13 Queer Supers Stories for Superhero Day!

Apr. 28th, 2026 10:55 am
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A graphic of a red superhero cape, text on a blue shout bubble, and three book covers on the background of a rainbow gradient. The text reads: Queer Superhero Books We Love. The books are: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots; Nycticorax by S. J. Ralston; Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin.

Ten book covers on the background of a rainbow gradient. The books are: Midnighter and Apollo by Steve Orlando; Magical Girl Incident by Zero Akabane; Sonic Boom of My Heart by Linnea Peterson; Superman: Son of Kal-El by Tom Taylor; Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy; Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger; #QueerBoriNegra by Gabby Rivera in Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuilding Puerto Rico; Dreadnought by April Daniels; Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee; Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

Happy Superhero Day!! We love a good caped (or uncaped) crusader, and so we present a list of our favorite superhero stories. Reminder, though, that the line between a hero and a villain is thin, and that a magical girl is a flavor of superhero, right? The contributors to the list are: Sebastian Marie, Rascal Hartley, Linnea Peterson, Cedar, Tryan A Bex, Nina Waters, S. J. Ralston, Puck, Mikki Madison, Annabeth Lynch.

Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf, on this Pagebound.co list, or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.

Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat books, fandom, and more!



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This Sunday: The MADE Market on Jay Street, Schenectady!

Apr. 27th, 2026 03:15 pm
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A circular logo with clipart of a pair of scissors, a pencil, a paintbrush, and a palette knife in the center. Text reads M.A.D.E. Market Jay St. Makers, Artists, Designers, Etc.

Every Sunday in Schenectady, the M.A.D.E. Market (featuring Makers, Artists, Designers, Etc.!) sets up on Jay Street while the Greenmarket runs around City Hall. This week, Sunday, May 3rd, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., I’ll be joining this market for the first time! I’m really excited to be vending so close to home, and having our books debut on Jay Street.

I hope to see some of y’all there!

Learn more about the Schenectady Greenmarket and the M.A.D.E. Market!

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Celebrate Indie Bookstore Day!

Apr. 25th, 2026 10:07 am
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HAPPY INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY!

Have you been eying any of our booklist books and thinking, “I need to get me one of those?” Well, Bookshop.org is offering free shipping all weekend. If you buy through our affiliate, we even get a percentage, but whether you do or don’t, you can support independent bookstores and queer authors and queer stories by shopping Bookshop.org this weekend. You can even get our books (though honestly the best way to get those is always through our webstore).

Check out the Duck Prints Press affiliate shop on Bookshop.org, and get your queer books sans shipping all weekend – April 25th and 26th!

A graphic with text that reads "Celebrate Indie Bookstore Day! with with Free Shipping!"
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Lesbian Visibility Week MEGA itch.io Bundle!

Apr. 22nd, 2026 11:39 am
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A pink background decorated with rainbows and dashed lines in the colors of the lesbian pride flag. The text reads, “Lesbian Visibility Week Bundle; 94 sapphic & lesbian books for $40 USD; 4/20 - 4/26; exclusively on Itch.io”

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! Three Duck Prints Press titles – Moongatherer by Willa Blythe, Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley, and the anthology She Wears the Midnight Crown – are part of this awesome bundle of an awesome 94 sapphic and lesbian books for only $40!!

SAPPHIC E-BOOKS! GET YER DISCOUNTED SAPPHIC E-BOOKS NOW ONLY ON itch.io!


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A Big Gay Market: This Sunday (April 26) in Washington Park!

Apr. 22nd, 2026 11:15 am
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A flier-esque graphic entitled A Big Gay Market. Below this is the Duck Prints Press logo, and another circle beside that has text that reads "I'm a vendor!" Additional text reads, Next Market Sunday April 26th, Rain Date Sunday May 3rd, Washington Park Knox St. Mall Albany NY 11 am - 4 pm. At the bottom are a couple QR codes next to "learn more" text, the url www.abiggaymarket.com, and logos for "our beneficiaries" (unirondack and queer youth advocacy retreat) and current sponsors (gabriella romero, Deirdre Brodie, the flour bender, and In Our Own Voices/IOVO.)

Spring has sprung, which means it’s time to get back outside and enjoy some sunshine, pleasant temperatures, fresh flowers, and of course the first A Big Gay Market in Washington Park of 2026! The forecast is promising sunny skies and mild temperatures, and there are gonna be almost 100 vendors around the Knox Street Mall, plus a community area, kids tent, wellness section, and even live music! I’ll be there, of course, and I’ll have both our most recent projects (before they become available on our website) – Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling and Into the Split by Tris Lawrence, along with leftover merch from both campaigns and some other not-yet-released merch. I’ll have some new deals, too, so I hope you’ll come say hi.

Check out the vendor list, schedule, and more on the A Big Gay Market website! See ya there!

 



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WWW Wednesday

Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:43 am
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1. What are you currently reading?

  • Chicago Manual of Style 18th Ed.: I'm participating in an online conference this week, and one aspect of it was setting a personal goal, and so I opted for this one, which I've been procrastinating. I wanted to really dig in and read the parts related to the work I do, cause if there's stuff I'm doing wrong that I think I'm doing right, I won't think to check it normally. So far, I'm still in the "how to format and publish things" sections and feeling pretty validated lmao. (it's over 1100 pages long, I've read most of the first 100, only skipping some parts about journal formatting that is irrelevant to me.)
  • 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: pick, pick, picking away

2. What have you recently finished reading?

  • Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell: I was absolutely adoring this until the last 100 pages or so, when things went off the rails for me. Oh well. It was still a decent book.
  • Kisses That Taste Like Lies vol. 1 - 3 by Waka Sagami: this has absolutely terrible reviews on Storygraph and I have no idea why, I think it's a pretty good toxic yaoi con man x his mark, and much less toxic than it could be considering how quickly the mark finds out and how thoroughly the mark decides he doesn't care and wants whatever he can get.
  • Pizza Witch by Stef Purenins and Sarah Graley: this was very cute but would have been better if there'd been any indication before the last page that it's not the entire story.
  • Yuri Espoir vol. 3 by Mai Naoi: some of the vibes related to her forced fiance trouble me, but then, she's the main character, not him, so I guess it can't be helped.
  • A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation manga vol. 6 by Misaki: this vol felt more episodic than the others have, which made it less interesting to me, but I'm still enjoying it overall and it still screams BL off the page despite all being technically platonics.
  • That Time I Got Recinarnated as a Slime manga vol. 12 by Taiki Kawakami: oh, I don't remember THAT happening in the anime. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention??? I should go back and check lmao.

For work, I also finished a read-through of my own novel, A Glimmer of Hope, that I started in January. With it cleaned up, we can move on to re-issuing it. I sold a few copies during our most recent Kickstarter so getting the new version done became a pretty high priority. 

3. What will you read next?

Novels: Dawning by Ice, a modern danmei in three volumes. I'd have started already if not for the CMoS reading this week.

Physical Graphic Novels (from the library): Lovely Recipe by Myra Rose Nino is next on my pile.

E-Book Graphic Novels (from Libby): Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 4 by Tsumiji Yoshimura and Yona of the Dawn vol. 29 by Mizuho Kusanagi are both due before next Wednesday, and Gachiakuta vol. 4 by Kei Urana and Hideyoshi Ando is due in 8 days, so I expect to read those this week, but tbh I'll probably read Witch Hat Aterlier vol. 14 by Kamome Shirahama first because I'm just so excited to have finally gotten my hands on it, lol.


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For Want of a Title

Apr. 21st, 2026 09:50 am
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A guest blog post by Shea Sullivan!

Titling is hard. You might think that the goal of the title is to get people to read the story, and that’s almost right! But, more importantly, you want the title to pull in the people who want your story, specifically. They’re definitely out there, but they have a lot to choose from. Titling will help them connect to your story. There’s a lot to consider, but let’s break it down!

What people should derive from your title:

  • a sense of what the story is about;
  • the style of the writing;
  • the overall tone and genre of the piece; and
  • curiosity.

Get More Bang for Your Character Count

Sometimes, you can use a well-known phrase to do some extra work. See, for example, the title of this post: For Want of a Title.

You probably have some familiarity with the phrase “For want of a nail (the kingdom was lost).” So you’re in on the joke, we already have a connection, a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you get it! And then, on top of that, you might also get a sense that this is a Big Deal. Because losing a kingdom is a pretty major thing, when the start of it all was just a nail. And so, this title says (without saying) that a bad title can also lose you a kingdom (a reader, a following… something big and important). So, I didn’t have to say, “Without the right title, you might not get readers even if your story is the most perfect thing in the world.” If you know the original saying, you already got that idea.

You can do this with sayings, with tropes, with metaphors—use what the reader likely already knows to give them more information and to entice them to keep reading.

Theme and Metaphor

Some stories have strong themes or repeated imagery in them. For example, a theme of growing up and learning that what you want isn’t actually what you need. Or, repeated imagery of a pool of water, where the state of the water changes based on the mood of the main character: it might be clear and still, or cloudy or turbulent, or flooding over. Maybe you planned your themes and repeated imagery carefully, or maybe your beta readers noticed them. Sometimes a house is not just a house, but a representation of standing in a community, or of wealth, or of responsibility.

If you have a continuous thread that winds through your story, as identified by you or your readers, you can use that to create a title.

What is the thread? You can use any level of that to bring people in. Take the water example above. In the story, there is a pond that is returned to over time. You can make the title about the water, about the changes, about the passage of time or the emotional upheaval. You can use water imagery that isn’t in your story but still shares the types of feelings you want to evoke in the reader, such as something about tides, or seasons, or water lilies. Any title choice will carry with it some sort of feeling. You can use that to bring your readers’ expectations closer to your story. For example:

  • The Seasons of Water: indicates a passage of time, a degree of epicness.
  • Waterlogged: open-ended, this could be funny or dark or a series of vignettes.
  • Beneath the Still Surface: a sense of oppression and seriousness.
  • Five Times Bittle Pond Overflowed: a lighter writing style, maybe slice of life.

Water, Water, Everywhere: a line from a poem! Most people know “not a drop to drink” comes after, so it will say, without further explanation, that this is about a person who seems to have it all but is actually overwhelmed by the need for something they are not allowed to have.

It’s a good exercise to write down a bunch of potential titles and see what they might say about a story without any more context.

Lead… Do Not Mislead

Sometimes, we think so much about writing a captivating title, we forget that the point of the title is to appeal to the same people who will want to read the story.

The general tone of your title should match the tone of the story. Whether your story is body horror, humor, epic fantasy, the title should reflect that in some way. While, of course, a title can be interpreted many ways, and will be helped along by any graphics, summary, blurb, etc, that accompanies it, you do not want to mislead a reader into thinking the story is something it isn’t. Doing so tends to irritate people and can lead to bad reviews or lost opportunities. Not every reader is your reader.

Don’t put a knock, knock joke on the cover if the story isn’t funny, and don’t model your story title on a standard format (The Character Title of Things and Stuff) in any serious way if you’re not at least in the ballpark of the genre. Of course, you can play with that a bit, but doing so should be intentional, and your goal should be clear: who do I want to bring in, and will this do it? Will they understand what I’m offering them?

In the End

Titling can be really fun. It’s another way of writing that can seduce your readers into checking out what may become their new favorite story. Be willing to play around with a lot of options and keep your reader in mind. You can even run titles past friends who have no knowledge of the story and have them describe what they think the story will be about based on the title!

Ultimately, I hope that titling can be fun and creative, rather than a dreaded thing to tack on to a project after you’ve done all the hard work of writing it. You’re a writer! You can also be a titler!

TL;DR

  • Use the repeating elements of your story to inspire your title.
  • Evoke the tone of your story in the title.
  • Use poetry, lyrics, sayings, etc, that already exist to extend your meaning (with awareness of public domain and fair use concerns!).
  • Try a lot of different titles.
  • Bounce ideas off friends.
  • Have fun!

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33 Books with Lesbian Protagonists for Lesbian Visibility Week!

Apr. 20th, 2026 11:03 am
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Graphic 1 of 4. A decoration of pink and orange leaves and text on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The text reads: Our Favorite Lesbian Books for Lesbian Visibility Day.
Graphic 2 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Breaking Character by Lee Winter; Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang; The Girl from the Sea by Lee Knox Ostertag; But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo; Kase-San and Morning Glories by Hiromi Takashima; The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite; Goodbye, My Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco; A Master of Djinn by P. Djl Clark; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab; Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott; Matrix by Lauren Groff.
Graphic 3 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone; The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson; One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston; The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu; Spent by Alison Bechdel; Alter Ego by Ana C. Snchez; Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir; She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine; All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny; The Unbroken by C.L. Clark.
Graphic 4 of 4. Eleven book covers and a decoration of pink and orange leaves on the orange-white-pink gradient of a lesbian pride flag. The books are: Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin; Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan; Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle; The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite; Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley; Burning Roses by S.L. Huang; Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas; Yuri Espoir by Mai Naoi; Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo; Proper English by KJ Charles; Skullrunner by Vyvre Argent.

HAPPY LESBIAN VISIBILITY WEEK! We asked our rec list recommenders for books starring lesbian characters, and boy did they deliver! With these books added in, we’ve now recommended over 100 books with lesbian main characters over the past few years (links to those full lists are at the end of the post). The contributors to the list are: Ivy L. James, Tryan A Bex, Shea Sullivan, jumblejen, Evangeline Giaconia, Shannon, Rascal Hartley, Shadaras, Sebastian Marie, Dei Walker, Mikki Madison, Puck, Nina Waters, E. C., and Linnea Peterson.

Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf, grab our Pagebound.co list, or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.

Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat books, fandom, and more!


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Meet the Contributors to “Wild and Full of Marvels”

Apr. 18th, 2026 10:59 am
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Our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, will be crowdfunding in May. You can follow the pre-launch page on Kickstarter here.

And now, we’re pleased to introduce the contributors to this awesome collection!

Artists:

Authors:

Follow us on the social media platform of your choice for more updates about this project (including the reveal of the gorgeous cover!) and become a follower of our Kickstarter pre-launch page to make sure you hear when the project goes live!


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Happy Haiku Day!

Apr. 17th, 2026 09:37 am
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writing haiku is
fun so we asked writers to
make them re: our books!

Graphics 1 of 13. Text and a haiku on a light blue background with a light gray decorative circle and a graphic of a red heart. The text on top reads: Haiku Poetry Day. The haiku reads: “Oh hell yes my dude,” Said the authors with delight. “We all love haikus!” — Lucy K.R.

“Oh hell yes my dude,”

Said the authors with delight.

“We all love haikus!”

— Lucy K.R.

Duck Prints Press is home

Queer writers, queer artists play

Joy and fun for all

— Sage Mooreland

Scholarly Pursuits:

cozy academia

à la Duck Prints Press

— Tryan A Bex

Many-colored press,

padded thwack of ducks printing.

More queerness, more joy.

— Lucy K.R.

with the enemy

stuck homoerotically

om nom nom nom nom

— polls

Queer joy comes in so

Many forms, and right here you

Will find all of them

— Rascal Hartley

See, it’s all a code,

A set of rainbow duck prints.

They read: welcome home.

— Rascal Hartley

Masquerade! Paper

Pages under eager hands

Revealing queer love.

— Shadaras

Every story

of excellent quality—

there were no duds here.

— Tryan A Bex

Queer stories set in

fantasy libraries and

universities

— Tryan A Bex

I love writing for

Duck Prints Press but sometimes I

go over the word count like just a bit

— Rascal Hartley

the problem cleric:

why must Lilya deal with her?

well, at least she’s cute

— Dei Walker

I procrastinat-

ed writing this and now it

is not very good

— Nina Waters
 

Join the fun – write us a haiku about one of your favorite books (one of our publications or otherwise)!

Learn more about Haiku day!


 


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Queer Artists and Artworks We Love for World Art Day

Apr. 15th, 2026 11:00 am
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Four decorative golden frames on a light blue wall. In the middle frame, on a rainbow background there's a text that reads Queer Art We Love for World Art Day. Another frame shows Frida Kahlo's painting "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird". Two other frames show colorful abstract art.

Happy World Art Day! Our rec lists tend to be a bit book-centric, so we thought this’d be a great chance to share some artists and artworks we love. Note that because we don’t intentionally assemble these lists – they’re simply based on what our reccers choose to suggest – they can end up unbalanced. We’re aware this list skewed toward male artists as a result. We encourage you to find more artists, such as from this List of LGBTQ artists on Wikipedia. The contributors to the list are: Rascal Hartley, Shannon, Nina Waters, Evangeline Giaconia, Shea Sullivan, Lucy K.R., Neo Scarlett, and theirprofoundbond.

We have made the intentional choice not to include artworks that aren’t in the public domain as images on this post. We strongly encourage you to follow the links to view the works!

Electric Fan (Feel It Motherfuckers): Only Unclaimed Item from the Stephen Earabino Estate by John S. Boskovich

“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) by Félix González-Torres

Two Men Dancing by Robert Mapplethorpe

Study for I Am in the Air You Breathe by Kent Monkman

Compositional Study for They Walk Softly on This Earth by Kent Monkman

They Knew Everything They Needed to Live by Kent Monkman

Sir Michael Gambon in Rehearsal by Maggi Hambling

True Westerners for One Strange Hour by Yowshien Kuo

National Coming Out Day by Keith Haring

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo

Interwoven Socks by J. C. Leyendecker

Works of Anthony Hurd

Letterpress works by E. “Oscar” Maynard & Tender-Heart Press

Who are your favorite queer artists?


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WWW Wednesday

Apr. 15th, 2026 09:44 am
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I had, for me, a relatively light reading week. Mostly because of a dumb game on my phone I've been playing a lot, and because sick!brain has been struggling to focus on words.

1. What are you currently reading?

only my continuing, slow plod through 盗墓笔记 vol. 2. I'm almost halfway!

2. What have you recently finished reading?

  • I had an extremely rare (for me) DNF - I think the first DNF since I started doing these weekly check-ins. It was Apothecary Diaries vol. 5 by Natsu Hyuuga. I was struggling to maintain my interest anyway, and then the last chapter I read was just so unpleasant that I decided no future chapter would possibly be engaging enough to make up for it, and I put it down, returned it to the library, and I'm done. I've tried so hard to enjoy this series, and to figure out why everyone else seems to like it so much, but I'm just baffled. It's not for me. Oh well. That was last night so I haven't started a new novel yet.
  • The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu: it kinda picked up the last 100 pages? And then the pacing fell off a cliff the last ten pages. Oh well. That sure was a book.
  • Yona of the Dawn vol. 28 by Mizuho Kusanagi
  • Daybreak vol. 2 by Moosopp: this was exactly as fluffy, sweet, and lowstakes as I'd hoped it would be.
  • A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation manga vol. 5 by Misaki: yeah I love them.
  • Yellow omnibus vol. 1 and 2 by Makoto Tateno: holy early oughts yaoi tropes batman.
  • Dan of Green Gables by Rey Terceiro: speaking of pacing in the end of things fall off a cliff, what a terrible last few pages of an otherwise good book.
  • Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 3 by Tsumiji Yoshimura
  • Kaiju No. 8 vol. 15 by Naoya Matsumoto: KAIJU ORIGIN STORY WUT??? This volume was so good omg. I want the next right now

3. What will you be reading next?

Novels: Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Physical graphic novels from the library: Pizza Witch by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins

E-Book graphics novels via Libby: nothing I have is due in the next 7 days so idk, whatever I feel like I guess.


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Ducks in a Row: Final 24 Hours!

Apr. 13th, 2026 12:31 pm
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A huge, HUGE thank you to everyone yesterday who helped spread the word about our campaign to fund publishing our next two anthologies: Ducks in a Row: A Curated Collection of Stories and Duxxx in a Row: A Curated Collection of Explicit Stories. With your help (and of course the awesome support of the people who decided to buy one or more of the books!) we’ve reached our base funding goal!

Our campaign will officially end, successfully, tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern time, but we’ll be open for late pledges for at least a couple weeks, so even if you miss the deadline, you won’t miss the books!

Check out our Kickstarter to get two anthologies with over 40 stories, and some fun merch too!



A banner with text that reads Ducks in a Row | Duxxx in a Row, Curated Collections of Queer Stories. Beside this are two mock-ups of books, their cover titles matching the text. Duxxx shows art of a line of people sunning themselves on the beach while reading, and Ducks shows a group of people cuddling in a pillowfort while one of them reads aloud. There's a "Projects We Love - Kickstarter" badge in the upper right corner. Black text has been added that says Final 24 Hours!
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ALERT: Help DUCKS IN A ROW Reach Our Funding Goal!

Apr. 12th, 2026 11:06 am
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A very ill-timed nasty spring cold has meant I’ve been able to do way less promotion on our now-running Kickstarter to fund Ducks in a Row and Duxxx in a Row, curated collections of stories from Duck Prints Press’s first 2 years. We’ve got 48 hours left in our campaign, and we’re only 80% to our $9,000 goal – about $1700 short.

And all you need to do to help is boost this post (or a shareable version on another platform where we have a presence)! Of course, if you’re interested in the books, I hope you’ll check out the campaign, but we are a small press that relies on word-of-mouth for advertising. More people simply seeing that this project exists is critical as we try to make our goal before we run out of time.

Ready to learn more about what it’s about? Visit our Kickstarter now or read on!

A banner with text that reads Ducks in a Row | Duxxx in a Row, Curated Collections of Queer Stories. Beside this are two mock-ups of books, their cover titles matching the text. Duxxx shows art of a line of people sunning themselves on the beach while reading, and Ducks shows a group of people cuddling in a pillowfort while one of them reads aloud. There's a "Projects We Love - Kickstarter" badge in the upper right corner.

Since Duck Prints Press was founded in January 2021, we have published over 200 stand-alone short stories by dozens of authors, ranging in length from just over 1,000 words up to 9,999 words. Most of these short stories are available for purchase individually from our webstore or are only available to people who back our Patreon… until now! With Ducks in a Row: A Curated Collection of Short Stories and Duxxx in a Row: A Curated Collection of Explicit Stories, Duck Prints Press dips into our vault, anthologizing stories we published from 2021 to 2023 into all-new collections!

Whether you’ve looked at our short story offerings and weren’t sure where to start, or you’ve heard about Duck Prints Press and wanted a tasting selection of what we offer, or you’ve wanted all your favorites in one lovely volume, or you had no idea we existed until today and just heard “short stories by queer authors” and said “SIGN ME UP,” Ducks in a Row and Duxxx in a Row have a little something for most everyone, with stories in different genres, with different types of characters, and by many different authors!

What we’re offering:

  • Ducks in a Row: A Curated Collection of Stories: includes 22 stories by 22 different authors, 236 pages long, in e-book (no DRM!) and trade paperback formats.
  • Duxxx in a Row: A Curated Collection of Explicit: includes 19 stories by 19 different authors, 264 pages long, in e-book (still no DRM!) and trade paperback formats.
  • Art prints of the front covers: our gorgeous cover art is by Pallas Perilous, and we’ll be making it into 8 in x 10 in/20.3 cm x 25.4 cm matte art prints.
  • Bookmarks of the front covers: you can see how we cropped the front cover art to make two charming bookmarks, 2 in x 6 in/5 cm x 10.2 cm, below! The backs will feature the (digital) signatures of all the book contributors.
  • Red Bowtie Dux die-cut sticker: our adorable mascot, Dux, created by Alessa Riel, is red-feathered for this campaign sticker! You can learn more about Dux, our Press mascot, here.
  • Red Bowtie Dux enamel pin: our first-ever enamel pin of our mascot will feature iridescent metal – including as the bowtie! – and pearlescent red enamel feathers.
  • Our ENTIRE back catalog of print books (not the e-book only releases) are also being offered as campaign add-ons!
  • Many of our past merchandise, such as stickers, enamel pins, magnets, and key chains, can also be added on!
A graphic labeled Backer Level 6, which includes the covers of both Ducks in a Row and Duxxx in a Row, an artprint and bookmark cropped from each cover, and two slightly different images of a red duck wearing a bowtie.

Learn more about the contributors, the stories, the merch, the Press, the add-ons, the budget, the schedule, you name it, by visiting our campaign page!

thank you so much for the signal boosts, y'all.


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Help Fight Book Bans: US Call to Action!

Apr. 10th, 2026 10:35 am
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A blue graphic with an outline of the United States. Red and white text reads: CALL. National Book Banning Bill Proposed in US House of Reps. Tell your rep: Vote no on H.R. 7661. Because the government has no business dictating what books our kids read. Authors Against Book Bans – Freedom to Read, Freedom to Write

Whether you’re a parent, a child, or just a book-loving citizen, we all agree: the government has absolutely no right telling us what we and our children are permitted to read. HAVE YOU HEARD? HR 7661, a dangerous nationwide censorship bill that steals the freedom to read from kids and families and holds school funds hostage, is on the move through the US Congress. Pick up the phone, grab this script, and call your rep today!


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Trevor Project Donation

Apr. 9th, 2026 02:46 pm
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I wanted to thank everyone who boosted our posts and/or made a purchase from us during the Trans Rights Readathon (you can read about the fundraiser here) and therefore enabled us to add to our baseline $50 donation to the Trevor Project! With y’all’s support, we raised our donation to $81.47, and today I went ahead and made that donation – I added a few extra dollars to cover the processing fees for them.


Thank you all – we couldn’t have done this without you!

Wondering when you can next help Duck Prints Press help others? We’ll be back this June with our fourth-annual Pride Bundles for Charity! The 2026 bundles are still in planning, but we’ll have one collection of general imprint short stories, one of explicit imprint short stories, and one of artwork, and we’re tentatively looking at splitting our donation this year between the Queer Liberation Library and the Transgender Law Center.

If you want to keep abreast of what Duck Prints Press is doing and make sure you are among the first to hear when we launch our 2026 Pride Bundles for charity, I encourage you to visit our Contact page and follow us on the platform(s) of your choice and/or sign up for our newsletter!




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WWW (Wednesday) Thursday

Apr. 9th, 2026 12:18 pm
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I actually wrote this yesterday, but I was traveling and only on mobile so it got posted to the Discord I do reading stuff in but no where else. So, crossposting today, even tho it's already inaccurate (I've finished two of my current reads since when I wrote this).

1. What are you currently reading?

  • The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu: I have only 80 pages left and I still have no idea why the ml would even tolerate the mc, much less love her. The jianghu chaos is kinda fun, at least.
  • Yona of the Dawn vol 28 by Mizuho Kusanagi
  • Yellow omnibus 1 by Makoto Tateno: I read the first volume of this in lile 2006 and was always curious what happened, so I'm finally reading the whole thing on Libby. Very easy to forget with 20+ years distance how much rapey stuff and weird underage stuff was in ancient yaoi lmao. And this was one I liked! Not near as bad as the ones that led me to stop reading the whole genre for a long time.

2. What have you recently finish reading?

  • Gachiakuta vol. 3 by Kei Urana
  • Dandadan vol. 14 by Yukinobu Tatsu
  • A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol. 4 by Misaki: this really is Lout of Count's Family a little to the left and much gayer and tbh I'm here for it.
  • Real-Time Fever by Taberu Kasumi: weird blackmail mlm explicit thing about two students, one of whom is a camboy sort of. It was meh.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime manga vol. 11 by Fuse
  • I've Seen it All vol. 1 and 2 by Shouko Takaku: speaking of old yaoi, this was a surprisingly fun couple books (there's at least one more but it's not on Libby) about a doctor who is an expert on penile health and surgery and the rando be runs into and is like "I can tell by his appearance that his penis is perfect and I must have him." It's crack adjacent but idk it made me smile.
  • Yona of the Dawn vol. 25 to 27 by Mizuho Kusanagi
  • Dinosaur Sanctuary vol. 7 by Itaru Kinoshita
  • Sakamoto Days vol. 21 by Yuto Suzuki

3. What will you read next?

Novels: my hold on the next volume of Apothecary Diaries came through so probably that, then Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell is still next.

Graphic novels from the (physical) library: still Daybreak vol. 2 by Moosopp.

Graphic novels from the (digital) library: Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 3 is the only one due imminently.


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Patreon Panel This Saturday: Comparing and Contrasting Writing Fanfic and Original Fic

Apr. 7th, 2026 09:49 am
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A graphic on a pale blue background. Top text reads Writing Fanfiction, Writing Original Fiction: Similarities and Differences - a Duck Prints Press panel. Saturday, April 11 8 a.m. Eastern time. In the center are clipart of a tablet with an image vaguely reminiscent of AO3's interface, and a book. Bottom text reads join patreon.com/duckprintspress for exclusive access.

This Saturday at 8 a.m. we’ll be hosting our Patreon panel for April 2026: Writing Fanfiction, Writing Original Fiction: Similarities and Differences. We’ll be joined by a group of authors mostly located outside the US – Neo Scarlett, J. D. Rivers, Vee Sloane, Dei Walker, and MJ Kiwiana – to compare and contrast our experiences in writing fanfiction and original fiction!

Description: Views on how similar writing fanfiction is to writing original fiction vary widely, and form a spectrum ranging from peoplew who feel that writing fanfic and writing ofic are completely different exercises to whose who believe that writing each is identical. As with most continua, the reality of similarities and differences is more nuanced in the majority of cases, with how they are alike and how they differ depending on the writer, the style, the genre, and other variables. In this panel, we’ll look at these intersections to discuss where we fall personally in our views, how we find writing fanfic and ofic to be similar, how we find it to be different, what skills we’ve found portable across the two, and which we haven’t.

If you’re already a backer at the $7/month level, I hope you’ll join us, and if not – back our Patreon at the $7/month level or higher and join us LIVE for this panel to chat and ask your questions. Better yet, you’ll also get access to the recordings of the 19 (!!!) previous panels we’ve held!



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Created Works Round-Up: March 2026

Apr. 4th, 2026 09:22 am
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Duck Prints Press’s monthly “created works round-ups” are our opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all. Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Visit our Created Works Round-Up Master Post to see all the works our creators have shared since September, 2022!

And check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

Baby Trapped by Evangeline Giaconia

fiction || original work || platonic or familial || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 3,300 || complete

summary: My story “Baby Trapped” appeared in Home Constellations: A Speculative Anthology of Unconventional Bonds, an anthology featuring scifi stories of queer family and kinship. My story is a comedic piece about escaped assassin-bot and a genetically engineered hypercat who find a baby on their doorstep.

other tags: found family

LINK

Sometimes The Cure is a Fresh Squeeze by Robin Mal

fiction || all elite wrestling || f/m, poly (multiple genders) || orange cassidy/toni storm; toni storm/mina shirakawa || explicit || no major warnings apply || 1,839 || complete

summary: “Partnered sex, with penetration, is the only way to work the drug out of your system. Otherwise, you can masturbate until your fingers are raw and it won’t do you any good.”

When Orange Cassidy is injected with an aphrodisiac, he turns to Toni and Mina for help.

other tags: Kayfabe Compliant; Sex Pollen; Enthusiastic Consent; Open Relationships; Friends to Lovers; Threesome – F/F/M; Implied Past Rape/Non-Con; Post-AEW World’s End 2025

AO3

The Peace We Find Together by Shadaras

fiction || original work || platonic or familial || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 1,741 || complete

summary: Everyone talks about the dramatic part of monster-hunting: The fights, the scars, the reagents harvested from the beasts. People rarely talk about the come-down after the beast is slain. How it comes in motels and hidden camps and other places where you learn to make do as you remember how to breathe and act like a normal person and not something half a monster yourself.

Opal and Jasper have been hunting together for over a decade now, though, they’ve got practice. And, today, a motel to sleep in, which is always a gift.

Most importantly: They have each other.

other tags: POV First Person, Urban Fantasy, Monster Hunters, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Intimacy, Literal Sleeping Together, Wing Grooming,

AO3

Juniper by Shadaras

fiction || original work || f/f || teen & up || creator choses not to use warnings || 2,259 || complete

summary: You arrive in Alaska on the longest day of the year, the sunlight stretching endless above the taiga, more wilderness than you’ve ever seen before in your life visible to your bleary eyes as you land in Fairbanks.

or: Moving to Alaska for your mom’s job has unexpected consequences.

other tags: Magical Realism, Horror, POV Second Person, Geographical Isolation, Forests

AO3

​

Welcome to My Garden by Megan Renee Doyle

illustrated zine || original work || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 331 || complete

summary: Full-color zine about a whimsical tour of a cemetery garden and the little beings that dwell there

LINK

Feel Something by ShannonXL

fiction || the vampire diaries || f/f, poly (multiple genders) || elena gilbert/rebekah mikaelson/damon salvatore elena gilbert/rebekah mikaelson || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 4,830 || complete

summary: After Damon lies about his reasons for bringing Elena to New York, Rebekah shows up and decides to teach him a lesson. Physical wounds heal too quickly, but the psychological damage of seeing your girlfriend getting her world rocked? That ought to hurt for a couple of lifetimes.

other tags: Cuckolding, Cunnilingus, Nipple Play, Slapping, Vaginal Fingering, Oral Sex, Extremely Dubious Consent, No Humanity Elena Gilbert, Vampire Elena Gilbert, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Mind Compulsion (Vampire Diaries), Femdom, Dom/sub Undertones, Control, Pinching, Begging, Not Safe Sane and Consensual, Exhibitionism

AO3

Ghostbusters?? by ShannonXL

video || original work || no ships || mature || no major warnings apply || 00:01:36 || complete

summary: Hypothetical: what if you’re lost and also horny for ghosts?

YOUTUBE


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Diverse Books We Needed: A Roundtable and (Sort of) Rec List

Apr. 3rd, 2026 08:27 am
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Graphic 1 of 2. A simple graphic on a light blue background, entitled We Need Diverse Books Day, dpp round table. Below this is clip art of a diverse group of people.

Graphic 2 of 2. Twelve book covers on a light blue background. The books are: Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Ellen Guon & Mercedes Lackey; Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon; May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor; The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien; Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling; Petey by Ben Mikaelsen; Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender; The Pretty One by Keah Brown; The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang; Archie's Pal Jughead by Archie Comics; Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey; Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.

Happy We Need Diverse Books Day! We had a chat with our rec list contributors about which books we’ve read that helped us – books with diverse representation that helped us better understand ourselves in ways we wouldn’t have if these books didn’t exist, if they’d been banned, if they hadn’t found their ways into our hands. Note that we openly acknowledge that a few of these may be “problematic” or not current (whereas others are definitely very progressive!) – some of these are books we read a long time ago, and what we needed then wouldn’t be the same as what someone would need now, and that’s okay!

Which books with representation helped you and how?

Nina Waters: Two spring to mind for me. Both of these are books I read in the mid 1990s when I was a teenager in high school.

Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. I didn’t particularly enjoy where this series went after book 1, but the first book introduced me to the concept I now know as “the only solution to a love triangle is poly.” I’d never really encountered polyamory before I read this book? It was delightfully refreshing for teen!me that the solution to “will he pick a relationship with the woman or the man?” wasn’t “of course he’ll pick the woman, because no stories get to be queer in the mid 1990s,” but was in fact, “¿por qué no los dos?” It was just so wonderful. They got be poly. Poly exists. I learned so much.

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I had so much trouble finding books with Strong Female Characters who were actually, like, the kind of person I wanted to be. Paks meant so much to me. I started doing distance walking just to emulate her. I read this as a teenager; finding out in my 30s that a lot of people headcanon Paks as asexual was also like. Damn. Young!me knew, even when I didn’t know. I had no word for this beyond, “this is a character I really like and would like to emulate,” but the pieces were all there.

Linnea Peterson: May the Best Man Win by ZR Ellor was the first book I read with autism rep that reminded me of myself. It made me feel seen in a way no book ever had, in a way I didn’t know I could be seen.

Anonymous: Sure I’ll join the party (they say, about to introduce the most depressing take you’ve ever seen). Mine is Lord of the Rings because of Frodo’s PTSD. Back when I taught primary, (tw: suicide mention) I had one of my second graders try to kill himself in my classroom. I managed to stop him and held him for an hour waiting for help. I got major PTSD from that, and seeing Frodo succeed – I mean, he saved the world!!! – and still have to leave Middle Earth because the act of saving messed him up irrevocably, yeah. I relate.

JD Rivers: Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling – It wasn’t the first queer book I had read at point but it was the first fantasy book that included (pretty much on the sidelines) a queer relationship. It hit a nerve in me.

boneturtle: I don’t know how well it holds up but for me it would be Petey by Ben Mikaelson. It was an eye opening experience to see how society treats people who are disabled, and as a young kid who was often in situations outside my control and with no one to turn to, I found a lot to relate to with the main character. It has stuck with me over the decades because it was the first book where I felt a real sense of hope and the capacity to persevere even in a situation that couldn’t be “fixed” or willed away.

Tryan A Bex: I never identified with a character with my birth name, but the first time I read a book with a character with my chosen nonbinary name it was like “hey! It’s me!” (The book was Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender)

Also, when I was studying on white privilege, The Pretty One by Keah Brown helped me see what the intersection of ableism, racism, and misogyny can look like. It was eye opening and I believe helped me to become a better person in how I interact with other people. (It was also incredibly funny at times, highly recommend.)

Shadaras: Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven is focused on a character whose gender experiences I strongly related to, which is rare because there are so many variations of nonbinary. Akeha going “idk, I guess I’ll pick [gender] because my twin is picking [gender] and I want to pick a different one to differentiate myself?” as a young person and then growing up and going “okay but I don’t really identify with this gender” and learning about nonbinary identities and claiming one for themself was delightful.

Anonymous #2: They’re hardly high art, but as an ace kid in the ’80s – ’90s the character of Jughead in the Archie comic books was a revelation to me. It’s still hard to find ace rep even today, so that was the only time I’d ever seen a character be confronted by a romance plot and respond with “no thank you.” I’d had no idea that was an option.

Shannon: Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey was the first queer-normative book I read and the heroine is bi/pan and just. Never ashamed of that. Assertive about her desires in general. And that was a big deal for me in 2003. I was young and a Very Invested Ally and couldn’t really conceive of a world that was different for queer people.

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden came to me around the same time and it was obviously a more grounded book but like. The idea of there being more than one girl that liked girls. In the same place. That was a big deal for me.

Tell us about the books you read that helped you better understand yourself!


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