Authors Claudie Arseneault, Erinn Harper, and Cara Nox have put together an awesome Pride Book Fair! 8 bundles of queer books on itch.io, featuring 110 books total – launching on Sunday, June 22nd, at 7 p.m. Eastern time, and ending July 1st at 3 a.m. Eastern.

You can get all 110 books by buying The Big Bundle of Queer Awesomeness, only $100 – 76% off the price of buying all the books individually – or you can buy one or more genre bundles of your choice!

Duck Prints Press has five books included – all five are in The Big Bundle of Queer Awesomeness, or we’ve got one in the Science Fiction bundle, three in the Urban and Contemporary Fantasy bundle, and one in the Fantasy Romance bundle!

Read more about the Pride Book Fairs on their carrd!

The Pride Book Fair is separate from the Pride Bundles for Charity that Duck Prints Press is hosting to raise money for Rainbow Railroad, and is also separate from the Citrus Con itch.io 18+ erotica games, comics, books, and more bundle in which we have a book! June sure is prime time for discounted queer stories – when better to fill up your e-book reader? Come read with us!

Duck Prints Press is thrilled to share that we’ve released books and merchandise from our recently completed projects for sale in our webstore! Missed a crowdfunding campaign? Finding out about us for the first? See something you want? Come on over and pick up our anthologies, merch, pride creatures, and more! Here’s the full list of what’s now available!

Add Magic to Taste 2nd Edition:

This second edition of our debut anthology includes 18 stories (instead of the original 20) and also includes all 16 “mini-morsels” originally published as our Kickstarter stretch goal mini-book. The original version is also still available as an e-book.

Aether Beyond the Binary:

Mythical Pride Creature Die-Cut Stickers and Enamel Pins:

The creatures who have names were dubbed these titles by Kickstarter backers who purchased our name-a-beast bundle!

…and more!

There’s actually only one new “and more” item, but there’s lots of other awesome books and merchandise in our store!

Rainbow Tentacle Heart Die-Cut Sticker

Add Magic to Taste 2nd Edition and Aether Beyond the Binary are also both now available through e-book distribution channels, including many libraries and major retailers! The print-on-demand editions through retailers and local bookstores are pending, as our print-on-demand vendor STILL hasn’t delivered the print proofs for our approval. They’ll be up shortly.

Visit duckprintspress.com/shop NOW!

Reviews are essential for showing prospective readers that we’re publishing awesome books that they want to buy and read. We’re looking to recruit an active group of people who post reviews of our work, and to do that we need your help! For the first time, we’re offering Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of one of our projects: Aether Beyond the Binary, our most recent anthology, featuring 17 stories of characters outside the gender binary exploring modern-esque aetherpunk worlds.

How it works: You see this post. You think, oh, I love reading! I love leaving reviews! I want to join the Duck Prints Press Reviewer Program! Then, you go and read the rules for our Reviewer Program. And, if everything there sounds like something you can do, you fill out the form, and – we’ll be in touch! Even better: this program isn’t only for Aether Beyond the Binary, and isn’t only for “advance” titles. Our reviewers are encouraged to claim titles that are currently released, too, to help build up a robust collection of reviews of Duck Prints Press titles!

Requirements:

You must be over 18 years old.
You must be prepared to post reviews on Goodreads and/or Storygraph.
You must also post the review on the appropriate listing on the Duck Prints Press webstore (for advance titles, you’ll have to wait ’til we list them there).
Upon acceptance to the program, you must join the Duck Prints Press Book Lover’s Server.
Reviews must be at least 100 words long must and engage with the actual content of the work being reviewed.
Reviews must be left within 6 months of claiming a title, or you will be removed from the program.

What isn’t Required:

That the reviews be positive. Reviews are for readers. We require that reviews be honest to your own experience of the work, not that they be glowing.
That you post the reviews to social media. Doing so is definitely a bonus, but you don’t have to.
That you associate yourself publicly with the review-leaving (beyond using a valid Goodreads and/or Storygraph account). As in, you don’t have to say, “I, (your name here), reviewed this book” or link your book website accounts with your existing social media presence or anything like that, nor do we request any demographic information beyond confirmation of your age.
That you purchase anything. Absolutely no purchase necessary!

What You Get:

A e-book copy (ePub and/or PDF) of the work you’re reviewing. We do not provide physical ARCs.
After you post your first review, you’ll get a coupon for 10% off a purchase from the Duck Prints Press webstore!
For every ten reviews you post, you can claim a freebie sticker from among our sticker offerings, if you want. (You’ll have to provide a snail mail address to get this, of course.)
A community of fun book-lovers to hang out with! (You can get that even without joining the ARC program, though – our Book Lover’s Discord is open to everyone.)

We’re accepting applicants for claiming Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs through April 10th, 2024. On the 11th, we’ll randomly select 25 of applicants to receive ARC copies of Aether Beyond the Binary. Everyone else will still be entirely welcome in the program and invited to start with a different, back-catalog book or story to review. We’ll make another pool of Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs available in May.

So… those are the basics. Interested? Go read the full rules, then apply to be a Duck Prints Press ARC reader TODAY!

Now that we’ve finished our month-long push for our Kickstarter campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, we have space and time to talk about literally anything else on our social media (lol). We’ve gotten a couple private inquiries about the status of our other projects, so here’s an overview of progress on our current publishing projects (we’ve also got a couple art projects in the works, but that’s a topic for another day).

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

fulfillment on the crowdfunding campaign is complete
as of January 20th, the book and leftover merch are now available on our webpage!
you can also get the e-book and print-on-demand print book through major retailers and through the library of your choice – you can even special order the book at your local bookstore!
I also have a small number of the campaign deer antler pendants left; if you want one, feel free to contact me privately!
Missed the campaign and curious about the book? Read the first chapter as a sneak peek!

Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers

fulfillment on the crowdfunding campaign for our most recent anthology is complete
as of January 20th, the book and leftover merch are now available on our webpage!
you can also get the e-book through major retailers and can request it through your library
we’re working on reformatting the book to a slightly different size so that we can also offer it print-on-demand to major retailers, local bookstores, and libraries everywhere

Hockey Bois by A. L. Heard

all merchandise has been received and prepared for distribution
trade paperback books have been received
the proof of the hardcover edition has been approved, and the hardcover edition is in production
according to our book printer, BookLogix, we should expect delivery of the hardcover edition in roughly a month (around the end of February)
once we’ve received all items necessary for fulfillment, we will send out everyone’s orders as quickly as possible

Aether Beyond the Binary

the crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology successfully concluded yesterday!
we are putting finishing touches on stories
we are preparing templates suitable for printing our merchandise
we’ve begun to gather information from backers necessary fulfillment
most fulfillment activities are on hold until the funds clear and we can actually place orders; this will take roughly three weeks

Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

fulfillment on the pre-order campaign is complete
as of January 20th, the book and leftover merch are now available on our webpage!
you can also get the e-book and print-on-demand print book through major retailers and through the library of your choice – you can even special order the book at your local bookstore!
I also have a small number of the campaign “Eye of Sacarus” pendants left; if you want one, feel free to contact me privately!
Missed the campaign and curious about the book? Read the first chapter as a sneak peek!

Other Projects

Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica: stories for this collection are being edited, with progress ranging from “barely started” to “almost done.” We’re just beginning to discuss the books internal appearance, and are waiting on the final cover from the artist we’re working with. We expect to release the contributor list in the next few weeks and hope to crowdfund the anthology during the spring.
Untitled Best Of Anthologies: we’ll be doing two anthologies – one general imprint and one explicit imprint – featuring stories published to our Patreon and webpage before September 31, 2023. Most of the stories have been set, and we’ll beginning work on the cover and campaign features soon. We expect to launch this during the summer of 2024.
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: recruitment for this anthology closed on January 15th, and we will be selecting contributors and notifying them by January 31st. We expect this campaign to be ready for launch in roughly a year (late 2024 or early 2025).
Untitled General Imprint Anthology: we’re in the very preliminary stages of discussing a theme for our next general imprint anthology, and we expect to open recruitment for it in the late spring, with an expected publication date of summer, 2025.
Scrap Metal Angel by Nicola Kapron: our next novella project, we are working on final editing, and once that’s done we’ll begin work on a cover, artwork, and other campaign aspects. We don’t yet have a time frame on pre-orders, but definitely during 2024, before the fall.
The Twinned Trilogy by Tris Lawrence: we still have a great deal of editing to complete on this project, but covers are done and the pre-launch page is on Kickstarter. We’re aiming for spring or summer 2024 for crowdfunding.
We have several other novellas and novels in the pipeline, but none that we’re ready to announce yet. Be on the look-out!

Want to always know the latest on what we’re working on? Want a say in what we work on next? Want behind-the-scenes access, more information, awesome extras, free stories, and more? Want exclusive extra merch for supporting our future campaigns? Best yet: want the joy of supporting queer independent publishing? If you said “yes” to any of these, there’s no time like today to become a backer of our Patreon!

The Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for our anthology Aether Beyond the Binary, featuring 17 stories of non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, bigender, and other outside-the-binary characters living in modern aetherpunk settings, has entered our final two days of funding! And we’ve crossed our funding goal (after a scare with a fake pledge that has made things…uh…interesting)!!

It’s not too late to get your copy of this awesome collection made by our very queer press by our very queer contributors. We wrap on January 25th at 9:35 a.m. Eastern time.

**Learn more about Aether Beyond the Binary now by visiting the Kickstarter campaign, or read on for more info…**

What would the Earth look like if the very atoms that compose the planet were suffused with magical aether? How would our lives in the modern world be different if this aether was discovered last year, or last decade, or last century, or last millennia? How might the people who inhabit this oh-so-different but still modern Earth explore their gender identities? These are the questions we posed to the 17 authors chosen to contribute to Duck Prints Press’s newest anthology Aether Beyond the Binary. Their diverse answers are bound together in this must-not-miss collection of stories about magical worlds, adventures and mysteries, new chances and well-earned endings, and characters as gender-diverse as the worlds they inhabit.

Aether Beyond the Binary features 17 stories, each up to 7,500 words. We aim to publish it as an e-book (ePub and PDF), and to print it digest size, 5.5 in x 8.5 in (14 cm x 21.5 cm) in both trade paperback and hardcover formats. Aether Beyond the Binary also features a spectacular wrap-around cover by non-binary artist Mar Spragge; this will be printed as a lovely gloss dust jacket for the hardcover edition.

Curious about the project? You can learn way more by visiting the campaign page or by checking out our other blog posts about it to learn more about our merch and contributors and read excerpts, creator interviews, and more:

For our final Aether Beyond the Binary spotlight, we’re taking a peek at the campaign bookmark! This will be produced by UPrinting on sturdy paper with a gloss finish, and completed with a golden tassel. We’ve produced six past bookmarks with them, and they’ve all turned out gorgeous (you can see them all here).

The gorgeous campaign bookmark features art by non-binary artist Pippin Peacock, who has also done bookmark art to accompany our anthologies She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars. The color palette is inspired by the non-binary pride flag (yellow, white, purple, black) and the genderqueer pride flag (purple, white, green). The back will include the signatures of the anthology contributors: we can’t gather everyone together to get all 17 people to sign the book, but we CAN compile reproductions somewhere at least!

Close up on the aether musician:

For backers at the “+ Merch” backer levels of the Aether Beyond the Binary Kickstarter, this bookmark is included in what they’ll receive! It can also be added to any backer level that includes a physical item, so if you’re interested in ordering the book but don’t want all the merch, you can get just the book plus picking and choosing what you’d like!

In case you missed them, here are the other merchandise spotlights we’ve done for this campaign:

Plant-Watering Bot Holographic Sticker
Non-Binary Sky Whale Enamel Pin
Aether Dux Sticker and Other Dux Merch (We still have one Dux plushie add-on left – just sayin’…)

**Become a Kickstarter backer today, and get an amazing book of stories starring outside-the-binary characters and a bunch of gorgeous merch! Win-win!**

This is it: the final contributor spotlight for our crowdfunding anthology Aether Beyond the Binary, featuring 17 aetherpunk stories starring non-binary characters! Now, by going through the campaign updates, you can read biographies of all seventeen authors featured in this anthology and read excerpts from their works! We hope you’ll do so, and love what you read! We’ll be putting up a single post linking all the spotlights on Tuesday (January 23rd) so be on the lookout!

The crowdfunding campaign for Duck Prints Press’s next anthology Aether Beyond the Binary ends in 4 days and we are still $2,000 from our funding goal. We’d love your helping ensuring this project succeeds: so signal boost our posts or become a backer TODAY!

About Catherine: Catherine E. Green (pronouns: xe/xem/xyr or they/them/their) is an agender person, one who’s had an on-again, off-again love affair with writing. Xe began writing when xe was a wee thing, when xyr other major pastimes were playing xyr mother’s NES and roughhousing with the boys next door. It’s only in the past few years that they have begun writing consistently and publishing their writing, fanfiction and original writing alike, leading to their first published short story titled “Of Loops and Weaves.”

Outside of writing, xe is a collector of books and sleep debt and an avid admirer of the cosmos. Playing video games, reading a variety of fiction genres (primarily fantasy, queer romance, and manga and graphic novels of all kinds), and working on wrangling their own personal data archiving projects occupy most of their free time. Xe is also proud to announce xyr graduation from a crocheting a single scarf to crocheting several scarves and other projects.

Links: Bluesky

This is Catherine’s first time contributing as a writer to a Duck Prints Press anthology, but xe were an editor on our anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”, and xe are also an editor for Aether Beyond the Binary. Xyr short story Of Loops and Weaves is linked above.

An Interview with Catherine E. Green

How did you pick the name you create under?

Catherine is my meatspace name. The E. Green is an homage to my grandmother, who is herself a writer and poet and someone I look to for writing advice and inspiration. She was my first beta when I was first starting to write, and I cannot thank her enough for her loving support.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m somewhere in between a pantser and a planster. I usually go into writing something with some overarching idea (like a theme or a shape of a scene) and begin the actual act of writing with setting the scene. However, if the words aren’t coming, before I resolve to try again another day, I try writing something somewhere in the middle of the narrative – just to try to trick my brain into cooperating with me. This will sometimes lead to some internal consistencies in my writing (which one reason I love editing so much – love, love, love it), but it gets words on the page, which is often my biggest hurdle.

What do the phrases “writer’s block” or “art block” mean to you?

Writer’s block, to me, is when the filters my anxiety has built up in my mind sufficient block my creative output. It’s when I question every word I put on the page to the point where nothing I write feels worth keeping, much less moving on from. I don’t know that it’s ever something I’ll be able to work through, but I’m trying our being kinder with myself and addressing my mental health issues to see if both combined help reduce how long my writer’s block lasts for. Here’s hoping!

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft?

iPad with a magic keyboard, Google Docs, and either Notepad or some sticky notes for things I want to bear in mind while I’m writing. I’ve tried Scrivener and similar software, but I’ve never vibed with any of them.

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I wrote a short story during my undergraduate studies that still have a fondness for to this day. It’s contemporary fantasy-type thing set in a lonely, not-quite-haunted cul-de-sac, where the lights and people seem to fade in and out of existence. It’s about identity, companionship among people who come from very different backgrounds, and the importance of language in how it shapes identity and relationships. I want to expand the work into a novel at some point, if I can, but we’ll see.

Tell us about your pet(s).

I have a 6-year-old tuxedo cat named Yennefer (yes, the reference). My brother and I adopted her a couple years ago from a small rural animal shelter. At the time, the shelter had given her the name Jennifer, so Yennefer was hardy a jump at all. And, goodness, does she have the personality to match. She’s my energetic boo-boo head, who likes to sleep on my bookshelves and knock over my coffee, and I love her to bits.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Try to write a little bit every day, even if it’s only a hundred words. The period of time when I was writing everyday was when I felt the best about my writing and when I felt like I was most capable shutting down the filters in my brain that make it difficult to write.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

1) Read, read, read. Read a little bit of everything: fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, history, etc. Read about writing. Read works by people whose style you vibe with and those by people whose style you don’t. Every bit of reading helps build a scaffold onto which you can hang your own ideas and words, and having a more stable scaffolding, and more stable foundation can only help your writing improve.

2) Learn how to talk about your writing, especially once you get to a point where you’re engaging the services of alphas, betas, and editors. The writer and the editor work best together when there can be open dialogue, and open dialogue is only possible when all parties involved can talk about the work in a productive way.

3) Figure out the kind of environment you work best in, whether that includes music or white noise or nothing, what kind of device you prefer typing on or if you prefer hand-writing, whether you work best in long stretches every so often or in short, frequent stretches, and so on. Try to craft your perfect writing space.

4) Writing is a skill one can work on improving over the course of an entire life. There is no end-point at which you are suddenly a good writer. Every word you write is a small step toward better your writing in one way or another, so try not to become too frustrated with yourself if you don’t feel like you’re improving. You are—I promise.

Catherine’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: To Hold the World Close

Excerpt:

Very much unlike the typical saying “Sending along warm thoughts” and its various approximations, which often convey a rather intangible, often perfunctory, sentiment, Adrienne surrounds the swirling mass of fear, embarrassment, and grief with a warmth of xyr own. It’s the warmth of a community coming together to bring someone up from their knees; it’s the wondrous comfort of a light breeze and a spot of shade on an otherwise murderous hot summer day; it’s the pleasant touch of a loved one. I can’t be with you, my dear, not in person, but please take some measure of comfort from me, if you can, and seek out those who love you.

As we enter the last few days of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, we’re introducing the last few of our authors. Today, meet Sebastian Marie, Lyonel Loy, and Elior Haley! We’re really excited to be featuring these three authors contributing to this fantastic collection of 17 stories set in modern aetherpunk settings where the technology runs on magic, all starring characters outside the gender binary.

Un Charco, Un Lago by Sebastian Marie

About Sebastian: Sebastian Marie (he/him) is an engineering student with a lot of opinions about dragons, pirates, and sword fighting. Track him down on Ao3 or Tumblr and he’ll share these opinions gladly, just be prepared for music and some excited shouting. His original works often combine fantasy and dystopia into what he calls “queer fantasy hopepunk,” something that will be explored in his future novels. He loves to write conflicting traditional and non-traditional family dynamics, especially where they intersect with queer relationships. And if he can throw werewolves and brujas into the mix? So much the better. When not writing, frantically studying, or reading, he can be found singing loudly, sewing impractical coats, and going on long rambling walks while plotting stories (and occasionally falling into rivers).

Also, he’s also the guitarist and one of the lyricists of folk punk band Here Be Dragons, who hope to have their debut EP out near the end of Fall, 2023.

This is his third time writing for Duck Prints Press, having previously contributed to Aim For the Heart and She Wears the Midnight Crown. This brings his grand total of published works up to three! He’s looking forward to more, as soon as he gets some sleep.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr

This is Sebastian’s third contribution to a Duck Prints Press anthology. His first contribution was in the masquerade-themed anthology She Wears the Midnight Crown, and his second in Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” – which, mostly coincidentally, has been released on our website TODAY!

Title: Un Charco, Un Lago

Excerpt:

The person who answers the door to the townhouse is short, brown, and incredibly tired looking. Victorie sees this look a lot in her line of work; plumbing disasters really take a lot out of people. He adjusts the strap of his work bag on his shoulder and begins his spiel.

“Hello, Hola, English or Español?”

“Ingles,” the person responds before yawing. “but either is good.” They scratch at their shoulder, which is covered in paint-splattered overalls and a worn blue polo shirt.

“All right. My name is Technician Victorie, public works wizard at your service.” Victorie points to her name tag that helpfully states “he/him” and “she/her” under his name. “And you must be Lago Cabrera? Elle/le or they/them?” Victorie reads off her paper.

“Yes.”

“Do I have your permission to inspect the problem, a…” Victorie consults the paper.

“The sink is throwing up.” Lago says bluntly.

We Might Contain Multitudes by Lyonel Loy

About Lyonel: Lifelong maladaptive daydreamer, finally working up the courage to write those daydreams down. Spends time cosplaying as a Responsible Adult With A Job.

This is Lyonel’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press.

Title: We Might Contain Multitudes

Excerpt:

There are master crafters in the sleepy hills of New England, waiting amongst the silent ward stones.

The first has eyes like a spider’s, arrayed out neatly in rows, and the spider eyes sparkle in a riot of colors that Kwok’s human eyes should not have been able to see.

The next has no mouth yet whispers ceaseless, an uninterrupted flow of half recognizable words in a myriad of voices and a myriad of tongues like a mountain stream in heavy rain, swirling over and around itself like dancing water.

The last is Guo, whose name is not truly Guo. Guo, who could be any ordinary young man on the streets of Ipoh or Singapore or Seoul except for their eternal eyes, and yet it is they who scare Kwok most of all.

Epiphanies of Friendship, and Other White Whales by Elior Haley

About Elior: Elior has spent much of the past few years primarily writing for fanfic exchanges. Currently, he’s in the process of slowly working his way through university. When not writing or studying, he can be found binding books, drawing, ice skating, and—very occasionally—playing the violin. His story in Aether Beyond the Binary is his first published work.

This is Elior’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press.

Title: Epiphanies of Friendship, and Other White Whales

Excerpt:

There was no such thing as night and day, deep in aetherspace, but it was during Raisel’s resting time that the song woke her from sleep, deep and low and rolling in her bones. She felt it more than she heard it, its vibrations layering on top of the omnipresent hum of the gravity generator and engines. At once she sat up in her narrow bunk, heart beating jackrabbit-quick; she tried to calm her shaking limbs for a moment before realizing that the tremors were from the song.

It was like nothing she had heard before. No words she knew felt adequate to describe it; it was both beautiful and eerie, and somewhere between her bones and her soul she felt something call to her.

Halfway down the corridor, still in her sleeping clothes, Charlie caught her elbow.

“Where are you going?” they asked.

With less than 5 days left in our campaign, we are 83% funded. Time is running out to back the Kickstarter to buy your copy of Aether Beyond the Binary and help us raise the funds we need to bring this anthology into print! Become a backer TODAY!

Today, we spotlight two more of the creators contributing to our current crowdfunding project Aether Beyond the Binary (a collection of 17 aetherpunk settings starring characters outside the gender binary): Em Rowntree and Kelas Lloyd!

Cadillac’s Bus by Em Rowntree

About Em: Em Rowntree’s first foray into the world of writing was with a story called The Magic Land that featured a unicorn and a flying carpet the size of a country, and they’ve been chasing that high ever since. They’ve been sharing their writing online for almost nine years, and have had poems and short stories published in anthologies. They live in the UK.

Links: Twitter

This is Em’s second contribution to a Duck Prints Press anthology; they also wrote a story for Add Magic to Taste.

Title: Cadillac’s Bus

Tags: pending

Excerpt:

From their vantage point, the kid couldn’t see the rally racer inside. Couldn’t see the black gloves with one white star of pure aetherlight painted on each fingertip. Couldn’t see the curled mess of long grey hair. Couldn’t see the steely, hungry, fiercely joyful look on their face as their vehicle plunged on through the moorland. But the kid could picture it all, down to the last detail.

They put their hands in the air.

“CADILLAC JONES!” they yelled, loud enough for the cow to hear them a few hundred yards away and lift its head – but nowhere near loud enough for Cadillac Jones themself to know their name was being screamed as they disappeared out of sight, away down the track. “CADILLAC JONES FOREVER! YES! THE BEST –” The kid turned to left and right as though looking for someone to tell, but there was no one beside them. “THE BEST! CADILLAC JONES FOREVER! YES!”

They stood, overwhelmed, keeping the moment alive as long as they could. A few minutes after the rally racer had turned the next corner and gone out of sight, another vehicle came hurtling round the bend after them. The kid lifted their arms again – and this time turned their open hands into raised middle fingers.

“YOU SUCK!” they screamed in delight, a smile of joy splitting their face.

True by Kelas Lloyd

About Kelas: Kelas is a disabled, trans, bi author and artist currently (unfortunately) living in Texas. They graduated from the University of Central Florida with an English degree and love cats, tea, and all things speculative fiction. A lot of their writing features magic or disability or both, and they’re often found in Star Trek, Mass Effect, Babylon 5, and Untamed spaces. You can also find them in a lot of bead and resin spaces, because they love making sparkly jewelry of all sorts.

Previously published pieces include an article on disability in The Last Of Us, short stories in two publications by Shacklebound Books, a pair of poems about being trans, an essay on disabled life, and a whole bunch of pieces about San Diego Comic-con. They’re single, an Ernie looking for their Bert, but they have a found family that stretches around the globe and some of their birth family accepts them for who they are.

You can find out more about them at kelaslloyd.com

Links: Personal Website | Archive of Our Own | Twitter

This is Kelas’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press.

Title: True

Tags: character study, foster family, found family, friends, genderfluid, magic use, non-binary, present tense, self-esteem issues, teenager, third person limited pov, transphobia (mentions of)

Excerpt:

“Oh,” Eva says, trying to recover. “Yeah, okay. So what’s the procedure? Are you gathering up all the ducklings and then herding us over?”

Paul looks at them as if they can see through the joking tone Eva’s adopted. “You’ve got a map in your booklet. I’m here, so I introduced myself, but there’s a schedule in there too. Everyone here is old enough to herd themselves; I’m here for support.”

“So you catch us in the trust-fall exercises,” Eva says, opening up the booklet to find the map and schedule.

“No, I make sure to drop everyone during those.”

Eva’s gaze snaps up to catch Paul’s grin just before it turns into a faint smile.

“You’re here because you’re struggling with aether,” Paul continues. “Most of the time a teen is struggling, it’s because they don’t know themselves well enough yet to let it flow through them the way as it’s supposed to. That’s what I help with.”

Make sure you visit our Kickstarter campaign page to learn about the collection, take a peek at the merchandise, read more excerpts, and more!

We’re entering the final week of the Kickstarter campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, an anthology of 17 aetherpunk stories starring characters outside the gender binary, and we’re still going strong! As I write this, we’re $3,700 shy of our goal – an amount we definitely can raise, but the more help we get spreading the words about this project, the more people will know it exists, and truly that’s the single biggest barrier to hitting our goals: effectively spread the words. So, if you believe in this project, whether you’re a backer or not, we’d really appreciate you taking a moment to share/reblog/retoot/reskeet our posts about it!

Thanks for all your support! Now, let’s introduce another of our contributing authors…

About S. J.: S. J. grew up in a distinctly weird, distinctly southern hometown, then hied out West for grad school before landing in Texas, where they currently work as a planetary scientist. They’ve been writing original works and fanfiction since they could hold a pencil semi-correctly, and continue to write both whenever possible (as well as still holding a pencil only semi-correctly). In their clearly copious spare time, S. J. enjoys hiking, tabletop RPGs, jigsaw puzzles, and enthusiastically crappy sci-fi.

Link: Personal Website | Tumblr

This is S. J.’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press. You can read another example of their writing by visiting their website to check out Anglerfish, a horror sci-fi story.

An Interview with S. J. Ralston

How did you pick the name you create under?

It’s a line from the opening of the Aeneid that’s stuck with me ever since AP Latin in high school: “On account of the mindful wrath of cruel Juno.” It’s a synchesis, where the adjectives have been swapped from where you expect them to be; it’s Juno who is mindful and her wrath that is cruel, but rearranging them in such a way elegantly implies the relentless, vindictive onslaught that is to follow.

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

Dialogue and dread.

What do the phrases “writer’s block” or “art block” mean to you?

The state of wanting to create but not having the intellectual raw materials to do it.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I would consider myself a plantser. Typically I start with an IDEA, writ large, center of the page. Then some key scenes will populate around it–dramatic moments, fun bits of dialogue, cool setpieces. At that point I get out my corkboard and red string and start trying to piece everything together, and if I’m lucky, the shape of the story will reveal itself to me. Sometimes it’s the classic parabola of rising and falling action, other times it’s been a ring, a tri-fold posterboard, a descending spiral, or a series of concentric circles. Then I fill in until the structure is complete and hope like hell that I can stick the landing.

What are your favorite tropes?

Found Family, Robots With Feelings, Enemies To Lovers, Destructive Romance, Kirk Summation/The Man In The Room

What are your favorite character archetypes?

Brooding Loner Secretly Just Lonely, Lying For Fun And Profit, Badass With An Obvious Dump Stat, Too Old For This Shit, Taciturn But Bizarre, Himbo

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

I make a playlist for almost everything I write that’s longer than a few thousand words. Sometimes it’s for listening to while I’m creating (in that case, it has to be primarily instrumentals or I’ll get distracted), and sometimes it’s just for daydreaming to (in which case, the vibes must be correct, so I can construct AMV’s in my head).

Share five of your favorite books. (You can include why, if you want!)

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett – Eerie, funny, and poignant in equal measure; a police procedural done right.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – Lush with joy, curiosity, and love, yet still remarkably dark, with an ending that will nestle in your brain forever.
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer – Fourth in the series and the absolute pinnacle thereof. A master-class in shit hitting the fan.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Everyone, down to the most momentary background character, behaves more like *people* than any I’ve ever read before and it’s *disastrous* and I *love* it.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – The classic of classics. The horror of horrors. The transgenderism of it all.

What are your goals as a creator?

(1) To write something that’s better on the second read-through than it was on the first, and (2) To write something that stays with the reader.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

When you finish a first draft and you *know* you’ve got something really good, put it down. For a month, six months, a year; until the glow fades, or you’ve fallen in love with whatever you’re writing next. Then come back and re-read that first draft. Take extensive notes, diagram the plot, profile the characters. Notice the holes, redundancies, missed opportunities, and inconsistencies. Then open up a blank document and *start over.*

S. J.’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: Razzmatazz

Tags: bipoc, body horror, butch, character injury (non-graphic descriptions), classism, dehumanization, eye horror, horror, humans are the villains, mechanic, minor character death, misogyny, murder (accidental), non-binary, non-human character, past tense, sentient construct (magical), third person limited pov

Excerpt:

The thing was damn near unrecognizable, not just as Marilyn Monroe, but as human. People had tweaked the proportions through the years—amateur artists who couldn’t put down the paintbrush. That kind of thing was bad enough on paper, but seeing it in person made Skipper’s butthole clench.

The dress and the curls were Monroe. The rest was something else.

“Shit my ass off,” Skipper said under his breath.

“Yeah,” said Charlie.

“This gets up and walks around?”

“She does.”

“Shit my ass off.”

Maybe it was a trick of the light, a too-heavy head on a too-thin neck, but the Monroe wasn’t staring across the aisle like the others. It seemed to be looking down at Skipper. It put out waves of dare-you-to-start-some-shit energy.

“Is it because they messed with the proportions?”

“Huh?” said Skipper, pulling out of the Monroe’s tractor beam.

“The reason she moves around so much. Could it be because of…” Charlie gestured to its whole body.

“Hell, maybe,” said Skipper.

The Monroe loomed like a landslide, just waiting for the rain. Skipper had a hammer on his belt. He felt like the Monroe was staring at it. If he broke the case, what then?

I’m now back from four days of con vending, and will be resuming our regular Aether Beyond the Binary crowdfunding campaign updates, highlighting the authors we’ve not yet spotlighted and the remaining merchandise. I’m thrilled with the progress of the campaign over the past few days; we’re now at 69% of our final goal, with 8 days to go – a promising position to be in.

Today we’re spending a little time with our adorable plant-watering bot. We love the entire cover created by Mar Spragge; it’s full of lovely details and magical vibes. The characters are vibrant and lively, and we couldn’t be happier with the entire cover.

But, from the moment we saw their sketches, we grew especially attached to one aspect in particular: this little guy.

This lil plant-watering bot is just so cute, we were enchanted! So, of course we decided to feature it in the campaign merchandise. Specifically, you can get up to two options that incorporate this robot.

Holographic Sticker

We’ll be producing a 4 in x 4 in/10.25 cm x 10.25 cm square sticker featuring the plants and the bot from the back. The materials for this will include a holographic rainbow shimmer, and it’s gonna make for a truly lovely effect. We can’t wait to see it in production.

You can get this lovely sticker by backing at Level 4 (TPB + Merch) or Level 5 (HC + Merch), or you can add one or more sticker to any order that includes any physical merch. So, make sure you get yours!

Patreon-Exclusive Key Chain

For our Patreon backers at level $10/month and $25/month who also support this campaign, we’ll also be producing this sweet little transparent key chain!

It’s not too late to get one of these key chains for yourselves – you can become a Duck Prints Press Patreon supporter anytime before the end of the campaign, and we’ll add the key chain to your order!

Come on over to Kickstarter and become a backer today to get yours! This campaign ends on January 25th, 2024.

Another day, another AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY creator to shine the spotlight on!

Before we get to that, just a note: hi, I’m Nina Waters, the lead editor, the person running this campaign, and the one who writes all these blog posts. I’ll be traveling for the next four days (Friday, Jan 12 – Monday, Jan 15) to vend for Duck Prints Press at Arisia in Boston. As a result, I will be slower to answer messages, reply to comments, and post updates (I’m going to try to post one, but I’m not sure I’ll have time). I appreciate your patience while I’m less available. And if by some chance, you’re attending the con, make sure you come and say hi! I’ll be at table D14 in the dealer’s room.

Now, on to Terra…!

About Terra: Terra is a scientist by day who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She has been writing fiction as long as she can remember, and has always told her partner of 17 years that if she wasn’t a scientist, she would be an author. During grad school, she discovered fanfiction and immediately began writing her own. After many years and several fandoms (including Teen Wolf, Hawaii Five-0, and Stranger Things), she returned to writing original fiction. To date, she has self-published two novellas in a 90s-nostalgia polyamory comedy series and has drafted two YA/NA sci-fi novels. When not doing science or writing, you can find Terra indulging her yarn addiction and knitting.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr (pterawaters) | Tumblr (terrapwaters) | Instagram | Bluesky

Terra has previously published one short stories with Duck Prints Press, a Patreon-exclusive entitled The Wayward Timekeeper, and she also wanted to share a few of her works from AO3:

Kope Kamekona (Hawaii Five-O, Steve McGarrett/Catherine Rollins/Danny Williams)
Forever’s gonna start tonight (Stranger Things, A/B/O, multiple ships and ot3s)
Other Delicacies (Our Flag Means Death, Ed Teach/Stede Bonnet) – this is the piece that Terra used to apply to Duck Prints Press, and several of us reviewers liked it so much that we sought it out and read the whole thing even though we aren’t in the fandom!

An Interview with Terra P. Waters

What motivates you to create?

My love for the ideas!

How did you pick the name you create under?

I’ve been using the name “pterawaters” since 2009, when I joined fanfiction.net. “Ptera” came from an old gaming character I had, “Ptera the Pterrible,” and “Waters” was a last name I really liked the sound of. For my original writing, I decided to go with a more conventional version of the name. I moved the P from the front of my name to the middle initial as an homage to my fannish writing name.

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

My ability to brainstorm scenarios and know how to outline the plot from there. Longer-form works, where I get to dig into the character motivations and development. World building.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?

Short stories, creating characters who serve the story I want to tell, adding enough description around the dialog and plot.

When and why did you begin creating?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid, and even took a lot of creative writing classes during college (aside from my science major). I get a lot of joy out of thinking “what if…” and then turning that idea into a story.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m most often a planner. I like to outline the story beats of any project before I write. Sometimes, I’ll be more of a plantser. I’ll write 1-2k words of an idea before I do the rest of the outline, so I can see if it’s an idea worth planning out further.

Which of your own creations is your favorite? Why?

I wrote a story called “Entanglement” that was part of a long Stranger Things fanwork series. It’s absolutely my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and I’m excited to get to the point where I can incorporate the rewritten version into my sci-fi series.

What are your favorite tropes?

Polyamory, First times/Getting together, Forced proximity (cuddling for warmth, only one bed), Soulmate AUs, Omegaverse, Fake relationship, Friends to Lovers

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

I like herbal tea, candy, or a crunchy snack like popcorn. I’ve recently gotten into eating roasted lentils, which is a nice substitute for not being able to eat nuts anymore.

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I want to finish a series of at least 4 novels and have them all in print.

When you look at your “career” as a creator, what achievement would you most like to reach – what, if it happened or has already happened, would/did make you go “now – now I’m a success!”?

I would like to have at least one full-length novel printed and for people to actually buy it!

Tell us about your pet(s).

I have two orange cats, Gadget (the chonk) and Gizmo (anxiety in animal form).

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Finish the thing. My writing got so much better once I forced myself to finish fan works so I could put them up for other people to read. Practicing the first part of writing a story without practicing how to write the end leaves you never finishing anything.

Terra’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: Ancient Hearts Unearthed

Tags: academia, alternate history, cancer, character illness (serious), f/nb, f/f (background), fat, first kiss, friends to lovers, getting together, hospital, modern with magic, mystery, non-binary, panic attacks, past tense, phobia (claustrophobia), pining, professor, scientist, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

Victoria turned and ran a hand over the runes again. “What bothers me is that these are early Age of Aether markings. You see the way they’re using archaic forms of our letters?”

Sasha leaned closer. “I’ll be damned. This doesn’t match the bronze-era artifacts in the rest of the cave, either.” They made a tiny humming noise. “Who else would have this much knowledge of ancient runes?”

As Victoria leaned as close as she could to the wall, she asked distractedly, “What do you mean?”

“Obviously, it’s a fake,” they said, mulling over the problem in their head. “Sanderson has wanted my place on the admissions committee since he joined the department.”

“What if it’s not a fake?” Victoria made a tiny, excited noise. “What if this is early Aether Age work? What if this is a secret that’s been buried for almost a thousand years?”

Sasha’s heart swooped at the thought. “We have to find out what that inscription says.”

Another day, another AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY creator to shine the spotlight on!

Now, on to Terra…!

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr (pterawaters) | Tumblr (terrapwaters) | Instagram | Bluesky

Terra has previously published one short stories with Duck Prints Press, a Patreon-exclusive entitled The Wayward Timekeeper, and she also wanted to share a few of her works from AO3:

Kope Kamekona (Hawaii Five-O, Steve McGarrett/Catherine Rollins/Danny Williams)
Forever’s gonna start tonight (Stranger Things, A/B/O, multiple ships and ot3s)
Other Delicacies (Our Flag Means Death, Ed Teach/Stede Bonnet) – this is the piece that Terra used to apply to Duck Prints Press, and several of us reviewers liked it so much that we sought it out and read the whole thing even though we aren’t in the fandom!

An Interview with Terra P. Waters

What motivates you to create?

My love for the ideas!

How did you pick the name you create under?

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

My ability to brainstorm scenarios and know how to outline the plot from there. Longer-form works, where I get to dig into the character motivations and development. World building.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?

Short stories, creating characters who serve the story I want to tell, adding enough description around the dialog and plot.

When and why did you begin creating?

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

Which of your own creations is your favorite? Why?

What are your favorite tropes?

Polyamory, First times/Getting together, Forced proximity (cuddling for warmth, only one bed), Soulmate AUs, Omegaverse, Fake relationship, Friends to Lovers

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

I like herbal tea, candy, or a crunchy snack like popcorn. I’ve recently gotten into eating roasted lentils, which is a nice substitute for not being able to eat nuts anymore.

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I want to finish a series of at least 4 novels and have them all in print.

I would like to have at least one full-length novel printed and for people to actually buy it!

Tell us about your pet(s).

I have two orange cats, Gadget (the chonk) and Gizmo (anxiety in animal form).

Wondering what Aether Beyond the Binary is and why you should care? It’s Duck Prints Press’s latest anthology, currently crowdfunding: 17 stories, modern aetherpunk settings, outside-the-binary main characters! Help us reach our funding goals by checking out the campaign now!

About ilgaksu: Full-time fandom cryptid, Furby enthusiast, and the human embodiment of that one gif of Elmo on fire, ilgaksu was born and raised in an undisclosed location, living in several others, and now currently residing in [REDACTED]. Their interests include collecting haunted toys, using their artistic practice as an excuse to forget to do their laundry, and playing with fictional men like Bratz dolls. They have not unclenched their jaw yet today, but they do remember to drink lots of water.

Link: personal webpage

This is ilgaksu’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

An Interview with ilgaksu

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I have a list of dream projects – a big queer space opera trilogy, a series of detective serials, I want to pastiche all of the genres I adored growing up – but I think I’m never going to find the culmination of my work. I’m going to have to make do with whatever I do while I’m alive, and other people can argue about that for me or something. The work is the work. It has to speak for itself without me defending it.

Does any writer actually get to the point where they fully believe they’re a success, and the feeling lasts forever? This is a genuine question. Where are they hiding? I want their advice.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

I have to have at least three emotional support beverages, and one of those will always be a form of iced coffee, then usually bubble tea, and then usually water. These are because I clearly run on three separate hydration systems. Snack-wise, I don’t tend to eat while I’m actually making things, but I like churros and loaded fries and ramen and salmon on bagels and, listen, I just really love food.

Describe your ideal creation space.

I like writing somewhere near a window, ideally when it’s raining outside, with three emotional support beverages and my favourite headphones and the very specific song that works as white noise in that moment on repeat. Possibly for the next five hours.

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

I have to have background noise or I can’t focus to write, and it’s usually music with lyrics. I tend to have a mix of current songs I’m fixated on in a huge Everything playlist, and then I often have a smaller playlist for the project itself. Like I said before, I can also easily listen to the same song on repeat for as long as it takes to finish the necessary section, even if it that takes hours, because after a while I stop hearing the music itself – it functions as white noise.

Share five of your favorite books. (You can include why, if you want!)

Wolf Hall Trilogy (Hilary Mantel, technically 3 but)
The Dream Thieves (Maggie Stiefvater)
Evensong’s Heir (L. S. Baird)
Daughter of Fortune (Isabel Allende)
The Magpie Lord (KJ Charles)

Share five of your favorite (blanks).

Five favourite current bubble tea flavours: Earl Grey, Snow White, Rose, Lavender, Honeydew

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

You don’t want to write like me.

That probably sounds incredibly arrogant, but let me explain: the most common thing I’ve had said to me by a new creator, or a fan of my work, is “I want to write like you.” And I get where people are coming from, and I get it’s from a place of admiration – which is very very flattering, of course – because early on in my writing career that used to be a desire that consumed me to. But my point is this. I realised that it was futile to want something like that, because I would never be that creator, with their experiences in life and reading that had informed how they view the world and filter it into their own work. Even if I tried to mimic it, and maybe if I managed it on a superficial level, it wouldn’t be animated by the same mind moving through it, and so I’d be doing us both a disservice. So, I no longer want to write like other people. I want to write more and more like myself. And because of that, I try and advise people to redirect how they’re verbalising that desire. What is it about my work, or anyone’s work, that speaks to you? What parts of it don’t work for you? What is it you want that’s similar – the assurance of their authorial voice, their breadth of lexis or grammar, the themes they focus, how they make you feel as a reader in that relationship with them through the text? Identify those things. Start from there, and think about who you are and take these little ingredients from everyone you’ve read and loved, and everything you love in the world outside writing. Do that instead. Not only will it help you identify more concretely the goals you’re working towards in your craft, but you deserve a voice as a writer that’s solely your own.

What would you say to a demoralized creator to inspire them?

The same thing I said earlier but reappropriated: nobody can write like you.

ilgaksu’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: chameleon trick

Tags: be gay do crimes, be gay solve crimes, established relationship, heist, manchester, non-binary, past tense, present tense, suicidal ideation (mentions of), united kingdom, third person limited pov, trans man

Excerpt:

Sasha turns on him; gleeful, sparking with it. It’s less a dropping of a mask and more of a perfect, total illumination as they ask, “How did I do?”

You would think they were an amateur at this, looking at their borderline puppyish excitement. They even tilt their face up, less in expectation of a kiss and more in certainty of one. But they are both working. Martha has read the codes of conduct at this factory: no fraternisation during work hours. And so:

“I don’t have time for your praise kink right now,” Martha says, and sidesteps them.

End-of-post reminder: check out our campaign on Kickstarter! It ends January 25th – we’re about half-way done.

We are sloooowly creeping up on being 2/3rds funded on the crowdfunding campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, an anthology of 17 stories by queer authors starring non-binary main characters in aetherpunk settings! It’ll definitely be a relief when we hit that wonderful 100%. Don’t forget to share Aether Beyond the Binary with friends who you think might be interested in the project!

Head on over to our Kickstarter Campaign page NOW to learn waaaay more about this project, and read on to get to know Scarlett Gale, read an interview with her, and check out an excerpt from her contribution!

About Scarlett Gale: Scarlett Gale is the author of His Secret Illuminations and His Sacred Incantations. Long ago, under another name, she was the co-author of Needles and Artifice (Cooperative Press; 2012), featuring a rollicking romantic steampunk adventure novella and associated knitting patterns, of which she also designed several. She writes and produces fringe theatre plays based on B-movies, such as Bodacious Barbarian Babes vs. The Indigo Empress and Showgirls of Beast Island. She is a co-producer of the Alison-Bechdel-approved Bechdel Test Burlesque, which in 2017 was included in the Women and Gender Studies curriculum at the University of Oregon. She lives in Seattle with her wife where she gardens, knits, reads, and drinks warm beverages. Unsurprisingly, she also has cats.

Links: Personal Website | Tumblr | Bluesky

This is Scarlett’s second time contributing to a Duck Prints Press anthology. A short story by her was also included in our debut anthology Add Magic to Taste. Learn more about Scarlett’s other published works.

An Interview with Scarlett Gale

What motivates you to create?

Spite and love in equal measure.

What are your goals as a creator?

To make the world a kinder, hornier place one story at a time.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I suppose Planster is the best description, though I think that makes me sound more like someone who has a lot of plants (she says, sitting next to a glass cabinet full of houseplants). For my longer works I usually start with a vibe and a general idea of the arc and write with no real outline until I’m about two-thirds through the story, at which point I will sit down and roughly bullet point the scenes I still want to write, arrange them into story order, and use that as a reference to finish the piece. Why when I’m two-thirds through? Because at that point I’ve had enough Shower Ideas that if I don’t document them somewhere, I risk forgetting to put them in, and my Shower Ideas are the most inspired parts of my writing!

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

Wordcount. Good god, wordcount. I am the rare writer who can just sit down at a computer and bang out several hundred words in twenty minutes without second-guessing myself or worrying if the words are good enough. This makes me simultaneously the best and worst person to have in your writering group.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?

Also wordcount. I think every story I’ve submitted to the Press has started out two thousand words above the limit, which means we have to do sooooo much editing. Goodbye, my beautiful words!

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

Yes! It makes writing feel less lonely, since I do a lot of it only accompanied by my cats. I listen to music at a medium to low volume that either has no lyrics, or lyrics in a language I don’t speak so I don’t get distracted by the words. I actually bought the cheapest Pandora subscription specifically for writing music. My favorite stations are:

Lofi Chill
Bonobo*
Mikel & Gamechops
Radio Asian Kung-Fu Generation (a recent addition)

*Fun story about the group Bonobo: The morning after our wedding, my whole family crowded into our tiny house to watch us open our wedding gifts. I had given my siblings control over distributing the drink tickets, which meant that after they handed them out to the guests, they used the remaining tickets to get SPECTACULARLY plastered, and were thus deeply hungover. My wife made loads of coffee while everyone grazed on the catering leftovers, and in the interest of creating a calming atmosphere, we put on a Bonobo album. Everyone liked the music, to the point that they repeatedly asked the name of the group, which meant my wife and I kept repeating, with increasing exasperation, “BONOBO!! LIKE THE MONKEY!!!!” It is my primary memory of that morning.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

Remember to eat? While I’m writing?? You think I’m sensible or something?! (I enjoy a cup of tea, either green, decaf black, or herbal, depending on the time of day.)

Tell us about your pet(s).

We currently have three cats: CeeCee, Matcha, and Gyoza. CeeCee (the Lady Catherine the Purr) is our most recent addition from March of 2023. She’s a fifteen year old scrungly tiny black goblin who knows exactly what she wants out of life: Food, sippies from the bathroom sink, belly rubs, and shoulder rides. If we are not providing any of these at the speed she would prefer, she screams at us. She’s PERFECT.

Matcha is an eight-pound calico brat with the sass of at least four cats crammed into her tiny body. Her favorite things in life are causing trouble and rubbing her face on my hands when I’m trying to write.

Gyoza is a sixteen pound gray tabby with the physical properties of a water balloon full of pudding. He loves to try to “play” with Matcha, which results in her screaming like she’s being murdered. His other favorite thing to do is play in the toilet and then come step on us with his wet toilet feet, because he’s the worst.

Please enjoy this festive photo of the three of them that I had to photoshop from three individual photos, since all of them hate each other.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Always take the opportunity to use the restroom when it’s available to you. Solid life advice applicable to any situation, really!

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

I had a Jimmy John’s delivery guy tell me I should lie to people and say my fire-engine-red hair was natural, does that count? (I stared him down blankly long enough that he spontaneously apologized.)

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

Just write it. You can fix the words once they’re on the page, but excessive planning and worrying and worldbuilding won’t help you if you don’t write the words. Just write it! Let it be bad! Fix it in post! Write the damn thing!!!

What’s one thing (style, genre, etc.) that you think you’ll never do, and why not?

Write the type of fantasy book that has a map in the front and a glossary of terms, only because I personally am not motivated to do that level of worldbuilding. I appreciate the people who want to do that, but I guarantee that as a reader I will skip the map and then probably the glossary in order to get to the STORY, which tells you where my priorities lie.

Scarlett’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

Title: N(ae)ghbours

Tags: attraction at first sight, bisexual, city mouse and country mouse, competence kink, didn’t know they were dating, f/nb, farmer, first kiss, genderfluid, getting together, humor, idiots to lovers, meet cute, misgendering (unintentional), omg they were neighbors, panic attacks (mentions of), present tense, self-esteem issues, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

“But you were going to tell me what you’re researching?”

Ah. Well. “This might be boring and hard to explain.”

Rin waves a fork at the breakfast spread between them. “You have at least five pancakes’ worth of time. Hit me.”

Dahlia takes a steadying sip of tea. She explains about greenhouses and other protected growing areas for delicate crops, and the advantages and disadvantages of using them on a large scale. She explains that her family has a small greenhouse for starts, but most of their land is open-air, which means they get the advantages that come with that, but also the issues—they’re at the mercy of the weather, insects, birds…

Or they would be if not for the aether tunnel.

“It’s like a hoop house,” Dahlia explains, pulling up a photo of a hoop house on her phone to show Rin. “Normally, you cover the frame with mesh, or clear bio-plastic if you’re trying to trap the heat and control the amount of water it gets, but…”

“That’d rip right off in a big storm, right? And how do you get in there when you need to do plant stuff?”

Our most premium general merchandise offering for the crowdfunding campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary? None other than our lovely sky-whale enamel pin! Because the stories all feature outside-the-binary, non-binary, and genderqueer characters, we encouraged the artists we commissioned to look to the related Pride flags for color inspiration, and this is one of the results…

This awesome piece, which will have glitter in the sky in the background and the non-binary symbol attached as a free-dangling charm, was designed for Duck Prints Press by Atomic Pixies and continues our tradition of making absolutely awesome enamel work merchandise to accompany our anthologies.

Alchemy is our preferred enamelware manufacturer and we’ve had a strong relationship with them for three years, so we really trust them to make this pin awesome.

The main body of the pin will be 2 in by 2 in (5 cm x 5 cm), the purple will be glittery, the chain will be a smidge shorter than depicted, the metal will be dark gold, and the color sections will be hard enamel.

Truly, honestly, we cannot WAIT to see this merch actually produced.

Want your own? All backers at Level 4 (Trade Paperback + Merch) and Level 5 (Hardcover + Merch) will receive this pin as part of their order. If you backed at a book-only level (2 or 3) you can also get your own as an add-on. Want one for a friend? You can add that on, too!

This campaign ends January 25th, 2024. Become a backer TODAY!

We are 57% of the way to our funding goal for AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY, with 19 days to go!! This awesome anthology featuring non-binary and genderqueer characters in aetherpunk settings has been in the works for a year, and we’re optimistic that we’ll reach our funding target so that we can publish the book as an e-book, trade paperback, and hardcover. Slow and steady, race winning, you know the deal. 😀 Things have definitely slowed down, as is normal for this stage of the campaign, so just a note that we’d always appreciate your help with spread the word about this project so that more people will know it exists! You can find our “main” posts about the campaign on different platforms using these links:

Thanks in advance!!

You can learn all about the campaign, the book, the merch, and the authors, by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

And, today we’re introducing two more contributing authors: Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh!

The Light Organ by Flore Picard

About Flore Picard: I’m a linguist and translator who lives in France and I have been itching to write since I learned how to. I started writing (fan)fiction more regularly when I was procrastinating on my PhD dissertation, and I haven’t looked back since. I’m also an artist who loves drawing both fanart and original art, and I have a passion for patterns and systems, for the beauty at the edge of chaos and the complexity of being human. I tend to write about queer and disabled characters finding themselves and each other and learning to take up space in the world.

Links: Instagram | Twitter

This is Flore’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: The Light Organ

Tags: angst with a happy ending, capitalism is the real villain, coming out, disabled character, emotional hurt/comfort, family, fraught family dynamics, illusion, in the closet, magic use, mechanic, musician, non-binary, parenthood, present tense, science fiction with magic, teenager, third person limited point of view, transphobia (mentions of) (past)

Excerpt:

“No, no, no—the organ, the light ring—it’s all about the imagination, not the mechanics,” Kas exclaims, gesturing widely to encompass the aether pool behind the glass.

“I’m just here for the tubes,” the tech—Gilbert—says flatly.

His face betrays no emotions, not even annoyance. Kas almost wishes he would yell or be rude, if only for the sake of feeling like they’re having an actual conversation, but Gilbert has always been polite. He just never seems to care.

“Fine,” Kas gives up. “We’ve got glitches. They started about a week ago. It could be a leaking tube, I’m not sure.”

“What kind of glitches?”

“It’s as if… as if the story stops responding to me. I know how that sounds, but I swear that’s what happens. It doesn’t last more than a few seconds, but it’s getting worse. Earlier, I powered everything up to tune it and it kept flickering.”

“Flickering,” Gilbert repeats, mumbling into his neatly trimmed beard.

Kas grabs a cane in each hand and makes their way to the organ’s seat. “I can show you.”

You’re Gonna Get Older by Alec J. Marsh

About Alec J. Marsh: Alec lives in the Pacific Northwest, where they write romantic adult fantasy and self-indulgent fanfiction. They make candles inspired by their favorite characters.

Links: Etsy | Instagram | Twitter

Alec is one of the editors for Aether Beyond the Binary and has also published multiple titles with Duck Prints Press. His novella To Drive the Hundred Miles (modern, f/m, trans male lead) was recently successfully crowdfunded and orders fulfilled. His two erotica stories Heart’s Scaffold (sci-fi, m/m) and Study Hall (modern academia, m/m) are part of the Contributor Short Story Bundle add-on.

Title: You’re Gonna Get Older

Tags: arranged marriage, christian, coming of age, coming out, cults, fraught family dynamics, friends, in the closet, lesbian, midwest, misgendering, non-binary, north dakota, past tense, post-apocalyptic, relationship of convenience, religion, song fic, teenager, third person limited pov, trans man, trans woman, transphobia

Excerpt:

There was a radio in the room, an old two-way they had found on their last visit and hidden in an empty supply closet. It was still there. They slid open the battery pack and snapped in a fresh battery from their aether lantern. Chips of the meteor had been encased in metal tubing to mimic the lithium batteries of the Before, but they were precious and had to be used sparingly. Stardancer knew better than to use precious energy on something this frivolous.

They popped the battery cover in place and pressed the power button. It crackled to life. They cradled it like it was made from glass. The dials made a tak-tak-tak noise as Stardancer scrolled through channels. Music came through softly. It faded in and out, cut through with static, but it was music, and not the kind made on an acoustic guitar. They adjusted the antenna and turned up the volume.

It was like nothing they had heard before, fast paced with a heavy beat. Even over the fuzzy AM connection, it was invigorating. They wanted to dance. They wanted to sing along with words they had never heard before. The singer screamed their triumph, and Stardancer felt invincible.

There’s no time like right now to become a backer and help us reach 100% funded! Check it out!

We’re solidly through the first week of the crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, Aether Beyond the Binary. We’re 55% funded (yay!) and inching toward our goal slowly but surely (I post daily funding goals and progress toward them on our Bluesky account, if you’re curious). The campaign ends on January 25th, 2024; between then and now, we need to raise $6,038 more to fund the publishing of this awesome collection of modern aetherpunk stories staring characters outside the gender binary!

Today, we introduce the fifth of our 17 authors: Zel Howland!

About Zel Howland: Zel (they/she) is a writer and artist currently living in Los Angeles with their partner. When not writing, they spend their time painting, embroidering, analyzing literature and tv shows, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. They are the author of many a fanfiction, as well as the novel The Shadow of Ophelia Walker.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr

This is Zel’s third publication with Duck Prints Press. Her short story Chrysopoeia (dark fantasy, f/f) is available at duckprintspress.com and her story The Lightkeeper and the Sea (dark modern fantasy, f/nb) is a Patreon exclusive. Both stories are in the Contributor Short Story Bundle campaign add-on! Learn more about Zel’s publishing career.

An Interview with Zel Howland

When and why did you begin creating?

I was always a voracious reader as a kid, and that sort of naturally lead to me trying to write my own stories. When I was about ten or eleven, I came up with a story that borrowed heavily from the Chronicles of Narnia, and I even managed to eke out 75 pages of bad, bad writing before getting discouraged. I still came back to writing though, and the intervening years of practice and failure taught me a lot about my craft and myself.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

Planner, definitely! I spend as much time worldbuilding and outlining as I do actually writing. I usually have 3-4 outlines for each story (sometimes more for novels!), starting with a brainstorm outline, then getting gradually more detailed until the final outline functions almost as a first draft. They said make your first drafts shitty, and I really took that advice and ran with it.

What’s your favorite part of the creation process?

For writing, I love the first draft–or for me, also known as my final outline. I really love putting the story down on the page in all its messy glory, without the pressure of having to come up with the perfect turn of phrase or spending hours buried in a thesaurus. For art, rendering light and shadows will always be my favorite part. I love taking something flat and turning it into a three-dimensional object with just a little bit of time and care.

What are your favorite tropes?

I really love stories about the Other, whether they’re full horror or exploring other aspects of it. In school I took a class on Gothic Literature that stuck with me so much that I look for character mirroring and fear of the Other in everything I read or watch–there’s more than you might think, even in the most tame narratives! As far as fic goes, mutual pining is what I live and breathe–the kind where both characters are convinced the other doesn’t even like them. I love pretty much every trope that follows from that, from fake relationships to two person love triangles.

What are your favorite character archetypes?

I’ve always loved the manipulative types, especially hyper-competent ones. Characters that aren’t necessarily physically skilled or popular, but who have managed by way of a powerful intellect to pull all the strings so that everyone else is dancing to their tune. I especially love it when these characters aren’t unrepentantly evil, or even villains (although a good villain in this vein is pretty damn fun).

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft?

I will always, always tout Scrivener as the best writing software available, period. It has so many different functionalities that I couldn’t possibly list them all, and probably don’t even know them all! My favorite functions are the corkboard for brainstorming, the split screen and reference pop-out for easy access to previous drafts or outlines, and the folders where I can organize my many, many outlines and resources without worrying about finding them again. For digital art, I’ve recently begun playing around with Rebelle, and I really love it. I’ve always been more comfortable with physical mediums, and Rebelle replicates both the feel and the look of mediums like oil or watercolor while maintaining the functionality of digital art (undo button and layers, my beloved). I’m still learning, but so far it’s been perfect for me.

What’s your favorite medium to work in? Why?

I love oil painting! It’s a very forgiving medium to work with–plus it has such a good texture, and there’s so much about mixing paint and doing glazes that are meditative and peaceful.

Which of your own creations is your favorite? Why?

I really love the story I produced for Aether Beyond the Binary. I came into writing it after three years of chronic illness that kept me from writing at all, and I think the silver lining was that I was able to come at the concept and the story from a different direction than I normally would have. Plus, it was my first time writing from the perspective of a character with the same gender identity as me, which felt like a boulder being lifted from my shoulders!

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

Learn the rules, and then break them! Understanding why certain conventions are popular and always recommended will ultimately help you figure out the best way to ignore the recommendations altogether, and find your own way of doing things.

Zel’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

Title: Flower and Rot

Art – Zel did art to accompany this story (will not be included in the published anthology, but still, look at it, it’s so cool and shiny!!!).

Tags: bipoc, body horror (graphic descriptions), break-up (past), california, character injury (serious), death of a parent (past), found family, jewish, los angeles, magic use, modern with magic, mystery, natural disaster, non-binary, past tense, pov first person, private investigator, second chances, self-esteem issues, suicide (mentions of), systemic inequality, telepathic bond, trans man, undeath, united states of america

Excerpt:

Four dozen minds linked by Aether watched me through thousands of leaves and roots and flowers as I hurried away. Their attention bored into my back right up to the moment I switched off the Aethercoil and the flow of Aether abruptly stopped. The grove became just an unusually lush garden. I was alone once more.

The thing growing inside my eye stopped too, but I couldn’t afford to hope that it had shriveled away without Aether to feed it. My vision was still cloudy in that eye, and the whole area was delicate and tender.

Spitting rain formed halos around the streetlights as I reached the drugstore parking lot. I clumsily fished for my keys with my left hand, keeping the right firmly covering my eye. My shitty sedan was the only car in the lot, but I checked every line of sight around me before stepping into the driver’s seat. I was pretty sure I was alone.

I couldn’t take the chance that I was wrong.

I already knew what I would see, but I had to know how fucked I was. I pulled down the visor and flipped open the mirror.

Rot.

Intrigued? You’ll have to buy the anthology to read more! Come check out our Kickstarter campaign!!

Today’s author spotlight for Aether Beyond the Binary (the aetherpunk anthology starring outside-the-binary characters that we’re currently crowdfunding!) focuses on Nicola Kapron, one of the most prolific authors working with Duck Prints Press. She’s written numerous short stories and a novelette published on our website, but this is her first anthology contribution with us. And – she’s also the crafter of adorable dux plushies we’re selling as add-ons!

Better yet – we’ll be hosting an Ask Me Anything session with Nicola Kapron on Discord! Want to come hang out with Nicola, Nina Waters (ABTB lead editor), and other DPP authors, editors, and fans? Join us on January 6th, 2024 at 3 p.m. Eastern (time zone converter) and bring your questions!

About Nicola Kapron: Nicola Kapron has previously been published by Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Rebel Mountain Press, Soteira Press, All Worlds Wayfarer, Mannison Press, and more. Nicola lives in British Columbia with a hoard of books—mostly fantasy and horror—and an extremely fluffy cat. Link: Personal Website

Read an interview with Nicola Kapron.

Stories Nicola Kapron has Published with Duck Prints Press:

The Act of Salvation (science fantasy, m/m, second person pov)
Be Not Afraid (modern fantasy, m/m, omg they were roommates, the apocalypse happened and life didn’t actually change that much) (included in the contributor short stories add-on!)
Campfire Stories (modern horror, no ship, trading campfire monster stories)
Dead Man’s Bells(fantasy, m/nb, dark romance, demonic possession)
In Good Company (modern horror, m/m, enemies to accomplices)
More Than We Deserve (dystopian sci-fi, m/m, friends to lovers) (included in the contributor short stories add-on!)
The Ocean Went on Forever (sci-fi, m/m if you squint, very hard to summarize – see “challenge: easy-to-tag works)

**Nicola’s Aether Beyond The Binary Contribution:**

Title: How Your Garden Grows

Tags: alternate history, attempted murder, character injury (serious), elemental (nature), environmentalism, genderfluid, natural disaster (unnatural), non-binary, non-human character, past tense, post-apocalypse, science fiction with magic, scientist, siblings, third person limited point of view

Excerpt:

The dive chamber was dark. The only light filtered upward from the moon window set into the floor. Large and circular, it served as the portal through which ze would exit and, hopefully, return. A transparent barrier of purple-tinged glass sat between Stone and the outside. The Nightmare Sea spread out below zir.

“Copy,” Leigh said. “Three…”

The color of the glass made the ocean of trees below look blue. Even with that tint, the swirls of cloud that clung to the spiralling shapes shimmered through every colour Stone knew and several ze didn’t.

“Two…”

Wind currents batted at the treetops. Most of them splashed off like water on the shore, faint trails in the sky the only evidence they’d even tried.

“One…”

Stone breathed in deeply, then let the air hiss out between zir teeth. Zir fingers flexed inside the heavy gloves. Far below, something in the shining sea reflected like metal instead of like heat shimmer or phantasmal crystal. It was near zir planned diving path.

“Diving.”

Learn more about the anthology and our other contributors by visiting our page on Kickstarter!

Today, we’re introducing two of the authors debuting with Duck Prints Press in AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY, our modern aetherpunk anthology starring characters outside the binary, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter! Continue on to check out their biographies and read tags about and excerpts from their contributed stories!

City of Lights by Ellen Faye

About Ellen Faye: Ellen has been a dreamer and designer of worlds all her life. She has been involved in many fandom environments over the years but most recently jumped with two feet into Supernatural, and never surfaced. She has shared many stories online (as Ellenofoz), but she’s grateful to be able to take the leap into published works with the Aether Beyond the Binary anthology.

Ellen lives in Brisbane, Australia, and spends her days writing code. By night, she reads and writes stories, watches shows, and plays games involving magic, science, historical adventures or romance—sometimes all at the same time. She co-hosts a podcast about Supernatural fanfiction, but can also be found enjoying Star Wars, Marvel, Doctor Who and other assorted fandoms.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Twitter

This is Ellen’s debut publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: City of Lights

Tags: bullying (past), childhood friends, london, modern with magic, non-binary, present tense, reunion, student (college), third person limited pov, united kingdom

Excerpt:

A loud cheer rises from the crowd, and the first float comes into view: a dramatic arch and spiral of lanterns, rainbow-hued and bright with the glow of aether. Music blasts from speakers on board the float as it skims the ground, a thumping beat that Rowan can feel in their chest as it approaches. The people dancing on board the float are dressed in a similar aether-kissed fabric to the crowd’s flags, shimmering with shifting colours as they move, smiling and waving to the crowd.

Rowan can remember staring up at the beautiful dancers last time, wishing they could dress up like a magical being and join the parade. They chuckle and shake their head. They’d become a magical being, all right, of a kind. Their mandatory Academy training had seen to that.

Before the float draws level with where Isaac and Rowan sit, something catches their eye across the street. A building, a balcony two stories up. A child, reaching a small hand out as their parent is distracted beside them.

The child overbalances.

Finding Resonance by Bettina Juszak

About Bettina Juszak: Originally from Germany, Bettina has (so far) spent time in the US, the UK, and Canada. She is particularly interested in exploring questions of music and language in imaginary worlds, aided by degrees in linguistics and literature. When not writing, she loses herself in hobbies such as archery, cross-stitch, attempting to learn yet another language, and complaining about the amount of space her book and notebook collection takes up. Her first published work appeared in the Upon a Twice Time anthology published by Air and Nothingness Press, and she is working on a second original novel – despite the first one not having seen the light of day yet.

This is Bettina’s debut publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: Finding Resonance

Tags: asexual, fluff, found family, london, musician, non-binary, past tense, third person limited pov, united kingdom

Excerpt:

The screeching of tortured pipes made Ros flinch.

“Sorry!” Minnie shouted from the organ loft, kept usable through the sheer stubbornness of a stone wall. This church might still nominally be standing, unlike most of its compatriots, but it wasn’t exactly in good repair.

Ros rubbed at their blurry eyes, wishing for coffee. “You promised last time you wouldn’t wake me this early for one of your ideas again.”

They knew they sounded grumpy, but they were halfway across the city from their apartment in Islington, and they already dreaded the return journey on the Northern line, their least-favourite Tube line. After over ten years of getting dragged into Minnie’s projects, starting from when they met at the Royal Conservatory, Ros was mostly resigned to it, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t complain.

Throughout the Aether Beyond the Binary campaign, we’ll be highlighting the 17 contributors, so keep an eye on our social media for more bios, interviews, and excerpts – or become a backer now and get notified with each update!

Dux, also known as Darcy Paige Paddlesworth III (as named by our Patrons), is the non-binary Duck Prints Press mascot who uses they/them pronouns. All our ducks are called Dux – no matter what they wear or where they go, they’re still our darling Dux! You can learn more about Dux and see Dux’s many incarnations by visiting the Get to Know Dux page on our website.

Aether Dux

For the Aether Beyond the Binary campaign, Dux designer Alessa Riel has pulled out all the stops, equipping Dux with an awesome Mohawk and amazing crystalline wings. Are they cybernetic? Are they an assistive device? Are they just for the aesthetique ™? Dux hasn’t told us – so you can draw your own conclusions!

Aether Dux die-cut stickers, 3 in x 3 in (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm), are one of the core merchandise items for this crowdfunding campaign – everyone who backs at a level that includes merchandise will get this Dux sticker, and everyone who gets only the book can add an Aether Dux sticker to their order as an add-on.

But – this isn’t the only Dux merch being offered as add-ons! We’ve also got…

Dux Keychain

A sturdy acrylic key chain with metal hardware, 3 in x 1.5 in (7.5 cm x 4 cm). (also available on our website)

The Basic Dux Sticker Set

This set includes our two most recent costumed Dux – musketeer Dux, from our recent anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” and witch Dux, created as a Patreon reward last Halloween (our largest Dux sticker ever, nearly 4 in by 4 in/10.25 cm x 10.25 cm). It also includes our two most popular costumed Dux, barista Dux (debuted with our anthology Add Magic to Taste) and bard Dux (who accompanied our first Queer Fanworks Anthology, And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, with stories and art inspired by “Much Ado About Nothing.”) Again, all these are available from our webstore, but the bundle is discounted for Kickstarter add-on purposes!

Other Merch

Dux is also featured on our tote bag, a common sight in our seconds grab bags, and of course they are the inspiration behind the absolutely adorable Dux plushies made by EmpowerFantasy Plush (we had five for this campaign, and we’re already down to only two left, so if you want one you should grab it now – and these are NOT currently available from our website!). And of course…

The Ultimate: YOUR OWN DUX

If you love dux even a fraction as much as we do, you can also still claim our ultimate add-on: a custom Dux designed by Alessa Riel to YOUR specifications. We only have this opportunity on offer once for the Aether Beyond the Binary campaign, and this is only the second time we’ve ever offered this! There are a few restrictions (for example, Dux most remain non-binary), but this is a great chance to get your very own lovable duck! Make sure you review the add-on text for all the details. 😀

Long story short: we love Dux, and we hope now that you’ve gotten to know them, you do too!

So back our Kickstarter, and don’t forget to add-on ALL THE DUX!

Profile

duckprintspress

July 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Coming This Sunday: The Pride Book Fair on Itch.io
New Releases from Duck Prints Press!
Become an Advance Reader for Duck Prints Press!
Ongoing Pre-Order Campaigns: Updates!
Aether Beyond the Binary: Final 48 Hours
Aether Beyond the Binary Merch Spotlight: Bookmark
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Catherine E. Green
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Sebastian Marie, Lyonel Loy, and Elior Haley!
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Em Rowntree and Kelas Lloyd
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor S. J. Ralston
Aether Beyond the Binary Merch Spotlight: Plant-Watering Bot
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Terra P. Waters
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor ilgaksu
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Scarlett Gale
Aether Beyond the Binary Merchandise Spotlight: Sky-Whale Enamel Pin
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Zel Howland
Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Nicola Kapron
Meet the Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors: Ellen Faye and Bettina Juszak
Aether Beyond the Binary Merch Spotlight: All About Dux

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jul. 18th, 2025 08:05 am

Entries tagged with aether beyond the binary

Authors Claudie Arseneault, Erinn Harper, and Cara Nox have put together an awesome Pride Book Fair! 8 bundles of queer books on itch.io, featuring 110 books total – launching on Sunday, June 22nd, at 7 p.m. Eastern time, and ending July 1st at 3 a.m. Eastern.

You can get all 110 books by buying The Big Bundle of Queer Awesomeness, only $100 – 76% off the price of buying all the books individually – or you can buy one or more genre bundles of your choice!

Add Magic to Taste 2nd Edition:

Aether Beyond the Binary:

Mythical Pride Creature Die-Cut Stickers and Enamel Pins:

…and more!

Requirements:

What isn’t Required:

What You Get:

So… those are the basics. Interested? Go read the full rules, then apply to be a Duck Prints Press ARC reader TODAY!

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

Hockey Bois by A. L. Heard

Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

Other Projects

Learn more about Aether Beyond the Binary now by visiting the Kickstarter campaign, or read on for more info…

Curious about the project? You can learn way more by visiting the campaign page or by checking out our other blog posts about it to learn more about our merch and contributors and read excerpts, creator interviews, and more:

Become a Kickstarter backer today, and get an amazing book of stories starring outside-the-binary characters and a bunch of gorgeous merch! Win-win!

The crowdfunding campaign for Duck Prints Press’s next anthology Aether Beyond the Binary ends in 4 days and we are still $2,000 from our funding goal. We’d love your helping ensuring this project succeeds: so signal boost our posts or become a backer TODAY!

An Interview with Catherine E. Green

Catherine’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Un Charco, Un Lago by Sebastian Marie

We Might Contain Multitudes by Lyonel Loy

Epiphanies of Friendship, and Other White Whales by Elior Haley

With less than 5 days left in our campaign, we are 83% funded. Time is running out to back the Kickstarter to buy your copy of Aether Beyond the Binary and help us raise the funds we need to bring this anthology into print! Become a backer TODAY!

Cadillac’s Bus by Em Rowntree

True by Kelas Lloyd

Make sure you visit our Kickstarter campaign page to learn about the collection, take a peek at the merchandise, read more excerpts, and more!

An Interview with S. J. Ralston

S. J.’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Holographic Sticker

Patreon-Exclusive Key Chain

Come on over to Kickstarter and become a backer today to get yours! This campaign ends on January 25th, 2024.

An Interview with Terra P. Waters

Terra’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

An Interview with Terra P. Waters

An Interview with ilgaksu

ilgaksu’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

End-of-post reminder: check out our campaign on Kickstarter! It ends January 25th – we’re about half-way done.

Head on over to our Kickstarter Campaign page NOW to learn waaaay more about this project, and read on to get to know Scarlett Gale, read an interview with her, and check out an excerpt from her contribution!

An Interview with Scarlett Gale

Scarlett’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

This campaign ends January 25th, 2024. Become a backer TODAY!

You can learn all about the campaign, the book, the merch, and the authors, by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

The Light Organ by Flore Picard

You’re Gonna Get Older by Alec J. Marsh

There’s no time like right now to become a backer and help us reach 100% funded! Check it out!

An Interview with Zel Howland

Zel’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

Intrigued? You’ll have to buy the anthology to read more! Come check out our Kickstarter campaign!!

Stories Nicola Kapron has Published with Duck Prints Press:

Nicola’s Aether Beyond The Binary Contribution:

Learn more about the anthology and our other contributors by visiting our page on Kickstarter!

City of Lights by Ellen Faye

Finding Resonance by Bettina Juszak

Throughout the Aether Beyond the Binary campaign, we’ll be highlighting the 17 contributors, so keep an eye on our social media for more bios, interviews, and excerpts – or become a backer now and get notified with each update!

Aether Dux

Dux Keychain

The Basic Dux Sticker Set

Other Merch

The Ultimate: YOUR OWN DUX

Long story short: we love Dux, and we hope now that you’ve gotten to know them, you do too!

So back our Kickstarter, and don’t forget to add-on ALL THE DUX!

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

**Learn more about Aether Beyond the Binary now by visiting the Kickstarter campaign, or read on for more info…**

**Become a Kickstarter backer today, and get an amazing book of stories starring outside-the-binary characters and a bunch of gorgeous merch! Win-win!**

**Nicola’s Aether Beyond The Binary Contribution:**