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News and September Events

September events!

  • Twin Cities Pagan Pride – Saturday, September 11th. Minneapolis, MN. Look for some of our books at author Michael Merriam’s vendor table and check out Mike’s latest steampunk title too! If you like Alex Acks’s work, we think you’ll like Mike’s too.
  • St. Cloud Pride in the Park – Saturday, September 18th, 11-3PM. St. Cloud, MN. Queen of Swords Press will have a booth – come visit!
  • MCBF Fall Con – Saturday, September 25th, 10-6PM. St. Paul, MN. Michael Merriam will be tabling in the vending area at our local comic con too! Stop by, say hi and get some of his books and ours!

New reviews:

Authors News:

    • Rem Wigmore:
      • Check out Rem’s new author interviews at evOke Publications and at author Jamie Sands’s blog.
      • And new short stories coming out in the next couple of months: “Basil and the Wild” in The Middle Distance (Victoria University Press 2021) and “Why We Make Monsters” in Baffling Magazine Issue 2 (2021).
  • A.J. Fitzwater:
    • A.J. has an interview up at the Oamaru Mail News and has a a cool origin story for Cinrak and Orvillia and interview at Read New Zealand Te Pou Muramura.
    • Plus a new short story coming out in October, “Offset,” in Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa, Auckland University Press, October 2021.
    • Catherine Lundoff:
      • Teaching Book Promotion on a Budget – Sunday, September 19th, 9:30-11:30AM PST at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.
      • Watch Catherine do a a fun new in costume interview and reading at Fae Productions!
      • Jennie Goloboy:
        • Jennie just sold a story to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and did a talk at the Coastal Georgia Historical Society on “Isabella and James Hamilton, Merchant Family of St. Simons, Charleston, and London.”
        • We’ll have a cover reveal for her forthcoming humorous science fiction novel, Obviously, Aliens, next month! We’re planning on releasing Aliens in November.
      • Emily L. Byrne:

New stuff coming next month with the Twin Cities Book Festival, the WROTE Podcast and more! Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!

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FOXHUNT is here!

 FOXHUNT is a science fiction novel with a queer trans woman protagonist and a cast of LGBTQ+ characters. It is set several hundred years in Earth’s future, after a climate apocalypse. The new society is solar-powered, so it’s solarpunk; it deals with climate change and the impacts thereof, so it’s climate fiction; and it’s hopeful about humanity’s future, which is what makes it hopepunk. Welcome to my TED talk about current genre jargon! FOXHUNT has some great early reviews, including a starred review in Publishers Weekly! – FOXHUNT has an amazing cover by Hugo Award-nominated artist Laya Rose and gorgeous print book design by Terry Roy.  FOXHUNT is available direct from Queen of Swords Press and everywhere else in print (note: we have a processing delay in our book order, but will have print copies in a couple of days) and ebook. Check out the video of Rem’s  reading and stay tuned for a book giveaway this weekend and a Twitter interview with Rem Wigmore at @qospress and more fun things on the way!

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Starred review for FOXHUNT by Rem Wigmore! And Awards for A.J.!

Foxhunt just got a lovely starred review in Publishers Weekly. It says, in part: It’s an inclusive, optimistic vision of the future, rounded out by beautiful imagery and an effortlessly diverse cast. This enthralling story is a winner.” Read the rest of the review  here. This is our first starred review for any of our titles and we’re very excited about it! Remember that you can preorder your copy directly from us as well as at all major outlets (print and ebook!).

And a mere 24 hours later, The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collection! A.J. also won for Best Novella with their terrific novella from Paper Road Press, No Man’s Land!  In addition, cover artist Laya Rose (Foxhunt) won for Best Artist and our web master, Andi C. Buchanan won for Best Fan Writer! We are very proud of all of them! 😀

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Book sale, preorders and events!

All kinds of fun stuff coming up this month!

  • The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale kicked off today and most of our books are are on sale!
  • Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore is up for preorder! It will be coming out 8/20/21. If you like climate fiction and hopepunk with queer protagonists (or just plain great books), this is one you’ll want to check out!

Events:

  • Strong Women, Strange Worlds – July 15th, 5PM EST. Online reading series. Catherine will be reading with several other authors in this new online science fiction and fantasy reading series.
  • Madame Askew’s Temporal Entourage Book Club – July 18th, 6:30 CST. An online discussion of Alex Acks’s Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures. Alex will be Guest of Honor!
  • Perfectly Queer – July 21, 9-10 PM PST. Queer author reading series currently running remote from Dog-Eared Books Castro in San Francisco, hosted by Richard May and Wayne Goodman. Catherine will be reading with Michael Nava and Vincent Meis.
  • Golden Crown Literary Society – July 25th, 12PM EST (online).  Catherine will be on a historical f/f fiction panel with cool writers. Stay tuned.

More coming soon!

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Happy June! Happy Pride Month!

We have so much going on this month! In addition to everything going on listed here, we’ll also be unveiling Laya Rose’s amazing cover art for Rem Wigmore’s novel, Foxhunt, which we’ll be releasing later this year. Patreon supporters get to see it first, then newsletter subscribers, then folks coming to our Reddit Fantasy Small Press AMA, then everyone else. Be sure and sign up for one of these so you can see it early too!

  • Pride Month StoryBundle – June 2 – July 1st. Our annual event, this year featuring books by Melissa Scott, Matt Bright, A.J. Fitzwater, Andi C. Buchanan, R.B. Lemberg, Eboni Dunbar, Cecilia Tan, dave ring, Leigh Harlen, Anya Deniro, Langley Hyde, Heather Rose Jones, J. Scott Coatsworth and Catherine Lundoff and benefiting Rainbow Railroad, a nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ refugees get to safer areas.
  • r/Fantasy Queen of Swords Press Reddit AMA – June 4th online, 24 hour Q&A featuring A.J. Fitzwater, Alex Acks, Rem Wigmore, Jennie Goloboy and Catherine Lundoff.
  • 2021 SFWA Nebula Conference. June 4th-6th, online. Catherine will be a panelist on “Thinking Big, Publishing Small” on Saturday, June 5th at 11AM PST and A.J. will be a panelist on “Hometown Heroes: Working and Writing Globally” on Friday, June 4th at 3:30-4:30PM PST and “Taxes and Finance for Non-U.S. Writers Publishing in the United States” on Saturday, June 5th at 2-3:00PM PST.
  • Edelweiss BookFest. June 8-9th, online. Queen of Swords Press title The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater is an Editor’s Pick with a recorded spotlight and associated promo. Catherine will be in attendance.
  • Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention 2021. June 11th-13th. Catherine will be on the Writing Horror Games panel on Friday night at 8:30PM CST.
  • Behind the Scenes: Nuts and Bolts of Small Press Publishing. June 13th, Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, online 9:30-11:30 AM PST. In which Catherine explains what goes into publishing a book, what she does as a publisher and answers your questions.
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Spontaneous online WisCon!

So there wasn’t going to be a WisCon this year, but then a bunch of folks decided to put one together with spontaneous online and onsite programming (at the Concourse) and an Otherwise Award auction and vidding. Then we stepped up and asked if we could do something for the vendors and artists and the answer was a resounding “YES!” Starting Friday, we’ll be boosting each other on social media using the #VWisconDealersRoom and #VWisconArtShow hashtags so please follow along. We might have a Discord chat as well, still working out the details on that. Anyway, come do the fun-filled shopping that you would be doing if we were all at the Concourse and enjoy!

We have a sales coupon that is good for this week! Get 15% off all purchases from our site through 6/1 using coupon WisCon21 at check out.

 

Here’s the listing for everyone:

A lot of the dealers and artists who go to to WisCon every year make a solid chunk of their annual income from it, so having it not  be in person (and the economy tanking and all) twice in a row means that everyone is taking a hit, including Queen of Swords Press. Therefore, we’re having a virtual Art Show and Dealer’s Room Show. I expect to be adding more folks to this list, but here’s the initial round. We might get something up at the Queen of Swords Press Discord, but it will be less grand than I originally imagined. But there are deals to be had and cool things to acquire! We’ll be boosting on Twitter and else where using the hashtags #VWisconArtShow and #VWisconDealersRoom. In the meantime, please check these folks out and consider buying a thing or two.

Art Show:

Lots of cool stuff to look at and be sure to check out the WisCon feed and blog for other fun things as they get added!

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Happy May!

Lots of stuff coming up, particularly as we get closer to June, but I wanted to shout out a few things.

  • “What is Book Coaching” – May 11th 1-2:30 PM CST. nline panel with the Professional Editor’s Network, Minneapolis. You can register here.
  • StokerCon – May 20th-23rd. Online from Denver, CO. Catherine will be doing a reading and participating in a cool editorial project and maybe more!
  • Big congrats to A.J. for becoming the new Artist in Residence at The Christchurch Arts Centre starting in August (this will give them time and funding to work full time on their new novel!).
  • Blood Moon got a nice new review at Library Journal! (Queen of Swords Press titles are available for library purchase via OverDrive and IngramSpark so if you have a library card, you can request our books at your local library).
  • Alex Acks is a member of the Skiffy and Fanty Podcast crew and we’re delighted to congratulate them all on once again being Hugo Award Finalists!
  • We’re welcoming our first intern in June! Shannon Hofer-Pottala is a student in the Publishing Certificate program at the University of Minnesota, as well as doing some small press publishing of her own, and she’ll be working with Catherine and Alexa this summer on various projects.
  • We are opening for submissions for book queries on 6/15 and staying open until 8/15.  We’ll be collaborating with publisher Jacob Haddon of Lamplight Magazine to use their Submittable portal this time around so please follow us on Twitter or Facebook for earliest details (they’ll be in the June newsletter too!)
  • The annual Pride Month StoryBundle will be launching on June 2 and running through July 1st; we’ve got an amazing lineup of books this year, including Silver Moon and Blood Moon by Catherine Lundoff and several books that are in the running for the Nebula Awards and the IGNYTE Awards.
  • We’ll be doing our first Small Press Reddit AMA on June 4th. This is a 24 hour online Q&A, made possible by  the fact that we’re in different time zones. Featuring A.J. Fitzwater, Alex Acks, Rem Wigmore, Jennie Goloboy and Catherine Lundoff.
  • And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank Hamline University Women’s Resource Center for once again featuring Queen of Swords Press in their annual FemFair event celebrating feminist artists and small businesses.
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HUGE Congratulations!

A.J. Fitzwater is a Sir Julius Vogel Award finalist in 3 categories! The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper is up for Best Collection, their Paper Roads Press title No Man’s Land is up for Best Novella and their terrific essay “Queer Speculative Aotearoa New Zealand” at LGBTQ Reads is up for Best Fan Writing.

And Alex Acks, author of Murder on the Titania and Wiireless, is up for a 2021 Hugo Award for Best Fancast for their work on the Skiffy and Fantasy Podcast!

Great work, both of you!

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April News and Events

  • Steampunk CommuniTea Weekend – April 9th-12th. Look for Alex Acks and Catherine Lundoff at this fun new online event! They’ll both be on panels as well as roaming around on Discord. And Alex’s titles, Murder on the Titania and Wireless are both on sale this weekend when you buy them direct from us!
  • So You Want to Put Together an Anthology? – Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, online. April 10th, 9:30-11:30 AM PST. Catherine Lundoff will be teaching this class. What goes into creating an anthology? How do you find authors? Decide to pitch it to a publisher or indie publish? And what do you do with it when you’re done?
  • Publishing Basics for Genre Writers – April 14th, 6:00-8:00 PM CST. Zoom, Springboard for the Arts. Catherine will be teaching this interactive online workshop for Springboard, a Minnesota nonprofit.
  • Flights of Foundry – April 16-18th, online sf/f/h con. Catherine  and new QoSPress author Rem Wigmore will be on programming and we will have a Queen of Swords table in the virtual Dealer’s Room.

And more ahead! Stay tuned!

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March Events and News!

New Author welcome! We’re going to be publishing new novels by New Zealand Rem Wigmore and Minnesota author and literary agent Jenny Goloboy later on in 2021!

Rem’s novel Foxhunt is queer post apocalyptic hopepunk and claimed NZ artist Laya Rose has just agreed to do the cover and we think you’ll love it!
Jennie’s book, Obviously, Aliens, is a fun-filled romp of a roadtrip with aliens and will give us another title in our growing list of speculative fiction titles by Upper Midwest authors! More news about both books coming soon!

  • Smashwords Read an Ebook Week Sale – get all of our books on sale this week at Smashwords!
  • Scratch & Dent Sale! We’ve had some books come back as returns that have some small amounts of cover damage and we’re putting them on sale! Get Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) and /or Alex Acks’s Murder on the Titania and Wireless for $8 each plus shipping while supplies last! See last post for details.
  • Catherine Lundoff’s Blood Moon comes out on 3/15! It’s on Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated Books of March and we’ve got lots more stuff coming up! Mark your calendars for the release reading on our Facebook Page/at DreamHaven Books on 3/17!
  • Please check out our events page for more.