2019 in review

Xposted from my main blog on Dreamwidth.
Since it's almost over, I'll go out on a limb and do my year end post. The decade one will be turning up in a day or two.
So the writing part first.

Catherine Lundoff - books and stories either published this year or accepted for next year:

• Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic (Queen of Swords Press). Single author collection of my horror, dark fantasy and weird fiction.
  
• “By Her Pen, She Conquers” - LHMP Podcast, Heather Rose Jones, editor/host. Historical setting - young female playwright in Regency England finds new opportunity and a love interest at Drury Lane Theater.
• “Good for Your Career? Evaluating Events for Writers” - SFWA Blog
• “Inheritance” - forthcoming, media tie-in story for Wraith: The Oblivion edited by Matt McElroy (Onyx Path Publishing). If you read my story "Incarnadine Seas" in The Cainite Conspiracies for Vampire the Masquerade, this is a sequel.
• “Lost Girl” - Fireside Magazine October, 2019, edited by Julia Rios (Fireside Fiction). Lesbian ghost story.
• “Hunger” - American Monsters Part Two edited by Margrét Helgadóttir (Fox Spirit Books). A story about Minnesota nice, Minnesota monsters, Minnesota winter and toxic masculinity.
• “The Rani’s Dream” - forthcoming, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives edited by John Linwood Grant (Belanger Books). Mystery short story in which the acclaimed detective has to work with an Anglo-Indian agent who specializes in the occult to solve a jewel theft.

As Emily L. Byrne:

• “Nights in Red Satin” - The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 Vol. 3 edited by Rose Caraway (Stupid Fish Productions). A middle-aged Latina tries to find her spark again.
• “Arachne” - forthcoming, Nobilis Erotica Podcast, Nobilis Reed, editor/host. Reading of my Arachne and Athena story from Knife's Edge.

As publisher at Queen of Swords Press:

• Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks. More Ramos, Simms and Deliah! If you liked Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures, this is the sequel (and if you haven't read either of them yet, you should check them out).

Selected events - MultiverseCon, Twin Cities Book Festival, Untitled Town Book and Author Festival, The Loft’s Wordplay, WisCon, St. Cloud Pride, 13 Gears, MCBA’s FallCon, the Minnesota Ampersand Club. Plus 3 classes taught at Cat Rambo's Rambo Academy and a whole bunch of readings, presentations, talks, book tables, etc.

Other things that happened this year:

• I worked 60-70 hours a week all year, between my day job, writing and publishing-related stuff. This was on top of doing the same thing last year and the year before.
• It was, in short, unsustainable madness. I got laid off at the end of October and have spent the last 2 months recovering.
• I lost my dear friend Beth to ALS earlier this year and several other friends to other unpleasant things. I miss them all.
• There are ongoing family health issues that I won't go into.
• I am actually reasonably healthy at the moment, knock wood.
• Reconnected with some friends I haven't seen for a while.
• Finally got the furnace replaced and put in central air.
• I've done a whole bunch of writing on a couple of novels in progress, revived my Patreon and did a bunch of things to get Queen of Swords Press to the point where it is mostly paying for itself. The next steps are covering all its costs and paying me.
• Travel this year has been mostly regional, with the exception of a trip to D.C. for Outwrite. Other places visited for events: Madison, Green Bay, St. Cloud.
• The endless political and environmental trashfire has definitely taken a toll on me and everyone I know.

So there it is, my 2019. Better than a lot of people's, worse than a few. Here's hoping 2020 is a better year all around for all the best reasons. Let's make things better, people!

So MUCH news!

I am thrilled to report that my story "Arachne" from my collection Knife's Edge has been accepted for the Nobilis Erotica Podcast! I'll post when it's live. And my novel Medusa's Touch got a nice shoutout on Cynthia Ward's year end wrap-up at Ambling Along the Aqueduct!

All of my books are on sale for the I Heart Lesfic Holiday Mega Sale (starts tonight and runs through 12/29/19).

And since my publisher, Queen of Swords Press, has to reset everything to match the Amazon proces and the Smashwords end of year sale also starts tomorrow, my books are on sale at Smashwords starting 12/26 and running through 1/1/20. All Queen of Swords Press titles are also on sale direct from the website from 12/26 - 1/1/20. Sale prices should also be reflected on all other platforms by 12/26 so if you prefer Apple or Kobo or B&N or international ebook platforms, those are options too!

Happy holidays and please enjoy!

Booksale to benefit Scarleteen!

Buy one or more of my books direct from Queen of Swords Press
between now and Oct. 1 and I’ll donate 50% of my royalties to Scarleteen! Scarleteen is a terrific sex-ed resource for teens and anyone else who wants more information on sex-ed, reproductive rights, consent and related issues. They could use some donations right now so I'm hoping to help out!

The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 Vol. 3 is out in print!

The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 Vol. 3, which includes my story "Nights in Red Satin," is now out in print as well as ebook!

Smashwords sale and new story posted!

My novel, Medusa’s Touch, is on sale this month at Smashwords, though 7/31. Hot women, tentacles and other fun stuff!

Other Me has a new story up at author Heather Rose Jones’ Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast. “By Her Pen, She Conquers” is not erotica but there is an f/f romantic subplot in my story about Regency  playwrights and the theater. Check it out here and please support the podcasts!

Ebook sale and new story out!

I Heart Lesfic Megasale is going on this week, through 5/31. Pick up ⁦‪SILVER MOON by Catherine Lundoff for your #menopausalwerewolf fix! And my sexy collections DESIRE and KNIFE’S EDGE for $1.99 apiece! Lots of other titles to choose from and our titles are on sale on #Amazon, #Smashwords or direct from the Queen of Swords Press Website.

The Sexy Librarian’s Dirty 30 Vol. 3 is here! Includes my story “Nights in Red Satin,” along with some smoking hot tales by some of the best erotica writers out there.

Happy reading! 

Class reminder!

My class on writing effective sex scenes is coming up this Sunday, March 31st!
Why should you take a class with me on this topic? I’m a former Loft Literary Center instructor, a 2-time Goldie Award winner, have 4 collections of my erotica plus one erotic romance novel published and have stories in over 15 year’s best anthologies. In short, I know my stuff and have good pointers.

Upcoming events, etc.

Xposted from Other Me's blog: I'm pretty pleased to announce that my new historical short story, "By Her Pen, She Conquers," will be included on Heather Rose Jones' Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast later on this year. "Pen" is about an aspiring questioning/lesbian playwright trying to get established in the madcap theater world of Regency England. This year's line-up looks pretty interesting! And, of course, you can listen to my contribution from last year, "One Night in Saint-Martin" here (follow the links to the other stories). Please give these a listen and boost them, if you like them. This is very much a labor of love for Heather and one of the few options that those of us who write queer historical short fiction have to earn pro rates. (And please pledge the Patreon for the host site if you'd like more of this kind of programming).

I've got a bunch of interviews coming up on various blogs soon and will post when I have links. I've also just turned in a short book feature to Nerds of a Feather and that will go up in early March. I'm finishing up my outlines for my upcoming classes at Cat Rambo's Academy for Wayward Writers and should have everything finalized soon. I heartily recommend the classes on this site - I've enjoyed the ones I've taken and have found them to be affordable and useful.

Otherwise, I'm wrangling taxes, and snow and more snow and prepping for this weekend's 13 Gears Steampunk Festival, where Queen of Swords Press will be sharing a table with authors Michael Merriam and Patrick W. Marsh. There will be music and tea and costumes and fun and we'll be bringing our steampunkish titles, including Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) and my own collection, Out of This World, which includes a steampunk ghost story. And speaking of both Alex and steampunk, we're working on the next Captain Ramos and crew book, Wireless and More Steam-Powered Adventures, which will be out in April from Queen of Swords Press. More on that soon!

After 13 Gears, I'll be performing (by which we mean reading my work) at the Not-So-Silent Planet Spoken Word/Open Mic Series: Love & Lust at Kieran's Pub in Minneapolis on 2/19. I'll be reading some sexy Emily L. Byrne fiction and I hope some of you can make it. Other performers include Lyda Morehouse, Laura Packet and Tom S. Tea, as well as brave open mic participants!

New Guest Blog Up on "The Power of Sex Scenes"

I've got a new guest blog post up as Other Me today, this one on author Karelia Stretz-Waters' blog, on the topic of writing good sex scenes. This is a warm-up of sorts for my online class, In Flagrante Delicto, which I'll be teaching on 3/31 (assuming people sign up) at Cat Rambo's Academy for Wayward Writers. Karelia will be doing a series of these posts with different authors so please be sure and follow along.
Enjoy!

Upcoming classes and sundries

Other Me (Catherine Lundoff) will be teaching a couple of online classes in March/April at Cat Rambo's Writing Academy. These include:

• In Flagrante Delicto: Writing Effective Sex Scenes - March 31, 9:30-11:30 PST
• So You Want to Put Together an Anthology? - April 6, 9:30-11:30 PST

I/Catherine will also be doing a reading at the Not-So-Silent-Planet Spoken Word Series on February 19th at Kieran's Irish Pub in Minneapolis. This will be the erotica/romance edition and should be lots of fun.

And this is just me playing around with widgets from Smashwords (though you are more than welcome to click through and actually buy a book):

Nice shoutout for MEDUSA'S TOUCH

If you need additional incentive to come to my Queer Romance Ink Author Takeover tomorrow (QRI Facebook Group, 2-3PM CST), my novel MEDUSA'S TOUCH just got a nice shoutout and rec on acclaimed science fiction author Martha Wells's blog! 💖

Queer Romance Ink event coming up this Saturday

Coming up this Saturday, 1/5/19 at 12-1 PST, I'll be doing an #AuthorTakeover at ⁦‪@QueeromanceInk‬⁩! Stop by to chat, ask me about my work and get entered to win a signed copy of my novel MEDUSA'S TOUCH! #authorchat #bookgiveaway You do need to join the Facebook group to participate.

2018 Year in Review Post

Xposting from my main blog.

Well, 2018 was a year...and so very much of one. It's difficult to disconnect my personal life from the national and global trainwreck, but I'll do my best. It was still a hard year: bad health news for close friends, bad financial and other news for others, the unexpected ending of a long-term friendship, my mother's increasing dementia, the sudden and abrupt news that I wasn't going to be laid off after all (bear in mind that I had three years to plan and prep for a nice break and down time, which I'm not getting), other sundry things. On the other hand, there was a lot of good stuff, too. Queen of Swords Press grew, I went to a lot of great events and met nice people, I'm ending the year with almost all the same people in my life that I hoped would still be there, I had some interesting new experiences and have been learning a lot, I don't have to go job hunting at the moment and I'm a lot healthier than I was this time last year (Norovirus recovery takes longer than you would think).

Starting with the events and experiences part of things, I was interviewed on North Manchester FM's radio show "Hannah's BookShelf" by the amazing Hannah Kate herself, then appeared a few weeks later on the Cocktail Hour Podcast. I did a reading at the University of Minnesota's Tretter Collection in March for the annual Quatrefoil Library's Women's Reading, went to ClexaCon in Las Vegas as a vendor with my pals from Blind Eye Books and hosted a Queen of Swords Press party at WisCon. I got interviewed at Shelfies by Bill Kieffer,  got interviewed with author Rachel Gold in the St. Cloud Times (best headline ever!), interviewed by Paul Weimer at the Skiffy and Fanty Blog and answered 5 Questions for author Loren Rhodes. As Emily L. Byrne, I did the WLW Blog Hop, and had guest posts up at I Heart Lesfic, Women & Words and on Sacchi Green's blog, Reaching Out. In addition to ClexaCon and WisCon, I did readings and panels at Outwrite in Washington, D.C., DreamHaven Books and Eat My Words Books and WordBrew 6 in Minneapolis. Queen of Swords Press had tables at St. Cloud Pride, the Twin Cities Book Festival, the Minnesota Women's Art Festival, 2 instances of the Books and Beer Pop-up Store, the Queer Author Holiday Fair and probably something I'm forgetting.

Writing and editing. Queen of Swords Press/me and company put out three books this year:

• Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures by Alex Acks (Steampunk/weird West)
• Medusa's Touch by Emily L. Byrne (Lesbian SF Romance)
• Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) edited by Catherine Lundoff (Mixed genre pirate anthology)

Catherine had 6 stories published this year:

• “A Winter’s Tale” in A Few More Winter Tales edited by Matthew Bright. December, 2018 (Fantasy).
• “A Cry in the Night,” forthcoming TBD. World of Darkness: Ghosthunters (final title TBD).
• “The Letter of Marque” reprinted on Curious Fictions. August, 2018. (Historical)
• “Faceless” and “Firebird” reprinted in the OutWrite 2018 Journal, Issue 1. August, 2018 (Fantasy).
• “The Mask and the Amontillado,” Tales of the Unanticipated #32, edited by Eric Heideman, July, 2018. (Horror)
• “One Night in Saint Martin,” March, 2018. Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast, edited by Heather Rose Jones. (Historical)
• And had an excerpt from Silver Moon in D.C.'s Metro Weekly

Emily (Other Me) had 4 stories published this year -

•  "Rainbow's End," an homage to hot women, queer bookstores and queer poetry in Year's Best Best Lesbian Erotica Vol. 3, edited by Sacchi Green (Cleis Press, December, 2018).
•  "Phone, Sex, Chocolate" in Candy Lovers: Sugar Erotica edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, RKB Enterprises
• "Permanent Position" in Blood in the Rain 4: 18 Stories of Vampire Erotica edited by Cecilia Duvalle and Mary Trepanier, Cwtch Press
• "An Incident in Whitechapel" was recorded for the Nobilis Erotica Podcast in December

I also helped raise money for Rainbow Railroad, The Aliveness Project and SAGE: Advocating for LGBT Seniors, donated book packages to Con or Bust and Sirens, and volunteered for my second year in a row as a member of the Community Review Board at PFund Foundation. Wow! I did more than I thought I had! Plus more fun stuff in progress, of course. Big shoutout to all the venues that hosted me, the Press and colleagues, all the other writers who tabled with or did appearances with me, to my wife Jana for helping out and splitting a table at the MN Women's Festival, to my authors, cover artists, copy editor, book designer, videographer and web guru (not all the same person!), to the folks who interviewed me, bought books, reviewed my work, the folks who boosted the signal and recommended books to others, folks who helped with marketing and to my friends who were there for me this year - thank you all very much!

Now for a brief respite, then on to 2019!

Happy holiday and book sales!

 Wishing all of you celebrating a Merry Christmas! And everyone else a happy Tuesday!

ALL of my books are on sale at Smashwords this week - 12/25-1/1/19.
My erotica collection, Desire, is on sale at the I Heart Lesfic Mega Sale from 12/26-12/30.

New podcast!

‪Ooh! Check out this reading of my story "An Incident in Whitechapel" from my erotic short story collection, KNIFE'S EDGE, on the terrific Nobilis Erotica Podcast!

DESIRE makes a year's best list!

Reviewer and author Terrance Aldon Shaw included my erotica collection, Desire, on Big Brain Erotica's Best of 2018 list! Regular readers may recall that he also included my story "Toads, Diamonds and the Occasional Pearl" from Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms in his Best of 2017 list. I am thrilled and happy to make the list two years running!

New guest blog post for BLE v. 3

My guest blog post for Best Lesbian Erotica v. 3 is up at editor Sacchi  Green's blog today! "Rainbow's End" is about queer bookstores and cute Goth girls and chance meetings that turn into something more. Check it out!

New review!

Lovely new review of Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Vol. 3, coming soon from Cleis Press! I'm so pleased that my story, "Rainbow's End," is finding its people.

TOC for forthcoming book and more on the way

Check out the amazing TOC for Rose Caraway's The Sexy Librarian's Dirty Thirty Vol. 3! This is great company to be in and I expect this to be a smoking hot read. I should note that "Nights in Red Satin" is one of my bisexual erotic tales and I'm so pleased that it found a home here! Coming in 2019 from Stupid Fish Productions.

December is going to be very exciting!

• My story, "An Incident in Whitechapel," from my collection Knife's Edge, will be featured on the Nobilis Erotica Podcast. 
• I'll be participating in the blog tour for Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Vol. 3 edited by Sacchi Green. This will be released from Cleis Press on 12/11 and features my story "Rainbow's End."
• Medusa's Touch will be one of the featured titles for Women & Words December Hootenanny 2018.
• My collection, Desire, will be included in I Heart Lesfic's end of year/holiday sale

Stay tuned for more excitement!

New guest blog at I Heart Lesfic!

Author T.B. Markinson invited me to do a guest blog at I Heart Lesfic today - "Hot Women, Cybertentacles and Everything." Why I write erotica, why I write about women and more about writing Medusa's Touch!