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Very excited and pleased to say that The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater is on the 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List! Which means that you can vote for it for the Locus Awards, if you are so inclined, as we hope you are! I mentioned that Cinrak was also on recommended reading lists for the Hugo Awards, the Nebula Awards, the Ursa Major Awards and, as of this weekend, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards so if you can vote on any of these, we hope that it makes your list too.

Speaking of A.J., be sure and read their thoughtful new essay, The Waters of This Place,” at Strange Horizons.

Coming up this weekend, February 4-7, please join us at Capricon 41. Capricon is going online for the first time and Catherine Lundoff is on multiple programming items and will be reading from her forthcoming novel, Blood Moon. The schedule looks amazing and DreamHaven Books will have a virtual “booth” so you can buy our books there too!

And Catherine Lundoff will be teaching her online class “In Flagrante Delicto: Writing Effective Sex Scenes” at the Rambo Academy on Sunday, February 14th from 1-3:00PM PST.

Back to celebrating!

Some very cool news about The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater!

• “Cetaceous Secrets of the Jeweled Nadir” is on Nerds of a Feather’s Hugo Awards Recommended Reading List for short fiction.
• Cinrak is also on the Ursa Major Awards’ Recommended Reading List for Anthropomorphic Other Works (short story collections and anthologies).
• 2 of the stories from Cinrak are on the Reading List for the Nebula Awards.
• And Cinrak made 3 reviewers end of the year favorite/best books of 2020! Maria Haskins gave it a nice shoutout, as did reviewer Paul Weimer and Nathan Burgoine (listed on Twitter at @nathanburgoine).

Enthusiastic congratulations to A.J.!

Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for signing up for Queen of Swords Press news.

News

• Blood Moon, the long-awaited sequel to Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon, will be out on March 15th, 2021, featuring more adventures with Becca, Erin and the Wolf’s Point Pack! Preorders are now open for the ebook edition. Stay tuned for the link to preorder your physical copy!
• Happy 4th Small Press Birthday to us! The winner of the prize drawing for a book and a surprise gift is Brianna! Congratulations!
• If you’re nominating for the Nebula, Hugo or other awards, we have a roll-up post for everyone involved with Queen of Swords Press right here.

Some thoughts on turning 4, from the publisher:

• Wow! I can’t believe we made it! Thanks for buying our books or plugging our books or reviewing our books and/or supporting our Patreon, hosting us and all the other things so many of you fine folks do!
• In 4 years, we’ve put out 10 books that we’re really proud of, including works by terrific authors like Alex Acks and A.J. Fitzwater and the authors in Scourge of the Sea of Time (and Space).
• We’ve gotten to work with some great artists and other professionals, done projects with other small presses and participated in a whole LOT of events. These have included a couple of Worldcons, 6 book festivals around the world, a ton of podcasts and blog posts and online events a bunch of conventions, several steampunk festivals and multiple bookstore events, plus things I’m probably forgetting about. Thank you and we hope you stay tuned for more!

Upcoming Events:

• Catherine Lundoff will be teaching No More Lone Wolves: Writing Characters in Community, an online class at the Rambo Academy, on Saturday, January 16th, 1-3:00PM PST. This will be part of a Day of Hopepunk! Cat Rambo’s class on Writing Hopepunk will be happening in the morning so you can sign up for both.
• Catherine is also a guest at virtual convention Arisia, January 15-18th, and will be on several panels on Sunday, January 17th.
• Look for Catherine on programming at Capricon 41 as well as at the Rambo Academy, Deep Valley Book Festival: Cabin Fever Edition and Rainbow Space Magic in the coming months.

Queen of Swords Press Recent Events:

We are in your YouTubes, talking about things!

• Check out A.J. Fitzwater and our webmaster, Andi Buchanan, talking about New Zealand Speculative Fiction at CONZealand.
• Alex Acks does a reading at MileHiCon.
• Catherine Lundoff talked about queer fantasy and queer horror at MultiverseCon and moderates a rockstar panel on LGBTQ Protagonists in SF/F at Confluence SFF.

Queen of Swords Press is supported by Catherine Lundoff’s Patreon (Read a serialized novel in progress! Get entered to win free books!) and our Ko-fi account, if you’d like to send a little more love our way. Many thanks to our awesome patrons!

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, Unfinished Business, Murder on the Titania, Wireless, Silver Moon, Out of This World, Medusa’s Touch and Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) are all available in print as well as ebook. Knife’s Edge and Desire are ebook only. Check our website for available formats and remember that your library or cool local indie bookstore can order our titles in, if they don’t already have them.

If you have enjoyed any of our titles and haven’t already done so, please post a review on the site where you purchased it, Goodreads, your social media, etc.! They are much needed and appreciated. Many thanks to those of you who’ve reviewed our titles so far!

More about the Press:
See our website for more info and calls for submission.
Please follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, if you aren’t already. Thanks for signing up!

Looking for sales? We got ’em!

• All of our books are on sale now through the end of the year at Smashwords.
• All of Emily L. Byrne’s titles and Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff are on sale through the end of the year on Amazon and right here on the website for the My Lesfic Season of Books Holiday Supersale. 

News!

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater is on 3 reviewers’ Favorite Books of 2020 lists! Paul Weimar, Maria Haskins and Nathan Burgoine have all named it as one of their favorite books of the year. 😀

If you live in the Twin Cities metro area within 10 miles of Bancroft Elementary in South Minneapolis, we will happily deliver either handmade boxes and journals from Jana Pullman’s Etsy or books from Queen of Swords Press (or both!) through 12/20. Porch pick up with contactless pay through PayPal or Venmo is definitely an option too! Get your last minute shopping in now, buy local and save on shipping! Books by Catherine Lundoff can be signed.

Here’s an award eligibility post for all Queen of Swords Press authors, artists, web master and all!

• Raising the Steaks in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78 (March, 2020). Short story.
• Alex also has a media tie-in story that you can read for free – One People, One Purpose for the 10th Anniversary of Blizzard’s StarCraft II (7/28/20). Short story.

• No Man’s Land (Paper Road Press, 2020). Historical fantasy. Novella.
• “Cetaceous Secrets of the Jewelled Nadir” and “Flight of the Hydro Chorus,” both in The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper. (short stories). The 3 other nonreprint stories in the collection: “Young Cinrak”, “Perfidy at the Felidae Isles and “The Hirsute Pursuit” are also eligible; the other 2 stories are reprints. And you should read the whole collection because it’s awesome.
• “How to Build a Unicorn” in Fireside Magazine (June, 2020) . Short story.
• “Cascade” in The Future Fire (Summer, 2020). Short story.
• “Tāne Mahuta” in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #79 (June, 2020). Short story.

• “The Adventure of the Missing Fiancé.” The Book of Extraordinary Sherlock Holmes Stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Mango Books, 2020. (Mystery).
• “Cardinal’s Gambit,” LHMP Podcast, 2020 edited by Heather Rose Jones and narrated by Cherae Clark. (Historical F/F)
• “The Rani’s Dream,” Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives edited by John Linwood Grant. Belanger Books, 2020.(Mystery, with supernatural elements)
• “Inheritance,” March, 2020. Haunting Shadows: The Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Anthology edited by Matt McElroy.  Onyx Path Publishing. (Media tie-in/Horror)
• “Class Photo” – Letter to Yesterday Podcast, June, 2020. (Autobiographical essay – included so I can use in my end of year post).

• “Dégustation” (Nightmare Magazine, June 2020)
• “Sun, Moon, and Wretched Star” (Fireside Magazine, April 2020)

Andi C. Buchanan (our webmaster): 2020 short fiction publications –

• “The Wasp-Keeper’s Mother” – Kaleidotrope
• “Even the Clearest Water” – Fireside Magazine
• “Like Clocks Work” – Aurealis
• “Where a Good Town may take us” – Abyss & Apex
• “Salvage” – takahē magazine

• VerbWellington – November 5-8th. Wellington, New Zealand. A.J. Fitzwater and A.C. Buchanan (who is also the Queen of Swords Press webmaster) are appearing at this fab writer’s festival in New Zealand.
• Midwest Spec-Fic Book Box – November 5th-20th. 4 small presses, 5 books + surprises = the perfect holiday gift for the sf/f fan in your life! Queen of Swords Press, Atthis Arts, Apex Book Publishing and Aurelia Leo are collaborating on a gift box full of amazing reads featuring titles by Alex Acks, Maurice Broaddus, Alanna McFall, Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald and more! Follow link to order from Atthis Arts.
• WomenVenture Women Mean Business – November 13th, 4-6PM CST. Online. Annual fundraiser and reception for WomenVenture, a local nonprofit that supports women starting and owning their own businesses in Minnesota. Queen of Swords Press will be in the Marketplace from 11/7-11/21; Nov. 13th is the actual event.
• In Flagrante Delicto: Writing Effective Sex Scenes – November 22, 11:30-1:30 CST. Teaching at the Rambo Academy.

All kinds of fun! Please join us!

As you can see, October’s going to be a bit nuts! We have back to back and sometimes, simultaneous events, so we’re just going to have a month long sale instead of event-specific specials. Stop by here 10/1-11/1 to get your deals on our books!

• Geek Girl Con – Online. Seattle, Washington. Queen of Swords Press has a table in the Virtual Exhibitor’s Hall from 10/1-11/1.
• C’monfluence – October 2-4, Pittsburgh, PA. Online – please preregister. Catherine Lundoff is a guest and has one Kaffeeklatsch (with Sarah Pinkster) and 4 panels.
• TC Quorum’s Coming Out Day Luncheon – 10/9, 9:00 AM – 1:30PM. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. Online (register at Hop In – link at site).
• Cream & Amber’s Fall Mini-Market – October 10th, 10AM -2PM. In person! Outside and please wear a mask.
• Multiverse2020 – October 15-17th, Atlanta, Georgia. Now online! Catherine will be a guest and is on multiple panels and doing a reading.
• Twin Cities Book Festival – October 17th, St. Paul, MN. Online. Queen of Swords Press is a vendor once again.
• MileHiCon – October 23rd-25h, Denver, CO. Alex Acks will be doing a reading and 2 panels.
• Crimson Peaks and Menacing Mansions: Writing Gothic Horror – Catherine is teaching at the Rambo Academy online class.10/25 from 9:30-11:30 AM PST
• WORD Christchurch – 10/28-11/1. Christchurch, New Zealand. Look for A.J. Fitzwater on programming.

So I wrote down the end date for St. Cloud Pride instead of the start date, so surprise sales coupon starts today, instead of  next week as I originally planned! We’re going to be one of the sponsors this year and the virtual events are kicking off today and tomorrow and running through the 20th. Follow along on their Facebook page. We’ll be part of tomorrow’s online Pride Parade and will be running a coupon all week. Enter StCloudPride at checkout right here on our website to get 15% off all purchases over $3, which is pretty much what we do for in person book sales, but this applies to both ebooks and print! Get some fun reads!