[Scrol naar beneden om dit bericht in het Nederlands te lezen.]
Hi!
The Strong Women, Strange Worlds QuickReads in which I’ll be reading a piece from my favourite chapter of The Dragon of Ynys is happening this Friday, February 6th, at 12:00 noon EST (that’s 18:00 in Belgium).
This cool online event spotlighting the author voices of women and non-binary writers will take place online. Everyone can join for free, as long as you register beforehand via this Eventbrite link.Without a registration, you won’t be able to get a valid Zoom link.
With only 2 days to go, I’m really looking forward to the reading! It’ll be so much fun to hear the other authors read, hear what sort of giveaways they’re doing (there’ll be a The Dragon of Ynys audiobook giveaway too!), and interact with the listeners live in chat. I really hope to see you there!
In other news, we posted the 419th edition of Paranatellonta on February 1st: read it here.
The Paranatelonta videos have started up again as well: a new one will appear once every 3 weeks. The earlier ones came up every 2 weeks, but it’s more work than you’d think to set up a properly edited 3-minute video both in English and in Dutch, so I’ve decided to give myself a little more time in 2026.
That means the next Paranatellonta video in English will be up on February 12, 2026—subscribe here to make sure you won’t miss it, and listen to the latest one from January 22 (“Replacement”, with a dragon main character) via this link.
Thank you for your support!
Love,
Minerva
Hallo!
Deze vrijdag 6 februari mag ik een fragment uit mijn favoriete hoofdstuk van The Dragon of Ynys voorlezen in een online Engelstalig evenement: de Strong Women, Strange Worlds QuickReads. Dat zal plaatsvinden om 12:00 uur ‘s middags in de EST-tijdzone; dat is 18:00 uur in België en Nederland. Het zal ongeveer een uurtje duren: we zijn met 6 auteurs en zullen elk ongeveer 8 minuten voorlezen.
Toegang is gratis, je moet je alleen even registreren via deze link om een geldige Zoom-link te krijgen.
Met nog maar 2 dagen te gaan kijk ik enorm uit naar de lezing! Het gaat superfijn zijn om de andere auteurs te horen voorlezen, om te zien wat voor giveaways zij in petto hebben (we zullen onder andere een Engelstalig luisterboek van The Dragon of Ynys weggeven!), en om met de luisteraars in interactie te gaan, live in de chat. Ik hoop dat ik jullie daar zal zien!
Ondertussen hebben we op 1 februari alweer de 419de editie van Paranatellonta gepost, die je hier in het Engels kan lezen.
De Paranatellonta-video’s zijn ook aan een nieuw seizoen begonnen. Vanaf nu zullen ze eens in de 3 weken verschijnen. De vorige video’s kwamen om de 2 weken online, maar er kruipt meer werk in dan je zou denken om goed geëdite videootjes van 3 minuten te maken in het Nederlands en het Engels, dus ik heb beslist om mezelf in 2026 wat meer tijd te geven.
Dat wil zeggen dat de volgende Paranatellonta-video in het Nederlands zal verschijnen op 13 februari 2026. Abonneer je hier op mijn YouTubekanaal om ervoor te zorgen dat je zeker niets mist en luister naar de recentste video van 22 januari (“Vervangen”, met een draak als hoofdpersonage) via deze link.
On February 6th, I’ll have the honour of reading for the Strong Women, Strange Worlds First Friday QuickReads! This event is accessible free on Zoom after registering via this link.
It will take place at 12:00 EST – that’s 18:00 here in Belgium.
The QuickReads are like a “book tasting” of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories by women and non-binary writers.
Our mission is to elevate the voices of women and other underrepresented gender identity authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror; to highlight stories featuring strong female and non-binary characters; and to share these stories with readers of all ages. – statement on the website of Strong Women, Strange Worlds
I will be reading a piece from The Dragon of Ynys, annnnd there will be a giveaway at the event. Time to mark your calendars!
To promote last week’s release of Queens in Wonderland, LS Reinholt and I were interviewed by editor Theresa Halvorsen on the Semi-Sages of the Pages YouTube channel.
You can watch this interview, which includes the reading of a fragment of both of our stories, here:
If you’re thinking it would be amazing to watch interviews and readings from the other authors of the anthology as well, you’re in luck! The YouTube channel contains a whole list of author interviews by now, which you can find here. (If you’re reading this post sometime in the future: it might be easier to find them if you enter “Queens in Wonderland” into that page’s search bar.)
I hope you’ll enjoy watching the interviews! (Even when they sometimes contain nervously grinning Cheshire cat-dragons. I was sticking to the theme!!!)
Queens in Wonderland is a collection of short stories inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It includes LS Reinholt’s “Oosh Lea in 1D Land” and my own “Good-Natured Anxiety for the Queer Creature”. All of the stories contain LGBTQIA+ characters and themes. You can now buy the book in ebook and paperback format, via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and add it on The Storygraph and Goodreads.
It’s release day!!! The anthology Queens in Wonderland is out now: a collection of 19 new short stories, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Queens in Wonderland contains my story “Good-Natured Anxiety for the Queer Creature”, about the White and Red Queen who are chasing the same moth—for very different reasons. The style is closely based on Lewis Carroll’s own whimsy, and under all the absurdity, the story winds into the journey of allowing yourself to take up space as a trans and/or non-binary person, and the role community plays in that. I particularly loved playing with the White Queen’s memory, as that works in the opposite direction from most people’s memories, which makes her one of my favourite characters from the original books.
The title of my story is a direct quote from a scene of Through the Looking-Glass in which Alice is anxious that Humpty Dumpty might fall off the wall.
My friend and (in other projects) co-writer LS Reinholt also has a story in this book: “Oosh Lea in 1D Land”. The anthology was edited by Theresa Halvorsen and Chris Bannor.
Are you ready to take a trip down the rabbit hole?
Embark on an enchanting journey through a Wonderland where queens reign supreme and the tapestry of love, identity, and self-discovery is woven with threads of LGBTQIA+ brilliance. Queens in Wonderland beckons you down the glittering landscape of diverse tales inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic books.
In this daring anthology, a young transgender man and an Indian princess teach each other their true worth, the Queen of Hearts’ executioner defies the Queen to protect the man he loves, and Alice, seeking a return to Wonderland, finds her Wendy. Every page is filled with delightful interpretations of your favorite characters, celebrating the strength, resilience, and beauty found within the LGBTQIA+ community.
This anthology is a testament to the power of storytelling, illustrating the magic that happens when queens, imagined lands, and queerness intersect in the most unexpected places. So don a crown, a top hat, or a tiara and step through the looking glass, to revel in these curious tales from Queens in Wonderland.
Queens in Wonderland is coming out later this month – but the ebook preorders are up TODAY! Happy unbirthday, indeed!
Queens in Wonderland is an anthology edited by Theresa Halvorsen & Chris Bannor and it will be out on February 28! All the stories are based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass, with queer characters. It contains 19 stories, including my own “Good-Natured Anxiety for the Queer Creature” and LS Reinholt’s “Oosh Lea in 1D Land”.
Starting today, a new video will be posted every few days on the Semi-Sages of the Pages YouTube channel to promote this anthology. There will be lots of author interviews, episodes about the wondrous world of anthologies, a Wonderland immersive, and celebrations of the upcoming release.
Today’s video is an author interview with K.R. Cervantez: check it out!
The interview with LS Reinholt and me will be up on March 7.
And as I’m looking forward to these wonderful stories, I steadily keep working on several projects that you’ll hopefully be hearing more about soon…
Aside from lots of other great stories, poems, and beautiful art, this book contains short story “The Bound Heart”, written by LS Reinholt and me. It’s a fantasy horror story with a witch main character, xyr snake familiar, and horrible things happening in the woods. If you’re into creepy and bloody stories, it’s a pretty cool one, if I say so myself. Mind the content warnings in the book’s table of contents!
This is the teaser art we did to promote the successful Kickstarter (illustration by LS, colouring by me):
And if you’d like to hear another co-written story from LS and me (no horror, only fantasy!), remember to attend our reading on September 11! Read all info here, or reserve a spot for free right away.
It’s been a while since you heard from me on this blog, and a lot has changed: I moved house and stopped working as a pharmacist. It’s time to properly dive into writing and creating again!
And although, if you’re watching the news, the world isn’t making it easy to feel celebratory this month, we all do our best to find safety and joy.
Natasha aka @bibliophile.nat was so kind as to publish an interview about The Dragon of Ynys, being an author, and being queer: you can read it here! (Note that it continues in the comments below the post, due to Instagram’s character limit.) Thank you so much for having me, Natasha.
And while we’re celebrating, I’d also like to do a shout-out to my good friend and editor E.D.E. Bell: eir book Just Bart (which I recommend wholeheartedly to everyone looking for a kind, funny read) just won a Midwest Book Award!!! Congratulations, Emily!
One more thing while I’m here: everyone interested in a gritty fantasy trilogy and/or a TTRPG in the same universe should go have a look at the Grayshade Kickstarter. This is a collaboration between Alligator Alley Entertainment and Atthis Arts – so you know it’ll be good.
The story has been entered into the webs! You can get it on Audible via this link, or if you already have the Audible app, simply entering “The Dragon of Ynys” in its search bar should lead right to it.
If you were a Kickstarter backer, you should have received it in your emails last Sunday (Feb 6). And if you’re a Kickstarter backer who uses Audible and wants to be able to listen to it there, too, you should keep an eye on the emails with Kickstarter updates, where Chris will explain how that works.
January was over before I knew it, so I know my wishes are rather late, but I do wish you the very best for 2022!
And this way, I can start a new blogging year with extremely exciting news… The audiobook for The Dragon of Ynys is finished!!! It sounds amazing and I can’t wait for everyone to discover the amazing voices Ryan H. Reid created for Violet, Snap, and all their friends!
Kickstarter backers will have received an email with a link to the audio files by now. (Enjoy!!! And if you’d like to leave a review, which is always super helpful – the audiobook edition is up on The StoryGraph and will be added to Goodreads as well once it is released on Audible. For now, this is the Goodreads link for the ebook version – I’ll share the specific one for the audiobook edition in my next post, or you can look for it by hovering over the cover and clicking “other editions”.)
If you weren’t able to acquire it via Kickstarter, the audiobook will be on Audible soon. They are currently checking the files, which can take up to 2 weeks, so we expect it to be up there before the end of the month. Of course I’ll make a new post here to alert you all when that happens!
In other news, Dragon editor E.D.E. Bell will have a new book out soon with magic and dragons and queer characters. You can preorder Night Ivy here!
And my other dragon sibling, friend Ava Kelly, is looking forward to the release of their book of fairy tales which is SO beautifully illustrated by Matthew Spencer: Alia Terra: Stories from the Dragon Realm. It will be out on March 1, with sales info coming soon, and can be added to your Goodreads or The StoryGraph shelves.
Now I’ll let you go to listen to the audiobook! This is really a Thing That Exists now! Aaaaah!!
Minerva Cerridwen 