catherineldf | Entries tagged with multiversecon

This last weekend was the double header of MultiverseCon and the Twin Cities Book Festival. The latter was more of a "mention we have a dealer's table and a sale going on" while the former involved watch parties for our pre-recorded panels, doing a Kaffeeklatsch, going to a bunch of other things and running some speed mentoring sessions. The panels will go up at Multiverse's YouTube channel soon so everyone gets to play! It was a fun time and it was good to see some friends and meet some new folks. TC Book Fest was pretty dead from a vendor standpoint; they are going to keep plugging the exhibitors for a few more weeks so hopefully that'll pick up a bit. Queen of Swords Press is also a vendor at Geek Girl Con through the rest of the month so hey, book sale!

Coming up this Saturday (10/24), I'll be on a steampunk panel for CONvergence Online with Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Michael Merriam and Tyler Tork. Everybody else will be reading their own work and I'll be reading from Alex Acks's stories and talking about publishing steampunk. (And if you're at MileHiCon this weekend, look for Alex there too!). And on Sunday, October 25th, I'm teaching "Crimson Peaks and Menacing Mansions: Writing Gothic Horror" at the Academy Rambo; there are still some slots open if you're interested or know someone who is.

Other than that, I've been doing wacky things like going on a 3 mile hike at the Minnesota Arboretum with a friend, going on walks around the neighborhood with another friend, watching Ripper Street, which I have just discovered, and The Frankenstein Chronicles, reading submissions, working on projects and doing my class homework. So far, so good. Also, an announcement for those of you who have been patiently waiting for me to talk about the sequel to Silver Moon, an ANNOUNCEMENT:

Blood Moon is a couple of thousand words from completion (of this draft). Artist Terry Roy has already created a spiffy front cover design. My plan is to finish it this month, spend November and December doing rewrites, edits and writing publicity material so that I can get it out the door for a March release. It takes a couple of months to get books out through channels where they'll get notices, hence the delay. But soooonnnn!

Onward and upward! More updates soon.

Virtual MultiverseCon is coming up this week and it's going to be lots of fun! There's a great guest line-up, lots of interesting programming, workshops, mentoring and other fun stuff and it's free! Be sure and check the shop for the cool merch, if you can though. I have my synth logo shirt on the way already. Times are EST.
Queering Fantasy: (Moderator)
https://www.multiversecon.org/mvo-geekfantasy-1
Watch party on Discord channel #geek-fantasy:
Friday, October 16, 2020:
4:00pm EST

Writing LGBTQ+ Characters in Horror:
https://www.multiversecon.org/mvo-geekhorror-2
Watch party on Discord channel #geek-horror:
Saturday, October 17, 2020:
11:30am EST

Writers at the Bar:
Discord Hotel Bar:
Saturday, October 17, 2020:
8:30pm EST

Kaffeeklatches:
Discord Kaffeeklatsch reading room 1:
Sunday, October 18, 2020:
1:00pm EST
Join author Catherine Lundoff at the virtual campfire for some spooky tales (and the chance to make her nostalgic for in person conventions by asking her where she gets her ideas!).

I'll also be participating in a mentoring session for new writers at 3:30 on Sunday. Fun stuff!

And, because it's all fun and games in Virtualandia, Queen of Swords Press is also a vendor at the Twin Cities Book Festival on Saturday, October 17th and continues to be a vendor at Geek Girl Con all month. All these events mean that we're having a month long sale when you buy direct from the Queen of Swords Press website so please check that out.

While I'm plugging things, "Crimson Peaks and Melancholy Mansions: Writing Gothic Horror" class is coming up at the Rambo Academy on 10/25 and there's still room for a few more on the haunted house train. There are also scholarships available if you need them.

What else am I doing? Working on Week 2 of my Project Management class, reading submissions, working on Blood Moon and wrangling sundry things. Took most of yesterday off to do fun stuff like go to the American Swedish Institute (the civil rights quilt show is really powerful and very good), eat at the newly reopened FIKA, went to the Trylon Cinema (Minneapolis's plucky little art cinema, trying to hang on in the Age of the Rona) for "Mr Vampire" (always entertaining) and then watched Zorongo Flamenco's "Decameron 2020" online show of flamenco dancers dancing and performing in quarantine (really gorgeous). Zorongo is Minneapolis's own plucky little flamenco company which puts on some world class shows - this is a benefit for them, amongst other things, and is viewable for another week. $15 and definitely worth seeing. I also had a great time at Cream & Amber's Fall Mini-Market on Saturday: I got to do an in person event and talk to people (masked, distanced, in the parking lot), sell books, hang out with friends, shop for cool stuff and see some of my regular book buying customers. Cream & Amber is a lovely little bookstore/cafe/beer pub with a very nice patio; get a book and lunch and enjoy both outside before the snow flies.

More bulletins soon!

Posting this here before I forget it. For my October events, C'monfluence is live and online, Cream & Amber's new local pop-up is in person and out of doors, MultiverseCon is mostly recorded but with some live stuff, I'm vending online with QoSP at the virtual Twin Cities Book Festival and at Geek Girl Con.

My Mulitverse panels, etc.:
Writing LGBTQ+ Characters in Horror
Making a character identify as gay is not writing an LGBTQ+ character - it's not enough. What goes into crafting a well-rounded LGBTQ+ character so that they are enmeshed in the storyline and not sitting on top of it like a last-minute sprinkle of salt to season the plate? Is it important to readers to see LGBTQ+ characters reflected accurately in horror fiction and movies? Is not seeing representation (or seeing misrepresentation) a showstopper?

Queering Fantasy (I'm moderating this one):
One of the beautiful things about fantasy is the ability for creators to shape their worlds as they see fit. While this usually amounts to dragons, wizards, and otherworldly occurrences in downtown New York, creators under the LGBTQIA umbrella often use fantasy to craft a more accepting and inclusive world. Join us as we hear from some of these queer creators about their experiences in the genre.

Here are the Live Events we have you marked for:

30-minute reading/ Kafeeklatch (via Discord):
Yes

Watch Parties of your panel on convention weekend (to chat and answer questions):
Yes

Writers at the Bar (via Discord or Zoom, TBD)
Hang out and chat with authors.

Enjoyed a perfectly fine and fun convention weekend at MultiverseCon, which included a reading at Charis Books and More in Decatur with the delightful Meg Elison and some very talented local writers and poets, a trip to the Decatur Historical Society to see some interesting exhibits, meeting up with some old friends like Lee and George Martindale and Ed DeGruy, chatting with lovely people who I do not know as well but hope to know better like John Picacio, Candra Gil and Sherry Renee Thomas and brand new to me lovely people like Kenesha Williams of Black Girl Magic Magazine, Melissa McArthur of Falstaff Books and a whole bunch of other nice people and then wrapped it up with stunning art at the Atlanta Airport. All good, would go again next year if things work out.

Then I came home to a letter from the county announcing that they were dropping my mother from medical assistance (the only way she can afford 24/7 nursing home care) because of a specific issue. I knew that there might be a problem at some point soonish, but hadn't expected to have only 8 days to solve it, 6 by the time I got back. Many phone calls later, I had a solution in place and am working on it, but in the meantime, they send me a threatening letter per day just to make the experience more "fun." So that was Tuesday and Wednesday and every day since.

And on Thursday, I got laid off from my day job. The new regime handled this staggeringly badly, doing it with no notice or warning (bearing in mind that they had "cancelled" the layoffs last December and we had a couple of years of warning on those) so a few people were crying and freaking out. I was deeply touched that the contractors gave me an "honor guard" and helped me carry my stuff out and then one of my ex-colleagues bought me lunch. I look forward to hearing about the new regime going down in flames, as they should. The bright side is that I do have a "transition package" and will get a meager severance when I fill out the paperwork (one of tomorrow's tasks), but will have to start job hunting in December, which is not the best time for such things around here unless I can get traction in the writing/editing/publishing parts of my life. I'm also very burned out and am wrangling some chronic pain issues so I'd love to get a bit more leeway on when I have to start searching again if I can.

If you are so inclined and can do so, here are a few ways that you can support my wife and I as we deal with this new fun-filled development in our lives. Signal boosts on any/all of these are also much appreciated!

"Breaking Out of the Slush Pile" - registration deadline November 6th, class takes place on November 10th. This is a webinar that I'm teaching for Hidden Timbers Books and it does not yet have enough registrations to carry.
Queen of Swords Press - buy some books! The Press is inching slowly toward being self-sustaining, but if I don't have to pump money into it for a few months, it would be a huge load off my mind (and bank account), not to mention helping it move forward. Our books are available all over the place as well as direct from the website. You can ask your local library to order them in too! Or buy them direct from us at events!
I also have a Patreon that supports the Press (Get novels in progress! Have fun guessing how it is that I do what I do! Win free books!) and there is QoSP Ko-fi if you don't want to commit to pledging, but want to kick in.
My wife, Jana, makes handmade books and boxes and she has an Etsy. She also teaches at MN Center for Book Arts, Carlton College and miscellaneous art centers. Take a class or buy a pretty box! They make great gifts.
Hire us! I write, edit and teach and am both knowledgeable and reasonably entertaining (other people think this too!) on a number of topics. Jana makes custom boxes like portfolios, wedding albums, storage boxes for old books, does repair and offers private tutorials if you want to learn more about bookbinding, box making book repair.
Finally, my bookseller pal, Dave Christenson, is experiencing some hellish health problems. He's been helping me sell off some of my parent's books that made it out here when we moved my mother out from NYC and we're down to the last book. If you know any Charles Lindbergh fans who might be interested, please point them Dave's way. We'd really like to get this to a new home soon.

And that's it for now. Thanks for reading along this far; I hope to have better news soon.

Here's the website link to all the fun. Multiverse will be happening in Atlanta 10/18-10/20 and I'll be doing a reading with Cat Rambo and other fine folks at Charis Bookstore on 10/17 to kick things off.

Friday, October 18th:
2:30-3:30 Aging in Fantasy (panel)
4:00-5:00 Author signing, Read It Again Books signing table

Saturday, October 19:
10-11:00 AM Publishing Q&A
1:00-2:00 PM Social Media for Writers
4:00-5:00 PM Author Reading with author Kenesha Williams

Sunday, October 20th:
10:00-11:00 AM LGBTQ+ in Fandom

Jana Pullman -
Saturday
1:00-2:00PM Pamphlet Binding (workshop)
4:00-5:00PM Artist’s Reception

And I’ll be reading at Charis Books with author Meg Elison on Thursday night from 8-9PM as part of the Cliterati series. Come see us! https://m.facebook.com/events/2324819537769350

It's official! As usual, I can't get the photos to embed so you'll have to follow the link if you're curious. :-)
GUEST ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! ✨ Say hello to Catherine Lundoff, another one of our FABULOUS Multiverse guests this year!

Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher from Minneapolis where she lives with her wife, bookbinder Jana Pullman, and the cats who own them. She is the author of over 100 published short stories and essays. Her books include Silver Moon, Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and, as editor, the fantastical pirate fiction anthology, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). In addition, she is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press, a genre fiction publisher specializing in fiction from out of this world. Websites: http://www.catherinelundoff.net/ and http://www.queenofswordspress.com/

Some of my lovely friends invited me to camp out at their house for a few days while they're out of of town so I get a couple of days off in blissful solitude to work. It is awesome! So far, I've managed an interview for the Skiffy and Fanty Show Blog, more words on Blood Moon (Silver Moon sequel), created a YouTube channel for Queen of Swords Press, nominated Alex Ack's Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures for the Colorado Book Awards, worked on a blog post for an upcoming blog tour for Emily L. Byrne and done some analysis on revisions for my gaming proposals for Choice of Games and started reading up on my next Onyx Path tie-in adventure (about which more when there's something to talk about). More to come because i have a whole week off and no travel planned!

Now for the announcement. I was waiting until some more things got finalized, but since folks are beginning to ask about my 2019 events, I'll do the preliminary announcement now. A lovely new convention, MultiverseCon, has invited my wife, Jana Pullman, and me as guests to their inaugural launch! Jana, in addition to being a participating artist at the WisCon Art Show, has done design binding for Shelley's Frankenstein, Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, several Ursula Le Guin-themed projects, Minnesota Center for Books Arts Winter Book projects with science fiction and fantasy authors Will Alexander, Eleanor Arnason and Bryan Thao Worra and a bunch of other things. It is quite rare for a con to invite a queer couple as co-guests - the only other examples that I can think of are headliners like Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner or Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge or writing teams like L.A. Graf, but there may be other folks that I'm forgetting about or am not aware of. So anyway, it will be awesome and you should come to Atlanta 10/18-10/20 and participate in the fun!