of dementia and our city was on fire. Anne and I used to take long walks around the neighborhood and chat after Jana went to bed. In 2021, she had to move to Des Moines to take care of their parents. She took care of her dad until he died and continued taking care of her mom and her rescue cats, including one of Beth's until she passed away several weeks ago.

This year just keeps leaving bigger holes in my life and I hate it. Rest well, Anne.

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Okay, so I'm going to be...

2025-07-12T01:20:29Z

at Readercon next week as a guest and I'm quite excited about it! I also have no plans whatsoever, beyond programming. Want to hang out? Eat a meal? Let me know!

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Sales and other updatey things

2025-07-02T02:52:46Z

Spent the weekend peddling books at TC Pride and it was a....LOT. Hot, sporadic rainstorms (with a big one overnight that trashed some folk's tents) and other wackiness. Full writeup here. Short version: terrible location, lower sales than last year, a state funeral next door with all that goes with that, primo people watching, good chats, nice folks and TC Pride in all its gigantic glory. Also, vendor pals gave me a piece of really tasty homemade coffeecake and Alexa (my assistant) is a champ.

The other cool thing that happened was that the Queen of Swords Press reissue of the classic gay fantasy, Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, won the Midwest Book Award from the Midwest Independent Publisher's Association! Very pleased about this. Hopes was our third title to be a finalist for these awards and is now our second award-winning title after The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater, winner of a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection. :-D

2 days left on the Pride StoryBundle! Melissa and I got a really great lineup this year and we've raised $770 for Rainbow Railroad so far. I might add that the proceeds from this will also be a nice help to the participating publishers and authors, including my own press, and that, seeing as I will be unemployed by Thursday, my half of the curator's fee will help cover my travel expenses for Readercon which would be super helpful. If you're in a position to get one and it looks appealing, maybe pick one up?

The Summer/Winter Smashwords Sale has also kicked off today and you can get a great deal on Queen of Swords Press titles, including my own books. This is traditionally a solid sale for us and it means that I can pay myself more this month if it goes well. Also, speaking of sales, the audiobook for my second Wolves of Wolf's Point novel, Blood Moon, is on sale right now through 7/15. The narrator that Tantor hired is really good - I've been enjoying listening to her reading my books while I get regrounded for/in Book 3.

What am I going to do for the next couple of weeks? Honestly, rest. Write. Read. Get caught up on projects like the developmental editing class I paid to take online...last year. Clear some stuff out of the house. Put some things up for sale. Spend time with people who I've wanted to see for quite a while. Spend some time with my kitties (I don't think Shu will be around a whole lot longer). Can I afford to retire? Alas, no. But I have got to unglue from the ceiling and the last 8 months of this job have been toxic with a cherry on top. I will need to start job hunting soon after I get back from Readercon though and possibly exploring other areas of endeavor if IT has dried up for me so lots of uncertainty ahead. In the meantime, if you are in a position to support me recovering for a bit, consider pledging the Patreon and buying a book or two. I also have a Ko-fi and will be more active out there soon. Stay tuned! More updates ahead.
And hugs to everyone who needs them.

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Readercon schedule, TC Pride and more!

2025-06-27T15:50:44Z

It's Twin Cities Pride this weekend and I'm headed in to do some preliminary setup this morning. It's been raining for days, with some more expected this weekend and 3 of the interstates are closed - what could go wrong? No, don't answer that. At any, Queen of Swords Press will have a table in the Queer Writes Test/Zone (called different things on the map), space #496. I'm "between jobs" (out of work/taking a short break) as of 7/3 so if you can't make it to Pride and are up for buying a book or two, now would be a great time. Library requests help a lot too!

Readercon 34 - I will be attending (please buy a Pride StoryBundle if you can! My half of the curator's fee is funding my trip cash for July and these are some great books. We're also raising money for Rainbow Railroad too!). My schedule is here and I'm on everything from small press publishing to aging in sf to erotica and horror to doing a reading. Looking for ward to it! Will I see you there? Let's get a meal/snacks.

I am also adding an October trip to Iowa City on 10/11 to accept a posthumous Laura Young Award for Jana from Guild of Bookworkers at their Standards Conference. That will be something of a whirlwind, but if you're in the area, breakfast on Sunday could be a thing.

I have a Seattle Worldcon schedule but it doesn't look quite baked yet. I also apparently promised a debut reading of Blood Moon, (Wolves of Wolf's Point #3) from some months back when I had 10K words...then had to revise and reset in a different character's head. Apparently, there will be a lot of writing in the next couple of weeks to get some things ready for readings at both cons!

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How am I viewing my looming unemployment, you ask?

2025-06-25T01:00:33Z

Well, I'm hella tired. So sleep and doing odds and ends are looking very appealing. Also writing and editing. I'm signing up for various workshops and classes and just came across a developmental editing class that I signed up for...a year ago. I should probably finish that. In a couple of weeks, I will be looking for editing, teaching, speaking, writing gigs, but I definitely need to recharge a bit. Let me know if you're interested in my sundry nonIT skills. For the IT end of things, my contracting company will keep looking and the very large healthcare co. that currently rents my services has expressed interest in having me back in another capacity so we'll see if anything works out there. In the next couple of weeks, I have vending at Twin Cities Pride this weekend (500,000+ people, 3 day marathon - come see us at the Queer Writes Tent in Loring Park!), the Inbound Book Fair for Grownups in 2 weeks (4-5000 people last year, 2 day marathon - come see us at the Fairgrounds in the Education Building!), followed immediately thereafter by Readercon (my schedule is lit!). Then back for a couple of weeks, then off to Seattle for Worldcon. Somewhere in there, I will freak about money if I haven't figured something out, but I also figure I've been planning for this for the last year and if I don't seize the moments where I can, when will I?

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Dwelling in Probabilities

5 Things Make a Post

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Life During Wartime

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Year in Review, Part the First: The Personal Stuff

Racing toward the end of the year...

Where in the world is Catherine?

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Table Talks - You do need to sign up for these beforehand - limit of 6 per talkRoom 430, Fri. 10:30–11:30 a.m.

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The Radical Fiction of Joanna Russ

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Okay, so I'm going to be...

Sales and other updatey things

Readercon schedule, TC Pride and more!

How am I viewing my looming unemployment, you ask?

Table Talks - You do need to sign up for these beforehand - limit of 6 per talk
Room 430, Fri. 10:30–11:30 a.m.