Category: Uncategorized

Big thank you to everyone who made it to our WisCon 42 party (or who sent their friends)! Lots of fun was had.

Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) notifications are being sent, as we speak and we hope to have a TOC to show you soon. We’re planning cover art once everyone is up to speed so stay tuned for more info.

Murder on the Titania and Silver Moon have gotten some great new reviews (see the quotes and links on the individual title pages) and Medusa’s Touch is getting some nice buzz as well. This month, Medusa and Murder on the Titania will both be part of a Pride Month StoryBundle that will have Rainbow Railroad as its charity. Other authors in the bundle include Melissa Scott, Tenea D. Johnson, Dayna Ingram, Don Sakers, Geonn Cannon, Jo Graham, A.C. Wise and Joseph Carricker. It’s going to be amazing!

Queen of Swords Press will be participating in the Books and Beer Pop-up Bookstore at the Summit Brewery on Saturday, June 23rd from 1-6PM. Because we like to live life on the edge, publisher Catherine Lundoff is also planning on being at 4th Street Fantasy in St. Louis Park on 6/22 and 6/24. Hope to see at least some of you at both/either event!

Emily L. Byrne has a new novel out! Medusa’s Touch is a sexy F/F science fiction romance set in the far future. It’s available in ebook on all major platforms today; print will be available later on this summer.

Betrayal, desire and danger: how did a simple side job go so wrong? Medusa Pilot TiCara X273 is in over her implants and she’s going to need all the help she can get from the lovely Sherin Khan…if she can learn to trust her.

Early praise:

Sacchi Green, Editor of Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms : “Emily L. Byrne’s Medusa’s Touch draws the reader deeply into her deftly created universe of starships and danger and conflict, with a fascinating main character who is entirely relatable even while she pilots her ship by means of hi-tech tentacle implants. Whether she feels the exultation of being at one with her ship amidst “the splendor of the starfields,” or the ecstasy of sex with the beautiful, mysterious woman she can’t entirely trust, we feel it all with her, and gladly follow her through inner turmoil and blood-stirring battle.

Dayna Ingram, Author of All Good Children: “Pilot-Captain TiCara X273 navigates more than just the stars in Emily L Byrne’s sexy space opera Medusa’s Touch. As a medusa pilot, TiCara is specially wired to command the Astra, the ship she longs to own so she can fly free from corporate interference. This latest job has just enough risk (and thus reward) to let her do exactly that. But this latest job also includes the beautiful and alluring Sherin Khan, who might prove to be as much of a distraction for TiCara in bed as she is a betrayer with an agenda of her own. Byrne spins a tightly-paced web of melodrama aboard the Astra, with the right balance of sex and explosions to keep the pages turning. TruTell: you’ll be savoring certain scenes long after you’ve left TiCara and Sherin’s orbit.”

Cheyenne Blue, Author of Blue Woman Stories and Editor of Forbidden Fruit: “Byrne’s fluid writing brings this twisty sci-fi tale to life. She pulled me in at the very start and kept me turning pages until the end. Byrne has created a fascinating character in TiCara. I cheered her on whether she was piloting her ship with her Medusa tentacles or seducing her woman.”

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks is out today!

Airships. Piracy. Murder. The Occasional Cup of Tea…Join Captain Marta Ramos, the most notorious pirate in the Duchy of Denver, and her crew as they negotiate the perils of air, land and drawing room in a series of fast-paced adventures in a North America that never was.

Available on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks, B&N, IndieBound and other fine bookselling sites!

 

For one thing, Alex Acks’s terrific Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures is up for preorder! It will be releasing in print and ebook on April 1! Why experience delayed gratification? Order now! Bookstores and libraries can order our print books, once they are available, through Ingram, FYI, and our ebooks through Kobo and Overdrive.

We should have print copies for sale at ClexaCon in Las Vegas in April at the table that we will be splitting with Blind Eye Books in the Dealer’s Room. We’re also hoping to throw a release party at WisCon (awaiting confirmation from the con) in Madison over Memorial Day weekend.

And in other Author News:

Catherine Lundoff will be reading at the Anderson Library at the University of Minnesota on Sunday, March 18th as part of the Women Who Write showcase of local authors.

 

Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon won second prize in the Lesbian Fantasy category of the Rainbow Book Awards and was one of the top book in the Best Lesbian Books category! Needless to say, we’re all pretty thrilled around here.

Also, if you’re in Minneapolis or nearby on Wednesday, December 13th, Catherine will be reading from Silver Moon at Quatrefoil Library from 7-8PM.

Emily L. Byrne’s Desire comes out tomorrow (11/26) but you can preorder today!

We’re running a Goodreads Giveaway for 2 copies of Catherine Lundoff’s Lambda-Award-nominated collection, Out of This World, until 11/30.

Amazon has Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon on sale this week for Prime users.

We’ve signed a two book deal with the amazing Alex Acks! Look for Book 1 of their steampunk adventures in 2018 and Book 2 in 2019. More info coming soon. Or you can, you know, sign up for our monthly newsletter on any page of our website so as not to miss cool announcements like this.

Lots of lovely people came to publisher Catherine Lundoff’s talk on starting a small press at DreamHaven Books on 11/16. And awesome local writer Conrad Zero recorded it and sent it to Catherine for an editing check. And then our Holiday  Norovirus Adventure (TM Pending) began last week and we are are still not caught up. Should have something available soon, including a resource list. Sorry about the delay!

Action-packed week around here! We’ll be at two different events this week with books, QoSP mugs and mousepads, a special guest and, of course, chocolate.

• WomenVenture Women Mean Business Marketplace and Luncheon, Minneapolis, MN – October 13th. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table at this day long event celebrating women small business owners in Minnesota.
• 2017 Twin Cities Book Festival, St. Paul, MN – October 14th. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table and author Michael Merriam will be helping out and signing his new weird Western novella, Not Enough Midnights. We’ll have our books, Michael’s books, some books from small press pals, QoSP swag, and have we mentioned chocolate? Stop by and say hi. The Book Fest is a great event!

 

Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon is one of the books featured on Book Riot’s “100 Must-Read Bisexual Books” for Bisexual Awarenesss Week. We are pleased!

Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon has earned a Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention! Winners will be announced in December (fingers crossed!).

Had a great time at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki! Rosebud Books was able to sell all the copies of our titles that we brought with us and Catherine Lundoff had a great time on her panels!

There were a couple of followup items from Catherine’s panels – here are some of the resource lists that she mentioned (or wanted to mention):

Older Women in Speculative Fiction: Catherine’s book and story list of older women as protagonists in science fiction, fantasy and horror. Sidsel Pedersen had turned it into a Goodreads list that you can add to or use to build a reading list of your own. Catherine has a shorter Goodreads list of her reviews of some of the books in the bibliography.

LGBTQ Science Fiction Goes Worldwide – Catherine’s original history of LGBTQ speculative fiction posts here now here. Her updated versions which include more horror and are longer are being posted on a monthly basis on Queer Sci-Fi and her list of speculative fiction with queer female protagonists cane be found here. The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards have a reading list of early works here (see also the award lists) and LGBTQ Reads for more recent works.