The production of Journey Press audiobooks continues apace! The amazing Kitra Saga continues with the audiobook of Hyvilma. Space pirates, insurrection…and Pinky at death’s door. All narrated by Hugo Finalist Lorelei Esther.

You don’t want to miss this one, folks!

The audiobook for Majera (Book 4) should be coming out next month. It will wrap up this arc, though not the series as a whole. Stay tuned! We hope you’re as excited as we are.

With the publishing of the Audiobook for Kitra, a whole new audience of listeners was introduced to the story of the Majera and her crew. Ever since, we’ve been flooded with requests: when is Lorelei Esther going to narrate the sequel, Sirena?

Wait no longer! The Sirena audiobook is here, and it’s sensational. Plus, we’ve made it available in a variety of formats: as a .zip file of mp3s, on Google Play, and (sigh) yes, even Audible. The .zip makes us the most money, but the important thing is that you enjoy the book, whichever format you prefer!

The audiobook for Hyvilma (Book 3) should be coming out next month, and we’ll likely be releasing the audiobook for Majera, fourth book in the series, as a prelude to the print version! Look for that one early next year.

Our goal is to release audiobook versions of all our books over the next two years. In addition, we have some great new titles besides Majera coming your way in 2026-7. So keep watching this space for more exciting developments!

When we started the press, we had no idea how to distribute, but we knew indie bookstores wanted to carry our books. Thus, we signed up with Ingram, and now we’re sold across the nation (and to some degree, the world).

One of Galactic Journey’s writers (its youngest, as it turns out) was a budding artist. I wanted The Kitra Saga to have pictures. Thus, an illustrated YA series!

Janice, Lorelei, and I all have professional performance experience. We like to read. Why not make audiobooks? Thus, Kitra now has an audiobook, and more of the books in the series are in production.

Tom Purdom’s exquisite masterpiece, I Want the Stars, was perfect for an audio version. Thus, it now has one as well!

It’s a long time coming. I actually approached Tom last September with the idea of me narrating his book. He liked my sample chapters (though he personally quibbled with my degree of acting; I see an audiobook as a kind of radio play; he liked a flatter style), and he gave me the go-ahead. But for various other reasons, other projects kept taking priority, and he passed away before I could finish the book.

That galvanized me, and I threw myself back into it, finishing the audio version. It’s actually been done for a month—but the loss of two dear friends and the demoralizing results of a national election (all within 48 hours!) created further delay.

But now we’re back in gear and on schedule to release an audiobook at least once per quarter, knock on wood. I think you’ll particularly like this one. Tom created such a rich world, and a huge cast of characters. I tried to do them justice.

I hope you enjoy.

~Gideon

Get the Audio Book!

Journey Press launched in 2019 with volume one of what has become our flagship series: Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women. Our mission was and is to spotlight the superlative female science fiction writers of the 20th Century, whose work has largely been lost to time and/or eclipsed by that of their male contemporaries. It has thus been critically important to ensure that the Rediscovery series is of the highest quality—from the stories inside, to the commentary by modern authors, to the perfection of their presentation and format.

This is why we were horrified to discover that the third volume of Rediscovery, covering the years 1964-1968, had a fatal, inexcusable error in it.

We included two stories by Hilary Bailey, a terrific author from the United Kingdom. One of them is “The Little Victims”, a tale of mutants and mother love; the second is “The Fall of Frenchy Steiner”, an alternate universe story from a world where the Nazis conquered Great Britain in World War Two.

The only problem: due to a formatting error, “The Fall of Frenchy Steiner” was credited to Margaret St. Clair.

Once this error was discovered, conscientious business practices dictated just one option—we had to destroy all existing flawed copies and replace them with corrected ones.

Thankfully, we have a terrific set of partners in our constellation of bookseller friends. Once we put out the call, they quickly destroyed their existing copies so we could send replacements and notified (to the best of their ability) patrons who had purchased flawed copies.

E-copies are even easier to deal with: books bought via Apple/Ingram affiliates/Amazon are automatically updated with new versions (at least, they should be—folks who bought via Amazon should make sure “download latest version” is turned on). Those who bought directly from our Journey Press online shop have already gotten an email with a corrected version.

The only books we have not been able to replace are the print copies purchased online and the ones purchased from bookstores before they could stock fixed copies. We will replace these as well. Simply send us an email with a photo of the book with the cover destroyed as well as a mailing address, and we will send you a replacement copy, free of charge.

Note: this error is not a collectible or “cute” one—we must destroy all the flawed copies we can to do right by the legacy of Hilary Bailey. If you have a flawed copy, please ****@**********ss.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>let us know so we can get it out of circulation.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining. We were able to evaluate our processes, identify what caused this error, and ensure that it won’t happen again. In the future, the editing and publishing process will be smoother, less prone to error, and produce books of consistently high quality.

And so we go forward, embarrassed by our mistake, but resolved to make good on our promise to honor the memory of the legendary authors who paved the way for the luminaries of today. Thank you for your support in this mission.

~Gideon

It’s taken a lifetime, or at least feels like it, but August marks the book birthday for Hyvilma, the third book in The Kitra Saga.

This exciting new chapter in Gideon Marcus’ YA space adventure series is the closest the books have gotten to “space opera”, with pirate ships, rebel Imperial Navy vessels, plenty of pew-pew, and as you can see from the cover…Marta with a gun.

But of course, since it’s a Kitra book, you never lose the sense of found family, the underpinning of solid science, and of course, it’s plenty queer.

There’s more we could say, but honestly, Gideon did a great job with his bit on Mary Robinette Kowal’s “My Favorite Bit“–you’ll want to check it out as it has a nice excerpt from the book!

Hyvilma is out in both e-book and physical, and it’s either in your local bookstores and libraries, or it can be ordered from them.

Work is almost complete on the third volume of Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women. Covering 1964-1968, it promises to be our biggest and best installment yet. Once again, the Journey Press team pored through hundreds of stories to rescue from the depths of time some of the very best science fiction ever written.

And, as before, we’ve assembled an army of commentators to bring their authors to life, including in several cases, relatives who are creators themselves. Thus, you’ll be hearing from people like Susan Emshwiller, Kate (Reed) Maruyama, and Astrid (Anderson) Bear. But there are also amazing pieces from folks like Seanan McGuire, Marie Vibbert, Ai Jiang, Alyssa Winans, and many more.

It really has been a thrill watching this volume come together, seeing the Silver Age of Science Fiction give way to the New Age, all from the unique perspective of the women who soldiered through what, in many ways, was a difficult time for female participation in the genre. Even more exciting has been forging connections with the heirs and estates of these authors and, in the happy case of Mary Jane Engh (Jane Beauclerk) and P. A. (Pam) Zoline, the authors themselves!

Rediscovery, Volume 3 will be out in March 2024 for Women’s History Month. If you haven’t picked up the first two volumes, now’s a great time!

We’re super excited about this one. Laura Weyr’s sapphic retelling of Snow White comes out this Fall, and it’s both a steamy read and a compelling fantasy. And with its release, Journey Press will be up to three speculative fiction romances–a fact which should make y’all very happy…

So, three cheers for our three newest titles! And keep your eyes peeled for more great stuff coming down the pike…

Rebecca Inch-Partridge zoomed back to the 1960s for a one-on-two chat at a recent National Science Fiction Convention.

This was the result:

Ever since Kitra came out, it has been a smash hit. Readers of all ages fell in love with the diverse cast, the riproaring adventure, the stellar setting, and, of course, Pinky’s jokes.

We’ve always been proud of the Kitra Saga, especially since it has been illustrated since the beginning by Lorelei Esther, the youngest Hugo Finalist in history! And while her work has always been great, it has only gotten better over the years.

In fact, she is such a perfectionist, that she decided to redo all of the illustrations for Kitra, as she had always been dissatisfied with how the pencil art reproduced in printing. The new ones are in pen, same as she did for Sirena and Hyvilma.

The new, beautiful illustrations are now included in the latest editions of the book, and if you’ve already bought e-copies, your books will be automatically updated (unless you bought them from the Journey Press store—in which case, just ask for digital replacements!) If you own a physical copy of Kitra, here’s your chance to own both editions. Not only will you have twice the pictures, but those 1st editions are now collector’s copies…

Physical & Digital Editions also available at the following retailers:

But that’s not all…

From the beginning, folks have clamored for audiobook version of Kitra. We get it—folks are on the go, many of our fans have vision impairments, and some people just prefer to read books by listening to them. At long last, we have come out with what you have been waiting for: the Kitra audiobook! It is available both directly from our store and from Google Play.

The coolest part: it’s narrated by none other than Lorelei Esther, herself! We’re sure you’ll agree that she is every bit as fine a voice actress as she is an artist. She is already hard at work on the audio books for Sirena and Hyvilma.

So pick up your copy of the Kitra audio book today! (And if you haven’t got a copy of the illustrated text edition(s), now’s your chance to complete the set!)

One of the occupational hazards of being an historian, particularly of the times half a century passed, is that you meet a lot of the people you are researching. When I was composing a history of the earliest Moon probes, I befriended most of the original scientists and engineers at Space Technology Laboratories. I even facilitated a reunion of the team in ~2007.

While it’s great to get history from the horse’s mouth, it also means knowing a lot of people who are in the sunset years of their lives. It means getting frequent word of yet another friend passing away, never to be heard from again.

I started Galactic Journey back in 2013, when it was 1958 in Journey time. Now it’s 1969. I’ve gotten to meet and enjoy the company and correspondence with a lot of the big writers of the time: Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Michael Moorcock, David Boutland (Rome), Ted White, Lexy Panshin, Kit Reed. I was saddened by the passing of the last two, and I mourn their loss and the stories they never got to share.

The one that’s hit me hardest is Tom’s death. He passed away from cancer on January 14.

Tom had one of the longest careers in science fiction. He started getting published in the latter ’50s, and until his passing, probably was the senior science fictioneer. Maybe it was Moorcock (it certainly is now). Arguably, it was Silverbob, though he hasn’t published much lately, to my knowledge. Of course, none of these holds a candle to Jack Williamson, who wrote from the ’20s to the ’00s, but being #2, perhaps Tom tried harder.

It is thus ironic that it took me so long to discover Tom. I didn’t read his first book, I Want the Stars, until 2019 (1964 in Journey time). It had a terrific impact on me, this progressive, prescient science fiction adventure, released in an almost disposable format—one half of an Ace Double. The timing was good. We had just launched Journey Press, and rediscovering lost gems was one of our core missions.

And it turned out that Tom was not only still alive, but still producing science fiction, regularly appearing in the table of contents of Asimov’s Science Fiction. I emailed him, and he promptly wrote back, and a friendship was born. Shortly afterwards, I Want the Stars was back in print after 56 years of lying fallow.

Tom and I kept in frequent contact after that. He went through great effort to sign bookplates for his novel and mail them to us so we could give them to bookstores. He appeared on a special episode of The Journey Show featuring writers. He told me anecdotes of his time in Philadelphia fandom (a favorite story: a fellow Philadelphian and Ace Double author was Samuel R. (“Chip”) Delany. Once, Tom suggested he and Chip pose for an author photo together. Since Ace Doubles were printed inverted, back to back, he proposed that one of them be standing on his head!)

He had two distinct phases of science fiction writing—the ’50s-’70s and then the ’90s-’20s. Though he was Vice President of the Science Fiction Writers of America in ’72 and head of the eastern SWFA branch in the late ’70s, he considered himself a journalist first, devoting much of his time to music critique.

He was also a mensch of the first order, quietly doing good all of his life. He worked with inner city charities, and he marched with MLK on Washington in 1963. Tom always had time for a chat, and his mind was razor sharp all the way to our last conversation, the day after Christmas of last year. I won’t lie: for me, the week of January 14th was essentially lost. I was pretty deep in despair after I heard the news the morning of January 15. I still can’t believe he’s gone.

Tom maintained a website, and it has his bio on it. It’s worth a read, like all of his work. Please, discover his stories, meet the man as best you can now that he’s gone. I can’t think of a better way to honor my friend than to enjoy the tales he spun.

~Gideon

We’re very excited about this one. You all know Laura Weyr, who won the Rainbow Award in 2021 for The Eighth Key, her high fantasy gay romance par excellence.

Well, Laura decided it was time to feature the other side of the coin, and so she has given us a terrific Sapphic love story: Mirror of My Heart.

Even cooler, it’s a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. I must confess, we were a little surprised when we got this manuscript. There aren’t many stories where the romance involves the stepmother—but read those first few pages, and you’ll be as hooked as we were.

Like The Eighth Key, the romance and the fantasy in Mirror of My Heart are equally integral. Laura has created a brilliant magical world in a few deft strokes. And Snow White’s journey to her happy ending is not trouble-free! We think you’ll be on the edge of your seat, as we were, journeying along with Mirror’s heroine(s).

So pick up a copy, and warm up for the holidays…

Physical & Digital Editions available:

And stay tuned… Laura assures us she’s almost done with the sequel to The Eighth Key!

There are few things more thrilling for a publisher than the chance to yell “STOP THE PRESSES!”

We’ve always known that Marie Vibbert, author of nearly 100 short stories in all the biggest science fiction magazines, was just this side of making it big.

And now she has! This year, Marie not only got nominated for the Nebula Award, for her story “We Built this City”, but as of this month, that story has also made her a finalist for the Hugo Award!

The Nebula was already a big deal–it’s the annual awards given out by the Science Fiction Writers of America. But the Hugos…those are the “Oscars of Science Fiction”. Marie, my friends, has made it.

So, of course, we had to change the cover!

Folks are likening The Gods Awoke to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, but Marie’s sublime fantasy tale, skewering organized religion even while being sympathetic to its practitioners is really one of a kind. Give it a read–with the new cover!

Janice L. Newman (At First Contact) and Gideon Marcus (the Kitra Saga) got their first Hugo nominations back in 2018. Every year since then save for 2021, their landmark time travel project, Galactic Journey, has been nominated for Best Fanzine. I don’t know that calling this sprawling endeavor, what Olav Rockne calls, “The most ambitious, immersive, and extensive project in modern science fiction,” a ‘fanzine’ quite does it justice. After all, the Journey includes not just coverage of science fiction and fact, day-by-day, from the perspective of people living 55 years ago, but it also boasts a radio station, an online lounge for in-person kibbitzing and Star Trek watching, and even live shows!

Nevertheless, Newman and Marcus are honored to be selected, delighted with their fellow nominees, and whomever wins, it’s already a happy circumstance.

Here’s hoping all three of them bring home the big rocket ship come September!