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“He Bears the Cape of Stars” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown” Books and Merchandise Now on Sale!

Duck Prints Press’s anthologies He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown, featuring 34 stories by 34 authors exploring the potential for mlm and wlw relationships growing and changing during unusual masquerades, are now available! From science fiction to fantasy to modern to historical, these anthologies take the reader to many different settings, with larger-than-life characters exploring the world around them, the people they meet, and themselves! The casts are as diverse as Pride itself, and whether they’re looking for love, a second chance, a companion, or a friend, these books have a little bit of everything!

HE BEARS THE CAPE OF STARS, featuring 17 mlm stories, is available for sale on:

The Duck Prints Press Website | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

SHE WEARS THE MIDNIGHT CROWN, featuring 17 wlw stories, is available for sale on:

The Duck Prints Press Website | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

…and many other major e-book sales platforms! And you can request your library purchase it through the e-book lending program of their choice!

AND THAT’S NOT ALL!

Extra merchandise from the masquerade anthologies crowdfunding campaign is now on sale too! Did you miss the campaign? Are you dying for an amazing tote bag, a gorgeous bookmark, an aromatic candle, a glossy sticker or two, a new patch, or some lovely queer art for your walls? You can get this merch, and lots of merch from our past campaigns, from our website NOW!

She Wears the Midnight Crown merchandise: art print | bookmark | dux sticker

He Bears the Cape of Stars merchandise: art print | bookmark | dux sticker

Other campaign merchandise: chibi masquerade patch | scented candle | tote bag

Was there campaign merch you wanted that’s not available on our store? We have very limited quantities left of our enamel pins, and we have a whole heck of a lot of seconds (as in, damaged copies) of the print books! If your interested, feel free to drop us a line on any of our social media platforms or at info at duckprintspress dot com – we’d be delighted to hook you up!

Come now to the Duck Prints Press website and GET YOUR BOOK ON! You’re not going to want to miss these amazing collections or any of the gorgeous merch!

(and if you can help us spread the word by sharing this post, we’d appreciate it a lot, too!)

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Want to make sure you don’t miss the announcement for future giveaways? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more!

Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn about what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, claim free stories, and get backer-exclusive extras when you support our crowdfunding campaigns? Back us on Patreon or ko-fi monthly!

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Storygraph Giveaway: He Bears the Cape of Stars

A few days ago, we launched another giveaway on Storygraph! Last month, we gave away 10 copies of She Wears the Midnight Crown. This month, we’re giving away He Bears the Cape of Stars! Crowdfunding backers have now all received their copies, but we won’t be listing the anthologies on our website until March 15th, so this is an exclusive extra chance for non-campaign-backers to get their hands on a copy early!

What is Storygraph? The awesome independently owned-and-operated alternative to Amazon-owned Goodreads! Working with them as a publisher doing this giveaways has been phenomenal: they’re organized, receptive to feedback, interested in innovative, and responsive. We’re thrilled to continue working with them on giveaways. If you’ve wanted a Goodreads alternative for organizing your reading, posting your reviews, logging your book collections, and more, you should definitely check them out.

What is Duck Prints Press? We’re the indie publisher dedicated to helping creators transition from creating primarily fanworks to creating primarily original works! We especially focus on publishing works featuring LGBTQIA+ characters.

What is He Bears the Cape of Stars? Along with She Wears the Midnight Crown, He Bears the Cape of Stars is one of a a pair of anthologies which share the same theme, but feature different kinds of relationships. For these anthologies, we sought pitches for stories featuring masquerades – the more unusual, the better! While we love classic “historical setting, mistaken identity” shenanigans, we were looking for stories more out-of-the-box (under-the-mask?) than that. 17 authors contributed mlm stories to this collection, and the works range from heartwarming fluff through dystopian drama!

Want your own copy of this awesome, innovative collection? Enter our giveaway on Storygraph NOW!

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Want to make sure you don’t miss the announcement for future giveaways? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more!

Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn about what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon or ko-fi monthly and read your fill!

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Now Live: Duck Prints Press’s Third Crowd-funding Campaign!

Duck Prints Press LLC is over the moon to share our next to anthologies with you: She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars!

These two anthologies share a common theme – masquerades – and each features different kinds of relationships. She Wears the Midnight Crown contains 18 wlw stories; He Bears the Cape of Stars contains 18 mlm stories. Both collections tell myriad stories exploring how these characters’ relationships develop, grow, and change while they attend or participate in masquerades!

Our 36 contributors have 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.

You’re definitely not going to want to miss it – you can buy one book or both books, some merch, or all merch – we’ve got 8 backer levels to help you get exactly what you want!

We’d love for you to attend the masquerade! Don your mask and read on…

The Seed&Spark Campaign for She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars runs from now through July 14th, 2022!

Go Forth, and Back It Now!

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Announcing: The Contributors to “He Bears the Cape of Stars” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown”!

36 remarkable authors—18 for He Bears the Cape of Stars, 18 for She Wears the Midnight Crown—have come together for this project. These authors have been toiling away on their stories since February 1st, 2022, and we’re currently work with them on edits to get them publication-ready. We’re delighted to share their work with you!

Contributors to He Bears the Cape of Stars:

Contributors to She Wears the Midnight Crown:

You can read about them—in their own words!—see select author portraits, and more, by clicking this link:

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Our Favorite Queer Books for Children

Many members of Duck Prints Press have young children, so we got to talking about what our favorite queer children’s stories are. These are all picture books – aimed at children under 8. This list doesn’t include any middle grade or young adult books.

Note that, regarding any individual book, we’re not saying, “this is flawless,” “this is perfect rep,” or “this is the right book for everyone/every situation/every family.” I’ve included a few notes about each book, to give a general idea of the representation it incorporates, but we always recommend that you read the full descriptions at the links provided (which are to Bookshop.org whenever possible), assess the book, borrow it from the library – basically, give it a read, and assess for yourself, and always pick with your own situation and sensibilities in mind when buying books for the young children in your life!

The list is in alphabetical order by book title.

A is for Activist

Author and Illustrator: Innosanto Nagara

An alphabet book, with intersectionality, disability, race, queerness, and more.


The Adventures of Honey and Leon 

Author: Alan Cumming

Illustrator: Grant Shaffer

mlm, semi-autobiographical.

Book 1 | Book 2


And Tango Makes Three

Authors: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Illustrator: Henry Cole

mlm, queer parents, adoption, based on a true story.


Be Who You Are 

Author: Jennifer Carr

Illustrator: Ben Rumback

Trans girl, supportive family. 


Charlotte, Wander On

Author: Matt Cubberly

Illustrator: Irina Kovalova

(you’ll have to read and find out!)


A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo 

Author: Jill Twiss

Illustrator: E. G. Keller

mlm, politics.


Everywhere Babies

Author: Susan Meyers

Illustrator: Marla Frazee

wlw, mlm. Queer parents. Stealth.


The Frog and Toad Collection

Author and Illustrator: Arnold Lobel

mlm. Stealth.


Heather Has Two Mommies

Author: Lesléa Newman

Illustrator: Laura Cornell

wlw, queer parents


I Am Jazz

Authors: Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

Illustrator: Shelagh McNicholas

Trans girl, supportive parents. Auto-biographical.


Intersectional Allies

Authors: Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, Carolyn Choi

Illustrator: Ashley Seil Smith

Intersectionality, focused on disability, race, and religion.


Jaime is Jaime

Author: Afsaneh Moradian

Illustrator: Maria Bogade

Gender non-conformity


Julian is a Mermaid

Author and Illustrator: Jessica Love

Gender non-conformity.


Llama Glamarama

Author: Simon James Green

Illustrator: Garry Parsons

Gender non-conformity.


My Friends and Me

Author: Stephanie Stansbie

Illustrator: Katy Halford

mlm, wlw. Queer parents.


Neither

Author and Illustrator: Arlie Anderson

Gender non-conformity; can also be seen as an allegory for non-binary and/or intersex and/or other forms of gender queerness. Stealth.


One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dad

Author: Johnny Valentine

Illustrator: Melody Sarecky

mlm. Queer parents.


Quackers

Author and Illustrator: Liz Wong

Gender non-conformity; can also be seen as an allegory for non-binary and/or trans and/or other forms of gender queerness. Stealth.


Rainbow 

Author: Michael Genhart

Illustrator: Anne Passchier

“A First Book of Pride” – the cover says it best. 


Red: A Crayon Story

Author and Illustrator: Michael Hall

Trans children and/or children with trans parents.


She’s My Dad

Author: Sarah Savage

Illustrator: Joules Garcia

Transgender adult/parent.


The Story of Ferdinand 

Author: Munro Leaf

Illustrator: Robert Lawson

Gender non-conformity. Stealth.


Unicorn Day

Author: Diana Murray

Illustrator: Luke Flowers

Gender non-conformity and/or trans and/or genderqueer, depending how you look at it.


We’re All Wonders

Author and Illustrator: R. J. Palacio

Self-acceptance, with an emphasis on neurodivergence, disability, and queerness.


What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns

Author: Katherine Locke

Illustrator: Anne Passchier

About pronouns. Non-binary representation and neo-pronouns included.


What Colour is Love?

Author: Linda Strachan

Illustrator: David Wojtowycz

Diversity.


Worm Loves Worm 

Author: J. J. Austrian

Illustrator: Mike Curato

wlw/mlm. Gender non-conformity.


The Pea that Was Me Series

Author and Illustrator: Kimberly Kluger-Bell

Different kinds of pregnancies, including mlm and wlw parents.

An Egg and Sperm | Egg Donation | Embryo Donation | IVF | Sperm Donation | A Single Mom and Sperm Donor | Two Dads, Egg Donation and Surrogacy | Two Moms and Sperm Donor


Contributions by: unforth, Willa, nottesilhouette, foxymoley, FallingIntoBlue, Owlish, Annabeth, nickelkeep, fpwoper


So, what are your favorite queer picture books?