Lotsa fun with CafePress...

New Tory Bauer goodies are available from CafePress, using the wonderful covers designed for the eBooks by Curtis Taylor (yeah, the name is not a coindicence).

I love CafePress's rectangle fridge magnets. I've had sets made of each of the new covers. Mourning Shift and Cold Front look right at home with the rest. The 6th (and final, for now) cover is being designed even as I type. Soon, I'll have a full set.

I'm wearing the Mourning Shift tee right now, and as soon as it cools off enough (not any time soon, I fear), I'll be wearing the black Cold Front hoodie.

Two more beer glasses to add to my collection.

They'll fit in nicely with the rest. I do have to add a caveat about the beer glasses- the transfers are exact replicas of the covers, but they're also translucent, and therefore not easy to see. Also, if you leave the glasses soaking overnight (not that I'd ever do that), the glass turns a slightly opaque, which actually makes the images easier to see. It's not a problem for me, but it could bother others who order the glasses.

Amazingly enough, beer glasses don't just have to hold beer. I like the Seagram's Dark Honey, though maybe not quite as much as the Wild Turkey American Honey. I can sip the Wild Turkey neat, but not the Seagram's. On the other hand, the Seagram's makes a nice mixer.

It's been my week for CafePress orders- Curt designed a new logo for his HopHeadSaid beer blog. I loved it, and immediately needed a beer glass (natch), a golf shirt, and a new coaster for my desk (serving its purpose right now).

You can see all of the Tory Bauer merchandise by clicking here, or on the link to the upper right. The HopHeadSaid things are available here, and while you're at it, check Curt's blog. It's great.

The Hotel South Dakota- the Kindle Edition- and the Nook Edition

It's Here!!!!!!!! Or to be more accurate, It's There!!!!!

The Hotel South Dakota. The Kindle version isn't linked to the Kindle versions of Funeral Food or Sex and Salmonella at the moment, but that'll be fixed soon.  And it'll be up for Nook probably by tomorrow.

CafePress items with the covers of all three books are available in the link to the upper right of this page. I have an HSD tee shirt, a beer glass, and fridge magnets coming. Once I get them, I'll do a magnet set giveaway with all three covers.

Once again, I want to thank Dr. Ryan Boettger and his students for the fantastic job they did in formatting the first three Tory Bauer mysteries for Kindle, and Abby Reilly for getting the files ready for the other platforms, and for handling all of the uploading. And I especially want to thank Curtis Taylor for the fantastic new covers!

The final three books in the series won't be available until next spring. They'll be sporting Curtis Taylor covers too. I can't wait!

Added in this afternoon: the Nook Edition is now available! Find it here!

This 'n That

Did you enter the Sex and Salmonella magnet/note card giveaway? Did you win? Check here to find out.

Speaking of Curtis Taylor, as I often do, in addition to the fantastic covers that he's designing for the eBook versions of my mysteries (The Hotel South Dakota should be available within a few weeks), his CafePress store also features items using some of his other illustrations and designs. My new favorites are the Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach themed goodies.

I love the tee, note cards, and the glass. I just ordered the Cannon Beach logo hoodie. Woohoo!

Have I ever shown you the beer glasses? (note: the picture is fuzzy, the images on the glasses are not). I'm planning to get them for all of the new covers. The two on the left are more of Curt's designs. The images are translucent, which I did not expect (I thought they would have opaque backgrounds), but I really love the look, especially when they're in use...

See?

This morning, I am gathering supplies and printing handouts for my classes at the Michigan Fiber Festival (link on the upper right of the main page), which opens next week. I'll be teaching next Wednesday (Fair Isle Design), and Friday (Writing Patterns for Publication, and Little Tips and Knitting Tricks)(there are a couple more spots open in each of the classes for on-site signups). I'm excited about the trip to Michigan, where we will spend time with The Hub's sister Jayne. And I'm thrilled to be invited to teach at this festival.

Wool! Yarn! Sheep! Woohoo!

So, I'd best get to work. But I'll leave you with this absolutely gorgeous photo of my new daughter in law, Cassy. 

That's Haystack Rock in the background, and a certain wedding shawl draped around her lovely shoulders.

Funeral Food Swag

The SoCal contingent traveled back from Oregon with us, so Gramma is my main occupation these days. But I'll still have some time to post, and to complain about the weather (we got home to find the AC nonfunctional, though The Hub fixed it in the time honored way: he hit it with a big stick until it started working again). The heat index is supposed to top 100 today, and the weatherpeople are throwing around words like *enhanced tornado risk*, and *severe storms*, so we may spend the afternoon hunkering down.

In the meantime, the Funeral Food swag arrived from CafePress while we were gone. In fact, it arrived double because the first shipment got lost somewhere along the line, so CafePress kindly resent the items. They said if the first package did show up, I could keep it with their compliments. Sometime in the last two weeks, both shipments did, in fact, show up. So I have lots of fridge magnets, note cards, and two identical tees.

You can guess what shirt I'll be wearing today. When the cover for The Hotel South Dakota is finished, I'll have a fridge magnet giveaway.

In the meantime, if you're interested in any of the goodies, the CafePress link is on the upper right of the main blog page (the beer glasses are back in stock). And of course, if the mysteries themselves intrigue you, Funeral Food and Sex and Salmonella are both available in most ebook formats (links to the right). Hotel will be available fairly soon.

Swag

I may have single-handedly kept CafePress in business over the last month.

I did a test order of the hoodie from Curt's HopHeadSaid store, and I am delighted with the quality. I like my hoodies and tees to be loose and long, so I always order a couple sizes over what I would take in a woven shirt. This hoodie was huge, but after machine washing and drying, it shrunk a couple of inches in width and 3" in length. It's still more than plenty big enough, but you might want to take that into consideration if you order sweatshirts from CafePress (or air dry them, which would probably eliminate the shrinkage). Curt wasn't sure about keeping the hoodie in the inventory, but I think he should.

And of course, I had to order some Sex and Salmonella things. The tee shirt is the economy model from CafePress- it's lighter than their higher priced tees, but it looks fine (and I suspect it'll shrink a little). I love love love the apron- and the ingenious construction (the neck loop and ties thread through casings so the loop can be shortened without D-rings). It's made of a nice canvas twill, and I expect the apron to do its duty for a very long time. I also ordered a packet of note cards, and some fridge magnets, both of which look absolutely great.

The S&S magnet now has a place of honor.

Let's hope I don't have to choose between the two...

I have an order of Funeral Food themed items that could arrive today. I am getting FF magnets too. Once the cover for The Hotel South Dakota is finished, I'll have a drawing for a couple of sets of the three magnets.

And as soon as CafePress gets the pint beer glasses back in stock, I'll order some of them as well. If you're of a mind to decorate your house and body with my new eBook covers, the link to the CafePress store is on the upper right of the main blog page (I just get bragging rights from orders, I don't make a profit, and Curt only gets a small royalty). If you do order anything, send me a pic- I'd love to post it!

Less traumatic stuff

I have to stick around this morning, because my replacement Kindle will arrive (I know this because FedEx called yesterday, to make sure I would be here to sign for it). I don't know for sure what time they'll get here, so I just have to wait. On the other hand, except for swimming, there is not a single thing that I plan to do outside today anyway. I got up at 5:30 to run before it got hot, but it was already too late: 75 degrees and 94% humidity. I treadmilled instead. This is the only currently scheduled Heart Attack Day (our heat index is predicted to hit 110 this afternoon), and then a cool front will come through and dry things out a bit. It'll still be warm, but with much lower humidity.

Anyway, I'm making good progress on the never-ending wedding shawl.

The beads don't show up well in most of my photos, so I took it outside and tried there. They sparkle beautifully in the sunlight.

 I have about 11' left to knit. After I finish the knitting, it'll take an evening to Kitchener the blasted thing together (well, the *thing* is not blasted, but I would happily blast old Kitchener), and then another evening to block it. Did I mention that we're leaving July 12? If all goes well, I'll be done early. Keep your fingers crossed.

You might notice the new link on the upper right of the blog page- my amazing and talented son has listed lots of cool items with the new Tory Bauer eBook covers for sale through CafePress. Full disclosure here- I do not profit from the sale of these items. Curt did the designs, and he owns the copyright to the covers, and I didn't pay him for them (plus, he agreed to design all six of them for me- he's A Good Boy), so I'm more than happy to let him keep whatever profit there is from sales. Chances are, I'm the only one who really wants a Sex and Salmonella apron (which I ordered the minute it was available- the pic is from the website, but I'll post one of mine when it arrives), but just in case: the store is open. Tee shirts, aprons, cups, tote bags, note cards and other hilarious things are available (if you have a hankering for a doggie tee shirt with the Funeral Food cover, you got it). I seriously need a set of beer glasses with my covers on them, but the pint glasses are on back order. As soon as they're in stock, I'm ordering some.

And speaking of Sex and Salmonella- the Kindle files are done and sent off. The book could be available for download as early as next week, with Nook and other formats to follow immediately. Woohoo!