Category: Short Stories

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Get 4 Story Excerpts: Read the Duck Prints Press Zine!

This debut online PDF edition of the Duck Prints Press zine includes general information about the Press, where to find us on social media, how to buy our books, and, most excitingly: FREE EXCERPTS! Yes, download this 20-page PDF, and you can read the openings of four stories. And don’t worry – the zine is SFW!

The first five pages of Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley. Pre-orders are open through September 30th!

Many Drops Make a Stream is a fantasy novel featuring the shapeshifter Droplet as she embarks on a rescue mission, loses a found family and tries to convince herself she doesn’t want to find another, and stumbles into a sapphic pre-relationship. All the laughs and drama that author Adrian Harley could fit between the covers!

The first two scenes of Theirs All Along by boneturtle. Available now!

Theirs All Along is the prequel introduction story to boneturtle’s Pet Names verse, featuring sexy established-relationship M/M/M fantasy smut and lots of emotional intimacy. Husbands Aren, Samael, and Mithros just want to take care of each other…

The first two scenes of Be Not Afraid by Nicola Kapron. Coming September 28th!

Be Not Afraid tells the story of Tora as he faces a personal apocalypse in the midst of an actual actual apocalypse…and a M/M “OMG they were roommates” get-together story.

The first chapter of To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh. Pre-orders open October 5th!

To Drive the Hundred Miles follows trans man Will as he returns home for the holidays, confronts his family’s clumsy attempts at “support,” and finds comfort at the local coffee shop. Features family feels, a nascent M/F relationship, and a splash of smut.

Download the PDF NOW and get a glimpse of all the great stories Duck Prints Press has to offer!

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fan creators publishing their original works. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Want to always hear the latest? Sign up for our monthly newsletter! Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon monthly!

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Happy August Short Story Release Day!

Whether you’re craving fluff or feels, laughs or tears, our August general imprint short stories have got something for you!

Title: Count the Number of Seeds
Series: Sunrise Over the Black Forest
Author: Lyn Weaver

This installment of the Sunrise Over the Black Forest ‘verse, formerly Patreon-exclusive, is now finally available to our general readership!

M/M, Gothic Fantasy with Technology, Vampire grapples with the Proper Care and Handling of the human he’s definitely not pining for

The third story written in the Sunrise Over the Black Forest ‘verse, occurring second chronologically, in this tale of the vampire Sevan and the human priest Kel, Sevan suddenly realizes that humans need to eat…and he has no idea where Kel is getting food from.

If Kel starves, Sevan won’t have anyone to feed from, and that’s definitely the only reason he cares enough to pluck some apples from his orchard and bring them to Kel’s church.

Title: if it’s meant to be
Series: Welcome to PHU
Author: Tris Lawrence

Author Tris Lawrence brings us this short, fluffy alternate universe PHU piece exploring what could have happened if Mac and Pawel had met under different circumstances.

F/M Pre-relationship, Canon Divergent Alternate Universe, A “What If They Met Differently” Story, Meet Cute

After acting as the harbinger of the Emergence when she emerged during the Olympics, Kenzie Davis buried her old identity as a gymnast, changed her name, and found a new home and new family in the circus.

Under the identity “Mac,” she’s managed to hide herself very well, using her Talent to aid her act. Her high-risk acrobatics are rendered safe by her timely teleportations…until a boy in the audience doesn’t realize it’s an act, and tries to “help” her with some magic of his own.

Title: Chinaski’s Dirty Work
Series: Nasti Chinaski
Author: J. D. Harlock

The first story in an all-new series from imaginative author J. D. Harlock!

Magic + the Wild West, Humor and Mischief, So Much Drinking

Chinaski might be fangirling a bit when her plan to capture noted criminal Shootin’ Shiloh comes to a head in Pico’s tavern. Now, if only she can collect her pay-day without everything going wrong…

Or: the one where a lesbian bounty hunter debates whether she should seduce the mark before, during, or after the hunt.

Title: Chrysopoeia
Author: Zel Howland

Author Zel Howland, a contributor to our upcoming anthology Aether Beyond the Binary, publishes their first stand-alone story with Duck Prints Press!

Sort-of-One-Sided F/F (It’s Complicatedtm), Trapped Together, Everyone Needs to Use Their Words, Victorian Alchemy and Witchcraft

After Faith is found guilty of witchcraft, she’s subjected to the traditional punishment for her supposed crime: imprisonment for a month in a cave that may or may not hide a gateway to Hell in its unexplored depths.

But Faith isn’t a witch. She’s an alchemist. And while she could use alchemy to survive her imprisonment…if she’s alive when the townspeople return, she’ll be executed, because obviously only a witch could survive a month stoned-in with no food or water.

Even worse, Faith is increasingly sure that she’s not alone in this cave…

These, any many other great stories, are for sale on our webpage! Come read with us!

(Or, support us on Patreon, and claim our stories for free as a reward for your backing!)

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Last Day to Buy Our Pride Bundles and Support Queer Charities!

Today is July 28th, which means it’s the last day to buy our General Imprint Pride Bundle and Erotica Imprint Pride Bundle, save money on our stories, and help us raise funds to donate to the Ali Forney Center and Transgender Law Center!

Each bundle costs $19.69, in honor of the year of Stonewall. The Press is donating 40% of our share of the proceeds to the charities, and many of our authors chose to donate part of their share to charity as well, with the result that more than 35% of each bundle sale will go directly to the causes our authors have chosen to support. Thus far, we’ve raised just over $300; we’ll divide our final total in half and make the donations once the fundraiser is complete, and we’ll post receipts for transparency purposes.

The General Imprint bundle includes 14 short stories – 175 pages of very queer fiction – with works by Alec J. Marsh, Annabeth Lynch, D. V. Morse, Era J. M. Couts, J. D. Harlock, Nicola Kapron, Nina Waters, nottesilhouette, Puck Malamud, R. L. Houck, Sage Mooreland, Theresa Tanner, Tris Lawrence, and Violet J. Hayes. Approximately $7 of every General Imprint bundle purchase goes to charity (35%).

The Erotica Imprint bundle includes 11 short stories – a steamy, smutty 151 pages – with works by Aeryn Jemariel Knox, Alec J. Marsh, boneturtle, Dei Walker, Lyn Weaver, Mikki Madison, Nina Waters, R. L. Houck, Samantha M. Piper, Tris Lawrence, and Xianyu Zhou. Approximately $8 of every Erotica Imprint bundle purchase goes to charity (40%).

DUCK PRINTS PRESS gets your eyes on two whole bundles of our publications.

THE CHARITIES get cold, hard cash!

AND YOU get great stories, a sampler of works written by the authors who are part of Duck Prints Press! Some come on over and BUY YOUR 2023 GENERAL IMPRINT AND EROTICA IMPRINT PRIDE BUNDLES NOW!

You can read more about this charity drive, the Press, the charities, and the stories by reading this post!

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Three New Short Stories from Duck Prints Press!

Happy last Thursday of July! We’re celebrating with three new short story releases!

Title: Entanglement
Series: Sunrise Over the Black Forest
Author: Lyn Weaver

m/m, established relationship of convenience, mutual pining, aren’t roadtrip invitations always platonic clearly there’s no feels here

Two years into their not-relationship, Sevan disappears for a week, only to appear at Kel’s church with a simple invitation: for Kel to accompany Sevan on a two-week trip to the edge of the Black Forest to observe the forest expanding its borders.

How does a cursed forest become larger?

When the trees get up and relocate, of course…

Title: Little Witch’s Apothecary
Series: May of the Mountain
Author: J. D. Harlock

studio ghibli meets fandom vibes, modern with magic, love potion shenanigans

Desperate for money to pay off her debts, May opens a small apothecary stand in Jdiedet. It’d be far more enjoyable work if the clientele didn’t constantly break into her manga reading time…but she supposes she’ll cook up a love potion for the local librarian. If she has to. If only to ensure the library continues getting new volumes for her to read.

Title: Awkward and Oblivious
Author: R. L. Houck

f/f, modern, fluffy, bonding over a sick pet

When the trucker Alex finds a sick puppy abandoned by the side of the road, she races to get the poor dog to a veterinarian that can help. Several appointments later, the now-adopted Mako is on the mend and Alex has a favorite vet office.

Now, if only Alex could figure out how to get the oblivious Dr. Anna to respond to her awkward attempts to ask her on a date…

Get these charming stories, and many more, by visiting the Duck Prints Press store now!

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Three Days Left to Buy Queer Stories and Support Great Causes!

Time is running out to participate in Duck Prints Press’s 2023 Pride Bundle fundraiser! Through July 28th, we’re offering two book bundles – one containing 14 short stories from our general imprint, one containing 11 short stories from our erotica imprint – with nearly 40% of the proceeds going to the Ali Forney Center and Transgender Law Center.

Since we listed these bundles on the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, June 28th, 1969, we’ve raised $225.25 to donate! We’d love to increase that number, and with your help we can!

Check out everything you can get:

Titles in the General Imprint Charity Bundle:

Approximately 35% of the $19.69 list price of this bundle will go to the charities.

Titles in the Erotica Imprint Charity Bundle:

Approximately 40% of the $19.69 list price of this bundle will go to the charities.

Looking for a big W this week? A small, queer indie press gets support, two wonderful charities get money to help queer youth, and you get great stories? Sounds like winning to us! So come visit Duck Prints Press’s webstore and get your stories now!

You can read all the details about us, the charities, and how this sale works by visiting the main post here.

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Time is Running Out to Get Our Pride Bundles!

There are only TEN DAYS left to buy our Pride Bundles, get loads of great stories, and help us support the Ali Forney Center and Transgender Law Center with a share of the proceeds!

With the help of y’all awesome readers, we’ve already raised $172.81 total – we’ll be sending half of that total to each charity!! Can we make it $100 per charity, $200+ total? I think we can, but only with your help!!

Not sure what I’m talking about? Duck Prints Press is selling two short story bundles, one of general imprint stories, one of erotica stories. Each bundle is $19.69, and combined they include 25 stories by 20 different authors. We’re donating almost 40% of the proceeds to charity, so this is a great chance to support indie publishing AND queer causes.

But don’t wait – we’re only selling these bundles until July 28th, 2023.

You can read all the deets here! Don’t miss this opportunity to help us help others!

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“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: MouMouSanRen

We’re entering the final 48 hours of our crowdfunding campaign for Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”! We’ve introduced 19 of our 20 authors. Meet the last (but most definitely not least) – MouMouSanRen!

Untitled by MouMouSanRen

About the Author: MouMouSanRen (she/her) was born and raised on unceded Matinecock territory in what is now known as Flushing, New York. She has been published in multiple non-fiction magazines including Polygon. Aim for the Heart is her fiction debut. She resides in her native Queens, practicing martial arts and taking care of her dogs.

Link: Twitter

Story Teaser:

“Her parents must have gone to Montana,” they whispered, some admiringly, some with fascinated pity. When New Yorkers fled the Eruption, it was to find something more than what the city could provide for them. Some had retreated to well-fed, well-off places like East Asia or Europe, or warm, spiritual places, like New Mexico. They were sometimes drier, sometimes colder, than New York, but they were good lots to end up with after fleeing the city. Only the poorest went someplace like Montana.

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New Patreon Backer Reward Story: “A Cup and Company” by A. J. Ash

Title: A Cup and Company

Author: A. J. Ash

Genre: Modern/Contemporary Romance

Rating: General Audiences

Relationship: f/nb

Character Features: barista, face blind, non-binary, graduate student

Tags: angst (minor), coffee shop, past tense, meet cute, pov third person limited

Teaser:

“Hello, and welcome to Corner Café!” exclaimed the barista. “What’ll it be today?”

“Just make me whatever,” Zoe grumbled in response.

“Oh,” said the barista, tone shifting from chipper to knowing. “One of those days, huh?”

This story is available to all our backers on Patreon right now! Become a backer, and happy reading!

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“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: Sebastian Marie

Duck Prints Press (the indie Press founded by fandom folks to publish the original work of fandom folks) is nearing the end of our current crowdfunding campaign to publish our next anthology, Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”! Four days left til the Kickstarter ends, three creators left to spotlight, and a little over $3k to go to hit our first stretch goal!

Here, check out another story teaser, this one by Sebastian Marie! The tag line on this one, per Sebastian, is: THE MUSKETEERS IF THEY WERE HOT BUTCHES FROM FLORIDA. If that isn’t an elevator pitch to get your attention, I don’t know what is…

Pensacola’s Most Wanted by Sebastian Marie

About the Author: Sebastian Marie (he/him) is an engineering student with a penchant for writing off-the-wall fantasy, darkly comedic prose, and sickeningly indulgent short stories. He has a lot of opinions about dragons, pirates, and sword fighting. Track him down on Ao3 and he’ll share these opinions through fanfiction for various fandoms including BBC Merlin, The Mechanisms, and Our Flag Means Death. His original works often combine fantasy and dystopia into what he calls “queer fantasy hopepunk,” something that will be explored in his future novels. He loves to write conflicting traditional and non-traditional family dynamics, especially where they intersect with queer relationships. And if he can throw werewolves and brujas into the mix? So much the better. When not writing, frantically studying dirt, or reading, he can be found singing loudly, sewing impractical coats, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and going on long rambling walks while plotting stories (and occasionally falling into rivers).

This is his second time writing for Duck Prints Press, having previously contributed to She Wears the Midnight Crown. This brings his grand total of published works up to two! He’s looking forward to more, as soon as he gets some sleep.

Links: Archive of Our Own | Tumblr

Story Teaser:

“So,” Connie drawls, wrapping herself around Darcy, her wife of two days, as they enter their private dormitory. “You gonna explain to me exactly how you managed to get all those recommendation letters?”

Darcy is still riding the highs of A: marriage, B: watching an excellent con come to fruition, and C: as a direct result of that con, successfully enrolling in the New Pensacola branch of the Florida Academy for Fighting Arts (FAFA for the initiated) after a full year of waiting. She just smiles and wraps a hand around her wife’s waist. “Are you insinuating, Mrs. Batz, that there was foul play involved?”

“I know there was some funny business, Mrs. Batz, what with who your aunt and uncles are. I think I deserve the story.”

“Hey, I didn’t know they were infamous when they adopted me.”

“Story, now.”

“Okay, okay.”

We’ve got this whole story, and 19 other fabulously queer tales, AND a whole delightful pile of queerified musketeer art, in this anthology – don’t miss it! Visit our campaign page now!

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“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: E. V. Dean

There are only FOUR DAYS left on the campaign to fund Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” – it ends on Saturday, July 15th at 10:15 AM Eastern Time! This is a perfect moment to get your pledge in and make sure you get your copy of this awesome book and gorgeous merchandise. And don’t forget to peek at our add-ons – there’s a lot of great stuff in there, including the only opportunity we’ve given to buy print copies of our past anthology And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (only six of this add on are left!) and the chance to buy items from the limited quantities of merchandise we have left from some of our past campaigns!

RUN, DON’T WALK (okay, wait…) CLICK THE MOUSE OR TOUCH THE SCREEN, DON’T AMBULATE, TO CHECK OUT OUR KICKSTARTER NOW!

And don’t forget to help us spread the word!

Anyway, onward. Today, for our fourth-to-last spotlight, meet E. V. Dean!

Heartbeat by E. V. Dean

About the Author: E. V. Dean is a writer with a decade of fanfiction writing under her belt. She’s embarking on her original fiction adventure with the angst tag kept within arm’s reach. Her favorite excuse not to write is watching Jeopardy.

Links: Instagram | Tumblr

Story Teaser: 

Athos cups Aramis’s jaw as he wipes the blood away with a wet cloth. He moves gently across his cheekbone, his hairline. His touch is as gentle as if it could cause agony, even though Aramis is deep in his slumber and he can’t grunt or flinch or feel a thing. It’s good, Athos tells himself. He’s not in any pain for a while.

Selfishly, though, he’d rather have his groans and screams than this uncertain silence.

He carefully wipes the blood from Aramis’s eyelid, so that when he wakes up, he can open both his eyes and focus them properly: on Athos, on his surroundings. On the world that is too close to slipping away from him. Athos makes sure there are no cuts around his eye, but luckily all of the blood came from the gash on his forehead. Aramis will be inconsolable about the scar, as if that small mark could make him any less beautiful.