Where I and Queen of Swords Press will be in 2025

Dec. 31st, 2025 09:18 am
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 It begins!

January:

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:

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 is planning on being 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:

October:

November:

December:


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New month, who dis?

Jul. 4th, 2024 04:08 pm
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So I survived Queen of Swords Press's first venture into Twin Cities Pride last weekend. For some idea of the scale of that, estimated attendance was 600,000 over the course of two days, which makes it the biggest outdoor event in Minnesota with the exception of the State Fair...which runs for two weeks. From a vendor perspective, we put in a minimum of 2 10 hour days, plus setup on Friday, including time spent hauling stuff back and forth from parking (by utility cart, in my case). It was a LOT and I could not have done it without help. Big shoutout to Michael Merriam, Alexa Garber, Matt Coe, Jody Wurl and Lauri Holm, who spelled me at the table, peddled books, helped me haul things and so forth. The weather was perfect, the people were  lovely and apart from some snafus with the vendor setup, I had a fine time and good sales.

Big shoutout to everyone who participated in the Pride StoryBundle this year! We raised around $450 for Rainbow Railroad and it all went reasonably well, given that we are all scattered like whoa this summer.
Apart from that, I currently have 2 signed books, Silver Moon and Blood Moon, in the Romancing the Vote Auction, which ends tomorrow. The book package will include goodies from the International Wolf Center in Ely, MN so I think you should check it, as well as the other auction items, if you can. Lots of great stuff out there and I believe it's broken all their previous records in raising funds for organizations fighting voter suppression. Queen of Swords Press is also having a big backlist sale on Smashwords for the Summer/Winter Sale and there are many deals to be had.

Today, I'm sitting around with cats and moving very slowly through my to-do list. Not sleeping well due to comforting the cats--I truly hate local fireworks. Sigh. Now off to go cook dinner and then watch things, possibly while not working.

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June's fun and excitement continues

Jun. 20th, 2024 08:41 pm
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Some of it quite good, some less so, as is the norm. My hip pain seems to have calmed down for a bit and I'm going to see a bodyworker after Pride and see what is to be done longer term. I got extended on my work contract just in time for work to get wildly stressful. Sigh. I have successfully purchased and assembled a new and more stable coat rack, which is less likely to fall over and land on people when they hang up coats on it. I have organized 2 boxes of hazardous waste to be taken to the dropoff on Saturday. I have finished my editing pass on Fairs' Point (Astreiant #4) and sent it to Melissa for review. I completed and turned in an application for the Independent Book Publisher Association's Innovative Voices program (send good thoughts on this one, please!).

And I went to 4th Street Fantasy last weekend, where I got to hang out with delightful friends I haven't seen in far too long. Our panel went reasonably well and there was some interesting discussion. A friend and I swooped in and whisked Lois McMaster Bujold off to lunch after her interview, which was very pleasant. Making a sidebar note, however, to suggest that if 4th Street is going to have invited guests, a guest liaison would be a good idea. Lois was quite left alone after her interview, once she finished signing books, except for my friend and I, and someone a bit more official should have been keeping an eye on things, in my humble. But lovely to hear her and see her work celebrated, so there's that.

Apart from that, I'm trying to do one new to me thing a month and one thing that I haven't done since before lockdown. This month, that's Drag Brunch at LUSH, which was delightful, and a trip to the Walker for the Keith Haring show this weekend.

This weekend features multiple events!
I'm getting interviewed by the delightful Madame Askew for her "Sip the Tea" Show on Saturday at noon - it will be streamed on FB.
Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold is a finalist for the Midwest Book Awards on Saturday night. I'll be there to cheer and hope!
Sunday, it's breakfast with friends and off to the Keith Haring show, then the wonderful Temporal Textural Virtual Book club discussion of Death by Silver on Sunday night. Melissa and I should both be there so we hope you'll join us.

There are also book sales!
Smashwords presale on Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett (Astreiant #1) is up! The book will be out from Queen of Swords Press on 6/27.
There are 4 Queen of Swords Press titles on sale at Amazon this weekend for the latest I Heart Sapphic Sale - look for Silver Moon, The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones, Murder on the Titania by Alex Acks and Desire by Emily Byrne for the "Beach Reading Sale."
The Pride StoryBundle is running until 7/1 - 13 great books and a chance to support Rainbow Rainroad! Also, not coincidentally, a big chunk of Queen of Swords Press's annual operating budget so please consider picking a bundle up.
And finally, Audiobooks.com is offering a great deal on the Silver Moon audiobook to celebrate it's one year anniversary!

And next weekend, please look for us at Pride in Loring Park in Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press will be in the Queer Writes tent with a whole lot of books. :-)


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Missing WisCon something fierce, but...

May. 21st, 2020 10:00 am
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We are online and doing the Discord and YouTube thing, in all its glory. If you are attending WisCon Online ( registration closed yesterday), be sure and check the Discord channel in the Artists and Vendors chat. I'll be posting a coupon for 15% on 5/22 for all sales over $3 from the Queen of Swords Press website. Does it make up for not getting to have a party to celebrate the launch of The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, A.J. Fitzwater and Alex Acks's Wireless becoming a Midwest Book Award finalist? Honestly, no, but hopefully it becomes its own kind of fun. Speaking of A.J., who has just been promoting like a promoting thing, they are doing an AMA on r/Fantasy right now and you can stop by and chat about dapper lesbian capybara pirates and their other work.

And more WisCon: my wife, Jana, is normally in the Art Show and has been happily making new pretties for the last few months. All of those are available in her Etsy: new handmade boxes, journals and her insanely affordable travel journals that come with their own pencil and refill pages.
WisCon is a sizeable chunk of our annual small business income, so if you can afford it and see something you like, please think about buying from us and the other vendors and artists.

If you are not at WisCon, but want to buy books, we are having other sales!In the next few days, I'll be announcing the books and authors for this year's Pride Month StoryBundle, which will kick off on 6/3. Last weekend, I was at Flights of Foundry, which was my first online con. It went quite well and I had a lot of fun. This weekend is WisCon and next weekend is the SFWA Nebula Weekend. I'm not on programming at either of these because I thought I was going to be doing other things, but A.J. will be on a couple of panels next weekend. In June, I'll be teaching Book Promotion on a Budget (COVID-19 version) at the Rambo Academy on 6/14, I'll be doing my annual talk at DreamHaven on 6/17 (online as well as socially distanced in person, bookstore staff permitting),  Rainbow Space Magic (a new LGBTQ con) from 6/20-21 and vending at Twin Cities Pride for the first time in the Virtual Marketplace. Queen of Swords Press now does print as well as ebook direct from the website.

In other news, my broken glasses have been dropped off for replacement, the squirrels are apparently evicted from the soffits and porch roof at great effort and expense, the attic is done (except for the floor) and is lovely, and sundry electrical fixes are happening around the house. So naturally, the washing machine is flooding, the garage door is iffy and the chimney needs repairs. Having the occasional financial/constant stress of having things always in repair or construction mode-related meltdown and trying to get an ton of stuff done, with mixed results. Hoping you all are doing well!

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New story acceptance and sundries

Jun. 23rd, 2019 03:43 pm
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British publisher Fox Spirit Books has this lovely-looking series of international monster stories that I've been eyeing for a while. Volumes have been finalists for the British Fantasy Awards and editor Margrét Helgadóttir has been getting lots of acclaim for her work. I scored an invitation to submit for American Monsters Part 2 (they're all divided by geography and focus on each writer's local monsters) a few months back so I set nose to writing grindstone and produced "Hunger," a jolly little tale about toxic masculinity and wendigos and elderly ladies who know the truth behind old stories, and sent it off. It just got accepted and I'm quite thrilled! Why wendigos or wiindigos? They're a regional Native American monster, one that shows up in Chippewa and Ojibwe stories so they are a part of Minnesota lore. I tried to be respectful of their origins as creatures born of greed, hunger and lines that should not be crossed and hopefully, I did a reasonable job with it. More bulletins as I have them!

Twin Cities Pride was very nice yesterday. Got to see some friends, do a bit of shopping, eat interesting food, check out a new to us comic book shop, admire people's costumes and make up, scritch rescue dogs and all the good things. Favorite new amusing thing: local Lutheran church handing out stickers that said "Not all Christians are assholes," along with Mom and Dad hugs. The weather held up well, despite rain predictions. Today, not so much so I hope people didn't get too soggy.

Furnace. Going into Week 3. We might get done this week. Or we might need a new fuse box. Suspense mounts. So far, one cat has gotten stuck in a wall, the other got covered with cobwebs and both have required sponge baths. The house is in chaos with boxes stacked everywhere and little boxes and mayhem. It's going to a be rough week on multiple fronts so I'm off to go see Tessa Thompson rock a suit for a few hours.

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New Pride StoryBundle!

Jun. 5th, 2019 08:32 am
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Xposted from the Queen of Swords Press Facebook because I'm pressed for time. I'm also working on a WisCon writeup so I'll be back to at least weekly posts again soon.

It's here! This year's Pride StoryBundle is out with SCOURGE OF THE SEAS OF TIME, WIRELESS AND MORE STEAM-POWERED ADVENTURES by Alex Acks, a collection from the Glittership Podcast, Bogi Takács' latest anthology, a fantasy novel by K.J. Charles, a game from Amy Griswold and Jo Graham, werewolves from Geonn Cannon and short fiction from Craig Laurance Gidney! Buy the whole bundle at the $20 level and designate a portion of your purchase price for Rainbow Railroad to assist LGBTQ refugees!
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New interview, in an actual newspaper!

Sep. 11th, 2018 11:17 am
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 This is pretty cool. Rachel Gold and I are interviewed in the St. Cloud Times  by reporter Stephanie Dickrell for our upcoming reading and talk at the Great Regional Library in St. Cloud (this Friday, 9/14!). The headline is the best: "Menopausal werewolves and transgender teens." :-D
I think she did a good job capturing our particular schtick.

Reminder: Library reading and talk on 9/14
Pride in the Park: Saturday, 9/15. Buy some books and get them signed!
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New Pride StoryBundle

Jun. 7th, 2018 11:48 am
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 The #Pride Month StoryBundle is here! Featuring Queen of Swords Press titles MURDER ON THE TITANIA by Alex Acks and MEDUSA'S TOUCH by Emily L. Byrne, as well as great books by Melissa Scott, Don Sakers, A.C. Wise, Tenea D. Johnson, Joseph Carriker, Jo Graham, Geonn Cannon and Dayna Ingram and benefitting Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian nonprofit that helps LGBTQ folks escape repression! What's not to love? 🏳️‍🌈💖

We raised $1k for Rainbow Railroad last year - let's try and double that!

 
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