News and Updates

Illustration of elephant with a travel sack over its shoulder being greeted by four other elephants of different colors.

We’re on Mastodon

We want to engage in community, and we think this might be the place!

Four coffee mugs, each with a title over an image of a woman samurai: COLD BLOOD, with woman samurai in armor on rearing black horse on a beach; COLD RAIN, with woman samurai on a black horse galloping through rain; COLD HEART, with a woman samurai wielding a polearm on a road blocked by a bloody man; COLD TRAIL, with a woman samurai on rearing horse in snow, with a woman in kimono pointing where to go.

New Toot Sweet Ink merch

We’ve created a Toot Sweet Ink store with mugs, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other merchandise.

Hugo static site generator

Why Hugo?

We have migrated our site to Hugo to make it faster and more accessible

still from the trailer with the word ‘samurai?’

Book trailer for Cold Blood: Yamabuki vs. the Sword Master

Katherine M. Lawrence’s Cold Blood begins the tale of 17-year-old Yamabuki, daughter of a warlord, trained in sword and bow, on her first solo mission—to deliver three scrolls to the Imperial City.

the text SAMURAI? appearing over ricepaper

Sword of the Taka Samurai book series trailer (and incidentally, sneak-peak cover reveals)

We thought it was long overdue to create some book trailers for Katherine M. Lawrence’s Yamabuki books, so here is the first

Cold Heart

Cold Heart coming January ’18

We‘re pleased to announce that Katherine M. Lawrence‘s next installment in the Sword of the Taka Samurai series is finally here. Readers and fans have been very patient. Thank you!

full paperback cover of Cold Sake large print edition

Cold Saké, first of our large-print editions

We released our first large-print edition with Cold Sake because accessibility matters, and we want everyone to be able to read about Yamabuki.

The medieval Japan of Yamabuki

Today, Katherine M. Lawrence blogs a bit about Japan in 1172, when the events of Sword of the Taka Samurai take place. Take a peek.

Heroines of Fantasy review of Cold Blood

“You don’t write an excellent story by accident.”

Who is the woman hero?

Kate blogs here about how Yamabuki is different from other woman warriors, and how 12th-century Japan isn’t quite like what you may have seen in some samurai movies.