Category: Add Magic to Taste

Posts related to our first anthology, Add Magic to Taste

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First-Ever Giveaway for One of Our Titles!

Are y’all familiar with Storygraph? It’s the independent alternative to Goodreads, a lovely website that does a lot of what Goodreads does, but without the whole “being owned by Amazon” crap. It’s been running for a while now, and we’ve been on it since the minute we found out about it (and got a paid account as soon as they offered them – $40/year to support such an amazing project? Heck yeah! Not that anyone has to give them $$ to be clear, the site is free to use). They’ve been steadily expanding, adding functionality, unrolling more publisher- and author-oriented features, and generally being awesome. And, with all that in mind, we were thrilled to hear that they were introducing a Giveaways function (which, on Goodreads, is often a great way to get the word out about a book), and we jumped on the chance to offer our debut anthology Add Magic to Taste as part of the very first run of Storygraph giveaways!

But enough about them – what about the book we’re giving away?

For Add Magic to Taste, 20 authors have come together to produce all-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.

So, check out Storygraph if you haven’t already, and check out our giveaway and the other awesome titles on offering (such as our own A. L. Heard’s Choose Your Own Adventure story), and enter to win your own copy of Add Magic to Taste!

The giveaway is running until October 18th, 2022, so if you want to throw in your hat for one of the 10 digital copies on offering, this is your moment!

Check it out now!

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NOW AVAILABLE: THE E-BOOK OF ADD MAGIC TO TASTE and Extra Kickstarter Merchandise!

Did you miss your chance to back our first Kickstarter? Did you back it, but have a friend who wants a copy? Have you just been itching to get some of the merch you didn’t get as a backer? Have you only just heard of us thanks to our recent call for applicants, and want to learn more about our first Anthology?

Now you can do all these things!

Duck Prints Press’s first anthology, Add Magic to Taste, is now available for sale on our website!

For Add Magic to Taste, 20 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.

Select extra/leftover merchandise from the Kickstarter is also available, including:

So check it out, and get some of the book that’s averaging over 4 stars on Goodreads and Storygraph, and the merch that our Kickstarter backers described as “absolutely beautiful,” “gorgeous,” “incredible,” and “absolute BEST IN CLASS.”

VISIT OUR SHOP NOW AND GET YOURS!

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“Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter Update

Things have been a little quiet around our social media as, over the past few weeks, we’ve kicked into high gear to finish fulfillment of the “Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter. We’re pleased to report that we’re nearly done – all backers who’ve done their backer surveys have had their merchandise shipped, and most have received their things. There have of course been some issues – when aren’t there? – with damaged packaging and address errors, but the rate for such as been very low, and so far we’ve been able to replace everything that people have contacted us about.

With the campaign mostly done, we’re hoping to launch the e-book on our website within the next week or two, so that it’ll be available for sale to people who missed the campaign, and we’ll also have an extras sale featuring much of our merchandise. Make sure to keep an eye on our social media platforms if you’re interested in the extras sale – we’ll have extras of the following items to sell!

The book (seconds/lightly damaged ones only):

Keychains (all are seconds with various degrees of damage/problems, but we have a LOT of them):

Enamel Pins (mostly undamaged, with maybe a handful of seconds at a lower price point):

Bookmarks (all undamaged):

Stickers (small numbers of each, undamaged):

Magnets (both undamaged items and seconds):

Mugs (mostly undamaged, though there’s at least one second):

We may have a few sets of the art prints to sell, but we’re not sure yet.

We do not have any extra of the mini-books or the postcards.

As soon as we’ve set prices and the date the sale will begin, we’ll make another announcement. We expect it’ll be at least two more weeks; we want as many of our international purchasers to have received their backer rewards as possible, both because we feel that campaign backers should have their rewards before new people get a chance, and also because we need to be sure we have enough extras on hand to replace any damaged or missing orders placed by our backers. Sales will be handled through our website store portal. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions or thoughts on this!

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The “Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter is Done!

Wow – what a month we’ve had! Over the past 30 days, our 744 amazing backers contributed $25,808 to make this project a success, and we couldn’t be more grateful. All our authors will get paid 8 cents US per word, up to $400 per author, which is a.may.zing, and backers will get this excellent book, lots of fun merch and extras, and the privilege of saying “I was there when Duck Prints Press launched their first anthology!”

For people who backed, we posted about our “next steps” in this Kickstarter update.

For people who didn’t back – couldn’t afford to, were on the fence, missed the deadline, only just found out about it now, all that jazz – we’ll be having an extras sale, most likely in late fall or early winter, once the majority of the KS have received the packages.

The following items will definitely be available in the extras sale:

  • mugs
  • rubber duckies
  • both enamel pins
  • bookmarks
  • small glossy prints of the third piece of artwork

The following items might be available in the extras sale:

  • art prints
  • copies of the trade paperback book
  • postcards
  • stickers
  • mini-book extra
  • magnet

The following items will not be available in the extras sale:

  • keychains
  • tea

In addition, at or around the same time, the e-book will go up for sale on our website, and will remain available there for as long as the Press is in operation!

As we said in our advertising – the only guaranteed way to get the book was to back the Kickstarter, and that remains true. We may have a handful of extra books, but it’ll depend on how many get damaged in shipping and need to be replaced, how many we decide to keep for future campaigns, etc. Right now, we’re only expecting to print about 20 copies above the number purchased, so if we have any at all, it’ll be a very limited quantity.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions or comments! It’s been a very exciting time, and we can’t wait to start making everything and getting backers their rewards!

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The Add Magic to Taste Kickstarter ends at 11 AM Eastern on Saturday, August 14th, 2021

If you love queer fiction, and you love fanfic, and you love fluffy tropes, you are not going to want to miss Add Magic to Taste, an all new collection of 20 heartwarming queer stories set in modern, magical coffee shops, bakeries, cafes, and tea shops!

We won’t say this anthology has it all – there are too many identities in the world for us to fit all of them into one anthology of 20 stories – but if you want some queer fluff and happy feelings, you’ve come to the right place. Add Magic to Taste features characters of different races, ethnicities, sexualities, romanticisms, gender identities, religions, and home nations, united by the common theme of finding someone (or more than one someone) to enjoy a muffin and a cuppa with – for today or for a lifetime, romantically or otherwise!

Each story is never-before published and approximately 5,000 words. Our authors were selected through a rigorous process where we reviewed over 100 fanfiction authors to select those we thought best suited to working with our Press on this specific anthology – and the results are out of this world!

Our Kickstarter has also done exceptionally – we’re only $300 US shy of our second-to-last stretch goal, with under 24 hours to go! So, check out our Kickstarter, read about the book and our merch, read teasers and biographies of our authors, and more!

Backing this Kickstarter is the only guaranteed way to get Add Magic to Taste in print! We will be printing to demand, and more copies will never be made!

LEARN MORE NOW!

Don’t miss this chance!

(also, psst…did you know? If you support our Patreon you can get Patron-exclusive extras when you support the Kickstarter too…)

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“Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter: 48 hours Left!

We’re in the home-stretch of the campaign for Add Magic to Taste! There are just over 48 hours until we’re done. If you’ve been on the fence about getting it – this is essentially your only chance to get this wonderful anthology in print! The e-book will be on our website, but we won’t be ordering many print copies above demand – we may have a few extra for an extras sale or that we can offer as add-ons for future campaigns, but once those are sold? There’ll never be more copies in print. So, if you want a copy? Back it now!

For those who have backed and want to know what our latest news is – and for those who haven’t yet backed and want to know what they can get – here’s some updates on our progress toward our stretch goals!

First – our Backers unlocked an option for a third piece of art, and we’ve commissioned @joshua-beeking to do it! He sent a preliminary sketch yesterday and, well – it’s pretty darn amazing.

This image will be included as an inset in all e-books and print books, and backers at levels 3, 4, and 5 will get it as an art print!

Second – our most recent addition to the campaign? A magnet of our mage Dux! We asked our Patreon supporters on Discord which of our Dux they’d like, and this was their choice…

All backers at Levels 2, 3, 4, and 5, will get this adorable dux as a sticker AND as a magnet!

Third – thanks to the level of support the campaign has had, we’ll be able to pay all our authors 6 cents US per word they wrote – up to $300 per author. If we can raise another $1,250 over where we’re at as I write this, authors will get another raise, to 7 cents US per word, and if we can reach $25,000 by the time the campaign ends on Saturday (11 AM Eastern!), all our authors will get paid 8 cents US per word. This has always been our ultimate goal, and we can’t reach it without your help – so, please, please, signal boost this post and help us spread the word about this project – and help us get this amazing book into the hands of as many readers as possible, cause we’re sure ya’ll are gonna love it!

Learn more on Kickstarter right now!

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Add Magic to Taste Author Spotlight: Florence Vale

Florence is a Norwegian picture book author and fanfic enthusiast. Her current obsessions include Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Magnus Archives, and just about any actual play podcast she can get her hands on. In addition to Add Magic to Taste and her Archive of Our Own account, you can find her writing in the original zines Mansion of Fears and Carpe Noctem.

Link: Archive of Our Own

Story Title: Bånd

tags: asexual character, biromantic character, creature character, curses (accidental) magical mishap, mlm, norway, reaper, witch character

Teaser:

Thomas wasn’t sure how he recognised him, but he did—the moment the guy came in, there was this shift in the air, a shiver that made him think: oh. It’s you.

The guy was wearing a cherry red all-weather jacket today, its edges lined with silver high-visibility stripes. Everything above his neck was soaked and his hair was dark with water; it ran down his forehead and temples in lazy little rivulets.

“How can I help you?” Thomas asked.

The stranger marched up to the counter, leaving mud in his wake.

“You cursed me,” he said. His eyelashes were clumped together with rainwater, spiky and long like the legs of a spider, and his eyes were dark and very, very wide.

Scared, Thomas’s mind supplied.

“Sorry?” he managed. He hadn’t—

But he remembered tapping his fingers against the grain of the wood. With a sinking feeling, he remembered thinking, idly, that he hoped the guy would be easier to pin down next time.

He hadn’t meant to curse him.

But he had.

Uh oh, a curse isn’t a great way to start a relationship! Where will Thomas and this stranger go from here? Find out by…

Backing our Kickstarter and getting your own copy of Add Magic to Taste!

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Add Magic to Taste Author Spotlight: Alex Ransom

Alex Ransom is a longtime fan writer and translator recently expanding into original fiction. Her favorite trope, as both reader and writer, is “Earn Your Happy Ending,” in which characters fight through perhaps inordinate amounts of difficulty to come out happier and more content on the other side. She is especially interested in the intersection between social circumstances, personal history, and the formation and maintenance of identity. Her favorite genres are space opera, fantasy, queer romance, and poetry.

As a child, Alex thought everything was better if it was more complicated and that the best answer to a yes or no question was usually  “both.” Consequently, today she is bi/pansexual, trans/nonbinary, has worked a variety of jobs, and has three degrees in completely unrelated fields. When she isn’t writing or doomscrolling on the internet, she likes to travel, hike, and build marginally functional furniture. She lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, with her spouse and adult daughter.

Story Title: Flowers Bloom Even Then

tags: aromantic character, bipoc character, bisexual character, deadnaming, gender dysphoria, gender non-conforming character (femme), internalized misogyny, mentions of biphobia, mentions of transphobia, mlen, nonbinary character (transmasculine)

Teaser:

The princessy garden party look had cleaned up well, too. The butterfly illusions had been replaced by ones featuring fireflies, the lights lowered to almost nothing, and the tables supplied with tapered candles in ornate holders too delicate and perfect to be anything but magically enhanced. There was still that same air of near unreality, but where before the fantasy had been a comforting childhood idyll, now it was recognizable even to Max, who had never had a single romantic feeling in his entire life, as the stuff of falling in love and living happily ever after.

For a moment, it made him almost angry. This was exactly why he didn’t date. Where was the future for a guy like Max in a world like this? Was he supposed to pretend forever?

What good things lurk in Max’s future (we promise, they’re good things)? Back the Add Magic to Taste Kickstarter, read the book, and find out!

Learn more now!

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Add Magic to Taste Author Spotlight: Jessica Black

Jessie, pen name Jessica Black, fandom name alocalband, decided she wanted to be a writer at the age of seven and hasn’t looked back since. With a degree in screenwriting, she spent the majority of her career working on assorted projects in Hollywood, New York, and Puerto Rico. Lately, however, she’s settled down to a quieter life with her cat, her library, and a constantly filling notebook of new ideas. Hobbies include reading, hiking, gaming, knitting, and going to hockey games.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr | Twitter

Story Title: A Family Thing

tags: character is cursed, curses, fate, mlm, pov third person limited, soulmates, united states of america

Teaser:

“Caramel or chocolate,” he repeats.

“…caramel?”

“Got it. Name?”

The guy stares at him like Connor’s speaking a different language. But then he shakes it off, takes a half-step back, and gives Connor a considering once-over. Connor’s ears grow hot, but he feels like he won their contest. And then feels like he’s won another when the man finally meets his eyes and says, “Ish.”

“Ish?” The name rings in Connor’s ears strangely. Like it was supposed to take up more room than it does, and like Connor’s the one who inadvertently decided not to pay enough attention to it.

Or, no. Not inadvertently. Connor usually decides not to pay attention to outlying emotions and reactions, but this feels like something he’s supposed to notice.

“It’s a nickname.” Ish’s tone goes a touch defensive and a touch bored, like he’s had to explain this a lot.

“It’s not even a whole word,” Connor mutters, feeling strangely defensive as well.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think customer service is supposed to include so many insults.”

“Those are on the house.”

These two are off to a snarky start! But the only way to find out where they go from here is to…

Back our Kickstarter!

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Add Magic to Taste Author Spotlight: Jo Mathieson

Jo Mathieson is a prolific writer of queer romance stories. Jo lives with her spouse (also a writer) on a small farm in in Eastern Ontario, Canada, where they grow vegetables and raise heritage-breed chickens.

Story Title: In Like Flynn

tags: dragon, first kiss, genderfluid character, getting together, magic user, mlen, meet cute, mutual pining, nonbinary character, past tense, pov third person limited

Teaser:

Crispin opened the book and held his breath, waiting to see if…

Sure enough, a small cloud of pinkish-gold smoke billowed out and coalesced into the unmistakable shape of a dragon.

Crispin sighed.

“What the heck is that?” Nyle said, starting backwards.

“Name’s Flynn, and who might you be?” asked the dragon, peering at Nyle as it stepped out of the book and onto the table.

“Flynn seems to… live in the book, and absolutely refuses to explain anything about how or why.”

“I think she just likes to annoy people,” said Lucy as she came over with Crispin’s coffee. “And cause mischief, and eat sweets.”

“Not ‘she’ nowadays. ‘It’ will do fine,” the dragon said imperiously, drawing itself up to its full eight-inch height and putting its hands on its hips, which, considering how short its arms were, looked quite comical. Crispin had learned better than to laugh. “Dragons only have gender when they choose to, and currently I do not.”

“Yeah! Non-binary solidarity,” said Nyle with a grin, and held out their hand for a high-five. “I’m Nyle. It’s nice to meet you.” Flynn blew an amused puff of smoke in lieu of smacking hands; it curled around Nyle’s fingers before dissipating slowly.

What’s going on with these Crispin, Flynn, and Nyle, and what lies in their future?

Back our Kickstarter, and find out!