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The crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling, has 4 days left, and we’re a meager $19 from hitting our funding goal!! And we’ve got a great way for folks to help us cross that finish line in a big way. Now through the end of November, support our Kickstarter by getting a big bundle with our best discount of the year! You’ll get Monsterotica, of course, and all the highest-tier merchandise we’re offering (dragon folding fan! cover art print! medusa bookmark! monster dux sticker! humorous monstery postcard set! monster licks enamel pin! tentacle key chain!), AND you’ll get our entire back catalogue of anthologies in both print and e-book formats. And, you’ll save 30% off compared to the cost of buying all these items individually – the whole bundle can be yours for $310 US!

Get lots of great books and gorgeous merch at one great price!

We’ve introduced 12 of the 16 contributors to Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling, our next anthology featuring erotic queer stories of monsters and their partner(s), well… courting and coupling (not necessarily in that order)! The Kickstarter to fund publishing this collection runs until 1 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, December 2nd!

Today, meet two of the remaining contributors: E. M. Beka and Dei Walker.

Author: E. M. Beka

About: Mx Beka dwells in Australia, in a small pond with an internet connection that does not respond well to rain. Their greatest literary achievements to date involve writing mildly popular fanfiction. They adore their husband, two small children, and semi-feral lucky bamboo. A classic underachiever, they have a yellow belt in karate, a degree in linguistics, and were in a band until they lost their singer to competitive jive dancing.

Story Title: Orchis Magnus

Excerpt:

Tucked into the back corner was the star of the collection, the plant that Jo had dramatically declared her nemesis.

Magnus. Orchis Magnus, if the boss got his way on the official classification. The largest monopodial orchid ever found, as-yet unknown to general academia, but once Harlow and their boss published, it would break the records without even trying.

When the specimen had first been delivered four months ago, Harlow had thought it was a practical joke. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Jo had thought she was being funny when she’d sent the flower arrangement early in their relationship with the label, Caution: exotic specimen. The ensuing conversation when Harlow had to explain why the arrangement had ended up in the incinerator, about biosecurity risks and rules about personal deliveries, had caused their neighbour to shove flyers about couples counselling into their mailbox. Again.

Author: Dei Walker

About: Dei Walker (she/her) is a queer New Englander abroad, having spent almost half her life overseas. She currently lives with her family in Beijing, China. When she isn’t writing, she can be found knitting, scuba diving, or playing games (video or tabletop).

Links: Bluesky | Tumblr

Story Title: Home, Aleyne

Excerpt:

With the attention of the two visitors secured, now was the time to risk it all.

Slowly, focus entirely on the plath-yein and their companion standing amidst her courtship offerings, Aleyne began to shift. They drew their mass into a shape akin to the visitors’: two arms, two legs, a torso, a neck, and a head. They shaped an oval face with a sharp chin and strong nose and a short, tousled cap of hair, and the same sort of vacsuit the visitors wore. Deliberate, precise adjustment, down to gloved fingers and clunky, boot-like feet.

Waiting was torture.

And then the human face behind the vacsuit faceplate split into a smile that hit Aleyne as sharply as any weapon.

Joy.

“You were right,” the humanoid called in lilting Galactic.

The plath-yein rippled with amusement, approaching Aleyne with almost perfect steps. Pheromones wafted off them, a flood of scents that went straight to something deep and instinctive in Aleyne. “We’ve been trying to find you, cousin.”

Find them? Who knew about them—who cared enough to find them, as though they’d been missing?

Read the other story teasers by visiting our campaign today!

As part of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling (16 very queer very sexy monsterfucking erotica tales!), we’re producing seven different merchandise items – a sticker, a bookmark, an art print, a postcard set, a key chain and a folding fan. In today’s update, let’s take a closer look at four of those merch items!

Monster Dux Die-Cut Sticker

Every anthology we publish, Alessa Riel makes a new version of the Press’s signature Dux mascot. For Monsterotica, Dux has gone monstery, with tentacles and a gaping maw that definitely is not even slightly suggestive! As with most of our stickers, we will manufacture it with Vograce, and the final sticker will be approximately 3 in x 3 in/7.5 cm x 7.5 cm. You can check out Alessa’s other Dux designs, and learn more about Dux, on our webpage!

Tentacle Shakey Glitter Key Chain

We approached Tomowowo with only a vague concept for a cute key chain with special features – whether that be glitter or something else. She came back to us with this precious neon-shaded tentacle, just dripping with potential. 

She also made a super helpful mock-up, giving an idea how the manufactured key chain will look – a top transparent level showing the glitter, with a fully-rendered bright layer at the bottom! The glitter will be holographic green! The final key chain will be made by Vograce, and will be approximately 2 in x 1.5 in/5 cm x 3.8 cm.

Lick Your Beloved Enamel Pin

Reshipkmn has done several past enamel designs for us, so we were eager for her contributing another to a Press project, and she didn’t let us down. This amazing, detailed enamel pin will be manufacturer by Alchemy, as have all the enamel pins we’ve made, and will be 2 in x 1.5 in/5 cm x 3.8 cm.

Dragon Abduction Folding Fan

(our first fan, made as part of our campaign to fund A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” featuring art by Zel Howland)

As for how big it is, here’s a photograph I took of my daughter – six years old when the picture was taken – modeling the original sample fan I bought when we were deciding if we wanted to do a fan.


 

It’s biiiiig. 25 in x 12 in/66 cm x 33 cm, to be precise.

See something you gotta have? The sticker is included in our “Book + Flat Merchandise” backer level, and the key chain, enamel pin, and fan are all included in our “Book + All Merchandise.” Alternatively, all of these are available as add-ons – as long as you back at a level that includes any physical rewards, you can mix-and-match to get exactly the merchandise you want, in the quantities you want!

Become a backer of the Monsterotica Kickstarter today!

After the Cloudflare outage this morning took Kickstarter down for a few hours, our crowdfunding campaign for Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling is back in business, less than $2,500 from our goal, and here with two more author spotlights!

Today, meet Jaye Anderson and Lyonel Loy, read their biographies, and check out excerpts from their stories!

Author: Jaye Anderson

About: Jaye Anderson, fandom name MsWhich, writes original works and fanfiction and has been posting them on the Internet since the olden days of mailing lists and Yahoo groups. She supports her writing habit by managing metadata at a day job where, she is fairly sure, her coworkers don’t realize she’s spending her spare time writing erotic tentacle fiction. She participates in a lot of different fandoms, although she tends to be a late arrival to most of them, as evidenced by the fact that she recently spent a year writing a novel-length story in the 2001: a Space Odyssey fandom. (She has a HAL 9000 enamel pin on her backpack. When asked about it, she just says that she thinks he’s really misunderstood.) She lives in the Midwestern US with her long-term partner, who really gets her and also beta reads most of her work.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr

Story Title: Compatible

I am learning you, Henry says. May I try something?

It’s nice that Henry is bothering to ask first, even though he must know that there’s no way Marcus is going to say no.

Sure, Marcus thinks. He waits expectantly, and then out of nowhere, a wave of pleasure sweeps through him, raising the hair on the backs of his arms, making him push his hips forward in the seat. He grabs the edge of the hard plastic subway chair, holding on for dear life. He’s grateful that Henry made them wait for an empty car, because there’s no way he could hide what’s happening to him right now. He’s whining like a dog.

You have many erogenous areas, Henry muses.  

Author: Lyonel Loy

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

Story Title: Lovespun

Excerpt:

“Gift-giving’s a part of courtship for most, I hear. Perhaps you could get your Jianlei something nice?”

Zakri fidgets. “Gifts are good, I think,” they say. “I asked Davin about it?”

“Ah,” Koiroi says.

“I don’t have,” Zakri stutters, worry-wiping at their eyes, “the parts—”

“Ah,” Koiroi says. “Yes. Davin’s a sweetheart, but he does tend to forget that the rest of us can’t just remove our… Well. I’m sure Jianlei doesn’t expect your severed member as a courting gift, dearie. Sol-folk don’t regrow their genitalia either.”

Later this month, we will be launching the Kickstarter campaign to fund publishing our next anthology, our second collection of erotica short stories – MONSTEROTICA: TALES OF UNUSUAL COURTSHIP AND COUPLING. This collection includes 16 incredibly hot stories of monsters – the more unusual, the better! – and their lovers courting and then coupling. Some stories are monster x monster, and all are very queer. Whether you’re into tentacles or wings, aliens or cryptids, beasts or gentlefolk, you’ll find something to love in this anthology of monsterfucking stories.

You can learn more about Monsterotica’s contributors be visiting our website.

Want to back the campaign to fund Monsterotica? Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter!

And now, without further ado… (drum roll please)… our gorgeous cover, featuring art by Siao Bell (Instagram | Bluesky)!


 

We’re about halfway to our first stretch goal for our Kickstarter campaign to fund publishing Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories! At $16,000 in backing, all backers will receive the cover art as a digital file for personal use – and we’ll be able to afford to double the amount we’re paying our authors!

We’re in the homestretch for introducing our contributing authors – only 7 left. Today, meet two of those, both writing with Duck Prints Press for the first time: Robin S. Blackwood and Shannon Lippert!


 

Author: Robin S. Blackwood (they/them)
Biography: Robin S. Blackwood has been writing stories since they were a child and has always loved fantasy and science fiction. It didn’t take long for them to get into fanfiction in a variety of fandoms, but they’ve also had various ideas for original stories that they’re now aiming to start sharing with the world for the first time. While their fandoms, and their original fiction, range from lighthearted fantasy to space opera to horror, favourite themes will always include non-human perspectives on the world, queerness, and queer non-humans. When they’re not writing they enjoy reading, watching (usually old) films, fencing, and playing the guitar. They live in the UK.

Story Title: The Case of the Lost Grimoire

Excerpt: 

“Enter!” the deep voice of Caedmon Fell—first High Archmage of the University—rang out, and the door swung open with a familiar creak. The smell of old books greeted Griffin as he stepped into the small, warmly lit room crammed with towering bookshelves.

In the centre of the room stood a wooden lectern.

It was empty.

Griffin stared for a moment. When he spoke, he could only whisper the obvious: “It’s gone.”

Locke, eyebrows lowered in a frown, stalked over to the lectern and slammed their hand down where the book should have been, hitting the wood of the lectern with a thud and a click of claws.

Griffin raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Thought it might have turned itself invisible. Stranger things have happened in this place.”

Griffin took a deep breath. “We have to tell the High Archmage.”

Author: Shannon Lippert (she/her, they/them)
Biography: Shannon is a writer of poetry, plays, and prose, a performing artist, a director, and a troublemaker. Hailing from Boston, her/their creative work is joyfully transformative, weaving icons of popular culture and found language into new narratives which challenge the limitations of their original sources. Shannon’s transformative works include: My Immortal, a karaoke-style performance art piece; The Harrys, a web series; and their stage plays inspired by Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, and Cymbeline. You can find their recent poetry in What Rough Beast by Indolent Books and All Shall Be Well, an anthology by Amethyst Review.

Story Title: Family Meal

Excerpt: 

“On the right is the library. Do you want to take a peek inside?”

Meena didn’t much care—until she saw the room.

The library was vast and illuminated by starlight. Automated electrics hummed to life when they sensed Meena’s approach, casting a warm glow on shelves of books two stories tall. Physical books. Meena had expected capacity on Station 17 to be limited, for everything to be digital, but this library was all analog and brimming with books—thousands of them! Neat stacks of dense, glorious books, and Meena could smell the pages and soft leather bindings. That wasn’t all; the room itself was beautiful, with delicate lights glowing to life above an airy, open space with beautifully carved wooden desks. It looked so… old-fashioned, in the best way.

But what really took her breath away was the planet. Venus was bright, vivid and beautiful through the wall of windows. The segmented glass sprung from the floor and arched overhead in a dome, giving Meena the sense that she was standing not in a starbase but in airless space, floating outside the planet’s atmosphere as it shone, golden light reflecting off its surface.

“It’s…”

“Something else, right? This was a meteorological observation room during the first stage of terraforming, then repurposed when the Stations were converted to intellectual hubs.” Niamh was smiling. “Surprised me, too. And not just because I was terrified the window was going to crack and kill us all.”

Meena blinked. Caught up in the sight, she had forgotten she was on a station. “It… won’t, right?”

So so happy to share that the Kickstarter campaign for Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories has reached our minimum funding goal! And we’ve got 8 days to go – so the sky’s the limit on hitting our stretch goals, getting our backers more goodies, and raising the pay for our authors. Learn more on our campaign page!

We’re now aiming for our first stretch goal at $16,000! At this level, all backers will receive the cover art as an image file (for personal use only!!), and we will double the amount we’re paying our contributors!

A huge thank you to every single person who has backed so far, and to those who helped spread the word – we couldn’t have done it without you.


 

Author: Lyonel Loy (he/him)
Biography: Lifelong maladaptive daydreamer, finally working up the courage to write those daydreams down. Spends time cosplaying as a Responsible Adult With A Job.

Story Title: What We Call Ourselves

Excerpt: 

Cold Ash’s scones have the consistency of under-fired bricks.

“That looks delicious,” the waif gushes, as they always do; Cold Ash’s belly twinges with something like sympathy pains. “It must smell delicious too! I do wish we could smell it.”

“Nothing that says you can’t.” Cold Ash points out. More than enough has been written about shades, but nothing about being a shade; Cold Ash had switched up his line of questioning after months of fruitless prying on the name and fate of the poor waif. “You can see it, and touch it too if you focus. Hear it, if I do this—”

Cold Ash thonks a scone against the countertop.

Disturbingly, it both squishes and thuds.

“Here,” he urges, “take one each and think very hard about smelling it. We could do a paper on the results, and I’ll list you both as co-authors.”

Author: Lucy K. R. (she/her)
Biography: What is there to be said for a person such as Lucy K.R.? Her mother remembers her requesting a cookie, and when she was denied amending “What about two cookies?” Her friends once observed her, when startled in a haunted house, to scream, run face-first into a wall, and then yell “Sorry!” Her future wife, she claims to have met “soul-first”, having collaborated in art and writing before ever meeting as individuals. Among the line cooks of her restaurant, it is said she performed Ylvis’s “What Does the Fox Say” at a Christmas karaoke party without ever glancing at the screen. In her dojang, she was heard to pronounce a fondness for sea salt, as it “May have touched a shark once.” When she briefly majored in bass performance, while alone in the practice rooms she would write musical themes for her characters rather than drilling etudes, until she could not escape her love of stories any longer. They say all these things and more, but to meet her “soul-first”, you need look no further than “I Am For You” from And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, “The Hollow Mass” from She Wears the Midnight Crown, or “The Three Mic’O’Tears” from Aim for the Heart, all available from Duck Prints Press.

Story Title: Caffeine and the Unsleeping

Excerpt: 

There are many talents Vladimir once had that he has become rusty in through the years. Flirting, however, has never been among their number, but isn’t that why he came to school in the first place? To try new things? To broaden his horizons?

“My name is Vladimir,” he says, halting and uncertain as he hugs the binder to his chest. “And I would like to apologize again for my outburst.”

“Ben,” says the man, his lips curving up to reveal a broad grin full of slightly crooked and deeply human teeth. “And honestly, it was just good to have something to think about for the shift. Do you, uh, want a pastry? While you’re reading? On the house.”

“I thank you for your concern,” Vladimir replies. “However I am unable to partake.”

“Gluten free?”

“Vampire.”

“Ah,” says Ben.

The Kickstater to fund publishing our next anthology, Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories, is almost 75% of the way to our goal! But regardless of when we hit 100%, this campaign will run through August 12 2025, and we have 19 more authors to introduce, so stick around and learn about all the stories.

Learn more about the campaign and read about other authors by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

Today, meet Maggie Page and Dei Walker, both returning to publish with Duck Prints Press after being involved in multiple past projects.

Author: Maggie Page (she/her)
Biography: Maggie Page lives in Texas with family, including her incorrigibly clumsy mom with a green thumb and two silly dogs. Her most recent publications with Duck Prints Press appear in He Bears the Cape of Stars and Add Magic to Taste. Previously, Maggie has published several poems and a piece of flash fiction with collegiate and independent journals.

Aside from writing, Maggie enjoys music, traveling, camping, creating art of both decent and questionable quality, and torturing her loved ones with ruthless board game victories. Befriending her comes with the hazard of being subjected to fervent media analysis, which is her true favorite pastime. Currently, exposure to Sherlock Holmes and Dishonored are risks upon approaching her.

Story Title: Fair Winds and Fortune

Excerpt: 

“What do you think about their relationship?”

Bastian mulled over the question. Zara had undersold Emory’s charm, and Bastian wanted to make a good impression. “I appreciate their bond. Their willingness to protect each other is admirable, and their affection is so… clear. Relatable. I wish Barker would tell Cyrus the truth about what happened during the robbery.”

Zara made an emphatic noise. “Absolutely! If he doesn’t, I’ll find a way into the book and shake him, I swear.”

Bastian and Emory both grinned at her enthusiasm.

“He has to,” Emory agreed, “especially if they’re moving in together. I hope Glen makes them a couple.”

“Do you think he will?” Bastian asked, uncertain and intrigued. He had noticed hints of romance in the text but wasn’t sure if he was reading too much into the story, yearning for a similar dynamic.

Emory shrugged and tilted his head back and forth as though weighing possibilities. “There are indications that point that way. Subtle ones. But it seems more like purposeful foreshadowing than empty promises.”

“Unlike Farris Cline,” Bastian added.

Zara pulled a disgusted face. “Ugh, Cline. We don’t like him.”

Author: Dei Walker (she/her)
Biography: Dei Walker (she/her) is a queer New Englander abroad, having spent almost half her life overseas. She currently lives with her family in Beijing, China. When she isn’t writing, she can be found knitting, scuba diving, or playing games (video or tabletop).

Story Title: Field Research

Excerpt: 

They pushed the sentimental moment away. The purpose of this venture wasn’t beauty or sentiment; it was cataloguing and analysis.

“It’s lovely,” Ailin murmured behind them. “And look—there at the edge. What is that?”

Yahui glanced behind, affronted by the interruption, then followed Ailin’s eyeline.

Paddling through the reeds was—

If asked, they would have been hard-pressed to answer properly. It looked like an overlarge duck or perhaps a juvenile goose, long-necked and sharp-eyed.

It was also purple.

“It’s new,” Yahui murmured. “I haven’t seen anything like that in the texts or heard about it from the masters. We need to get a sample of something—a feather, if nothing else—to bring back, or no one will ever believe us.”

Their heart pounded with enthusiasm and the bright, desperate need to get their hands on this bird and find out what it was, measure its wingspan and trace its feet and see if it had a goose’s tongue or something more sinister within. The sunlight flashed off feathers gleaming iridescent like the inside of an abalone shell.

“I’m going after it.”

Citrus Con is an annual free online-only 18+ Boys’ Love and queer media convention! It was held in late June, but we were so busy advertising a bajillion other Pride things that, well, we waited, and we’re advertising this now! The bundle only has 4 days left now, and it contains 63 titles for only $15 total, including the Duck Prints Press anthology Many Hands and dozens of other books, comics, games, and other queer media, some explicit, some not!

Get the bundle now, before time runs out!

The fifth and final of our posts highlighting the ten adorable pride flag dragons created by Florilège and featured in Duck Prints Press’s current Pride Dragon Merchandise Kickstarter campaign!

Make sure you check out all our designs: Gilbert Baker and intersex-inclusive progress pride dragons | bisexual and pansexual pride dragons | genderqueer and non-binary pride dragons | demigender and genderfluid pride dragons

Our Kickstarter aims to raise the funds to make stickers, magnets, key chains, lanyards, and washi tape featuring these designs! We’ve already hit our funding goal, so if you back now, you’re guaranteed to get your purchases, and we’re working toward our first stretch goal, which will grant all our backers their chosen dragon(s) as digital files, too!

Check out the campaign before it ends on July 2nd!