The afternoon's mail brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #86, containing my poem "Northern Comfort." I wrote it out of my discoveries of the ghost-ground that has been directly underfoot all my life and longer, from King Philip's War to Pomp's Wall, and this administration and its murderous terror of history. It shares a page and an issue of emptiness with a precisely targeted incantation by Gwynne Garfinkle as well the equally hollowing fiction and poetry of Kris Schokrowsky, Penny Durham, Carsten Cheung, Jennifer Crow, and more. I almost referred to the covert art by John and Flo Stanton, obscured by shattered webs of negative space or the rust-light of abandoned industries. Subscribe! Contribute! Make the right kind of strangeness in this world. I am off to South Station to collect one north-traveling seal.
The Sixth Annual May Trope Mayhem Starts Soon!
What is May Trope Mayhem? It’s Duck Prints Press’s annual multi-fandom/original work creation event! Our creators have shared their favorite tropes, and we’ve picked 31, one per day of May, to make an awesome, fun, diverse list of prompts to inspire your creativity. Come May 1st, we invite everyone to create a ficlet, artwork, gif set, photo montage, or whatever else they feel like, inspired by the trope of the day. We’re open to any fandom or no fandom at all, original characters and old faves, any ship (yes even that one) or no ship or reader inserts or, or, or… If you can imagine it, we’d love to see you create it!
Check out past May Trope Mayhem’s…
- the 2021 May Trope Mayhem list and rules
- the 2022 May Trope Mayhem list and rules
- the 2023 May Trope Mayhem list and rules
- the 2024 May Trope Mayhem list and rules
- the 2025 May Trope Mayhem list and rules
- the AO3 Parent Collection
No changes are being made to the rules for 2026, so you can get the gist by checking out the past challenges.
The 2026 May Trope Mayhem List will be released on April 2 2026. Follow us on the social media of your choice to make sure you don’t miss it!
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duckprintspress Mar. 21st, 2026 10:30 am)
duckprintspress Mar. 21st, 2026 10:30 am)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e0b54hH2JU
Today is World Poetry Day! I celebrated by reading the first three parts (of many) of I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman. If you’ve ever wondered why people describe Whitman as a queer poet… just listen, or you can go read the poem yourself here.
I’d love to hear about your favorite queer poems and poets! Do share!
Here’s the ID and transcription of the part I read aloud for this recording:
(Video ID: a white person with short reddish hair and gold-rimmed glasses sits before a book case and reads a poem aloud. /end ID)
1
I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?
And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?
2
The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
The expression of the face balks account,
But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face,
It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,
It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees, dress does not hide him,
The strong sweet quality he has strikes through the cotton and broadcloth,
To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more,
You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side.
The sprawl and fulness of babes, the bosoms and heads of women, the folds of their dress, their style as we pass in the street, the contour of their shape downwards,
The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through the transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up and rolls silently to and fro in the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boats, the horseman in his saddle,
Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances,
The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-kettles, and their wives waiting,
The female soothing a child, the farmer’s daughter in the garden or cow-yard,
The young fellow hoeing corn, the sleigh-driver driving his six horses through the crowd,
The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sun-down after work,
The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;
The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine muscle through clean-setting trowsers and waist-straps,
The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again, and the listening on the alert,
The natural, perfect, varied attitudes, the bent head, the curv’d neck and the counting;
Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother’s breast with the little child,
Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen, and pause, listen, count.
3
I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
And in them the fathers of sons, and in them the fathers of sons.
This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,
The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes, the richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to see, he was wise also,
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,
They and his daughters loved him, all who saw him loved him,
They did not love him by allowance, they loved him with personal love,
He drank water only, the blood show’d like scarlet through the clear-brown skin of his face,
He was a frequent gunner and fisher, he sail’d his boat himself, he had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joiner, he had fowling-pieces presented to him by men that loved him,
When he went with his five sons and many grand-sons to hunt or fish, you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
You would wish long and long to be with him, you would wish to sit by him in the boat that you and he might touch each other.
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On the way back from the MRI, in accordance with the local observance of the hundred and twelfth birthday of Wendell Corey, I found and talked to a dry stone wall.
How has this month been going? I woke up to spring and didn't even realize. It looks the part: the occasional crocus, a faint fluff of clouds in a harebell sky. Hestia is absorbing the sun-flood from my desk. I will be celebrating the equinox with an MRI. My major accomplishment of yesterday was successfully wresting a permit from the Parking Department. I am filing a request for an intercalary year.
https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7619369329506684190?_r=1&_t=ZP-94qnI54ltjq
(video ID: a white person with short reddish hair and gold-rimmed glasses speaks while sitting in front of a bookcase. /end ID)
Transcript: Question today is – why did you (me) get into doing this specifically? Which is to say, running an indie press focused on publishing the original work of fanfiction authors?
So, when I started doing my own original fiction writing and publishing, I had to learn a huge number of skills to self publish. And it seemed really wasteful and counterproductive to learn all of those skills only for myself and to note share. It’s like every single self-published author has to reinvent the wheel in a lot of ways and that seemed really silly to me.
And the same time, I was getting into writing fanfiction as a sort of tension release and I was meeting all these really awesome, amazing people who, for various reasons, wanted to publish their original fiction, but found that the barriers to doing so were too high. Either they weren’t enough of a jack-of-all-trades to learn the skills, or didn’t want to learn the skills involved in self publishing, or they didn’t want to market, often because of privacy concerns. You know, there’s the idea that, you know, you have to be your own marketing department to publish a book. Well, there’s a lot of reasons people can’t do that, quite aside from not wanting to do it. There are reasons they can’t do it, especially when we’re talking about queer authors and queer fiction.
A lot of people have challenges that make it difficult to stick with a specific schedule and meet deadlines – including me, I have a lot of those challenges. Such as physical disabilities (which I don’t have, but many of the authors I work with do – and artists). Mental disabilities, mental neurodivergence, mental illnesses, like, for me, I have depression. And of course, also, life commitments. Many people are caring for elderly family members, or caring for disabled family members, or caring for children, or doing multiple of those. I know I have two children, and I also – my father also lives with us. So, there’s – you know, the more complicated someone’s life is, it harder it can be to go in a traditional publishing, but that doesn’t mean that our life dreams of publishing original work have gone away. And so I wanted to make this because I’ve met all these amazing, really skilled people, and I wanted to help us all accomplish our dreams. Including my own, which has also always been to be a published author. And, you know – we’re – we’re doing it, and that’s really really exciting.
So if you have any questions for the owner of an indie press, I own Duck Prints Press, queer fiction, queer creators. Everybody was originally a fan creator. Feel free to hit me up with questions! Bye.
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(duckprintspress Mar. 20th, 2026 11:40 am)
duckprintspress Mar. 20th, 2026 11:40 am)
In the Northern Hemisphere, spring is just around the corner: bears awake from their naps, birds return from the long travel, trees regain their leaves…and we’re celebrating Gardening, Nature, and Ecology Books Month (I swear we do not just make these events up for our lists)! We asked our contributors for queer books that focus on nature, whether they’re about living in harmony with it or surviving in the wake of environmental disasters. This resulted in a list of 9 books and one academic article. The contributors to the list are: Shannon, hullosweetpea, Rhosyn Goodfellow, Nina Waters, Rascal Hartley, Puck, and an anonymous contributor.
Toxic Summer by Derek Charm
Best friends Ben and Leo are ready to celebrate the summer after graduation by patrolling the beaches of idyllic seaside town Port Dorian as lifeguards—allowing them to also check out the hottest hunks and snag invites to the best parties, of course. But they arrive to find that a mysterious toxic spill has turned the water unswimmable and littered the shore with rotting fish carcasses. Their jobs become beach cleanup and the hunks are nowhere to be seen—like hermit crabs.
When they save a local historian with suspiciously glowing eyes from the water, and tentacled monsters begin snatching people in the night, Ben and Leo have to team up with the only other teens in town to uncover the cause of the spill, save their new friends and family, and try to get this sexy summer back on track before it’s too late.
Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George
Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity–the Greek god Dionysus–and she’s returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? In this Obie-winning comedy with a twist, Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.
Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger
There’s something unusual about Pamela Isley—the girl who hides behind her bright red hair. The girl who won’t let anyone inside to see what’s lurking behind the curtains. The girl who goes to extreme lengths to care for a few plants. Pamela Isley doesn’t trust other people, especially men. They always want something from her. Something she’s not willing to give.
When cute goth girl Alice Oh comes into Pamela’s life after an accident at the local park, she makes her feel like pulling back the curtains and letting the sunshine in. But there are dark secrets deep within the Isley house. Secrets Pamela’s father has warned must remain hidden. Secrets that could turn deadly and destroy the one person who ever cared about Pamela, or as her mom preferred to call her…Ivy.
Will Pamela open herself up to the possibilities of love, or will she forever be transformed by the thorny vines of revenge?
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir by Iliana Regan
On her family’s farm in rural Indiana, Regan was the beloved youngest in a family with three much older sisters. From a very early age, her relationship with her mother and father was shaped by her childhood identification as a boy. Her father treated her like the son he never had, and together they foraged for mushrooms, berries, herbs, and other wild food in the surrounding countryside—especially her grandfather’s nearby farm, where they also fished in its pond and young Iliana explored the accumulated family treasures stored in its dusty barn. Her father would share stories of his own grandmother, Busia, who’d helped run a family inn while growing up in eastern Europe, from which she imported her own wild legends of her native forests, before settling in Gary, Indiana, and opening Jennie’s Café, a restaurant that fed generations of local steelworkers. He also shared with Iliana a steady supply of sharp knives and—as she got older—guns.
Iliana’s mother had family stories as well—not only of her own years marrying young, raising headstrong girls, and cooking at Jennie’s, but also of her father, Wayne, who spent much of his boyhood hunting with the men of his family in the frozen reaches of rural Canada. The stories from this side of Regan’s family are darker, riven with alcoholism and domestic strife too often expressed in the harm, physical and otherwise, perpetrated by men—harm men do to women and families, and harm men do to the entire landscapes they occupy.
As Regan explores the ancient landscape of Michigan’s boreal forest, her stories of the land, its creatures, and its dazzling profusion of plant and vegetable life are interspersed with her and Anna’s efforts to make a home and a business of an inn that’s suddenly, as of their first full season there in 2020, empty of guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She discovers where the wild blueberry bushes bear tiny fruit, where to gather wood sorrel, and where and when the land’s different mushroom species appear—even as surrounding parcels of land are suddenly and violently decimated by logging crews that obliterate plant life and drive away the area’s birds. Along the way she struggles not only with the threat of COVID, but also with her personal and familial legacies of addiction, violence, fear, and obsession—all while she tries to conceive a child that she and her immune-compromised wife hope to raise in their new home.
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver
Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as “far and away, this country’s best selling poet” by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.
Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver’s work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
World’s End Blue Bird by Anji Seina
After a meteor hits Earth, Tokyo is saved by a powerful sorcerer. Years later, the city ends up split between the haves and have-nots — with the sorcerer’s descendants ruling over them all.
Ray, a handyman from the slums, will take on any job for the right price. One day, he meets Guang, an extraordinarily pretty, secretive, and arrogant man from upper society. After spending a night together, Ray finds himself protecting Guang, which may cause him more trouble than the money is worth…
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.
One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.
But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
They’re going to need to ask it a lot.
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn’t agree, they may need to be saved by force.
But the watershed networks that rose up to save the planet from corporate devastation aren’t ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they reorganized humanity around the hope of keeping the world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they’ve started to heal our wounded planet.
Now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if anyone accepts the aliens’ offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, the future hinges on Judy’s effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.
Queer Theory for Lichens by David Griffiths (academic article)
An article published in The Quarterly Review of Biology in December 2012 ended with the sentence: “We are all lichens.” The article discusses symbiosis in organisms such as lichens as well as in humans, to argue that humans cannot be thought of as individuals by any biological criteria. In this article I follow this argument and offer a brief naturalcultural history of lichens to illustrate their argument and the work of biologist Lynn Margulis on symbiogenesis. Following this, I ask: if we have never been human – if we are all composites like lichens – then what does this mean for sexuality? I argue that lichens and other symbioses can open up a queer ecological perspective that can help counter the privileging of heteronormativity and sexual reproduction, and that this has consequences for both science and society.
Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.
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Hello, all! It's time once again for Thursday Recs!
With Tumblr's recent foibles in mind, this week I'm going to rec![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
newcomers; if you're new to Dreamwidth, or even if you've been here a while, there are lots of friendly people there who are willing to help answer questions and figure things out with you. I personally have posted a lot of (rather Tumblr-centric) tutorials about Dreamwidth there. If you know someone who's interested in learning more about Dreamwidth, it's a good place to point them!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
With Tumblr's recent foibles in mind, this week I'm going to rec
newcomers; if you're new to Dreamwidth, or even if you've been here a while, there are lots of friendly people there who are willing to help answer questions and figure things out with you. I personally have posted a lot of (rather Tumblr-centric) tutorials about Dreamwidth there. If you know someone who's interested in learning more about Dreamwidth, it's a good place to point them!Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
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(sovay Mar. 19th, 2026 01:49 pm)
sovay Mar. 19th, 2026 01:49 pm)I can't believe I dreamed an entire opera whose closing performance by a small local outfit I was all set to attend before it was canceled at the last unavoidable minute. It was a Gian Carlo Menotti from 1948 and had never before received a Boston premiere. I had read its libretto for years because it was full of sand and sea-haunting: No body that presses its mouth to the shore closer than your mouth to mine. No eye that fades into the haze of the sun more fixed than your eye to mine. No ship of a letter that crosses the seas faster than my hand to yours, unless it has foundered, unless it has torn on the black rocks of the heart. It had one of his terse, enigmatic titles, The Visitor. The company that had put it up was called Marmalade and Gold, an allusion whose meaning did not escape the event horizon of waking, and specialized in bare-bones, slightly more than concert performances of oddities or undeserved obscurities of the twentieth-century opera world: I remember perusing the catalogue of previous seasons on their website and approving of their choices, all of which I suspect of not existing outside of the hour or so I was asleep. Erich Wolfgang Korngold did write a bunch of operas, mostly before—very popular choice—leaving Germany, but I do not believe a 1932 Der lahme König was among them. I am having a terrible week for which the external world offers nothing in the way of respite and even if I didn't get to hear any of its music, I appreciate the inside of my head attempting to furnish a break of art.
Remember our list of our most anticipated 2026 releases?
Some of these books are now out, some are not, but regardless – if you’re as excited for any of these titles as we are, and you want to either buy them or pre-order them, I’ve got a deal for you!
Purchase any of these print books through our Affiliate Shop List, use code BSO15 to save 15% off the price!
This deal is ONLY good on print books (not e-books!), applies only to the list price (as in, doesn’t stack with other discounts), and the coupon is good NOW through April 1st 2026 (no foolin’!). You just have to make sure you use our affiliate link and get the book(s) you want through the list!
This is part of a pilot program that Bookshop.org is running to support affiliate shops like ours that utilize their list-building features. I’m pretty curious to see where they’re going with this program, and also am curious to see, like, if any of y’all use the coupon! So check out the books, save a little money, and get your queer read on.
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I slept like garbage and it has given all of today a weird vibe.
Okay, actually today was reasonable decent in the actual day of it all. My classes seemed to go well! Students were doing mostly working at their own paces, but also they were actually doing that! I spent my prep knitting, which is not like 100% most effective work choice, but felt good to be doing and is scads better than playing phone games.
And then we had our geometry team meeting with our department head to review our midterm data and talk about things for the future and I got as close as I ever have to crying in front of my boss. Frustration, mostly. It was normal levels of annoying work bullshit until we got to the point where it was like "maybe next year we have a hard deadline of end of q2 [instead of doing the midterm in q3 like we have the last couple years]". And so I ask "would my [SpEd] inclusion classes be expected to take the exact same midterm?" and boss is all "obvs yes" at which point like.......
...I literally cannot teach the Inclusion classes the exact same curriculum at the exact same pace as the mainstream Geometry classes. We are "only" about a week behind right now, but that's because me and my co-teacher have been extremely thoughtful about what we can cut out of each unit and then doing so. The classes just pace slower in general, compounded by needing to spend more time reviewing algebra skills, compounded by needing to spend more time on classroom management and norm-setting and behavior stuff.
So like. Either I give them a midterm where they do piss because they haven't learned some of the stuff being covered, or I give them a midterm where they all do piss because I've rushed everything so fast they can't actually learn it. "oh but you should have high standards of rigor for your students" _yes that's the problem_. If I didn't give a shit if my kids actually learned the material I could get through this stuff snaps easy.
It's just another step on a whole fuck of bullshit we've been having all year(s). Somehow I will make it work, I'm sure. (but first I must...1).
So the end of my work day had me all verklempt and off-kilter, and unfortunately equity team did not really fix the problem (some weeks it is the best meeting I attend, some weeks it's more focused on the depressing business of dragging the rest of the school kicking and screaming into being anti-racist. The work is always good, but sometimes it's more draining than others.)
Played a bunch of phone games. Did not adequetely prep for tomorrow, by which I mean, did fuck_all_ at the school. Gave up at 6 and came home and did manage to bully myself into a PowerHour which helped. I reread the Adventures of Blue Avenger and did a wee bit more knitting and then ate dinner. Played some Stardew after. Now I'm writing these so I can go off to bed in a maybe-timely manner.
I hope you are well and that tomorrow is better for us all (I always hope this second part). I love you.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: It occurs to me that this essay might actually be worth opening up in the tab next to Good Girls Aren't Here and just having both of them permanent features of my computer. I certainly reference it often enough.
Okay, actually today was reasonable decent in the actual day of it all. My classes seemed to go well! Students were doing mostly working at their own paces, but also they were actually doing that! I spent my prep knitting, which is not like 100% most effective work choice, but felt good to be doing and is scads better than playing phone games.
And then we had our geometry team meeting with our department head to review our midterm data and talk about things for the future and I got as close as I ever have to crying in front of my boss. Frustration, mostly. It was normal levels of annoying work bullshit until we got to the point where it was like "maybe next year we have a hard deadline of end of q2 [instead of doing the midterm in q3 like we have the last couple years]". And so I ask "would my [SpEd] inclusion classes be expected to take the exact same midterm?" and boss is all "obvs yes" at which point like.......
...I literally cannot teach the Inclusion classes the exact same curriculum at the exact same pace as the mainstream Geometry classes. We are "only" about a week behind right now, but that's because me and my co-teacher have been extremely thoughtful about what we can cut out of each unit and then doing so. The classes just pace slower in general, compounded by needing to spend more time reviewing algebra skills, compounded by needing to spend more time on classroom management and norm-setting and behavior stuff.
So like. Either I give them a midterm where they do piss because they haven't learned some of the stuff being covered, or I give them a midterm where they all do piss because I've rushed everything so fast they can't actually learn it. "oh but you should have high standards of rigor for your students" _yes that's the problem_. If I didn't give a shit if my kids actually learned the material I could get through this stuff snaps easy.
It's just another step on a whole fuck of bullshit we've been having all year(s). Somehow I will make it work, I'm sure. (but first I must...1).
So the end of my work day had me all verklempt and off-kilter, and unfortunately equity team did not really fix the problem (some weeks it is the best meeting I attend, some weeks it's more focused on the depressing business of dragging the rest of the school kicking and screaming into being anti-racist. The work is always good, but sometimes it's more draining than others.)
Played a bunch of phone games. Did not adequetely prep for tomorrow, by which I mean, did fuck_all_ at the school. Gave up at 6 and came home and did manage to bully myself into a PowerHour which helped. I reread the Adventures of Blue Avenger and did a wee bit more knitting and then ate dinner. Played some Stardew after. Now I'm writing these so I can go off to bed in a maybe-timely manner.
I hope you are well and that tomorrow is better for us all (I always hope this second part). I love you.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: It occurs to me that this essay might actually be worth opening up in the tab next to Good Girls Aren't Here and just having both of them permanent features of my computer. I certainly reference it often enough.
https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7618609115929103647?_r=1&_t=ZP-94nJH5w7pz4
(Video ID: a white person with short reddish hair in glasses sits in front of a book case and talks. /end ID)
Transcript: So my next question is, what are some misconceptions that people have about publishing in general or about indie publishing that I would like to talk about?
So, I think the big one for me as an indie publisher is this pervasive idea that indie publishing is somehow “less,” that what we publish is worse, which is really nonsense. There’s a ton of reasons to not do traditional publishing or that traditional publishing would not be interested in your work that has nothing to do with a work’s quality.
In the end the Big Five traditional publishers are ginormous corporations primarily interested in Number Go Up. They’ve got investors and traditional stock stuff going on. If they don’t show returns, they don’t succeed. And so they won’t take risks, especially on things that don’t fit neatly into a category, so they frown on indie – uh, sorry – cross genre. They don’t like to takes risks on queer works, as we all know. They don’t like to take chances on new authors, because what if they lose money on that new author? They don’t want people who don’t have existing followings. And so what gets published by the Big Five aren’t the best books. That’s not even what they’re trying to publish. The Big Five are trying to publish the books they think will make the most money. Which is not at all the same as the best books.
And I’m not saying indie publishing is publishing the best books either. Book quality is part of making money, so yes, a lot of what Tradpub publishes are good books, no contesting that. But a lot of what indie presses publish are also good books. They’re just books that don’t fit neatly into the boxes that indie pub – that traditional publishing likes to try to shove everything into. And so this idea that – that indie publishing is somehow “less” quality is not only wrong, it’s just completely unhinged from what the purpose of traditional publishing and indie publishing are.
Indie publishing is a space for people taking different kinds of risks, for people whose works don’t fit neatly into boxes, for works that the Big Five don’t think will make that much money. And that gives us a lot of room to find really amazing, amazing things to publish that wouldn’t see the light of day otherwise. To amplify voices that don’t usually get heard. To take risks and, you know, push outside of boxes. So, yeah, support indie publishing! We’re not “tradpub light.” We’re awesome! And we’re different! We’re trying to do something different and that’s important.
This has been an Indie Press Month Ask Me Anything with Claire. Feel free to drop me any asks you might have in the comments. Bye!
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I went to the library on Monday and borrowed a whole pile of new books when I hadn't finished the old ones, so I buckled down this week after finishing the main story in Don't You Like Me to see if I could clear out some of my physical library loans to make space for the new physical library loans.
1. What are you currently reading?
- Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi: I finished the main story and now I'm working my way through the extras.
- Kase-San and Yamada vol. 4 by Hiromi Takashima
- Les Normaux vol. 2 by Janine Janssen and S. Al Sabado: I was really excited for this one but I'm running into the problem that I don't remember much of what was going on in vol. 1 and so I'm a little lost and as a result I'm procrastinating.
- DMBJ in Chinese: I'm almost a third done!!!
2. What have you recently finished reading?
- The Apothecary Diaries light novel vol. 4 by Natsu Hyuuga: idk I'm inching closer to not reading more. If I didn't already have a hold on vol. 5 I'm not sure I'd bother. I can't even put my finger on my dissatisfaction, and I actually liked this volume better than some of the others, but... idk. It's maybe just not the series for me, even though it feels like it should be.
- Yuri Espoir vol. 1 by Mai Naoi: oh, this is fun. It's modern GL about a girl whose parents have set up a marriage for her, so she wants to get all her lesbianism and yuri expressed before she's forced into this wedding, and so she looks at girls around her and makes up wlw stories about them. Except even tho her stories are always wrong, all the girls she looks at ARE wlw so we get glimpses of their lives. And also her (female) best friend is in love with her. And ALSO there's a (male) teacher of theirs who is in love with the affianced arranged marriage guy. So it's all a delightful mess. I really liked vol. 1.
- Lullaby of the Dawn vol. 6 by Ichika Yuno: worth the wait.
- At the Flower Capital by Rihito Takarai: this turned out to be the historical setting prequel to 3-book modern BL I haven't read. It wasn't world-shattering, and it was very sad, but I liked it enough to go grab the modern BL.
- How Do We Relationship? vol. 3 by Tamifull: was very iffy on this volume, decided to read the back blurbs for upcoming volumes, and based on what they said, I've dropped the series. Please just fuckin' communicate, this is idiotic.
- Sleepless Domain vol. 1 by Oscar Vega and Mary Cagle: an interesting idea for a story (it's a magical girl thing) but it's tagged LGBTQIA+ without any obvious rep (there was maybe a whiff of wlw) and the art quality declined rapidly even just in vol. 1. Also, it's from that Hive-whatever publisher, so I suspect vol. 2 has gotten fucked over in that mess.
- Wrack and Rune by Chris Kappel: I had such high hopes for this modern BL with a white dude and a fat Black guy holding hands on the cover, but oof, it was. not good. Like there were good pieces in it but the actual relationship development was handled so entirely off-screen that it was impossible to buy-in to why these characters were risking so much for each other.
- Only the Flower Knows vol. 1 to 3 by Rihito Takarai: this is the 3-book modern BL that the other was a prequel for. Considering it's from like 2010 it's pretty good, one of the better older BLs I've read.
- Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada: this was a really good mostly historical graphic novel set in Korea. Taught me some Korean history I didn't know, had a great sense of humor, and also had a surprise trans character making it perfect for the first day of the Trans Rights Readathon (which I'm not technically participating in but hey, if I've got stuff with trans characters, no reason not to read 'um now!)
3. What will you read next?
Novels: The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu
Physical Graphic Novels: I still haven't read the last volume of the MDZS manhua, oops. From the library, next is Gaysians by Mike Curato.
Digital Graphic Novels (Libby): Les Normaux vol. 2, which I've already started, is due in six days, so gotta read that. Nothing else is imminent, but my hold on Wild Beast Forest House vol. 3 by Inma R. came through, so probably that, I enjoyed the first two volumes a lot.
For Saint Patrick's Day, I had a foreign body removed from my eye and was immunologically shot in the shoulder. Who needs booze?
(duckprintspress Mar. 17th, 2026 09:58 am)
duckprintspress Mar. 17th, 2026 09:58 am)
March 17th marks the first day of the Trans Rights Readathon. As their carrd explains, “The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st. We are calling on the reader community to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, non-binary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters.”
In the spirit of the Trans Rights Readathon, we wanted to bring your attention to our books that feature trans main characters and/or were written by trans creators. And, we wanted to do something tangible!
Duck Prints Press will donate $50 to the Trevor Project in mid-April to support their crisis intervention and suicide prevention work with queer youth. AND, for every one of the above books you buy from our webpage or itch.io between now and March 31st, we will increase that donation by adding 20% of the net we earn from those sales to the amount we donate!
We hope you’ll consider reading some of our work as part of your Trans Rights Readathon read-a-thoning. Want to know more about them?
Learn about the eligible books!
Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors)
Duck Prints Press presents 22 delightfully fluffy, happy, odd, snug, and cozy stories about queer characters pursuing academic excellence! From field research shenanigans to cooking adventures, from space station education departments to eldritch libraries, creators brought their vivid imaginings to life in these charming fantasy and science fiction stories. Settle into your favorite research carrel or prepare to read on the sly under your desk as you join us for Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories.
Lightbringer by boneturtle (non-binary author)
I’ve never heard this story told outside our village, but my friend, it’s about you as well as us. Your life is also forfeit to the Lightbringer who mended the chaos, and the chaos which breathed the Lightbringer to life.
In a lonely valley where darkness laps at the ragged shore of reality, there rests a village where the people are reborn each time they die. Though they’ve forgotten their past lives, they faithfully maintain their ancient festival to coax the light back whenever the darkness takes hold.
In this village where no one visits, a man named Ashe arrives. Beloved, yet cursed to be forgotten by those he holds most dear, he waits in the ever-growing darkness for someone who may never return. The villagers beg him to give up, to play the part of the Lightbringer and marry someone else.
Then a new stranger arrives, one who may hold the key to breaking this cycle of darkness once and for all.
Scrap Metal Angel by Nicola Kapron (trans man main character)
Reality, tiny and fragile, is cut off from the sea of chaos and nightmares that surrounds it by seven Gates. One of them is open—and has been since the Stone Age. Through that opening, strange creatures and energies slip through. Some are malevolent. None are harmless. And all of them must be kept a secret.
Every hidden magical world needs a shadowy clean-up crew. Adrian Somer is a Gatekeeper, sworn to protect the cosmic Gates, to defend reality from the unknown entities that exist beyond them, and to help those whose lives are affected by magic.
When a grieving sorceress starts punching holes in reality to try and resurrect her murdered fiancé, Adrian must turn to a ghost from his past in order to save the city, and perhaps the world—even if that means digging up someone he thought was safely buried: the twin brother he killed eight years ago.
To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh (trans man main character, trans author)
Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.
The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” (non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors and artists)
With this third installment in our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… anthology series, we set out to explore the truth by which we at Duck Prints Press live: that a classic work without a single canonically queer character must be in want of a very LGBTQIA+ makeover! “A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” with 21 short stories and 20 full-page color artworks, is just that. 38 creators have contributed to this project, drawing inspiration from Pride and Prejudice’s characters and story to create delightful, thoughtful, intriguing, and (of course) very queer fanworks and Pride and Prejudice-inspired original works. For this collection, we encouraged our creators to focus on Sapphic/wlw relationships and/or transgender and genderqueer interpretations for their inspiration, though those are definitely not the only types of queer we’ve fit into this diverse collection.
And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors and artists)
In “And Seek (Not) to Alter Me,” 16 authors and 15 artists have come together to create an exquisite, full-color collection of artwork and stories inspired by William Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothing.” We encouraged contributors to stretch their imaginations, think outside the box, and put their own unique—and queer—twists on Benedick, Beatrice, Hero, Claudio, Don Pedro, and the whole gang! In true Shakespearean fashion, our creators utilize gender, sexuality, romanticism, and a host of costume changes to tell unique artworks and stories—some featuring original characters, some characters from the play—that show Shakespeare’s work in a whole new light.
Add Magic to Taste Second Edition (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors)
For this gorgeous re-issue of Duck Prints Press’s debut anthology “Add Magic to Taste,” 18 authors have come together to produce new, original short stories uniting four of our absolute favorite themes: queer relationships, fluff, magic, and coffee shops! Our diverse writers have created an even more diverse collection of stories guaranteed to sweeten your coffee and warm your tart. This edition also includes the 16 microfics originally written for our Kickstarter extra Mini-Morsels!
Aether Beyond the Binary (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors)
How would Earth look if the very atoms around us were suffused with magical aether? How would our lives be different if this aether was discovered last year, or last century, or last millennia? How might the people who lived with this magic explore their gender identities? These are the questions we posed to the 17 authors who contributed to “Aether Beyond the Binary.” Their inventive answers comprise this must-not-miss collection about magical realms, adventures and mysteries, new chances and well-earned endings, and characters as gender-diverse as the worlds they inhabit.
Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors)
For those who love their short stories spicy, welcome to Duck Prints Press’s debut explicit anthology. In this collection of brand-new stories, we celebrate many flavors of polyamory. Orgy? Yes please! Ménage à trois? C’est magnifique! Foursomes and moresomes? Delighted to attend! We asked our 15 contributors to blow our minds with their fun combinations, unusual settings, favorite trope usage, and (of course) super sexy smut—and they didn’t disappoint. From a vampire free-for-all to a heartfelt reunion, from surprise soulmates to enemies-to-lovers, this collection has polyamory in lots of scrumptious varieties that lovers of erotica won’t want to miss!
Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors and artists)
“Aim For The Heart” features 20 stories, each up to 5,000 words long, 19 full-page art pieces rendered in black-and-white or grayscale, and a 12-page comic. Our contributors have delved into their imaginations and the intricacies of Dumas’s novels to tell new stories and create new images. They take us from the depths of deep space to the streets of 17th century France to the modern day, with a healthy dose of fluff and feels along the way. Every creator has shared their vision of these beloved characters, some with fanfiction and fanart, others with original pieces, and all with a heaping dose of inspiration.
She Wears the Midnight Crown (trans and non-binary characters, trans and non-binary authors)
“She Wears the Midnight Crown” is one of our two paired masquerade-themed anthologies. It features 17 stories exploring wlw relationships developing, growing, and changing while the characters attend or participate in masquerades!
Our contributors stretched their imaginations to present innovative stories exploring what a masquerade can be…and, of course, tell rich, engaging tales of wonderful queer folk finding love, companionship, acceptance, the queer platonic relationship of their dreams, or the found family they deserve. The collected works feature characters in all the colors of the Pride rainbow, queer and genderqueer, and these diverse individuals inhabit worlds ranging from science fiction settings where everyone must be masked to breathe, to fantasies where no one wears a literal mask but everyone shows the world a false guise, to iterations of the real world where some people lean into deception.
“He Bears the Cape of Stars” is the companion to this anthology, featuring 17 mlmstories.
He Bears the Cape of Stars (trans characters, trans and non-binary authors)
“He Bears the Cape of Stars” is one of our two paired masquerade-themed anthologies. It features 17 stories exploring mlm relationships developing, growing, and changing while the characters attend or participate in masquerades!
Our contributors stretched their imaginations to present innovative stories exploring what a masquerade can be…and, of course, tell rich, engaging tales of wonderful queer folk finding love, companionship, acceptance, the queer platonic relationship of their dreams, or the found family they deserve. The collected works feature characters in all the colors of the Pride rainbow, queer and genderqueer, and these diverse individuals inhabit worlds ranging from science fiction settings where everyone must be masked to breathe, to fantasies where no one wears a literal mask but everyone shows the world a false guise, to iterations of the real world where some people lean into deception.
“She Wears the Midnight Crown” is the companion to this anthology, featuring 17 wlw stories.
Note: only books purchased from duckprintspress.com and itch.io will count toward the donation!
In mid-April, I will post an accountability update with our total donation amount and proof of donation! (Same as I’ve done for our Pride Bundles every year.)
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(sorcyress Mar. 16th, 2026 11:29 pm)
sorcyress Mar. 16th, 2026 11:29 pm)wriiiiite the words
I am very tired and don't wanna write the words.
Work today was pretty good but also hella unsatisfying because there was Serious Bullshit with classroom assignments and needing to last-minute move the classroom. I had like......fifteen minutes of warning in order to pack up my everything I would need for class five and move down to a computer lab. It was awfullllll and I'm not happy about it. Blah.
But focusing on the good stuff...uh....the kids seem to grok the Pythagorean Theorem? That's nice. Tomorrow we're moving into our special rights triangles and it's not totally rubbish as a lesson --we did good work last year! I had a good long talk with my mentee last week about his future (and need to send some networking emails on their behalf). Even though the kids are being forced into super dysregulating situations, they were mostly fine?
And yesterday I got a bunch of things done and also had a nice evening with a friend/comet. I didn't sleep enough, but that's Unfortunately Normal, and at least all my sleep hours were in a bed with the lights off, which is Unfortunately Abnormal right now. I'm working on it?
Went to demo team on Sunday, which was fine, and then dance tonight which was...like...it was pretty decent, both Keira and Beth pick good dances and stuff. But for one of them I was dancing on the larks side with my buddy DJ on the Robin's side. And one of the other dancers made some comment about how we had "switched sides just to confuse her". Which like. Fuck off. Fuck off fuck off fuck offfffff.
I understand that I need to be gracious and kind and help people slowly understand in a non-threatening way but also fuck offff. I know I don't pass. I know I will never pass. I know you don't see me as anything as a woman. But you're wrong and you will never know how absolutely hurtful it is to be told that there is an obvious gender box you think I should be in and therefore if I'm on the lark's side it's "wrong".
It was intermission after, so I didn't have to dissociate for that long, and I could go and sit with my knitting and talk to all the various people who came and sat by me and then Sharon asked me to dance. But it still feels bad. I appreciate that the teachers here are trying to normalize larks and robins1. But the class does not actually get it, and as long as the dancers as a whole are just treating this as "weird names for men and women" nothing is actually going to change.
There's no wrong side to dance on. There is especially no wrong side for me, a nonbinary person to dance on. There is especially no wrong side for anyone to dance on when the role terms are Lark and Robin and have nothing the fuck to do with anyone's gender.
Oh hey, I figured out why I am so tired and draggy and don't wanna write the words. :/
Anyways, I will continue to quietly dance when and where I can with people who are willing to ignore conventions based on what genitals a doctor thought you had when you were born and instead take into consideration, like, who's taller if the dance has an allemande in it. And even that is negotiable.
I'm gonna snuggle Austin and go to bed.
~Sor (they/them)
MOOP!
1: (I am _genuinely thrilled_ that Beth is restating the terms every evening, and also that she is doing a much-better-than-average job of not using gendered pronouns with ungendered role names. Unfortunately, better-than-average means "occasionally says "their partner" instead of "her partner"" but baby steps!)
I am very tired and don't wanna write the words.
Work today was pretty good but also hella unsatisfying because there was Serious Bullshit with classroom assignments and needing to last-minute move the classroom. I had like......fifteen minutes of warning in order to pack up my everything I would need for class five and move down to a computer lab. It was awfullllll and I'm not happy about it. Blah.
But focusing on the good stuff...uh....the kids seem to grok the Pythagorean Theorem? That's nice. Tomorrow we're moving into our special rights triangles and it's not totally rubbish as a lesson --we did good work last year! I had a good long talk with my mentee last week about his future (and need to send some networking emails on their behalf). Even though the kids are being forced into super dysregulating situations, they were mostly fine?
And yesterday I got a bunch of things done and also had a nice evening with a friend/comet. I didn't sleep enough, but that's Unfortunately Normal, and at least all my sleep hours were in a bed with the lights off, which is Unfortunately Abnormal right now. I'm working on it?
Went to demo team on Sunday, which was fine, and then dance tonight which was...like...it was pretty decent, both Keira and Beth pick good dances and stuff. But for one of them I was dancing on the larks side with my buddy DJ on the Robin's side. And one of the other dancers made some comment about how we had "switched sides just to confuse her". Which like. Fuck off. Fuck off fuck off fuck offfffff.
I understand that I need to be gracious and kind and help people slowly understand in a non-threatening way but also fuck offff. I know I don't pass. I know I will never pass. I know you don't see me as anything as a woman. But you're wrong and you will never know how absolutely hurtful it is to be told that there is an obvious gender box you think I should be in and therefore if I'm on the lark's side it's "wrong".
It was intermission after, so I didn't have to dissociate for that long, and I could go and sit with my knitting and talk to all the various people who came and sat by me and then Sharon asked me to dance. But it still feels bad. I appreciate that the teachers here are trying to normalize larks and robins1. But the class does not actually get it, and as long as the dancers as a whole are just treating this as "weird names for men and women" nothing is actually going to change.
There's no wrong side to dance on. There is especially no wrong side for me, a nonbinary person to dance on. There is especially no wrong side for anyone to dance on when the role terms are Lark and Robin and have nothing the fuck to do with anyone's gender.
Oh hey, I figured out why I am so tired and draggy and don't wanna write the words. :/
Anyways, I will continue to quietly dance when and where I can with people who are willing to ignore conventions based on what genitals a doctor thought you had when you were born and instead take into consideration, like, who's taller if the dance has an allemande in it. And even that is negotiable.
I'm gonna snuggle Austin and go to bed.
~Sor (they/them)
MOOP!
1: (I am _genuinely thrilled_ that Beth is restating the terms every evening, and also that she is doing a much-better-than-average job of not using gendered pronouns with ungendered role names. Unfortunately, better-than-average means "occasionally says "their partner" instead of "her partner"" but baby steps!)
(duckprintspress Mar. 16th, 2026 10:01 am)
duckprintspress Mar. 16th, 2026 10:01 am)
This Sunday, A Big Gay Market is back in 2026 and back in Troy at the Mount Ida Preservation Hall from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. I’ll be among more than 30 vendors there with our awesome wares (vendor list here!). I hope you’ll come say hi if you’re in the area.
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We're bad at everything. Let's write down the things we've done today:
***
I wrote all of the above earlier. I've since finished all the laundry --it appears that the shirts no longer smell, so success-- and gone to demo team and hung out with Maia some, so all of that is quite good.
I couldn't maintain GOGOGO the entire day, but also like, I shouldn't have to? I shouldn't in general? It is important to do mindless fuckoff stuff as well as Srs Useful Stuff? Yeah.
I hope you are well. <3
~Sor
MOOP!
- Brushed hair
- Braided hair
- Ate Breakfast, also caught up on comics and even read a bit of Dreamwidth finally (I miss y'all, it's another symptom of the same Problem that is my brain right now.)
- Unloaded dishwasher, reloaded dishwasher
- Brought the load of laundry that's been in the dryer for three days upstairs finally (thanks Rey for basketing it, sorry to have left it)
- Brought a bunch of laundry downstairs, started it (load two is just in the washer now, and load one in the dryer)
- Switched my stuffies from their hamper into a steralite bin, eventually this will turn into like...one of those ottomans that opens up and you can store blankets (or stuffed animals) in but then it has a surface instead of being an amorphous blob sticking out of the top of a hamper, bonus, was able to use the hamper for my spare quilts/heavy blankets, double bonus, went through the stuffies a little and have some I can maybe give away.
- Folded most of the laundry from that old load, while putting it away, successfully went through underwear drawer and pulled out the "good enough to keep but I'm not going to wear it regularly" stuff to put in the "save for Pinewoods" box
(At Pinewoods I would like to have approximately three pairs of underwear a day. If I do something absolutely batshit crazy this year, that will change, but I want to have the option to be able to wear clean underwear always.) - Also socks, pulled out a handful of pairs I don't like so I stop wearing them by accident and being all :/ about it, also pulled out all the pairs that I know have big holes (they're currently due for the trash, but I may put some into my scraps bag instead)
- Got stuck in a serious yak shaving rabbit hole but I think I have finally managed to put the additional music I wanted onto my phone, and also I have taken off last year's photos, which is important because now my phone should run smoother? Anyways, that took forever but now I can listen to music while I do additional chores? Seems fake. I'm into it!
- I also reset the "accessories" boxen, which technically go with socks --long stockings, tights, kilt hose and accessories, suspenders and belts, scarves/pashminas. It's been a while, so that was good.
- I'm now sitting down to eat lunch. Laundry load two is on my bed upstairs to put away, load three is in the dryer, four in the washer. (I'm aiming for like...six? It wouldn't be so high, but a) I have been slipping on the "own more than one set of sheets so that you don't get trapped with an unmade bed by having all your sheets dirty at once" and so I need to catch up there *and* there's been some sort of funky smell in my t-shirts boxen for a couple months and I'm not sure what's up with that, but I think step one is probably just wash _all_ my t-shirts.
On the plus side, that latter problem doesn't seem to be anywhere in my dresser except my shirts, so that's a good sign? I guess? I mean, mostly it just means there's probably not, like, a dead mouse behind my dresser or something (a thing I would not be able to rationally deal with)).
***
I wrote all of the above earlier. I've since finished all the laundry --it appears that the shirts no longer smell, so success-- and gone to demo team and hung out with Maia some, so all of that is quite good.
I couldn't maintain GOGOGO the entire day, but also like, I shouldn't have to? I shouldn't in general? It is important to do mindless fuckoff stuff as well as Srs Useful Stuff? Yeah.
I hope you are well. <3
~Sor
MOOP!
(sovay Mar. 15th, 2026 04:27 pm)
sovay Mar. 15th, 2026 04:27 pm)The wall-to-wall crowd of the memorial from which I have just returned testifies to the love poured out and returned by the guest of honor, but I would still rather have been in the worldline where they were present to be celebrated in more than memory.
https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7617502272712494366?_r=1&_t=ZP-94iEydNlINj
(video ID: a video of a white person with short hair and glasses sitting in front of a bookcase, talking. /end ID)
Transcript: My next question is what about being an indie press is the most rewarding?
The people. Yeah, hands down. I mean, I’m an introvert, I sometimes find all of the peopling involved in this job to be rather exhausting, but the community of authors and artists with whom we work is amazing and helps keep me going every single day. The community of people who I’ve met who are doing similar things, whether they’re other indie press people or self-published authors, and how hard we all work and how much we all want to lift each other up – it’s not a competition, it’s “how do we grow the pie for everybody.” And the readers and even just the supportive non-customers, just everybody, like, you know, “I don’t have any money, but what you’re doing is really cool.” Or, “this isn’t the one I’m interested in but I can’t wait to see what else you do.” And of course, the people who are like, “I read the book and it’s awesome” or “this piece of art is amazing, I need the sticker. Obviously, you know, every version of that is the best part.
I do this for the people. I do this because I wanted to be a writer but I didn’t want to do it alone. And, I don’t have to it alone and that’s really great. Thank you, everyone. You make this awesome every day.
I’m Claire. I’m doing an Ask Me Anything. Uhhh…hit me up if you’ve got anything you wanna ask me! Bye!
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