KATIE NEWS!

Summer greetings from Rancho Doghair!

I'm one of those people who gets bursts of energy from sunny days, and luckily the past month here in the Pacific Northwest has been mostly sunny (with a grim week of almost non-stop rain, but we won't dwell on that Dark Time). It's inspired me to get some projects finished, and I'm very excited to tell you about them.

PODCASTS GALORE!

Yes, it's the return of the KatieCasts, this time with a unique twist! I've recently started going through my backlist and recording special Behind-the-Scenes podcasts for each of my books. The podcasts cover subjects including character creation, trivia, and story notes--basically anything I thought readers might find of interest about the books. At this time, all three Aisling Grey books, and all five Dark Ones books have behind-the-scenes KatieCasts available, and I'm just about to start on the historicals. A schedule of the upcoming month's podcasts (and links to past podcasts) is available at the podcast page.



AIN'T MYTH-BEHAVING

Coming up in late September, the Ain't Myth-Behaving anthology will be released, featuring two paranormal novellas: Norse Truly (with some dishy Viking ghosts) and Stag Party (featuring an Irish god). You can find more info about the anthology -- including a sneak peek at an excerpt -- on the Ain't Myth-Behaving page.


SILVER DRAGON NEWS

As some of you who frequent my message forum are aware, I'll be starting a new line of dragon books, this time featuring the Silver Sept. The first book in that series, Playing With Fire, will be out April 2008, and will feature the ever dishy Gabriel, doomed to never having a mate. Or is he? Since I know people will be asking, yes, Drake and Aisling feature heavily in that book. It just wouldn't be a dragon book without them (or Jim). I'll have more about the silver dragons in subsequent newsletters.

KATIE DOES MYSPACE!
Yes, I've finally been dragged into the modern world, and now have myspace.com and facebook.com presences. Feel free to friend me if you're on either (or both).

FREEBIES!
I've added new items to the freebie page -- up for grabs are some very slick Holy Smokes bookmarks my publisher had made up (they're very large!), new online journal/myspace banners, normal size bookmarks for Holy Smokes and Ain't Myth-Behaving, as well as a handy printed book list. Coming soon--Aisling's wedding invitation!


HOLY SMOKES ARC CONTEST

And speaking of Aisling's wedding...the newest Aisling Grey novel is just around the corner (so long as you define "around the corner" as November 6), which means I have a box of ARCs to give away to 14 lucky winners!

As usual, however, I'm not just going to toss these out to the first 14 people who e-mail me. Oh, no, it's not going to be that easy! In order to be entered into the contest, you're going to need to submit three questions suitable for me to answer on an upcoming free-for-all podcast. Question subjects can cover any of my books, or information about dragons, Dark Ones, etc. Please note, however, that if a question is deemed either inappropriate or would reveal plot points in upcoming books, it will be gently set aside.

Here's a quick example of acceptable and unacceptable questions:

Acceptable:

  • Can dragons have an eye color that does not match their sept color?
  • How many dragon books do you think you'll write?
  • How many words a day do you write?
  • Do you use an outline?

[The answers to the questions above are: yes, I have no idea, about 3,000, and yes.]

Unacceptable:

  • Is Aisling pregnant?
  • What happens in Holy Smokes?

I don't guarantee to answer questions on a future podcast, but I'll do my best to get to as many as possible.

Contest Rules
In order to enter the ARC contest, submit to katie@katiemacalister.com the following:

  1. Your name
  2. A name by which you wish to be identified if your question is chosen to be read in a KatieCast (i.e. your initials, your name, or a username you're comfortable with having mentioned)
  3. Three appropriate questions

Deadline for the contest is 11:59 pm August 15th

Fourteen random winners will be drawn from the pool of submissions on August 16th. Winners will receive a signed copy of the Holy Smokes ARC.


I hope your summer (or winter, for those of you living in the southern hemisphere) is a happy one! If you have questions or comments, please feel free to drop me a line. My e-mail queue is down to October 2006, so it's just entirely possible I may catch up some day!

Best,

Katie


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