Welcome to She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars, two brand-new anthologies that share a common theme – masquerades – but tell different types of stories – wlw in She Wears the Midnight Crown and mlm in He Bears the Cape of Stars. These collections are the latest titles from Duck Prints Press, the indie publisher founded by fans to publish original works by fan creators, and they’re crowdfunding NOW, only on Seed & Spark!
Curious about the collections? Well, here’s a sneak peek of the works of two of our creators!
He Bears the Cape of Stars Contributor Spotlight: K. B. Vimes
Biography: K.B. Vimes lives in West Virginia with his fiance and their six cats, four frogs, three lizards, and a number of fish. In his spare time he makes paper craft, takes long walks with his fiance, and visits state parks. He’s been writing since he was old enough to hold a pencil, and for years has told stories to anyone willing to hold still long enough to listen.
Story Title: A God Goes Walking
Teaser:
The lights were bright in an unnatural way, brighter than the stars that ruled the night and the sun that ruled the day, and the god was reminded of the tractors and other machinery used to harvest in these modern days. The slice of the scythe had been replaced with the dance of tractors and trucks, fields larger than ever before, humans further from their roots. He didn’t mind. Larger fields meant longer runs and more chases. The cars that whizzed by were not so different than the trucks the god saw pulling into his fields to transport the grain after it was harvested.
He was so busy looking up and around him, so busy admiring the many works that humans had wrought with the energy given to them by their large fields of grain, so reliant on the fact that the humans avoided him by instinct, that he didn’t notice the young man in front of him until it was too late.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” the young man said from the ground where he had fallen. His coffee had spilled down the front of the god, and the god looked down at himself in confusion. Then he turned to the young man.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She Wears the Midnight Crown Contributor Spotlight: Adrian Harley
Biography: Adrian Harley is an almost-lifelong North Carolinian and a fantasy fiction aficionado who didn’t start delving deep into fandom until adulthood. They are an editor of research by day and an aspiring novelist, also by day. They go to bed early. They have short stories forthcoming in OFIC Magazine and future Duck Prints Press anthologies. They live with their husband and a perfectly reasonable number of cats.
Link: Twitter
Story Title: So a Demon Walks Into a Party…
Teaser:
“Hey, hey. Tiffany. Look at me. I know this hurts. But you are so much better than him. I mean look at you! You are a killer in this outfit, to start.” Anna waved her free hand out of Tiffany’s line of sight and cast significant looks at the other women. They chimed in with compliments ranging from the superficial to the profound. Ah, Anna was the general of this operation. Malabrox felt a twinge in its being, almost like a conscience. This Anna perhaps could have been a worthy adversary, or even a worthy summoner. A shame that it had to kill her.
And then Anna looked at Malabrox, straight on, and the weight of her eyes on Malabrox felt so much like a command that Malabrox had to check with all its magical senses to make sure the woman hadn’t cast a spell. “Come on, doesn’t she deserve better?” said Anna.
Malabrox could have disappeared. Malabrox could have wiped everyone’s memory. Malabrox could have leapt on Anna, right then and there, and eaten her soul in a single gulp.
Instead, Malabrox said to Tiffany, “Yes. You have…” What was a good compliment for a human? What was the best thing a human could have? “You have a delicious soul,” it said.
Intrigued? You should be! But, if you want to read the rest of these stories you’ll need to back our campaign, running now through July 15th, 2022!