Category: Novels

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Five “Top Fives” with Adrian Harley!

We sat down with Adrian Harley, author of Many Drops Make a Stream, their debut sapphic fantasy novel (pre-orders are open now!), so we could learn about five of their favorite things in five categories!

Read on to learn some more about Adrian—who knows, maybe you share some favorites!

Five favorite queer books

  1. The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir
  2. Rust in the Root, by Justina Ireland
  3. Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, by Akwaeke Emezi
  4. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, by Ashley Herring Blake
  5. The Teixcalaan Series, by Arkady Martine

Five places you love to write

Here’s where I admit that I am very boring and write in one of two places: 

  1. My favorite chair inside the house
  2. Out on my porch

But someday I’ll change that! To round out the list, three places I plan to write:

  1. The cafe attached to the bookstore downtown
  2. Overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway
  3. The forest park near my house

Five writerly goals you have

  1. I’d love to write an epic high fantasy someday—one of those sprawling epics that goes for 500,000 words at least.
  2. I want to publish more books in the same universe as the Droplet series. I have a few drafted and many, many more plotted.
  3. I would like my readers to be inspired to write fanfic. If my fiction ever gets requested at Yuletide, I’ll know I’ve made it. If my fiction ever gets too big for Yuletide, I don’t even know what I’ll do.
  4. I’d like to write faster! Ideally, I’d like more hours in the day, but given the impossibility of time travel, I’ll settle for more words per fixed 24-hour day.
  5. I would like to always incorporate weird animal facts in some way.

Five works that inspired you to write Many Drops Make a Stream

  1. The Animorphs series, by K. A. Applegate
  2. Leverage (TV series)
  3. The original Abhorsen trilogy, by Garth Nix
  4. Thief of Shadows, by Elizabeth Hoyt, was the most direct inspiration. The romance channel in my slack group kept calling this book Regency Batman, and we’d discuss shifter romances, so the logical mashup of Shifter Batman popped into my head.
  5. Following on that, I think my fifth spot has to be the entire shifter romance genre, for making me go, “but why would you have them turn into just one animal?? You could have every animal! Why limit yourself?” This is before I realized I was nonbinary.

Five ideas you have for future books starring Droplet

  1. One of the first things in my notes for Book 2 was “BABY HEIST.” I’ll let you all guess what that means.
  2. Azera starts [Many Drops Make a Stream] having been jilted by her rich fiancée. At some point, that rich fiancée is going to need Azera’s help…
  3. Droplet’s old organization has been scattered across the world, but many of them are still working to take down the rich and powerful. An old friend will show back up in future books.
  4. There will be at least one murder mystery.
  5. Business people will learn more about shapeshifterkind, and nobody will be happy about this.

Thanks for your time, Adrian!!! And, dear person reading these awesome fave fives, don’t forget to check out the book!

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“Many Drops Make a Stream” Excerpt: Meet Mr. Sunshine

Droplet, the main character of Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley (pre-orders open now!) is a shapeshifter who can take many forms. Last week, we met her goose form; today, we introduce her most intimidating dog form: Mr. Sunshine, who is a very good dog.

Droplet used the most intimidating dog form she had, more wolf than dog, her shoulder higher than Azera’s waist and mouth sporting a killer’s snarl. This was from a dog named Mr. Sunshine, who’d been so flattered by Droplet’s request to honor him by taking his form that he’d licked her whole head. But nobody needed to know that.

-excerpt from Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

If you want to see what other creatures Droplet can become, why not pick up a copy of the book and meet ‘um all?

The pre-order campaign for Many Drops Make a Stream is only $100 from meeting our first stretch goal! There’s no time like the present to read all about it!

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Beware the Eyes of Sacarus: Excerpt from “Many Drops Make a Stream” by Adrian Harley

Pre-orders are open now through September 30th for Adrian Harley’s debut novel Many Drops Make a Stream, and we’re back with more excerpts!

In Sacarus, the people weren’t the only ones watching.

The Eyes of the City were not everywhere, all the time—much as the island enforcers would like them to be. But at any moment, a black-ink sketch of an eye could appear on any wall in the city, facing in or out. Watching.

You can learn all about Many Drops Make a Stream, pre-order your own copy, read more excepts, and more, by visiting our website! Take a peek now!

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Pre-Orders Now Open for “Many Drops Make a Stream” by Adrian Harley!

Pre-orders for Adrian Harley’s debut sapphic fantasy novel Many Drops Make a Stream are now open!

A memory-stealing cult.
The ever-watchful City of Eyes.
Making small talk.
Join Droplet as she faces all these horrors and more…

Vigilante shapeshifter Droplet has trained her entire life to take down those with more power than scruples, but she still makes mistakes. When a rescue mission goes wrong, a memory-stealing cult of blood mages escapes with kidnapped captives in tow. To save them, Droplet reluctantly teams up with the outgoing, tenacious Azera. Droplet knows better than to trust a human—she made that mistake once, and that person’s betrayal scattered her community across the known world—and she can tell Azera is hiding secrets behind her sunny smile. But if they can’t learn to work together, even Droplet’s own memories could be lost.

Many Drops Make a Stream, Adrian Harley’s debut novel, is the stand-alone first book in a series of related fantasy-mystery-heists featuring the shapeshifter Droplet and the friends and found family who work alongside her to fight the corrupt powers-that-be. Many Drops Make a Stream is rated general (adult) audiences and features shapeshifting shenanigans, a nascent f/f quarrelers-to-lovers pre-relationship, a wonderful extended cast of family and pseudo-family, necromancy and blood magic and spellwork (oh my!), and one (1) very angry goose.

For this campaign, we’re offering:

Better yet, you can get a discount by picking one of three bundles:

You can learn all about the book, the author, the campaign, and our offerings by visiting the pre-order page NOW!

Want a chance to win a trade paperback copy of Many Drops Make a Stream? Help us spread the word about this campaign by liking and signal boosting our posts on any of our platforms that including “sharing” functionality (such as Tumblr, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook), and you can get up to 4 entries per platform where you share!*

Campaign backers will also get bonuses based on the number of signal boosts our posts receive! All the social media links for sharing are on the linked pre-order page, so help us tell the world about the awesome book, and who knows – you might win a copy! (But only if we fund, ’cause we can’t afford to print the book if we don’t fund, so help us make sure people who want to buy The Awesome learn that The Awesome exists!)

*sweepstakes rules and conditions
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Meet the Merch! Check Out the “Many Drops Make a Stream” Extras

It wouldn’t be a Duck Prints Press pre-order campaign if we weren’t offering some absolutely awesome extras to go with your book purchase! When we open pre-orders for Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley TOMORROW, we’ll also be offering some merchandise – and you’ll be able to choose to buy a package that includes merch, or you can mix-and-match to get exactly what you want, or you can get just the book, if merch is just really not your thing. (You can preview the campaign deets here).

Wondering who Droplet is and why there are so many animals? This is a good moment for a refresher on the Many Drops Make a Stream blurb!

A memory-stealing cult.
The ever-watchful City of Eyes.
Making small talk.
Join Droplet as she faces all these horrors and more…

Vigilante shapeshifter Droplet has trained her entire life to take down those with more power than scruples, but she still makes mistakes. When a rescue mission goes wrong, a memory-stealing cult of blood mages escapes with kidnapped captives in tow. To save them, Droplet reluctantly teams up with the outgoing, tenacious Azera. Droplet knows better than to trust a human—she made that mistake once, and that person’s betrayal scattered her community across the known world—and she can tell Azera is hiding secrets behind her sunny smile. But if they can’t learn to work together, even Droplet’s own memories could be lost.

Shapeshift main character? A chance to show off lots of fun animal forms? Heck YES that’s the direction we went when planning out the extras!

So what have we got for you?

An enamel pin of Droplet mid-transformation from a tiger to her signature goose form, 2 in x 2 in/5 cm x 5 cm, with glitter in the background color, featuring art by Aceriee (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter). (Manufactured by Alchemy.)

Goose!Dux, the Droplet books’ custom Dux, as a die-cut sticker approximately 3 in x 3 in/7.5 cm x 7.5 cm. Designed by Alessa Riel. (Printed by Vograce.) “Goose” is Droplet’s favorite form (for good reason!) so when Dux got decked out for this book, of course we designed a Dux-goose.

An art print of the front cover (8 in x 10 in/20.25 cm x 25.5 cm), featuring Roui Cris’s (Tumblr | Twitter | Artstation) gorgeous artwork of Droplet and Azera flying over Sacarus, the City of Eyes. (Printed by PrintKeg.)

Patreon-exclusive extra: a wooden coaster (4 in./10.25 cm circular) engraved with art TO BE REVEALED. (it. might be a goose. just sayin’. there’s a Theme.) The artwork is by Aceriee, and the coasters will be manufactured by E. Conway, who also works with DPP as an editor.

How do you get the Patreon-exclusive extra? Easy! You just have to do two things: 1. Back our Patreon at the $10/month or $25/month level; and 2. Support this campaign by buying at least one of the pre-order offerings.

We’ve also got some merch-related stretch goals – depending how much money the campaign raises, we may also make a bookmark featuring the front cover artwork, an engraved wooden pendant with the Eye of Sacarus (that’s the eye motif featured on the cover!), and a wooden key chain featuring Goose!Droplet. We really hope we’ll be able to make some of this merch, too.

There is only ONE MORE DAY until this pre-order campaign launches on the Duck Prints Press website. Are you excited? Cause we’re hella excited. <3

(btw, in case you’ve been wondering when tomorrow, I expect to make the shop listings live sometime in the AM, EDT, and to make all the related updates to the Pre-Order Page and announcements on our social media shortly thereafter. Also, hi, I’m Claire Houck/unforth, the book’s editor and owner of the Press. I’m handling our marketing for this pre-order campaign! Nice to meet ya. 😀 )

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Preview the “Many Drops Make a Stream” Pre-Order Campaign!

Pre-orders for Adrian Harley’s debut novel Many Drops Make a Stream open on Friday – September 15th, just two days from now! – and for today’s teaser, we have a more nuts-and-bolts update, namely: now you can read all about the pre-order campaign! I preview of the campaign page includes pictures of and information about all the merchandise, details on the packages we’ll be offering and their prices, our budget and production timelines, stretch goals, and more!

Can’t wait for pre-orders to open? Find out everything you need to know NOW, and be ready when we go live on September 15th, 2023!

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Get to Know Adrian Harley, Author of “Many Drops Make a Stream”

Pre-orders for Many Drops Make a Stream open on September 15th, 2023.

Don’t know about the book yet? Check out our cover reveal (complete with book blurb!) and one, two, three (ah ha ha), three teasers we’ve posted the last few days.

With three days to go, what better time than now to get to know the author Adrian Harley?

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 in OFIC Magazine and multiple Duck Prints Press anthologies. They live with their husband and a perfectly reasonable number of cats.

You can find Adrian on their personal website, Tiktok, and Tumblr!

Adrian has worked with Duck Prints Press as an editor and a member of our advisory team for over a year, and they’ve contributed short stories to two of our anthologies: And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and She Wears the Midnight Crown.

We’ll be conducting an interview with Adrian Harley soon – so reply, leave us a comment, or drop us an ask with your questions about Adrian and their work!

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Past Betrayals and Current Conundrums in Today’s “Many Drops Make a Stream” Teaser

Many Drops Make a Stream, the debut novel by Adrian Harley, will become available for pre-orders starting on September 15th. Our countdown til then continues with our third excerpt from the story!

Droplet wasn’t about to trust a stranger again, let alone a human. She’d made that mistake before, and too many people had paid for it.

But Droplet wanted to save people. The human—Azera?—had gotten that right about her. And Droplet wanted to save the babbling cat who had tried to take on her captors with a broken crate. Needed to. If Droplet had been quicker, maybe she could have… but no, no use dwelling on that anymore. Time to see what this human could bring.

(don’t miss the first and second teasers, either!)

Only 4 days left until pre-orders open! Keep your eyes on our social media to make sure you don’t miss out!

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Goose? GOOSE! – An Excerpt from “Many Drops Make a Stream” by Adrian Harley

The countdown to the September 15th – 30th pre-order campaign for Adrian Harley’s debut novel Many Drops Make a Stream continues! And, lest yesterday’s teaser gave the impression that this book is entirely Very Serious and Grim Business, today’s teaser is here to reassure you that this fantastic book HAS THE RANGE, darling.

Droplet became a goose.

If Lord Lengham had reacted quicker, that might have saved him. But he clearly wasn’t familiar with waterfowl apart from admiring strategically distant swans on manicured estates.

Droplet went for his head.

-Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

Pre-orders open in FIVE DAYS on September 15th! Make sure you follow us on one of our social media platforms so you don’t miss the announcement!

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“Many Drops Make a Stream” by Adrian Harley: Teaser Excerpt!

Many Drops Make a Stream, the debut novel by author Adrian Harley, will be available for pre-orders from September 15th through September 30th. Before the campaign commences, we’ll be giving you a flavor of the story with excerpts and teasers. Yesterday, we shared the cover reveal and the summary. Today, we share a taste of what Droplet is up against as she faces sinister blood mages. If they only used their own blood, that might not be so bad, but…

Every child was taught that blood magic only worked properly with a willing sacrifice—otherwise the spell warped and corrupted in ways even the best mages couldn’t predict. Willing and unwilling sacrifices were as different as summer and winter, in magical theory. But in practice, the definition of “willing” could be stretched. Bent. Manipulated. Much like people, really.

Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

Pre-orders for Many Drops Make a Stream open on September 15th, 2023! Sign up for our mailing list to be sure you don’t miss out!