Big shoutout of congratulations today to author Alex Acks, whose Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures is now a MIPA Book Awards Finalist in the science fiction, fantasy and horror category! It is well-deserved! Worth noting that the first book of this set, Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Awards last year, so clearly we’re onto something! You can read them standalone, but we think it’s more fun to start with Murder.

At least for a bit. So A.J. Fitzwater was hoping to a short book tour of the U.S. to promote Cinrak and their other upcoming title, No Man’s Land, in May, but you probably already know how that’s turning out. So instead, we have a bunch of fun online stuff going on this month and next to celebrate!

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper will be out on April 6th and we’re having a virtual release party! Login to Zoom for A.J.’s Tea Time Virtual Release Party (check your time zone if you want to catch it live – we’ll also post a recording) to listen to A.J. read and talk about their work.
There’s a new reading video on our YouTube channel (or check out A.J.’s author page here on the site).
And Catherine will be interviewing A.J. on the Queen of Swords Press (@qopress) Twitter feed on Saturday, April 11th at 2PM. Comment and like to be entered into a drawing for a copy of Cinrak and one of the new Cinrak coffee mugs.

Other fun things:
A.J. was on a virtual panel on Queer SFF at r/Fantasy on 3/29.
Looking for some new books to read? Check out “Six Books with A.J. Fitzwater” at Nerds of a Feather.Read A.J.’s guest blog “Krakens are friends, not food” at The World Remains Mysterious on 4/6.
And “Turn the Puns up to 11” at Mary Robinette’s Kowal’s My Favorite Bit on 4/7.                                       Author A.C. Wise interviewed A.J. for her blog here.

 

There are also new Cinrak reviews – check out the Cinrak page for links and excerpts!
And there’s more on the way!

Catherine Lundoff news:
Mind Meld: The 101 and the 201 of SFF at Nerds of a Feather – get some new book recommendations from a bunch of writers, including Catherine!
Check out Catherine’s new article, “Book Releases on a Budget,” at the SFWA Blog.
Catherine will be teaching several online classes at Cat Rambo’s Academy for Wayward Writers in the next few months. If you’re looking for the opportunity to take more writing-released classes, there are lot of options out here!

 

Smashwords announced an ‘Authors Give Back’ sale for this week to help people deal with all the things going on at the moment, so we put our most rollicking stories on sale to give you lovely people some fun, escapist reads.

Alex Acks – both books are on sale, as are their Alex Wells books with Angry Robot (not affiliated with Smashwords, just a fun opportunity to read all the Alex books). So that’s Murder on the Titania and Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures for 50% off on Smashwords and Hunger Makes the Wolf and Blood Binds the Pack for 50% off direct from Angry Robot at their Shelf Isolation Sale. What a deal!

You can also get Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon and Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) on sale for 50% off at Smashwords! Good deals all around!

It’s another full month ahead!

If you’re a Smashwords shopper, all of our titles are on sale this week for Read an Ebook Week! Click on the title to see the discount.

On Thursday, March 19th from 6:30-8PM, Catherine Lundoff will be at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis giving her annual talk about running a small press, what’s going on now and what’s coming up. “The Return of Running a Small Press: It’s an Adventure!”

The Rosemount Writer’s Festival is coming up on Saturday, March 21st from 9:30-4:30 at the Steeple Center in Rosemount, Minnesota. Catherine Lundoff will be there with a selection of our titles – stop by and say hi!

There’s a lot of stuff clustered around Valentine’s Day this year.

• Sunday, February 9th – Catherine Lundoff will be teaching “Breaking Out of the Slush Pile” online at Hidden Timber Books. Only a couple of days left to sign up for this!
• February 10th-14th – Emily L. Byrne’s Medusa’s Touch will be on sale for the I Heart Lesfic Valentine’s Day sale.
• Saturday-Sunday, February 15th-16th, Minneapolis – We’ll be tabling at 13 Gears Steampunk again this year! Look for our booth with local author Patrick Marsh.
• Tuesday, February 18th, 8-10PM, Minneapolis – Emily L. Byrne will be reading from her science fiction and fantasy erotica at the Not So Silent Planet Gets Sexy Show at Strike Theater.

Hope to see you at a few of these!

It’s been an amazing week! First, Out of This World got a lovely new review, then we had a terrific and well-attended birthday party at the delightful new Minneapolis bookstore, The Irreverent Bookworm, THEN Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) got picked for the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow List, recommended LGBTQ for adult readers! When I say that books by Marlon James, Olivia Waite and  Carmen Maria Machado are also on the list, you can see why I’d be very, very excited about it!

And if you’re looking for print editions of Scourge and our other titles, you can find them at The Irreverent Bookworm, as well as DreamHaven Books, Cream & Amber, Charis Books and More, A Room of One’s Own and Read It Again Books. Plus the usual places like Amazon and B&N and the less usual places like bookstores around the world. 😀

3rd Birthday Celebration – Minneapolis, MN. Saturday, January 25th, 2-5PM. Join us at the Irreverent Bookworm, Minneapolis’ newest bookstore, for an afternoon of fun, munchies, book sales and giveaways to celebrate our birthday! If you’re not local or you can’t make it, don’t worry. There will be an online drawing for newsletter subscribers so make sure you’re signed up by January 15th, if you’re not already a subscriber.

Acclaimed local artist Elise Matthesen is making a piece for our prize drawing. But you have to show up to be entered! See you there!

End of year book sales!

We’re participating in the overlapping IHeartLesfic Holiday Mega Sale (12/26/19-12/29/19) and the Smashwords End of Year Sale (12/26-1/1/20). Because of the time needed to get the sale prices on all global platforms and how different platforms match pricing, you may start seeing some sale prices today (12/23) and more tomorrow before the official start date of 12/26/19. We will start sales direct from our website tomorrow (12/24). Please enjoy and pick up some fun reads for your holiday season!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Hanukkah, Festivus, Christmas, Yule and/or a pleasant holiday week, however or whatever you may be celebrating! Thank you all so much for supporting Queen of Swords Press and our authors!

Stay tuned for our 3rd birthday celebration in January! We’ll be having a birthday party at The Irreverent Bookworm bookstore in Minneapolis on 1/25/19 from 2-5PM as well as an online celebration and prize drawing!

 

Full month ahead!

• Queer Author Holiday Party and Book Sale – Eat My Words Bookstore Saturday, November 7th, 1-5PM (event runs until 7 – we have to leave at 5PM). Catherine Lundoff will be reading at 3PM.
• GPS Holiday Emporium – Sunday, December 8th, 10-5PM. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table, shared with local author Michael Merriam.
• Twin Cities Quorum Sparkles and Spirits – Wednesday, December 11th. 5:30-930 at The Bird, Minneapolis. We’ll have a vendor table at TC Quorum’s holiday party and annual meeting.
• Minnesota Women’s Art Festival – Saturday, December 14th, 9:30 to 4:30. Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press will have a book table and will be sharing space with book artist Jana Pullman once again.

We’ll also have Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon and all three Emily L. Byrne titles on sale for the I Heart Lesfic December Lesfic Mega Sale (12/26-/12/30); books will be on sale on this site as well as on Amazon. We’ll be participating in the Smashwords end of year sale as well (waiting on dates) and a different set of titles (TBD) will be on sale for that one. Stay tuned! And sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!

 

Are you an ebook bundle shopper? Guess what? We have a new bundle up at our store on DriveThruFiction! Get Scourge, Murder, Wireless and Unfinished Business for $10! Our books will also be included in the Black Friday sale days on the site, so please stay tuned if it’s one of the places where you shop for books.

Check out our new Events page for all our upcoming events – we’ll be at a bunch of different festivals and pop-ups in December.

And all of Emily L. Byrne’s titles and Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff will be included in the end of December I Heart Lesfic sale! Stay tuned for details!