Tag Archives: werewolves

25Oct/24

Catherine Lundoff QoSP

October 25, 2024

It gives us great pleasure to present a Season 9, Episode 41 Interview: Catherine Lundoff of Queen of Swords Press

Catherine Ludoff of Queen of Swords Press returns to share her latest Wolves of Wolf’s Point series updates, as well as some of the latest offerings from Queen of Swords Press authors Michael Merriam, Melissa Scott, Lisa A. Barnett, Amy Griswold, and others!

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Bio:

Catherine Lundoff is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press, a small Minneapolis-based press specializing in fiction from out of this world. The Queen of Swords catalogue includes the Vogel Award-winning dapper lesbian capybara pirate tales of The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater, the Lambda Literary Award-winning Lynes & Mathey duology by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold as well as the Astreiant Series by Melissa Scott and Lisa A.Barnett, plus books by Heather Rose Jones, Michael Merriam, Jennie Goloboy, Dee Holloway and some of Catherine’s own work, including her Wolves of Wolf’s Point series and her short fiction collections Out of This World and Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic.

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October 15, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Catherine Lundoff & Queen of Swords Press as the guest on Season 6, Episode 41 – There’s a Fair Amount of Juggling!

Catherine Lundoff from Queen of Swords Press joins us to talk about their upcoming releases, what they look for in a submission, and touch on author involvement in marketing!

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Bio:

Catherine Lundoff is a transplanted Brooklynite who lives in Minneapolis with her wife Jana, an amazingly talented book artist, and the two cats that own them. When not writing, she works as a professional computer geek. In former lives, Catherine owned a feminist bookstore (Grassroots Books in Iowa City) and has lived in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico. She was once a professional archaeologist and before that, worked at a bar in St. Louis that laid claim to having the world’s largest collection of Elvis memorabilia outside Memphis. Catherine started writing professionally in 1996 while in law school. She sold the first story she ever wrote and quit law school a week later; she has not looked back since. In addition to writing and editing, Catherine is also the publisher at Queen of Swords Press.

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12Apr/21

Review – Summoned by J. P. Jackson

J. P. Jackson will be interviewed by WROTE in the very near future. In the meantime, I received an ARC of his new novel, Summoned, in return for an honest and fair review.

Is it wrong to say my favourite character was a twig? Bear with me…

This was a fun story which grips from the first page. Full of sexy times, gory bits and terrific world building, I’d go so far to say this is his best book yet. Daimonion and Magic or Die were fun, deliciously dark reads, but this is on another level.

The main character, Dev, has had a lifelong wish to join the Shadow Realm and become a witch, but he gets more than he bargains for when he buys a summoning board and persuades his best friend, Cam, to have a go with him. The moral to take from this story is a) be careful what you wish for and b) never meet your heroes. I could also add c) don’t fall head over heels in love with a friendly, sexy redhead who seems perfect. He won’t be. And d) don’t rely on your best friend not to say something stupid. They will.

I made the mistake of picking this up ahead of every other book I’m supposed to review, just to have a peek and see what I was letting myself in for. Of course, I ended up reading the whole damned thing.

There are some great spell-casting scenes, a lovely burgeoning relationship between Cam and a grumpy werewolf after they find themselves trapped in the same dungeon, and some sexy, hairy scenes between husky Dev and the ginger bear-ish man of his dreams. Or is he? On a side note – these aren’t ripped, model-gorgeous, no-hair, twinky guys but normal men with hair and bellies and morning breath. They felt real.

I also loved Byron and Addas, his partner, who he is trying to save from being infected with werewolf venom. The methods an increasingly desperate Byron resorts to in order to save him are disturbing to say the least, made more so by their early domestic scenes, which are lovely.

Top marks for world-building and great side characters, including Cam’s mum, who is hilarious even though she only has a small part to play. And the twig. If you don’t have a lump in your throat after discovering the fate of the Spriggan, you’re a psychopath. End of.

All the dialogue runs smoothly and feels natural, and the characters are convincing to the max, with all their human frailties and foibles, as well as their strengths. The story didn’t end on too much of a cliffhanger, although there is another book to come. It could be read as a standalone, I guess, but my bet is no one will be happy with just one helping of these great characters.

It was a great read and I can’t wait for the next one!

BLURB

Devid Khandelwal desperately wants to experience the supernatural. After years of studying everything from crystals to tarot to spellcasting, nothing has happened that would tell him the Shadow Realm is real. And that kills Dev. As a last-ditch resort, he purchases a summoning board, an occult tool that will grant him his ultimate desires.

Cameron Habersham is Dev’s best friend. Cam loves Dev like a brother and will do anything for him, as long as he looks good doing it. So when Dev asks him to perform the summoning board’s ritual, he reluctantly agrees, but he knows nothing will come of it. Nothing ever does.

However, within a day, Dev and Cam’s lives are turned upside down as wishes begin to come true. They discover the existence of a supernatural world beyond their imagination, but peace between the species is tenuous at best.

Dev finally gets to see the Shadow Realm, meets the man of his dreams, and is inducted into the local male coven. But for all the desires that were summoned into existence, Dev soon realizes the magical community dances the line between good and evil, and Cam ends up on the wrong side of everything.

The old adage is true: Be careful what you wish for.