Jeri Smith-Ready

Take a Spring Break and win a copy of SHADE!

This was our front yard on February 11:


And the same Great Wall of Snow, one month later:


Sad, huh?

So the weather outside this weekend sure is...springlike, I guess. Rainy, windy, all the snow melting into pathetic little patches. I guess because we had so much snow this winter, and then it was cold and dry, it's been a long time since I've seen actual rain, and it's kind of getting me down.

Normally I love rainy days. I can work on the comfy living room couch without shafts of afternoon sunlight piercing my eyes. It's a great excuse not to do yard work, and it also keeps my dog from wanting to go for a walk every twenty minutes.

But for some reason this weekend the rain is driving me NUTS! I worked on the Shade sequel (Shift)all day yesterday, and I know the mood in the scenes I wrote was a little grimmer than it otherwise would've been, due to the weather.

So after a long, cold, snowy winter, and a long, cold, rainy weekend, I'm ready for a Spring Break!

Over at the Daily Dose blog, the class of 2k10 is blogging for the next week or so, and giving away a great prize pail of swag, as well as an autographed copy of Shade. Complete rules are here. To enter, you have to comment on every single post throughout the break, so go forth! The intrepid shall be rewarded.

Labels: Contests, current contests, YA series

• posted by Jeri @ 11:58 AM
• 1 comments

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour dates & places!

It's final! The Smart Chicks Kick It Tour has lined up dates for its fall sweep of North America. This is a tour entirely organized and sponsored by a group of authors who write young adult paranormal novels.

Many of them, as you can see from the list below, are famous. Many are New York Times bestsellers.

And then there's me. I'm not sure how I got to be on this tour, honestly. Possibly I was wearing glasses around one of them and they thought that meant I was smart, when really I just had dust on my contact lens.

To follow the continuing adventures of the Smart Chicks tour, become our fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

13th 7 PM @ BOOKPEOPLE, Austin, TX - Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Rachel Caine , & Cassandra Clare

14th 7 PM @ B&N THE WOODLANDS, Houston, TX - Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, & Rachel Vincent.

15th 7PM. Off-site location TBD. Hosted by BLUE WILLOW, Houston, TX - Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, & Cassandra Clare

16th 6 PM Off-site location TBD. Hosted by LEMURIA BOOKS, Jackson, MS - Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, & Sarah Rees Brennan

17th 7PM @ Scottsdale Civic Library Auditorium, hosted by POISONED PEN Phoenix, AZ - Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Kimberly Derting, and Becca Fitzpatrick.

18th Time & Off-site location TBD, Hosted by KEPLERS, San Francisco, CA - Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa de la Cruz, Becca Fitzpatrick, & Rachel Vincent

20th 6 PM @ VROMAN'S, Pasadena, CA - Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, Melissa de la Cruz, & Mary Pearson

21st 7 PM @ Encinitas County Library, hosted by MYSTERIOUS GALAXY, San Diego, CA w Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Mary Pearson, Rachel Caine, & Carrie Ryan

22nd 7 PM @ ANDERSON'S Chicago, IL - Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Jennifer Barnes, & Carrie Ryan

23rd 7 PM @ BOOKS & CO AT THE GREENE, Dayton, OH - Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, & Kami Garcia

24th 7 PM @ JOSEPH BETH Cincinnati, OH - Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jessica Verday, Jeri Smith-Ready, & Margaret Stohl

25th 2 PM @ CHAPTERS BRAMPTON (Toronto) ON - Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Yes, I am still pinching myself. Yes, it still hurts, so I guess that means this is real.

Stay tuned for my BEA schedule, coming up at the end of May! That whimpering in the background is my dog telling me not to ever leave home again. Or maybe it's my husband.

Labels: appearances, YA series

• posted by Jeri @ 7:02 PM
• 5 comments

Guest blog & Bring on the Night's 1st chapter debut!

Popping out of my prairie-dog hole for a moment to let you know that I'm giving away two signed sets of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone over at the wonderful Plotmonkeys blog today.

The topic is teaser chapters and rewrites (yes, there's a connection). Buried in the blog post is the first glimpse of the entire opening chapter of Bring on the Night. All I can say is, don't kill me.

Speaking of Bring on the Night, I better get back to its copyedits. Lots of little changes, to all thirty-five chapters!

Labels: blog tour, Contests, craft, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 8:53 AM
• 6 comments

Happy Mini-me day to Bad to the Bone!

Clearly I am crazy or forgetful (or both), because I scheduled a major trip to the dentist (the Novocain kind of visit) on the same day as Bad to the Bone's official mass market release.

(Why yes, it's the same Bad to the Bone that just finaled in the PEARL awards for Best Vampire Novel. Funny you should ask.)

But publishing waits for no nitrous oxide to wear off, so I'm pre-posting this late Monday night.

If you haven't read this Wicked Game sequel yet, you can order it from Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble, now for the low, low price of $7.99!

A note to those who own the trade paperback version: First of all, thanks! Second of all, beginning with the next book, Bring on the Night, the WVMP Radio books will be released in mass market original. This means no more trade paperbacks. So if you're the type who likes to have a matched set to look all pretty and symmetrical on your bookshelf, well...you know what to do.

There are a few places on the interwebs where you can win a signed set of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone. Book Smugglers are giving away two sets, and Literary Escapism is giving away one set plus a cool silver dog or cat bookmark.

So here I'm not giving away books. I'm giving away a dog shirt.

I somehow (thanks, Mom!) came into possession of a WVMP Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll dog shirt, like the one pictured over there (and which can be purchased at the WVMP Radio CafePress store). Even if Meadow enjoyed wearing shirts, she wouldn't have fit into this one. She's an extra-large, and this is for a "large" dog.

Here's what CafePress considers a "large dog."

Full body length: 15.5 inches
Neck opening: 7.75 inches
Sleeve length: 5.5 inches
Chest width: 9.25 inches
Weight: 26-40 pounds

So, if you have a dog that this shirt might fit, post a link to his or her picture. If there's more than one eligible dog by the deadline, I'll pick a winner via a random number.

Deadline: March 1

Retail value: $18.99

Chances of winning depend on number of entries.

By the time you read this, I'll be comfortably numb. Have a great day, or as we say with Novocain, hauhgadayyy!

Labels: Contests, pets, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 12:08 AM
• 8 comments

Q&A and giveaway at Booksmugglers

I'm doing an interactive question and answer session (that means live, as opposed to getting the answers ahead of time) all day today over at the fabulous Book Smugglers' blog.

The questions so far are fantastic, and my answers are long and detailed, because I don't know when to shut up. So if you want to learn more about me and my books and the relationship thereof between and betwixt heretofore and henceforth (ack, I can't even end this sentence!), check it out.

Oh, and maybe win one of two sets of the WVMP Radio books, Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone.

Deadline: Saturday, February 27, 11:59pm PST. I will mainly be answering questions today, as tomorrow I have to undergo oral surgery (which, I was dismayed to discover, is nothing like an oral book report).

Labels: Contests, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 1:17 PM
• 1 comments

Cool secret agent toys & another book giveaway

I'm guest blogging over at Literary Escapism today on the subject of "Cool Toys for (Kickass) Girls and Boys." Find out how I came up with some of the neat tricks of the paramilitary paranormal Control agency. Tell us which awesome gadget you'd give your hero or heroine, and be entered to win a signed copy of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone, plus a shiny metal bookmark engraved with paw prints and a pithy quote (your choice of cat or dog version).

Deadline: February 25

Why the sudden flurry of guest blogs, you ask? Because Bad to the Bone is coming out in mass market paperback (aka the cheap version), officially on Tuesday. But it's already shipping from Barnes and Noble and Amazon--yay!

Labels: blog tour, Contests, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 9:49 AM
• 0 comments

Tidbit Tuesday #4 - book giveaways galore!

Last week I did almost nothing but write WVMP #4 (which I'm once again leaning toward naming Lust for Life). My goal was to reach 50K words before the Olympic cauldron was lit last Friday night, because I knew the Olympics would suck up a lot of my time.

I didn't quite make it (I never do--on the few occasions I actually reach a goal, I assume I haven't set it high enough), but I'm watching the Olympics, anyway. Just watched the USA men's and women's curling lose to Germany and Japan, respectively. I won't make the obvious World War II joke.

As the sports go down on TV, I'm attempting my own Olympian tasks:

1. Catch up on e-mail
2. Mail all ARCs, books, bookmarks, and bookplates I owe people
3. Put actual things on my Facebook fan page
4. Update my MySpace profile (or maybe just delete the thing--does anyone ever go there anymore?)
5. Get the Street Team stuff together
6. Read manuscript of a book I've been asked to blurb

And during the day, tackle a few of the 40 interviews and guest blogs I have lined up.

One of them is already done--yay! If you go read it over at Babbling About Books and More!, you can enter to win a signed copy of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone.

Deadline: February 19

International entries eligible: Yes

Also, the awesome new blog For What It's Worth is continuing its charity auction for Haiti relief. This week you can bid to win signed a signed copy of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone PLUS signed copies of Cynthia Eden's Eternal Hunter and Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter's Deep Kiss of Winter. Plus some nummy stuff you can eat and drink and a possible bonus book. All for such a good cause.

Deadline: February 21

International entries eligible: Yes

The Daily Dose blog ran a lovely Valentine's Day feature on the class of 2K10 and our thoughts on teen love. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday.

Are you following the Olympics? What's your favorite sport? Do you follow any of these sports outside of the Olympics? Is there a sport more mesmerizing than curling?

Labels: class of 2K10, Contests, interview, vampire series, YA series

• posted by Jeri @ 8:51 PM
• 5 comments