Dwelling in Probabilities

January:

• Madame Askew’s Sip the Tea - January 18th. Featuring Catherine Lundoff. We had so much fun the last time, we're back for another round!

February:

• ReadOUT Festival - February 14th-16th, online and in person from Gulfport, FL. Author Dee Holloway (Little Nothing) will be a featured author on panels and readings.
• Queer Writes Romance Book Fair - February 16th, 11-3PM. The Machine Shop, Minneapolis, MN. Local event for writers, publishers and bookstores hosted by Twin Cities Pride. We'll have a Queen of Swords Press table.

March:

• MarsCon - March 7-9, Minneapolis, MN. We’ll be there with a book table and Michael Merriam and I will be on programming.

April:

• 13 Gears Steampunk Festival - April 5-6th, Squirrel Haus Arts, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table with authors Michael Merriam and Patrick Marsh.
• Herstory Book Fair - April 12th, 12-3PM, Midtown Global Market, Minneapolis. Catherine Lundoff will be signing and selling her books.
• Minicon - April 18-20. The Hotel Formerly Known as the Radishtree, Bloomington, MN. Michael will be tabling for Queen of Swords Press on Friday and Sunday and will be on programming, Catherine will be there on Saturday (unconfirmed).
  
• Speculations Reading at DreamHaven Books - April 23rd, 6:30-7:45PM. Catherine Lundoff reads from her work and signs books.

May:

• Twin Cities Book Hop Book Fair - May 3, 10-11:30 AM, Open Book, Minneapolis
• Mother's Day Market at Dancing Bear Chocolate - May 11th, 10-3PM. Minneapolis, MN. Mostly Jana Pullman's art boxes, but some Queen of Swords Press titles too.
• Rochester Pride - May 17th, 12-5PM. Rochester, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a booth.
• WisCon - May 23-25th. Online. Catherine was on a panel on small press publishing.
  
• Balticon 58 - May 23-26, Baltimore, MD. Melissa Scott was there and on programming.
  

June:

• Pride Month StoryBundle - Kicks off end of May and runs through end of June, placeholder. Lots of books by amazing queer authors and we're raising funds for Rainbow Railroad again!
• 4th Street Fantasy - June 13-15th, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine Lundoff will be attending.
• Temporal Textual Talks Virtual Book Club - June 22nd, 4:30-6:30 PM PST. Terror at Tierra de Cobre by Michael Merriam is the featured title and Catherine and Michael will be there.
• Twin Cities Pride - June 28th-29th, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will back in the Queer Writes Tent, near Harmon Place this year.
  

July

• Inbound Brewing Book Fair for Grown Ups - July 12th, 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.
• Readercon - July 17th-20th, Burlington, MA. Catherine will be there and on programming.

August:

• Seattle Worldcon - August 13th-17th, Seattle, WA. Some of us will be there online and some will be there in person. Catherine, Alex, Jennie and Heather will be there in person! 

September:

• Pagan Pride Fall Festival – September 7th. Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis. Michael and Catherine will be there selling books!
  
• Columbia Heights Pride - September 13th, Columbia Heights, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table.
  
• St. Cloud Pride in the Park - September 20th,  11AM-4PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table!
• Flights of Foundry - September 26-28th, round the clock. Queen of Swords Press will be in the virtual Dealer's Room.

October:

• Guild of Bookworkers Standards - October 9th-11th, Iowa City, IA. Jana Pullman is receiving the posthumous Laura Young Award; I can't attend, but other folks are helping me. One of Jana's bindings will be in the charity auction for the scholarship fund.
• Cream & Amber Fall Market - Saturday, October 11th. Hopkins, MN. Michael Merriam will be there with Queen of Swords Press titles and his own books (so I can go to my friends' wedding - thanks, Michael!).
• Audrey Rose Vintage Vendor Pop-up - October 26th, 12-4PM, Minneapolis, MN.
• Halloween Reading - October 28th, 7-9PM, 10k Brewing, Anoka, MN. Catherine Lundoff and Michael Merriam will be joining author Patrick Marsh and other fun local horror authors.

• Book Fair for Adults - November 2nd, 12-4PM. Forgotten Star Brewing, Fridley, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• Twin Cities Book Festival - November 8th, 9:30-5PM. Union Depot, St. Paul. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
  
• Catherine Lundoff Author Reading - November 12th, 6:30-8:00PM. DreamHaven Books, Minneapolis, MN. Catherine will be reading from recent work and talking about Queen of Swords Press.
• Queer Writes Fall Book Fair - November 16th, 11-2PM, The Machine Shop, Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
  
• Fables & Flames Romantasy Gala - November 21th-23rd. Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.
• Queer Market - November 29th 10-4PM, Open Book, Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

December:

• Nicollet Island Winter Market - December 13th-14th, 10-4PM. Minneapolis, MN. Michael Merriam and Catherine Lundoff will have a book table.
  
• 2nd Annual Witte Wonderland at AudreyRose Vintage - December 20th, 12-4PM. Minneapolis, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a table.

• 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.