Friday, August 03, 2007

Apocalypse averted; book saved

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
--Stephen King

Though it's never explicitly stated in the text, Wicked Game takes place between Thursday, May 31, and Friday, August 3, 2007. The book gives hints (what we called "context cues" in elementary school) as to the year, such as pairing those two dates with the days of the week.

Also, if you take the year of the hero's death/vampiric transformation (1995), subtract his age at the time (27), then add his current "real" age (39), you get 2007.

...double-checking the math in a moment of paranoia...

Yes, that's correct. 2007.

So a few hours from now, the timeframe of the book will be over. I'm deeply grateful that the world hasn't ended, because that would totally undermine the book's believability. It's bad enough that it rained on the night of July 4th in real life, when the two main characters are supposed to be having a picnic. And it's thundering tonight, whereas in the final chapter, the weather was clear (trust me, there's enough going on that a thunderstorm would be overkill).

So I tell myself that the book takes place in a parallel universe, one with a different pattern of air pressure systems. Oh, and vampires.

I'm looking forward to writing Book Two in the series (still tentatively titled Bad to the Bone), because by a weird trick of scheduling, I'll be writing it more or less in real time. It takes place from Halloween 2007 through New Year's 2008. So I'll experience each holiday through two very different viewpoints--my own and Ciara's.

And I'll once again cross my fingers against an inconvenient apocalypse.

A-Z Update: "Save Yourself" by Stabbing Westward

Labels:

2 Comments:

OMG Vampires I'm so excited! YAY NEW BOOK! now i have to travel 100km.....*points* that way to get to the nearest bookshop and order a copy. Why couldn't I love in a town that has a bookshop like Borders? Oh man that bookshop is heaven....3 storeys of books.....*sniff* its beautiful!....uh sorry got a bit carried away there lol hehehe...*slaps self*

Posted by: Anonymous Melissa a.k.a Miss Alissa at 8/03/2007 10:14 PM

Yeah, I remember the first time I took the train into Philadelphia just to go to Borders. It was amazing.

But save yourself a trip: WICKED GAME doesn't come out until (all together now):

May 13, 2008

It is available for pre-order on Amazon, however. For those who really like to plan ahead.

Posted by: Blogger Jeri at 8/03/2007 10:41 PM

Post a Comment

Next Release

Shade

Jeri's teen debut — May 4, 2010, from Simon Pulse, for ages 14 and up

First in a worldwide generation of ghost-seers, Aura's relationship with the dead changes when her boyfriend dies and comes back to haunt her.

More about SHADE

Pre-order at Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble.

Latest Release

Bad to the Bone

Bad to the Bone (sequel to Wicked Game) — now available in mass market paperback!

“Smith-Ready pours plenty of fun into her charming, fang-in-cheek urban fantasy” — Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Order at Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble.

Book 3, BRING ON THE NIGHT, will be released August 2010, and Book 4 will follow in August 2011.

Sorta new!

Wicked Game

“A colorful premise and engaging characters” — Library Journal

Wicked Game is now available in mass market paperback

Order at Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble.

About the author

Jeri Smith-Ready

Jeri Smith-Ready is a Maryland author of adult and teen urban fantasy.

Learn more about Jeri...

Photo © 2006 Szemere Photography

Sign up for Jeri's newsletter


    • First draft of SHIFT (sequel to SHADE)
    • "Crystalised" by the XX