ravenna_c_tan | Reading

I'm going to be out of town for the next couple Fridays, so I won't have a reading post for a while, but I will be reading and posting about everything once I get back.

Recently Finished
Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief
Brand new Ernest Cunningham book. I am still greatly enjoying this series.

Cocaine Blues
First in the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series. I've never seen the show, but am vaguely aware of it and did not realize it was based on books, but this popped up in my recommendations and I do like historical murder mysteries with female protagonists. I didn't love this one, though? It was okay, and I'll probably read more eventually, but I'm not rushing out to read the rest right this moment.

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
This was an interesting one. The plot sounded intriguing, but so much of the first half or so of the book is just these two guys talking about this 40-year-old unsolved case and coming up with theories, and it was kind of boring. Once it finally got going I enjoyed it more. There are a bunch of books in the series but it looks like only one other is translated into English and I'm not so invested that I want to pay money for the Japanese ones.

This American Ex-Wife
Memoir about the author's divorce (from a truly terrible guy) and how getting divorced was freeing for her. I really liked this a lot.

Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology
Cute middle grade graphic novel about a girl who goes off in search of her missing geozoologist grandmother so they can view an upcoming eclipse together. It's set in a fantasy world and a big focus is on the various animals of the world. I liked this a lot.

Bokura no Chikyuu no Arukikata vol. 7
Final volume. I really loved this series.

Shadow House vol. 21

sabethea

In other news, I have put in an application to the Cinnamon Trust for a cat. I don’t imagine they’ll find one who will fit our family situation so it kind of suits me well - I’m dithering about whether I’m really looking or not, and I’m anxious about costs; and the Cinnamon Trust will only contact me if they find a cat which they think suits my situation (which I tried to describe in depth in various bits of the form, though whether the correct bits I don’t know), which is unlikely, plus they pay all vet bills, which is a *big* bonus.

Given the latter, I said we’d consider one with a minor health condition, especially since we got Honey when she was suffering from a skin condition which she had on and off for several years (before we discovered it was a grass allergy and stopped her going outside…actually, thinking back, it might not have been grass, but it was definitely the outside world because she was fine once we kept her in). But not one with a behavioural issue because we don’t have the spoons.

Trying to explain that while I was going to be in the house all the time, I wasn’t necessarily going to be available for the cat 24/7 was complicated, too. Like, yes I’m here, but I’m not actually *with* the cat because I can’t sleep with a cat thanks to needing to sleep in particular ways, sleeping very badly anyway and needing not to be woken more than I manage by myself etc…and when you spend 12+ hours asleep, that’s half the time you’re not with the cat. Granted some of that time, Jay is around the cat, but he doesn’t like to sleep with the cats either, so at night-night, neither of us would be around, nor would we sometimes in the day when he goes out when I’m asleep.

Like I said, I’m not sure how much of a good thing we look, especially as I’m only looking for a young or juvenile cat (though I think a lot of elderly people get their cats from the cinnamon trust so they may want older cats; other places have an faq about age limits and it’s about “no one under 21” and this one has one reassuring that there’s no upper age limit!) and I don’t know how many animals they get through down here (I know there’s a branch in Hayle). So I think it’s unlikely to come to anything. And I’m okay with that. Ares is still a bit restless and would like Zula back please. But he’s so much better now the boys have magically reappeared. It must be such a relief.

shadaras posting in

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duckprintspress

https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7621978779430227231?_r=1&_t=ZP-952kwMwuRXK

(Video ID: A white person with short reddish hair and gold-rimmed glasses sits before a bookcase and speaks.)

Transcription: Another question I got is, what – let me see – what does an indie publisher do? Is it, like, an editor role, where you work directly with authors, or is it more like the sales and distribution side?

So, obviously there are levels here. Some businesses are bigger than others. Duck Prints Press is owned by and operated by one person. That’s me. I’m the one person. I’m the only employee. I do get help from contractors, especially with editing and marketing. But the answer to “what do I do” is everything. I wear every hat. I am our accountant. I write our contracts – obviously after having had the initial one reviewed by a lawyer, but once that was done, it’s all pretty much been me. I run our social media accounts. I’m our lead editor, which means nothing gets published unless I have it through at least once. I handle our advertising. I run all our Kickstarter campaigns. I generally think of myself as the lead editor and project manager. So, when something needs to get pushed forward, I’m the one who does that. When something needs to get edited, I’m the one who does that.

I am working on delegating more, but it’s, you know – labor costs money. People working costs money. And we don’t have that much money because we’re still a small business. So, yeah. What does an indie publisher do? Well, at my scale, what that means is I do some of everything. Jack of all trades. In larger organizations, obviously I’m on the very smallest end of being an indie press. There may be more differentiation of roles in other presses. But, yeah. A lot of the tiniest presses are one-person operations and we do everything.

Feel free to drop me questions in the comments! Bye!

lb_lee

Someone I knew from my North Texas days, Meagan Morris, is one of the folks arrested in the Prairieland debacle, which I only just learned about. She is facing minimum ten years in prison (as a trans woman, in Texas) for... I can’t even figure out what exactly she’s supposed to have done!

I’ve been on an antifa watchlist since before COVID because I went to a protest wielding a sign covered in penises and got quoted by USA Today. I guess I’m a terrorist now.

I’ll be at the protest tomorrow. Fuck this bullshit.

EDIT: okay, as far as I can tell, Meagan was convicted for going to an anti-ICE protest (“riot”), helping others there (“providing material support to terrorists,” now that Trump has declared antifascists terrorists), and using fireworks there (“use and carry an explosive” and “conspiracy to use and carry an explosive”).

She is facing 10-60 years in prison as a trans woman for being an antifascist and having fireworks. That’s terrorism now. That’s hitting people I KNOW. (Or knew.) This is where I used to LIVE.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Crossposts: https://lb-lee.insanejournal.com/25563.html

dine

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torachan

1. I had another work from home day today. Tomorrow I have to go in for the morning, but Monday and possibly even Tuesday I should be able to do WFH, too. And then Wednesday is the start of vacation!

2. Molly's showing off her cutie calico beans, too.

duckprintspress

The cover of a book entitled Duxxx in a Row: A Curated Collection of Explicit Stories. Artwork shows a line of five people sunning themselves on a beach, their sunburns/tan line patterns showing where hands have touched them, mouths have kissed them, and clothes have been. All are reading, lying atop a beach towel with colorful umbrellas overhead and blue waves lap at the bottom of the image.

The front cover of a book entitled Ducks in a Row: A Curated Collection of Short Stories. It shows a pillowfort in rich, warm shades of red, with a group of people of different skin tones, hair colors, and gender presentations gathered beneath as a central person with short pink hair, white skin, and black ear gauges reads aloud from a book. In the foreground, a cat, iguana, and cat cuddle with a duck plushie.

A few days ago, we shared the cover reveals for our next two anthologies, Ducks in a Row: A Curated Collection of Short Stories and Duxxx in a Row: A Curated Collection of Explicit Stories. As explained, each anthology contains stories previously published to our website and/or Patreon between 2021 and 2023. This understandably lead people to wonder: what are the stories?

Wonder no longer!

Ducks in a Row Authors and Stories:

Era J. M. Couts: Warmer Lights
Rhosyn Goodfellow: The Fairy Garden
Catherine E. Green: Of Loops and Weaves
J. D. Harlock: An Odd Gathering of Peculiar Cats
Violet J. Hayes: Meet C(omm)ute
A. L. Heard: Princess Antonia del Montari, aka The Accidental Barista
O. E. Hendrickson: Living Room Beauty Shop
R. L. Houck: Awkward and Oblivious
Zel Howland: Chrysopoeia
Nicola Kapron: Dead Man’s Bells
Nickel J. Keep: Magic in the Machine (the Patreon post for this has been lost)
Tris Lawrence: Best Friends AND…
Eliot Lovell: Commute
Kristi Mae: Chasing Montreal
Puck Malamud: A Shield for the People
Genevieve Maxwell: Waiting for the Tide to Turn
Sage Mooreland: Bubble, Bubble
D. V. Morse: Let the Solstice Come
Neo Scarlett: Whispers of Atlantis: A Tale of Discovery and Belonging
Theresa Tanner: Settling Down
K. B. Vimes: Seal Island
Nina Waters: Widow’s Black

Duxxx in a Row Authors and Stories:

boneturtle: Theirs All Along
Sanne Burg: Worlds Apart (but Still Close)
E. V. Dean: In the Moonlight
A. L. Heard: Brambles, Pollen, and Other Natural Disasters
R. L. Houck: No One Right Way
Aeryn Jemariel Knox: Pas de Deux
Tris Lawrence: Warm Anything You Want
Aria D. Leren: Heated Desperation
Mikki Madison: The Fated Prince
Robin Mal: Close and Warm
Alec J. Marsh: Heart’s Scaffold
YF Ollwell: LA Photographs Itself
Samantha M. Piper: Easier than Expected
April Steenburgh: A night such as this
Shea Sullivan: The Tangled Threads of Our Hearts
Dei Walker: Cecaelia
Nina Waters: Lust
Lyn Weaver: We All Need to Get By
Xianyu Zhou: This Treatment for Chronic Pain Has an Unbelievable Side Effect!

You can read all these authors’ biographies on our webpage!

Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be notified when we launch our campaign on March 30th!

duckprintspress

www.youtube.com/watch

(Video ID: a white person with short reddish hair and gold-rimmed glasses sits before a bookshelf and talks. /end ID)

Transcript: This is a long question so bear with me.

I’d like to hear about some of the structural challenges that make it hard for indie presses to compete with trad pub. For example, I know distribution is a huge challenge and that the big five have the advantages of ordering bigger numbers and they can eat losses more easily because they usually have a handful of massive hits that help them absorb risk. I feel like there are a lot of invisible barriers that readers and authors don’t get to see.

Uh, yeah. I would say the ones already mentioned are big one. Getting a distribution deal is very very challenging for an indie press alone. I haven’t even tried yet. Of all of the indie press people I know, exactly one has managed it. He was trying for years. He finally did it last year. He was this close to giving up because it was that hard.

I think that, in some ways it almost ends up comparing and apples and oranges. It’s very easy to look at a small press like mine, and look at a big press like, you know, Harper Collins or Penguin or whatever, and go, “You’re in the same business.” But it’s actually kind of not. What I do is extremely different because I don’t have access to the advertising budget. I don’t have access to bookstores. I have to expect to bring in customers, readers, people who like merch, all of that, you know those people are getting brought in by completely different channels. I’ve only paid for advertising, I don’t know, maybe a dozen times, and it’s pretty much never helped. Whereas, you know, the new big release from the big five gets billboards in New York City and movie deals and all of that.

I would say that it’s apples and oranges to some extent because we’re really almost not doing even close to the same thing. Sorry, I’m just checking what else it said.

Obviously, the risk, obviously ordering higher numbers. I’m a little alarmed by how popular, like, the really fancy hardcovers with the sprayed edges are getting, because in order to even attempt to get into that market, you have to be looking at minimums of 500 lots, usually coming from China. And most of our books don’t sell 500 copies, at least not initially. Like, I can’t afford that upfront, and even if we sell 200 in a Kickstarter, what would I even do with the other 300? I run this business out of my home. Our books are stored in my basement. Like, I can’t afford a storage unit to keep this stuff. I can’t afford to front huge amounts of money for a larger print run with fancier features. So I’m really hoping that stuff like that doesn’t become the norm because it’s gonna make it a lot more challenging.

There’s also a lot of gatekeeping from multiple ctors. I run into traditionally published authors who won’t even consider indie press as, like, their equals because we didn’t jump through all of the hoops of abuse that one has to be prepared to endure in order to be traditionally published. That must mean we aren’t as good writers, or something. I know I’m perpetually annoyed with Publishers Weekly, who when we tried to get them to do a deal announcement for us, which is a service that they offer, and I believe it costs money for an announcement, it wasn’t like we were asking something for nothing, they said that they couldn’t do that because we are a vanity press.

We’re not a vanity press. That’s complete bull– I’m not supposed to curse, bleep that out. We’re not a vanity press. We don’t take money from our creators. I’ve never taken money from a creator and I never would. We just crowdfund because we don’t have the capital and the investors to cover getting everything done ahead of done and hope that it sells. It’s really frustrating how a lot of sort of traditional publishing streams, even when they’re not tradpub themselves, like someplace like Publishers Weekly, are really not interested in recognizing and supporting new ways of doing these models, given – by which I mean publishing models – given the tools and resources available.

It’s much like everything else, they’re really trying to make it a rich person’s game instead of an industry that, you know, an average middle-class person could potentially break into as a small business.

Anyway, this is already getting long. I could probably keep going. But yes, there are a lot of barriers. But I think we get around that because of the apples to oranges thing. I’m not trying to do what they’re doing. I don’t want to do what they do. I want to do what we’re doing. And that’s part of why I opened a small press – to do things differently.

Ask me anything. I own an independent publisher. Bye!

dine

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catherineldf

2026 so far:

Massively sick twice with colds that lingered for weeks (still recovering from the last one)
Had to put my beloved boy kitty, Shu, to sleep last week (he had a good passing, but it was hard on me). His sister, Ma'at, and I are trying to adapt to new normal.
My friend and former editor Lee Martindale passed away and I've been trying to support her widower. Next up: drafting her obit.
My city got invaded and two people were murdered by ICE within two miles of my house (I already live 4 blocks from what is now George Floyd Square). We're still dealing with all the after effects, trauma, financial disasters, etc. It's been...a lot.
I started a new job at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis just in time for owner Greg Ketter to get teargassed and turn into a folk hero.
I came into some money through Jana's dad's estate.
Co-taught a good class at the Loft Literary Center.
Got sick with the aforementioned cold during MarsCon.
Have gotten Joyce Chng's terrific queer pirate collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, into preorder status for release next month.
Did sundry fun things like an escape room expedition with the steampunk club, hung out with friends, saw plays and watched some entertaining TV.
Worked on submissions for Queen of Swords.
Campaigned hard for the Astreiant Series created by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett to be nominated for Best Series Hugo (please - Point of Hearts is the qualifying title!)
Wrote and got an article accepted for Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein. I wrote about a Margaret St. Clair story that is a fascinating historical artifact. And problematic af.
Got through Part Two and half of Part Three, so far, of my Data Analytics Certification program.
Wrote some thousands of words of new fiction, about which more soon.
I turn 63 on Monday, which is kind of wild.

More detail later after I get some sleep.

torachan

1. Today was the last of my recent round of store visits, to the Little Tokyo store. Since I didn't need to go to any other stores in addition, and was just planning to work from home in the afternoon, I decided to take the train instead of driving. In good traffic (which I would have had based on the time of day), it would be about half an hour or so by car, and the train trip is 45 minutes, so it's not significantly longer (and during rush hour can be as much as half the time), and there's now a station right in the heart of Little Tokyo, so it's just a couple blocks' walk to the store. I got my mid day walk in that way, and was able to stop and get lunch while I was down there as well. The Korean corn dog place is still there, so that was lunch, and Carla had stopped at Beard Papa when she was out doing stuff and sent me a picture of their new sakura matcha cream puff, so I stopped at the Beard Papa in Little Tokyo to get one of those before heading back as well. And bonus, even though the train only cost me $1.75 each way, I'm submitting my mileage reimbursement for work as if I'd driven. :p

2. I have to wear insoles with my shoes or I get terrible foot pain, but for some reason the ones I have can be very squeaky. I tried some of the tips for making insoles stop squeaking, but it didn't work, so I ordered a different brand ones, which I found on some hiking website as like the best of the best, and they came today and do not squeak! The fit is honestly not quite as good as the ones I usually get, but I also just wore them for a little over a mile walk this evening, so I'm hoping that I can break them in a bit more before our trip.

3. Look at these calico beans of Chloe's!

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enchanted_jae

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Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Bruins at Sabres

lobelia321

Today I just want to curl up under a blanket and hide.

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pennswoods

I started reading the Heated Rivalry a few weeks back and wasn't feeling it. But I started watching short videos from the television series as I got further into the story and it's started to sink in. The novel itself is reminding me of really good Johnlock fanfic and I mean that as the highest compliment. I know there are a bunch of other books in the series but I have started hunting down fanfic. I am more invested in the revisiting the romance of Hollander and Rosanov than I have been in any romance, including any of the Bridgerton Stories.

I need to post some more about Bridgerton because the series 5 couple just dropped. I knew this was going to be the one.

Also just dropping is the first trailer for the Harry Potter TV series, and even if JKR wasn't a huge goddamn bigot, I still would not have liked the trailer. First and foremost - not enough Snape. Second - the lighting is rubbish which also makes it harder to see Snape! Third, this is a MUCH darker introduction to Harry's story. The whole series is deals with dark themes and war eventually, but it the first several books foreground a lot of Harry's wonder and discovery and that is played down in this trailer which is going for some Game of Thrones level of lighting here. Fourth, it feels like a lesser imitation of the movies. This is partially my own bias because I am familiar with Dan, Rupert and Emma as the trio and this new set of kids look wrong. But also, it's not that unique. The guy playing Hagrid is wearing Hagrid's clothes but his voice and dialect are not nearly as gruff and distinct as Robbie Coltrane's.

duckprintspress

Our March creator panel, available to all our Patrons at the $7/month, $10/month, and $25/month levels, is coming up this Sunday, March 29th, at 4 p.m. Eastern time (converter)! Join Sebastian Marie, Puck Malamud, Rhosyn Goodfellow, Lucy K. R., and D. A. Hernández as we have a chat about collaborative creation: types that exist, methods we’ve used, great collaborations we’ve had, and what elements go into brewing the perfect group work of fiction!

Title: Approaches to Creating Collaboratively

Description: When we imagine writers, we often picture an individual toiling in solitude, leaning over a notebook and writing rapidly or with keys clattering away on a keyboard. However, this image neglects to consider the many ways there are for writers to collaborate with each other, and with artists, musicians, and other creators. Some writing activities, such as screenwriting, are routinely done by groups. There are many ways to collaborate on fiction writing, too – such as co-authors working together on a book or short story authors coming together on an anthology – and even more so when doing fanwriting. Storytelling approaches such as round-robins, bangs and reverse bangs, zines, collaboratively developed and written ‘verses, and other fandom activities are design with collaboration specifically in mind. In this panel, we’ll discuss types of collaborative writing, how we’ve found collaborators to work with, our own collaborative writing experiences and how they’ve gone, successes we’ve had and issues we’ve run into (and how we did, or didn’t, solve them), systems we’ve put in place to keep our collaborative writing projects “on the rails,” and other related topics.

Current backers, we hope you’ll join us, and new folks – become a Patreon backer now and get in on the conversation!

duckprintspress

1. What are you currently reading?

The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu: I wasn't expecting much, tbh, after reading friends' reactions to this book, and... yeah. It's kinda all over the place? New elements and plot bits just kinda appear mid-scene in a way that's making it really hard for me to keep track of what's actually going on.
Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 2 by Tsumuji Yoshimura
盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: obviously I'm still picking away at this, but I did want to celebrate that I'm now 33% done! which is 89 pages. and I've caught up and overtaken my "one page a day" rate that I fell behind on in January and February. At this rate, I'll be done by, uh. September.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi: the extras were pretty good! all in all I liked this duology, definitely enjoyed vol. 2 better than vol. 1. One of the longer extras did leave some threads dangling loose in a way that was kinda weird but oh well.
Gaysians by Mike Curato: oh, this was so so so good. Story set in the mid 00s on the West Coast about a group of Asian gay men (one of whom turns out to be an Asian trans woman) and their relationships, found family, friendships, and personal challenges, with a heavy dose of the racism and bigotry and transphobia they face. Ultimate W for found family supporting each other.
Dandadan vol. 13 by Yukinobu Tatsu
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 10 by Fuse
A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation manga vol. 1 to 3 by Misaki: technically, this isn't a BL. technically. Not technically, my guy Lizel totally out here gathering an all-male harem.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 13 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: aaaaand done.
I Wanna Love You, Kiss You, Bite You by Sakana Tojou: omegaverse modern setting BL. Very much plot? what plot?
Gachiakuta vol. 2 by Kei Urana: another "it took me most of the volume to remember what was going on in vol. 1" read
Wild Beast Forest House vol. 3 by Inma R.: this was the final volume of this manga, and I really liked it. A trilogy I'm considering adding to my "to buy" list.
Les Normaux vol. 2 by S. Al Sabado and Janine Janssen: once I remembered what was going on, I motored through this. Really good addition. Looking forward to vol. 3.
Kase-San and Yamada vol. 4 (Kase-san and... vol. 9) by Hiromi Takashima: one of the better volumes imo

3. What will you read next?

Novels: next on my pile is Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. It's for reading club. I'm like 6 weeks late. Oops. After that are the three volumes of Dawning, a danmei by ICE.

Physical Graphic Novels (from the library): Motherlover by Lindsay Ishihiro is next on my pile.

Digital Graphic Novels (on Libby): other than my current Libby read (Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 2), the only other one I've got due within the next week is Yuri Espoir vol. 2 by Mai Naoi.