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SO MUCH GOING ON! See local updates below. In the meantime:
If the 15 minutes video above intrigues you, there's a much longer video from DreamHaven Books last week.DreamHaven is still recovering from the burglary, etc. so please consider buying books and contributing to their fundraiser. They do sell Queen of Swords Press titles as well as bunch of other fun things. And I may be in Publishers Weekly soon as a plug for the store; awaiting updates.
  • Queen of Swords Press is also a vendor at Twin Cities Pride Virtual Marketplace on 6/27 and 6/28. I'll be doing a virtual hangout on Sunday night from 5-7 (check TC Pride website for code). I'm also running a sale that's going on right now: get 15% off any purchase over $3 direct from the QoSP website using code TCPride2020 now through 6/29. Print and ebook available1
  • The Pride StoryBundle is going into its last week and change. Pick up your copy today and help support Rainbow Railroad's work with LGBTQ refugees at the bonus level!
  • Me and Minneapolis - well, things are still very lively, though with less sense of immediate peril. There's a bunch of volunteer requests at the George Floyd Memorial site as well as at the new homeless sanctuary in Powderhorn Park and for various food giveaways and cleanups (too many to list - ask around or check online). Fundraising is still ongoing for everything, but a lot of restaurants, etc. are calling it quits since between the COVID shutdown, the economic impact and the riots, there just isn't anything left to keep going (so please keep donating to emergency funds here and elsewhere in the Twin Cities - it's going to be a very hard summer).
  • I took a sick day yesterday (mostly due to just being very tired and having a growing migraine) and went to see my dentist - she's an African-American woman in her sixties who runs a dental practice that's entirely staffed by women of color, located a few blocks east and south of us. They're all pretty edgy about everything, not surprisingly, but on the pandemic front, they have the whole office divided into tents and are sanitizing like mad. I'm noticing that those of us who live here are beginning to talk about time in terms of before and after George Floyd's murder so I think it will be a pivotal event for a very long time to come. At any rate, after that, I did a Seward Co-op run, then went up to Lake Street briefly. I find that I'm having to take it in small doses.Yesterday was a visit to Bill's Imported Foods (open) and an attempt to stop by Steamship Coffee and Games (open, but not when I was there). I could see take-out signs in front of Bryant Lake Bowl. They all looked pretty good, but the gas station is a burnt out husk and several of the other businesses were trashed and are either closed forever or for repairs. From there, I went on to the Lake Harriet Rose and Peace Gardens (open for walking) and spent a lovely soothing hour there before heading home to read and nap and recover. Doing a bit better today.

  • The video from last week

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Things are sort of settling down here, in the sense of not actually being on fire. Still lots of demonstrations, a permanent memorial going up in our neighborhoods, lots of needs, lots of destroyed and damaged building and businesses. Fewer gunshots and cars with out of state plates driving very fast on the residential streets, or at least on ours. Lots of hot debate about what it means to "defund the police," lots of discussion around "who will protect us?," etc. Still navigating the virus and things sort of reopening and trying to support everything I can. On the brighter end of things, some stuff that looked like it wasn't coming back is, Chicago Avenue is likely to be renamed "George Floyd Avenue" or equivalent and people are paying a lot more attention, much of it in good ways. There was some of this awakening around Philando Castile's murder, but this is much more pronounced and stronger. Here's hoping it leads to good things.

So speaking of helping things recover, I'm doing my annual talk on running a small press at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis tomorrow night. Dreamhaven has reopened but repairs are still in process from the burglary, vandalism and attempted arson. They can allow up to 10 people wearing masks into the store at a time so you can attend in person if you're in the area (but will have to scatter around the store in any case). I will be broadcasting live on Facebook from the Queen of Swords Press page though so you won't be missing anything if you opt to watch and listen there. In the meantime, please consider supporting the store's Go Fund Me and buying books online or in person, particularly Queen of Swords Press titles (they carry all our print titles), but anything helps, really.

Then, this weekend, I'll be at Rainbow Space Magic, a new online LGBTQ+ sff con for writers and readers. I'll be doing a reading with some other authors on Saturday evening (depending on your timezone) -


Then I'll be on this panel on Sunday morning:

Sunday June 21st

How Does Our Queer Past Influence the Queer Sci Fi Future?

Sunday PT 8:00am / MT 9:00am / CT 10:00am / ET 11:00am

With Trevor Barton, RR (Bob) AngellCatherine Lundoff, and Michael G Williams

Description: The queer community has historically suffered oppression and discrimination, and still does in many places. When writing about the future, how do we honor that past without recreating it? Let’s talk about what the queer future might look, and how it can honor our past.


Looks like fun! And it's free so please register and join us!

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I'll be reading from Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic tomorrow night (10/9) at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis from 6:30-7:45 or so. There'll be a Q&A and chocolate and general random fun. Hope to see some of you there!
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 Last night's event at DreamHaven Books and Comics went quite well. I talked about what has gone into creating Queen of Swords Press so far, building an audience, marketing, finance, book tables and other fun stuff for about an hour, then answered questions for a bit. Also, there was chocolate and cookies. Local author Conrad Zero was kind enough to record the talk so I'll have a video to post soon. Folks bought out DreamHaven's remaining stock of my books but I've helpfully replenished so they have signed copies again! I'm also thinking of taking my talk and turning it into a class, possibly at The Loft, possibly online. What do folks think? Would you be interested in an affordable class on publishing specifics- selecting cover artists, software for converting docs to ebooks, basic marketing, etc.?
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  •  From the Queen of Swords Press FB page: "We're having a #Goodreads #giveaway for 2 copies of Catherine Lundoff's OUT OF THIS WORLD: QUEER SPECULATIVE FICTION STORIES! Enter before 12/1 for a chance to win (U.S. only, this time around. Hope to do more international options next time)."
  • There's a new Emily L. Byrne collection up for preorder
  • And a reminder that I'll be giving a talk at DreamHaven Books tomorrow night (11/16) on small press start up and publishing, from 6:30-7:30
After which point, things slow down a tad. 

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