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As part of my current Chinese studying, I am reading a vol. of manhua in Chinese each month. I own a bunch. I've already read 3 vols of Global Examination and 2 of Little Mushroom. All the below I've previously read the manhua in translation; I've also read the original novels of all of them except Legend of Exorcism.

Thanks in advance. I am indecisive.

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What’s a cover song that you think is better than the original?

I’ll start with my controversial take that the Chris Stapleton cover of Nothing Else Matters is better than the Metallica one

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Official art of Huo Xiuxiu for her birthday.

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More official art I feel like I haven't seen posted here? Bilibili x Guangbo, as it says on the bottom, for merch collab.

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ngl I've been increasingly struggling with the use of feminizing language and "but make them women" stuff in my main fandoms, all of which are about queer Asian men. It's always bothered me but I feel like it's bothering me even more now, and I'm not sure if that's because it's become more prevalent or if I'm getting more sensitive to it. I just can't help but want to point out, like...

1. If yall want women and lesbians... you know there are fandoms... with women and lesbians... right? Women and lesbians are great! I'm begging you to go read stories that actually are about them.

2. Like seriously if you want stories about women why are you in the gay guy bl fandom

3. White fans please unpack why you think that lithe Asian gay man needs to be a woman, needs to be pregnant, why you are calling him breedable, or babygirl, or malewife. Like I am begging people who do this to spend five minutes considering why they do, why you think it's okay, why it's maybe different than saying even the same things about white people, like yall just collectively forgetting decades of racist feminizing language weaponized against Asian men.

I'm not saying anything I haven't said before but it's just been really A Lot recently if I have to see one more post about any MXTX character needing to be a breedable malewife maid I'm going to scream.

Note: this is NOT about trans head canons or trans stuff. I love trans masc and trans fem stuff. Don't stop.

(Disclaimer: I am also white.)

Also note like... this isn't about any specific fan having a preference. People like mpreg. People like gender swaps. That's great! I support an individual's preferences! But just because behavior is okay on an individual level, that doesn't mean it doesn't start to get a little awkward at a collective fandom level. And idk, it's hard to divorce my personal discomfort with some of these things from an assessment of if it's actually ~a problem~ so maybe I'm just not recognizing my own issues here, but... yeah. I keep starting to write more then deleting it so I guess I'll shut up now.

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ngl I've been increasingly struggling with the use of feminizing language and "but make them women" stuff in my main fandoms, all of which are about queer Asian men. It's always bothered me but I feel like it's bothering me even more now, and I'm not sure if that's because it's become more prevalent or if I'm getting more sensitive to it. I just can't help but want to point out, like...

1. If yall want women and lesbians... you know there are fandoms... with women and lesbians... right? Women and lesbians are great! I'm begging you to go read stories that actually are about them.

2. Like seriously if you want stories about women why are you in the gay guy bl fandom

3. White fans please unpack why you think that lithe Asian gay man needs to be a woman, needs to be pregnant, why you are calling him breedable, or babygirl, or malewife. Like I am begging people who do this to spend five minutes considering why they do, why you think it's okay, why it's maybe different than saying even the same things about white people, like yall just collectively forgetting decades of racist feminizing language weaponized against Asian men.

I'm not saying anything I haven't said before but it's just been really A Lot recently if I have to see one more post about any MXTX character needing to be a breedable malewife maid I'm going to scream.

Note: this is NOT about trans head canons or trans stuff. I love trans masc and trans fem stuff. Don't stop.

(Disclaimer: I am also white.)

Also note like... this isn't about any specific fan having a preference. People like mpreg. People like gender swaps. That's great! I support an individual's preferences! But just because behavior is okay on an individual level, that doesn't mean it doesn't start to get a little awkward at a collective fandom level. And idk, it's hard to divorce my personal discomfort with some of these things from an assessment of if it's actually ~a problem~ so maybe I'm just not recognizing my own issues here, but... yeah. I keep starting to write more then deleting it so I guess I'll shut up now.

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Official art for a collab with a soda company (that caused Big Drama for reasons I haven't been able to sort out, not that I tried very hard).

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I've been reading Global Examination in Chinese to study and I just... I love them so much.

Very rough translation:

You Huo: my vision is fine, don't trouble yourself. (In response to Qin Jiu offering to get him a flashlight on the previous page)

You Huo: could you maybe shut your mouth and be a little quieter?

Qin Jiu: nope! 😋 (literally translation is "no [I'm] not too willing [to do that]" but it just has such little shit vibes)

I love them. I just wish I had more vols in Chinese, but this is the last one that's available in print rn. I really want to get to the "lovers" part of the "enemies to lovers" I miss Qin Jiu's lil shit obsessive love and devotion. 😭

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Another new official art for a collab, tho the Chinese was way too complex for me to figure out who was collabing with who. 😅 [觅星社×天官－剑舞蝶影] was the header. Mi Xing company?

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Official art for a collab between MDZS x Le You Ting.

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Ye Baiyi in ep. 13

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Announcing the May Trope Mayhem Prompt List for 2025!

May Trope Mayhem is a multi-fandom/original creation event open to writers, artists, and creators of all kinds! Our creators have shared their favorite tropes, and we’ve put together a list of 31, one per day through the month of May. We encourage creators to join us for this month of fun tropey mayhem.

Our goal is to promote motivation and help with habit building, so we’re encouraging authors to keep their ficlets under 1,000 words, artists to stick to making just a sketch, gif makers to only do a single image, etc., as applicable to whatever you’re making.

This event is primarily held on Tumblr, but you’re welcome to participate anywhere Duck Prints Press has an account (you can see all our current platforms here) and we’ll keep our eyes on our tag everywhere!

How can you participate? It’s easy! There’s just a few simple rules:

write a ficlet or a poem, create art, make a gif, or create any other content that you want, aligned with the prompt for the day!

post your correctly tagged fills to Tumblr, and we’ll reblog them! We’ll reskeet works on Bluesky, retoot those on Mastodon, you get the idea. Note: we do not use Twitter.

you must tag warnings such as gore, MCD, sexual content, etc., so that people can make informed decisions!

please also tag fandom and ship, so people can find what interests them!

we ask that you put the tags at the top of your post, so they’re easy to find.

if you write more than 1k words and post the whole text on Tumblr or wherever, please use a read more if the platform allows.

if you create something with NSFW content or potentially triggering material, please put the entire work under a read more.

Ping us (duckprintspress) or tag your creations “#may trope mayhem” and so we can find them! We’ll reblog all fills that follow the above rules and are posted between May 1st and June 8th, 2025. Posting starts May 1st!

If you post to AO3, you can also add them to our collection there!

You don’t have to sign up for May Trope Mayhem, just post your fills. You don’t have to be a member of the Press nor do you have to be following us. You don’t have to be part of a specific fandom. We’re open to all ships, genres, formats, ratings, kinks, etc.! You can post whatever properly tagged content you want. You don’t have to post fills on the corresponding day, though we ask that if you’re creating for a day that hasn’t happened yet, please wait for that day to post.

Participating in May Trope Mayhem? Want to chat fandom, books, creation, and more? Join our Book Lover’s Discord Server!

This is a low-pressure event, held in good fun, and we look forward to seeing what you create!

MAY TROPE MAYHEM Prompt List Text Version:

Fairy Tale Fusion

Bachelor Auction

Stowaway

Superhero x Supervillain

Inherited Blessing or Curse

Tiny Adorable Eldritch Horror

Love Triangle to Polyamory

Wardrobe Malfunction

Body Guard Character

Fake Dating

Ghost Love Interest

Idiots to Lovers

Unresolved Sexual Tension* (*resolved)

“Who did this to you?”

Character is Conveniently Unrecognizable in Glasses

Breaking the 4th Wall

Time Loop

Wing Grooming

Accidental Summoning

Language Barrier

The House is Alive

Pet Acquisition

A+ Parenting

Mentor and Mentee

Amnesia

Body Swap

Royal x Knight

Second Chance with a Former Love

Identity Porn

Accidental Baby Acquisition

Magical Familiar

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My parents think my response to when a women asked me the following question question is why stopped being pursued in my Catholic community. It was a lighthearted discussion but maybe they are right lol. Although every single happily Godly married couple who I asked this question to (seperately from each other) has given the same response, my parents included.

So, the question:

No nuance button because nuances is already baked in. We are assuming both spouses are able to make a sandwich (nobody is in a full-body cast or had brain cancer or whatever).

AND NO NASTINESS

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This website has a list of cities by latitude that you can search if you're not sure; alternatively, google "[place] latitude."

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

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Official dmbj art for a collab with Choake Play.

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A Big Gay Market: Sunday, April 27th in Albany!

This coming Sunday, April 27th 2025, Duck Prints Press will be joining over 100 other awesome vendors, a handful of food trucks, a bunch of community organizations, and some wellness groups at A Big Gay Market in Washington Park, Albany, New York. The market will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. along the Knox St. Mall, and the current forecast suggests we’re in for a lovely day. So if you’re in the area, come on down, take in the tulips, and come hang out at the queerest market in town. Learn more, and I hope to see you there!

Also, in March, I did an interview with Cyren, who runs the market! As far as I know, Cyren’s report on the interview hasn’t posted yet, but I thought it’d be fun to post my pre-interview notes. I ended up saying way more during the actual interview, but this covered the basics…

Name: my actual name is Claire, my pen name is Nina Waters, and my most common online name is unforth. Pronouns: any, but I prefer strangers use they/them for me Age: 42 Location: Schenectady, NY Business Name: Duck Prints Press Social Media Handles: most places, duckprintspress, though on Mastodon I’m dppunforth, and my personal account on Tumblr is unforth.

1: When Did You First Start Your Business? What’s The Origin Story?

Okay, so in the early twenty-teens, my friend Burdock was considering going into publishing, and so they took on editing a couple anthologies to which they invited me to contribute as a writer. As they considered where to go in publishing from there, we started talking about maybe doing something together, the two of us, and during the summer of 2015, I started doing a lot of research and formulating a plan to do an indie micro press with them.

In college (circa 2001), Burdock was my roommate, and they and I engaged in a prank war. The original idea was for one of us to defeat the other using library books, music from the J-rock band Gackt, and ducks. However, when the time came to actually defeat each other, ducks were by far the easiest of the three to find, so we started attacking each other with ducks – for example, a duck tied to the pull-string light in my room, a bucket of ducks propped over the door of theirs, that kind of thing.

So in 2016, when I self-published my first book, I wanted to put an imprint on the spine, and was still thinking Burdock and I would do this together, so of course I came up with an press imprint name that incorporated ducks!

Time passed, and things changed, and when all was said and done, Burdock didn’t end up opening the press with me (though they are involved as a writer!), but Duck Prints Press stuck. I started more formally planning the business in 2019, and with support from my family, getting it formally started based on the previous years’ planning and research became my covid quarantine project; I’ve been running Duck Prints Press as my full-time job since December, 2020, and we’ve been an incorporated LLC since January, 2021.

2: How Does Your Business Intertwine With Your Identity?

While I wouldn’t say that my business ties to my personal identity (I am aroace and agender), it absolutely ties into my overarching identity as a queer person. The founding vision of the press is to publish original work by fancreators, especially fanartists and fanauthor. I was and am a fanauthor, and I always dreamed of publishing my original work, but there were a lot of impediments in the way: having a family, having a mental illness, the types of queer genre-crossing stories I wanted to tell, and more. I wanted to make a business where people like me, the friends I’d made in fandom, could publish their work no matter what their challenges were. The overwhelming majority of the people I’ve known in fandom are queer, and our focus is on telling queer stories. And that’s what Duck Prints Press does: while I don’t require demographic disclosures from our contributors, I only know of exactly one person who isn’t queer who works with the Press, and nearly all our stories and all our artwork incorporate queer elements. I want to bring these stories and artworks to a wider audience; I want us to tell our stories.

3: Where Was Your First A Big Gay Market? What Was That Like?

My first market was in October of 2023. Despite threatening weather, it wasn’t canceled at first; I went with my mother and a local author who has become a friend to set up in the absolutely pouring rain. The market ended up canceled within an hour of opening, but even with the terrible cold wet weather and the low turnout, I made almost $200 in the two hours or so I stuck out being there. I knew right then I’d be back: the lovely people, the cool crowds, the queer vibes, all of it was impeccable even on a yuck day. On a lovely day? It’s like being at a little mini-pride multiple times a year.

4: When Did You First Feel Like An Artist? Or, Alternatively, When Did You Feel Like Your Business Was Starting To Make Sense?

I started feeling like an artist – specifically, in my case, an author – when I started writing fanfiction. Before then, I wrote a lot but it always felt like something I did for me, something I wasn’t very good at and that no one outside my family would ever much care whether I did it or not. But when I started writing fanfic and sharing it online, I discovered that people actually really liked my words, and I was also able to produce a lot, consistently, at a high level, and I started to think: wow, I can really do this.

Then I had kids and got stupid busy and that good-vibes feeling kind of fell off a cliff, but deep down, I still know I can do it.

Of course, as a publisher, most of the work I put out isn’t my own, so to answer the second question as well: when I saw the interest in our first anthology, both from people who wanted to write for it and in people who wanted to purchase it. Our first anthology got over 100 applications, many of which were absolutely phenomenal, for only 20 story slots. That told me there was interest among fancreators for an outlet like my press for their original work. And then when we crowdfunded the anthology, we sold over 700 copies and raised over $25,000. That told me that there was interest among readers for the kinds of stories our creators would tell with their words and art.

The rest has just been the slow build from that initial success. It’s been a long process, but we’re finally breaking even consistently, and the future is bright.

5: How Has Your Work / Business Transitioned Over The Years?

…well, there’s more of it. All the time, there’s more of it. I also have a lot more help now than I used to; we started with a management team of five people, and now there are like twenty who help me make decisions, edit, publish, and more. I wouldn’t say there’s been a firm transition, like, we haven’t gone from one thing to another, but instead it’s been a slow build, like adding new blocks atop the existing foundation. Sometimes, those blocks aren’t stable and they fall; other times, they prove to be far more load-bearing than I’d ever predicted. It’s just a process of expanding on the parts that work and leaving behind those that don’t.

6: What Are Some Of Your Other Passions?

Well, fandom obviously! The initial plans for this came into being while I was a big fan of the show Supernatural, but in late 2019 I watched a Chinese historical drama called The Untamed, which was based on a boy’s love book called Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Unsurprisingly, considering I run a book publisher, I also love to read, and ever since I watched The Untamed, I’ve tumbled deeper and deeper into reading Chinese BL novels – the genre is called danmei.

I also love fibercrafts, though I’m in a bit of a drought recently – just haven’t been in the mood. I sew, embroider, cross-stitch, quilt, knit, crochet, weave, and spin!

7: Any Closing Thoughts?

If you want to start your own business, you absolutely can. Just make sure you have a really solid plan, and make sure you pay attention to pricing your things in a way that’s fair to yourself. Passion doesn’t put food on the table, as I’ve learned the hard way. If I didn’t have a supportive family, I wouldn’t have been able to tough out waiting for my business to actually make money.

Also, queer spaces are more important now than ever. Let’s be excellent to each other, okay? We’re in this together.

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On to the next target.