This spacecraft is powered by bikes . . . and books

Escape to realities not so different from our own— and enjoy a break from the perils of everyday sexism and fossil fuel dependence—by taking these stories for a spin. 

These ten joyfully feminist short stories are set in fantasy worlds and science fictional universes filled with bicycles and books.

The theme of the 10th volume of Bikes in Space stories is a resounding "Books!" All of the stories in this volume are fantastical... whether sci fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, alternative magical history, or uncategorizably weird. 

They all include books and bicycles as inextricable parts of the plot. And they're all feminist in some way... or at least, not perpetuating boring old gender stereotypes. A lot of them are queer. And all of them are extremely fun to read. We think you'll really enjoy them. 

Inside you’ll find:

• Two strangers (and their bike) falling through a literal plot hole into a fantasy novel
• Rebel medics posing as bibliophile bicycle tourists on a mission to an authoritarian world
• An author chronicling the hot new galactic trend: solar biking
• An interstellar book preservationist getting a wilder ride than she planned on a straightforward library visit
• Friends attempting to re-create the legendary bike outing of their literary hero
• Bicycling fae stealing a sixth grader’s favorite book

…and more!

While editing these first ten stories, an unexpected theme emerged: friendship! Unexpected new friendships, old friends coming out of the woodwork when most needed, and groups of friends banding together to ride bikes and change the world. 

If anything's more important to our collective imagination of a better future than books and bikes, it's gotta be friendship, and I'm here for it.

About the Rewards

We have a ton of incredible rewards tiers, including a few mix-and-match levels! All item rewards (physical and digital!) will be available as add-ons through PledgeManager, after the campaign is complete.

Here's a look at what we're offering at the various levels:

• The Bicyclist's Guide to the Galaxy: Every tier includes the latest in the Bikes in Space series, edited by Elly Blue!
• The Bikes in Space Series: The other 9 books in the series are available in three bundles- Older titles (Bikes in Space, Bikes in Space Volume II, Biketopia, Pedal Zombies, and Bikes Not Rockets), newer titles (Bicycles & Broomsticks, C.A.T.S., Trans-Galactic Bike Ride, and Dragon Bike), and a complete collection! You can also add any you're interested in a la carte in PledgeManager after the end of the campaign.
• Even Cowbots Get Blue Balls: S. Park explores themes of attraction, belonging, and identity in five stories of erotic speculative fiction,
• How to Protect Bookstores and Why: Danny Caine's latest book is an examination of the power small, progressive, local bookstores have in an era dominated by online monopolies.
• 50 Ways to Protect Bookstores: A zine by Danny Caine on the reasons and ways to protect your local bookstore.
• How to Ride Slow: Joe Biel's zine about mindfulness on two wheels.
• The Velocipede Races: A feminist steampunk novel by Emily June Street about bicycle racing, rebellion, and self-empowerment.
• Various stickers: A few Microcosm vinyl stickers appear at various levels, including Put the Fun Between Your Legs, Books Save Lives,  and Evolution Bicycle. 
• Laser Beam Cat Pin and Sticker: If you're going to be biking around town, you might as well have a cat in your basket who can shoot lasers from her eyes— and a pin and sticker to show it off!
• A Random T-Shirt: A random, bike-themed Microcosm t-shirt! Available in sizes Extra Small to Extra-Extra Large. Due to the random nature of this item, we cannot take requests for color or graphic, but here's a few of our designs so you have an idea of what we offer. 
• Tip Jar: We split profits from this project equally between all contributors—and any extra dollars pledged beyond the cost of the actual reward go straight to our incredible authors. We have a tier for a $20 tip during the project, and will also have tips available as add-ons in PledgeManager!

About the Bikes in Space series

The first Bikes in Space zine was published in 2013 as a lark and has only continued to get further out of hand.  Each annual volume collects stories that integrate elements of feminism (loosely designed as "lacking in the usual sexist BS"), bicycling, and an extra thematic element to keep our contributors on their toes.

Bicyclist’s Guide to the Galaxy is the TENTH volume. Past volumes have had themes ranging from zombies to dragons to witches to gender. You can check those out in the rewards (or in the add-ons after the project ends).

As for the future: When we first put the idea for this book out into the world, the response to the prompt "feminist sci fi and fantasy stories about bikes and books" was huge. There were so many stories. More than that, they were good stories, fun stories, by authors who understood the assignment and had a blast with it!  

So we decided to publish two volumes (the second one, Bikes, the Universe, and Everything, will come out next Spring—stay tuned for it on Kickstarter!).

Volume twelve has a theme of gardens and green, growing things and will come out in late 2024 or early 2025. After that, we're not sure, but we're open to ideas! 

About the Authors

We've got a stellar (interstellar? definitely international) group of authors lined up for this volume. Since they're scattered across the Earth, we can only imagine gathering them all together to go on a bike ride together to change the world. 

Let's imagine that now:

Kathleen Jowitt - in this imaginary journey together, Kathleen pedals a vintage postal bike while carrying on a well-informed and nuanced conversation about labor politics. Her story opens the volume with an unlikely friendship and a laugh-out-loud plot twist.

Jamie Perrault - taking care of our group on this ride, Jamie is everywhere in the pack—forging ahead to chat about routes, circling back to support any lagging riders, making sure everyone has what they need. Their powerful story reminds us that even when doing good work, the right choices aren't always clear.

Shelby Schwieterman - let's imagine them keeping everyone's spirits up by cracking kind yet gut-bustingly funny jokes on the hard bits of the ride. Their story is a hilarious, painfully relatable tale of a kid who'd rather live in their favorite book and kind of gets to.

Cara Brezina - may not be chattiest member of our outing, but is the one who actually remembered to bring the sunscreen and finds the best scenic spot for us to stop and enjoy a snack. Her story of a band of enthusiastic students in pursuit of a quixotic goal is a great model of how all science should be done. 

Christopher R. Muscato - takes the occasional detour on his own to check out an interesting windmill, and is chronicling the whole thing in a little notebook. His story takes us pedaling through the vivid wonders of actual outer space, where a woman on vacation with her family has a transformative experience.

Lisa Timpf - sets a solid pace for the pack, helping fellow riders prevent injuries with some diplomatic coaching. Her story follows grief-stricken residents of a near-future, post-plague Ontario and a really cool (and surprisingly realistic) vision of a combined book-bike technology.

Avery Vanderlyle - may or may not be writing nsfw fics in her head about the day's (in reality, relatively tame) proceedings. Her (romantic, but sfw) story takes an archivist through an interstellar blockade to race bikes with a literal princess, something we can all aspire to.

Taru Luojola - the miles will melt away if you find yourself talking with Taru about Finnish pronouns and postcolonial issues in translation. Their story is a terrifying fable of two societies, in which books are recorded with braided seeds.

Rose Strickman - has dressed with vintage flair, effortlessly and stylishly keeping pace with fellow riders in athletic apparel. Her story follows a traveling librarian, powered by magic, in an alternate-universe Great Depression-era Appalachia, where she has a shocking awakening.

Elly Blue - invited everyone here, can't believe anyone showed up, and is happy riding sweep and starting conversations that are way too intense for a first meeting. Her story plays out the logical aftermath of two fantasy authors getting into a road rage incident.

Will you join us on this ride? What role will you play?

About the Publisher

Elly Blue Publishing started in 2010 and has been an imprint of Microcosm Publishing & Distribution since 2015, where Elly gets to spend all day playing with books that aren't only about bikes.  Well, mostly she plays with paperwork that isn't really about either, which is all the more reason she keeps these Bikes in Space projects going!

You can listen to Elly talk with Molly Hurford about books, bikes, and publishing on The Business of Fitness podcast earlier this month.

Microcosm has been keeping it real and independent since 1996 and we still can't believe that we were named Publisher's Weekly's "fastest growing publisher" for 2021 and were third-fastest for 2022.  Even though we've been doing this for a while and are staying busy with all this fastest growth, we still try to have the most fun every day and make the world a less terrible place with each of our books. You can stay in touch with us via our weekly-ish email newsletter.