I swear, it hates me. That or viruses do. Something nailed me during the last couple of days, either food poisoning  or a stomach virus, leaving me feeling better today, but kind of "I am a limp rag"-like

Regardless, I wanted to thank everyone over the excitement about Steamed's release on Tuesday. If you missed the newsletter--I switched mailer companies, so some folks may not have received it--you can see it online.  And if you're part of the community, the first monthly contest is up for some drinkin' swag.

Last but not least, the Baltic bookmarks are in, hoobah. I will begin dispersing them with reader requests, but if you want a couple for yourself, you're welcome to trot over to the freebies section and print out the order form.

My apologies for missing Dishy Guy Monday yesterday. The hub has been feeling poorly lately, and we discovered yesterday that his asthma medicine had given him thrush. THRUSH! I always thought that was something that horses got in their feetsies, but no, evidently it's an infection that can strike the mouth and throat. Asthma meds are known to cause it, and sure enough, his did. I'm hopeful that now he's on something else, it will go away and I can stop making hoof and mouth disease jokes at the poor man.

Today's good news is that it's Steamed release day, hurrah! I know some of you have found copies early, and fretted that it would impact the bestseller list hits. I've been told repeatedly that all pre-sales should count for the first week's sale, so I'm just going to go with the flow and assume that's so. Regardless, now we can finally have the official Steamed discussions! If you'd like to join it, they can be found on the community.

Go forth and have a good Tuesday!

Before we get to today's (NSFW--kind of. Probably NSFW just to be on the safe side) field trip, I wanted to share a bit of good news that Publicist Jodi passed along a couple of days ago--Steamed has received a starred review from Booklist, which is the ALA's review journal. I'm thrilled that steampunk has received such attention (and of course, flattered to death that the reviewer like the book so much).

And now on to the heavily innuendoed fun. I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this--I'm always at the end of the line when it comes to viral videos--but if you think the Axe commercials are overrated, you might enjoy this spoof.

Happy weekend to you all! I'm off to finish my spring cleaning (shhhh. It's last year's spring cleaning) and pamper Mr Katie, who is feeling a bit punky today.


ETA: correct link. Woops!

I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from a reader linking in a blog site where my lovely Steamed video was under attack. Or rather, one of the images in it was, the photo of the guy in steamy attire. I'm a bit confused about exactly what the issue is, whether the photographer wants credit for the photo, or if it was wrongly used by the video's production company.

Since I'm very touchy about the subject of copyright issue, and because I'm aware how scarce rights-managed steampunkish images are (rights-managed, for those of you who don't hang around istockphoto.com, are images/videos/sound files that the creator makes available via a licensing fee)...where was I? Oh, yes, the first thing I did upon seeing the video was check with the producer that all the images had been acquired properly. He assured me that they were, that they had paid for the right to use the photo in question, that they were very conversant with the legalities of producing videos and such, and that was that. I figured all was well, and went on to enjoy a stunning video.

Now I'm just confused. I have passed along the info to the producer, who reassured me he is looking into it with his graphics rights person, but in the mean time, gah. So confusing. I hope it all gets straightened out soon, so we can go back to admiring the video.

Work with me!

As we wind up the last few days before the release of Steamed, I've been a busy little bee. I'm starting to see some people finding the book a bit early in stores (eek!), but for the most part, I'm hopeful that the presales won't have too devastating an effect on the bestseller list hits. Fingers crossed, anyway.

My good news this week is that my gigantic, five-mile-long to-do list is beginning to shorten. One of the things I did this week was get the order in for the Love in the Time of Dragons bookmarks. And because they turned out so fabulously, I thought I'd share a peek at them. They should be available for freebie status in about ten days.



And your good news this week is...?

To help us get through another Monday, we have Michael.



Do we have some volunteers to brush the sand off of him?



Or maybe apply some sunscreen? Because we wouldn't want him getting skin damage, now would we?



Looks like he also needs some help with his pants.

That's buttoning them, not taking them off. And don't think I didn't know that's what some of you were thinking!

We haven't had a field trip Friday in forever, have we?

Well, I have a fun place to visit if you love paper, cards, or just crafty stuff in general.

Simple Pop-Ups.

I love the lion card. Must think about making some...must think up reason to send people a lion card...

Happy Friday everyone!

I am just a-bursting with excitement over a number of things. First, we're two weeks out from the release of Steamed. Are you primed and ready for it? Have you read the excerpt? Are your goggles and aether gun within reach? I hope so, because today is the day for the big online PR blast by Penguin for Steamed, and we have been busy little clockwork bees getting everything ready.

I've released two steampunk wallpapers, one featuring Steamed, and one just a gorgeous steamy image. You can find them both at the Katie Mac Community, in the Freebies section.

We've also finally perfected the 2010 Dishy Guy Calendar, which is now available for purchase in the Zazzle Minion Shop. Lest you worry that these are just stray dishy guys we found hanging around the interwebs, I will mention that the graphics guru Stephanie Jumper has been slaving over a hot computer making custom dishy guys. Each month features a different hero from one of my books, complete with an appropriate quote.

The cover gives you a smidgen of an idea of just how glorious this calendar is:



You can see all the months at the Zazzle calendar page.

Now, I can hear some of you protesting against the crass commercialism of a dishy guy calendar that must be purchased. If that is so, fret not! All royalties from the sales of the calendar (and soon to be available, mugs and other items) will be sent to a Minion Kiva Fund, where it will be used to make micro loans to folks in poverty-stricken areas of the world. Details about the loans and recipients will be included in the Benevolent Minion Fund section of the Katie Mac Community.

Do you have good news to post today? If so, feel free to share!

Please welcome Andre, the German model, to Dishy Guy Monday.



Andre has yummy eyes.



And manly stubble. We loves us some stubble.



We also love some naked chest.



I think I may have just drooled.

I am just brimming with good news today! And because I love bulleted lists, I shall bullet all of it for you:

• We are exactly three weeks away from the release of Steamed. Hoobah!
• We are exactly one week away from the huge, mammoth, ginormous Steamed promotion by the lovely and talented folks at NAL/Penguin
• I get to take the ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY off from writing. Dance with me, my dumplings!
• We have settled on a date for KatieCon, and the planning has started in earnest (date, in case you missed it, is Saturday June 26th).
• The Katie Mac Community is almost ready to roll out the red carpets, complete with exclusive freebies, fun stuff, contests, wild and crazed chat with me, etc. Peeps are welcome to join in the fun early, although we're still adding in the content.
• The 2010 Dishy Guys Calendar is almost ready to go on sale. Because it took so much time to get it organized, the calendar runs from February 2010-January 2011, so no dishy guys will be wasted. Want to see a sneak preview of the calendar before it's released? It'll be at the Community, as well as wallpapers and screensavers made from the delicious calendar images.

Do you have your own fabulous news to share? By all means post it here. Bullets aren't necessary, but they do make me feel extremely efficient.