#independant press

[hermit-writes]

Hermit Prints — Hockey Bois

This project was for the novel Hockey Bois by A.L. Heard, published by Duck Prints Press.

Nick Porter has always loved hockey. Ever since he can remember, it’s been his favorite thing in the world. It’s too bad he never learned to play, he’d tell himself, but it was too late to do it now. Adults don’t just magically learn to skate and join a hockey team. That’d be ridiculous. Except maybe they do? On a whim, he decides to sign up for an adult  beginner’s class. He learns to skate, joins a team, and meets a really hot teammate… and it’s pretty much a disaster from there on out.

This is available in both hard covers and trade paperback, in the 6×9 format.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

You can purchase the hardcover, paperback, and e-book from Duck Print Press. The trade paperback should also be available to order at your local bookstore, and the e-book available in libraries!

[psychoticallytrans]

There are three main models of disability that are in common use. The moral model, the medical model, and the social model.

You may not have heard of the moral model before, but if you are disabled, you have felt the impact of it. The moral model is disability as a failure of character. It sources the problem of disability in the character of the disabled person. It's the people who insist that if you just tried harder, were better, had a better attitude, that you would no longer be disabled. It is a model that is used by ableists in order to conceptualize of disability as a failing of the individual. An extreme example of this mindset are the Christian Scientists, who believe that all illnesses and disabilities should be healed by the grace of their god and that if you are not healed, something is wrong with you. It is the the most cruel of the models, and the least successful at assisting disabled people.

The medical model is the model used by the medical establishment and by those who put their stock in medical authority. It sources the problem of disability in the body. It measures disability against a theoretical average person, and seeks to make disabled people match that average person more closely. This model works very well for disabled people with disabilities that can be measured, have a potential treatment plan, and want their disability gone. It does not work very well for people who do not match all three criteria. If they match the first and second but not the third, then strict adherents of the medical model often fall back on the moral model, stating that they are stupid, lazy, or selfish for not being interested in being cured. This also often happens if treatment fails to improve the condition of the disabled person.

The social model is a newer model, largely designed by disability activists and scholars and often defined in opposition to the medical model. It sources the problem of disability in the interaction between the disabled person and their physical and social environment. It argues that the solution of disability is to change the environment so that impairments are no longer an issue. This model works very well for disabled people who consider their disability not to be an issue when fully accommodated. It does not work well for people who consider their disability an inherent impairment and/or desire a cure. Strict adherents of the social model often fall back on the moral model when considering these people, stating that they are short-sighted or that they worship the medical model. These are the people who state things such as that depression would not exist in a world without capitalism.

When a disabled person fails to behave as expected by the model a person has of disability, the moral model is almost always the fallback position, because many people cannot conceive of why someone would disagree with them other than a lack of good character. This is a problem, because the moral model proposes no solution but to ignore or abuse the disabled person until they behave as expected.

Another notable interaction is that adherents of the medical model can often be persuaded to support the more traditional parts of the social model, such as providing large text resources to people with impaired vision, so long as there is empirical research backing it. However, they rarely support more radical arguments that challenge how we define disability and how society should be structured or restructured.

All three models have major failure points. The moral model fails every disabled person it is applied to. The medical and social models both fail different disabled people when adhered to strictly. The best approach at the moment seems to be hybridizing the social and medical models, so that they cover each other's weak points and fit the needs of the widest spectrum of disabled people. The main barrier to this is that they are often defined in opposition to each other.

[uwmspeccoll]

International Women's Day

In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8), we’re showcasing one of writer, educator, intersectional feminist, poet, civil rights activist, and former New York public school librarian Audre Lorde’s (1934–1992) early collections of poetry. From a Land Where Other People Live was published in 1973 by Detroit’s groundbreaking Broadside Press. This independent press was founded in 1965 by poet, University of Detroit librarian, and Detroit’s first poet laureate Dudley Randall (1914-2000) with the mission to publish the leading African American poetry of the time in a well-designed format that was also "accessible to the widest possible audience." A comprehensive catalog of Broadside Press’s impressive roster of artists (including Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker, to name a few), titled Broadside Authors and Artists: An Illustrated Biographical Directory, was published in 1974 by educator and fellow University of Detroit librarian Leaonead Pack Drain-Bailey (1906-1983).  

Lorde described herself in an interview with Callaloo Literary Journal in 1990 as “a Black, Lesbian, Feminist, warrior, poet, mother doing [her] work”. She dedicated her life to “confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.” From a Land Where Other People Live is a powerfully intimate expression of her personal struggles with identity and her deeply rooted critiques of social injustice. The work was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1974, the same year that Broadside Press published New York Head Shop and Museum, another volume of Lorde’s poetry featured in our collection. You can find more information on her writings and on the organization inspired by her life and work by visiting The Audre Lorde Project.     

More posts on Broadside Press publications  

More Women’s History Month posts  

More International Women’s Day posts  

-- Ana, Special Collections Graduate Fieldworker 

[eugenedebs1920]

Some mistook our criticism of this nation as disrespect. They have accused liberals of hating America. They have said we were coming, Marxist, pinkos. All because we held our country to a higher standard. There’s is a certain amount of accountability we demand. When you love something, you want it to be the best version of itself that it can be. And we love our nation!

We did not do this to disparage her. We did it because of what we know she’s capable of. For America is the land of the free and the home of the brave! Our independence came from a ragtag bunch of miscrieants, fighting against the worlds strongest military might, yet hell bent on freedom! Our Civil War was fought, not over a disagreement in governance, not over what leader should be in power, but over the concept that all peoples deserve to be free. After shattering the bondage of slavery we were asked to assist democratic nations overseas. In our first involvement in a world war. Again fascism rose in Europe and Asia, and again we intervened, all but annihilating fascism and imperialism at the roots. We have been there when small nations needed assistance, we have stood up for democracy, helped out in natural disasters, demanded change for the climate crisis, fed the poor, helped the needy, spread democracy, promoted freedom, condemned oppression, stood up for human rights, led the world in the notion that all are created equal and that all deserve dignity.

Be proud to be a citizen in the greatest, freest, most influential, powerful nation on earth!!!

America. 

🇺🇸

[d-criss-news]

How Sondheim and Burnett Got Darren Criss to Provincetown

Provincetown hasn’t been compared to The Godfather or Star Wars very often, but those are the examples actor and singer Darren Criss names in acknowledging that his July 21 town hall appearance will be his first visit here.

“Provincetown is like that movie that you haven’t seen but you don’t want your friends to know you haven’t seen, so you don’t incur their wrath and ridicule and disbelief,” he says, noting that several of his good pals visit often. “I don’t bring up that I haven’t been there because my friends will give me crap. I haven’t avoided it — I’ve really wanted to go. Finally, the stars aligned quite nicely.”

Maybe the stars had a little help from Carol Burnett.

Host and accompanist John McDaniel, a Grammy and Emmy award-winning musician, says he invited Criss to be part of his summer Broadway series here after Criss performed on 2023’s Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Love + Laughter TV birthday special. McDaniel was the music director.

Criss’s best-known roles are his breakout portrayal of Blaine for five seasons (2010 to 2015) on Glee in a milestone-for-mainstream-TV gay romance with Chris Colfer’s Kurt, and his 2018 Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning turn as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Both roles came thanks to producer and Provincetown part-timer Ryan Murphy.)

In addition to acting and singing — including Glee’s “Teenage Dream” cover that climbed the Billboard charts — Criss is a songwriter. He first won notice for co-writing and starring in 2009’s A Very Potter Musical parody for the Chicago-based StarKid Productions, which he co-founded. Criss’s A Very Darren Crissmas generated national holiday tours.

Shortly after Criss wrote the opening number for the 2022 Tony Awards, his friend Paul Miller, director of the Burnett tribute, asked him to refashion Stephen Sondheim’s “Side by Side” from Company into an homage to Burnett’s famous duets with celebrity guest stars.

In what he called “one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” Criss performed “Burnett’s Duets” for the star-studded birthday-party special with Broadway’s Sutton Foster. That came after he meticulously dissected Sondheim’s music to fit new lyrics and fine-tuned the arrangement with McDaniel.

“When I was doing this,” Criss says, “in my mind, I was going, ‘What would the ghost of Sondheim be OK with?’ ”

More Broadway music will be on Criss’s mind in Provincetown for what he says will be an unusual program because it likely won’t include original work or him playing guitar or piano; McDaniel will accompany him. Criss prides himself on not performing the same live show twice and plans to include Broadway songs he’s not yet sung in public.

That said, he recognizes fans might want to hear something connected to his own Broadway star turns. Those include — besides the nonmusical American Buffalo in 2022 — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2012 and 2015’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Plus, earlier this year, Criss starred in off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors.

In September, he’ll originate a Broadway role for the first time, headlining Will Aronson and Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending. Criss plays an outdated, retired robot in futuristic Seoul who explores the nature of love with another retired robot (Helen J. Shen). To try to help boost its U.S. profile, Criss is also a producer of the musical, which has been a hit in Korea, China, and Japan. Its Broadway debut will be directed by Michael Arden (2023 Tony Award for Parade, Spring Awakening), a longtime Criss friend who directed the English-language debut in 2020 in Atlanta.

Criss is excited but nervous about the piece; he says it’s intimate and epic at once. “There’s an excitement about the uniqueness and specialness of this show that I’ve never encountered before,” he says. “So that’s either going to crash and burn and blow up in our faces or catch on. I don’t know, but the prospect is very thrilling.”

Criss, who is straight, made headlines this spring for comments at a Chicago expo about being “culturally queer” because of his admiration for the LGBTQ community. “The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by are 100 percent queer,” he said then, later adding that “it was in queer communities that I’ve found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from.”

“That had to be the slowest news day ever,” Criss says about his comments getting attention — especially because he’s talked many times before about similar things, including how much it meant to be part of Glee’s Blaine-Kurt relationship story.

Beyond Provincetown and Broadway, in August Criss’s voice will be heard in an unusual spot: on season 10 of Netflix’s Gabby’s Dollhouse, a children’s show, as the new Marty the Party Cat, magical host of the Party Room. It’s a voice role Criss says was planned long before his two-year-old daughter and seven-week-old son were born to him and his wife.

Marty is described by Netflix as a lovable, “exuberant goofball” who has a big heart and the ability to laugh at himself.

“He’s a fun guy,” Criss says. “I’m aspirationally Marty the Party Cat.”

[duckprintspress]

Help Us Pick the Theme for Our Next Explicit Anthology!

Ever wondered how Duck Prints Press picks our anthology themes? The answer is…we don’t! Our Patrons do! Any backer on our Patreon, from $3/month on up, gets a say – and the current poll to pick our next theme is running right now!

Our twelfth anthology will be the second erotica collection. Our first, Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica, crowdfunded over the summer and we will be completing campaign fulfillment within the next week, with the book to become available to the general public in mid-fall.

For this new set of short stories, we first chatted with folks on our private Press Discord, then the Press staff narrowed that down to a few specific ideas, and now we’re at the last step – where everyone who supports us gets a say!

No matter the outcome of the vote, our next anthology will feature…

stories about explicit sex with non-human creatures, monsters, and the like;

fully consensual liaisons;

unconventional genitalia (not required by highly encouraged);

happy endings; and

queerness!

But that’s not narrow enough to make an interesting thematic collection of stories, so that’s where our backers (and, perhaps, you!) come in. What are the choices for specific themes that are being voted on?

cottagecore (but explicit and with monsters!)

courtship and mating rituals (“how to woo your human”)

underwater settings and underwater creatures

your friendly neighborhood cryptid

ye older high fantasy monsterloving (fairytale/folklore/mythology-inspired encouraged!)

Honestly, I’m glad I don’t have to pick, because it’s a damn tough choice – they all sound awesome. But pick we must, and one will become the theme for our next anthology.

Already a backer? Don’t forget to vote! Not yet a backer? Become one today!

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Janice K. Hrubes - Song of the Nargase Witch - Return To Tomorrow - 1977 (art by Jude Huntsberger)

[tomlinfonda]

A totally random collection of screenshots.

[sanctuarypress]

Tayen Core is now public release!

Well, folks, I've finally gotten there. After long, grueling development of my heartbreaker project, a fully functional d20 TTRPG, Tayen Core is now available for purchase.

Reviews from my playtesters:

"An adventurous and experimental romp through a complete reimagining of the d20 ttrpg paradigm" - Bean "I don't think I could come up with anything actually good" - Malady "The most intense examining of one's role within a fictional adventure along with the gayest world that ever was" - Sage "A refreshing take on game design that gives players old and new a chance to create amazing stories together" - Sophie "This system is gay as hell" - Wintyr "This system would cause major dysfunction in my family were it to be leaked" - Anarcho "Requires a little more character setup than dnd, but easier to play overall. very gay, very inspired, very worth" - Crimson "I hear the dragons are real weird" - Kassiopeia

Pricing:

For one week only, Tayen Core is 33% off its $15 price tag! Come pick it up for $10 and change!

If you can't afford Tayen and want to play, fear not! A site a la Archives of Nethys is incoming in the next bit, you'll just have to wait.

Link:

I'll reblog this with a link in a second!

[hermit-writes]

Hermit Prints — To Drive the Hundred Miles

This project was for the novella To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh, published by @duckprintspress.

Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school. The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.

This is in the digest format, with white paper and matte cover options. The final books had 94 pages. The cover treatment is by Pallas Perillous.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

You can purchase the print and ebook versions from Duck Print Press, as well as related merchandises.

The novella along with related merch (wood carved pendant, sticker, spell jar recipe card)

Front cover of the novella

Sample interior page

Closer look at the pendant, sticker, and card

[bethfuller]

✦ it’s a little late but here’s my 2022 art roundup ! ✦

i definitely transitioned to doing more landscapes this year, and i’m excited to expand my proverbial horizons in 2023. thanks for sticking with me, everyone!

[dontforgetukraine]

On Ukraine's Independence Day, the Euromaidan Press asked locals at Independence Square in Kyiv what independence means to them and Ukraine.

[uwmspeccoll]

Independence Day Poems, Indigenously

This 4th of July we bring you some poems on the American nation from an indigenous point of view in Diane Glancy's (Cherokee, b. 1941) The Relief of America published in Chicago by Tia Chucha Press in 2000. A little bit of celebration, a little bit of snark . . . well, mostly snark. Published 24 years ago, many of the poems seem even more relevant today.

Diane Glancy is a poet, playwright, and educator of Cherokee, German, and English descent. This book is one of 40 by Glancy that form part of our Native American Literature Collection.

We wish you a safe and happy 4th of July . . . Indigenously.

View posts from Independence Days past.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

[vertigoartgore]

1990's Why I Hate Saturn GN cover by artist/cartoonist Kyle Baker.

Tom Brevoort : "The short-lived Piranha Press imprint from DC was also trying to expand the boundaries of the medium in revolutionary ways, but few of their projects made any long-lasting impact. One that did was Kyle Baker’s WHY I HATE SATURN, his second stand-alone graphic novel after THE COWBOY WALLY SHOW. Having begun his career as a journeyman artist and production person at Marvel, Kyle had developed some serious cartooning chops and had created an approach to storytelling that drew influence from editorial cartoons and comic strips such as Prince Valiant. Which is to say, his copy tended to sit at the bottom of his panels rather than in traditional balloons and captions. The book tells the story of cynical writer Anne Merkel, whose life is thrown into chaos when her long-lost and utterly crazy sister re-enters her life. No super heroes to be found here, just a wonderfully told story with exceptional artwork."

[zvaigzdelasas]

Critical support for the Newsom regime in undermining federal foreign policy ✊ [25 Oct 23]

[duckprintspress]

Small Business Saturday SALE on duckprintspress.com!

This Saturday, November 25th, is Small Business Saturday! Looking to shop small this holiday season? Check out Duck Prints Press, the fan-created independent small press that publishes the (usually extremely queer) original work of fanauthors and fanartists. We’ve got great gifts for the queer book lover in your life, including anthologies, short stories, merchandise, and more. And, of course, we’ve got lots of adorable merch featuring our adorable Dux mascot, too!

What have we got? Well, what are you looking for?? We have…

four anthologies!

novels, novellas, and novelettes!

almost 100 short stories, most queer, some explicit!

story bundles!

enamel pins!

stickers!

clothes!

art prints!

bookmarks!

Dux merch!

book-related miscellany!

BEST YET?

All newsletter subscribers will receive a coupon good for 25% off their ENTIRE PURCHASE made this weekend! So if you’re not a subscriber yet, there’s no time like the present!

And while you’re at it, make sure you follow us on the social media platform(s) of your choice! Also, come read with us on our Book Lover’s Discord Server. Want to support indie queer publishing all year round? Back us on Patreon and get awesome rewards!