Jeri Smith-Ready

Spirit Animal quiz and Contests!

One more chance to win a complete signed Aspect of Crow trilogy!

Since a lot of you have started reading the blog since the release of Wicked Game, I thought I’d tell you about my monthly prize drawing tied in with the ASPECT OF CROW trilogy:


If you were an animal, which would you be? Are you strong as a bear, loyal as a wolf, crafty as a fox?

My website features an interactive personality quiz to determine which of twelve Animals from the series you would be. Here are two sample questions:

1. How do you feel about crowds?
a. Love 'em - the more, the merrier!
b. Invigorating, in small doses.
c. I prefer small, tight-knit groups.
d. I'd rather spend the day in the dentist's chair.

12. How gullible are you?
a. I can spot a lie with my eyes closed.
b. I'm a skeptic, but I take most people's words at face value.
c. I'm my friends' favorite practical joke target.
d. I've bought the Brooklyn Bridge. Twice.

Each month belongs to one of the twelve Animals. E-mail me your quiz results (jeri AT jerismithready DOT com, or just use the contact form) for automatic entry in a prize drawing during your Animal’s month:

November: Crow
December: Wolf
January: Spider
February: Wolverine
March: Otter
April: Fox
May: Hawk
June: Bear
July: Owl
August: Swan
September: Cougar
October: Horse

For instance, if your quiz results showed you were a Wolf, you might receive a prize on December 31. Prizes include totem stones, jewelry, artwork, and more!

Here's a sample result for Crow:

You are a Crow! (your score: 22)

Characters: Rhia, Coranna, Damen in the Aspect of Crow trilogy; John in "The Wild's Call"

Powers: foreseeing death, communicating with the dead, resurrection

As a Crow, you are analytical, adaptable, and exceedingly clever. You like solving problems, sharing a hearty laugh with friends, and most of all, enjoying a good meal. Your inquisitive, philosophical nature leads you to constantly question authority and the status quo, sometimes just for the sake of asking, "Why?"

Best matches: Foxes, Wolves, Swans

Watch out for: Wolverines, Bears, Hawks

Have your friends and/or significant other take the quiz and see how well your Spirits get along. Argue about which one is cooler. And lest there be any controversy, if you're a Wolverine, yes, your Spirit can beat up anyone else's Spirit.

The drawings will take place at the end of each month through October 2009, but I'm going to hold off on the Crow drawing until December 15 to give newcomers a chance to enter.

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PLUS...everyone who tells me their Spirit Animal here in the comments or e-mails me between now and December 15 will be put into a drawing for a complete autographed trilogy.

PLUS PLUS...spread the word about this contest and get an extra five chances to win. Five chances per mention (so if you talk about it on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger, you get, uh, five times four equals...twenty! extra chances). Simply send me the links to your posts to qualify or put them in the comments.

PLUS PLUS PLUS...subscribe to my newsletter and get ten extra chances to win. The subscription box is on the right-hand side of pretty much every page of my website. Or you can check the newsletter subscription box on the contact form when you send me your quiz results.

The drawing for the trilogy will take place at 11:59 EST on December 15. Enjoy!

Labels: animals, Contests, current contests, The Reawakened

• posted by Jeri @ 12:19 AM
• 9 comments

Crows rule, and last chance at REAWAKENED ARC

A new study shows that crows are the smartest non-human animal, including chimpanzees. Take that, you damned dirty apes!

As some of you know, I'm not fond of non-human primates. They freak me out. Maybe I'm particularly susceptible to the Uncanny Valley, an innate revulsion to things that are almost human but not quite. Like mannequins or clowns or [insert easy celebrity joke here].

But I was able to get past my pithikosophobia recently to read the Y: The Last Man graphic novel series. I loved it despite the monkey.

(I should add that I didn't like the ending, partly because my favorite character was killed, and between that and Harry Potter and The Dark Tower and The Sopranos and Deadwood and Twin Peaks and Six Feet Under, I am forever swearing off series. My favorite characters always always always bite it in the last few episodes or final book. Not that I have room to talk, but hey.)

Where was I? Oh yeah--I hate monkeys, but I'll still read about them if the rest of the story is good.

How is this relevant to The Reawakened? Well, when I wrote this book, I figured it was the last in the series, so I would go for broke, write it exactly the way I thought it should be written and not worry about what people thought. Some of you will love it, and some of you will hate it. I respect that.

One of the risks I took was making two of the lead characters have the Aspect of Snake. Many people don't like snakes. But I always try to subvert stereotypes in my work, turn traditional symbols of evil (like crows or snakes) into something redemptive, and turn traditional symbols of good (like the sun or the color white) into something oppressive (i.e., the Ilion nation).

The Snake Spirit's domains are fire and sex (and, to a lesser extent, memory). So when our two Snakes, Sura and Dravek, meet for the first time, things get figuratively and literally H-O-T. This is bad for a lot of reasons I won't go into in this post. But Snake is one bad-ass Spirit who will not be denied.*

So....for a chance to win an Advance Reader's Copy of The Reawakened, all you have to do is answer the following poll in the comments (or e-mail me at jeri@jerismithready.com if you feel shy):

Snakes are:

a) cool
b) gross
c) scary
d) sexy
e) more than one of the above (please specify)

That's it! I'll take entries through 11:59pm Eastern time Sunday night, then draw a random name to win an autographed ARC of The Reawakened. These suckers are pretty scarce, so it's a nice prize if you can get it.

If you comment as anonymous, make sure you check back to see if you won, or leave a way for me to get in touch with you.

Also, there's one more day to enter the drawing for autographed copies of Eyes of Crow and Voice of Crow. That's two free books for one lucky person. Read them now and get ready for The Reawakened's November 1 release.

Good luck!

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Now playing: Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
via FoxyTunes

*Ask Indiana Jones and Neville Flynn if you don't believe me.

EDITED TO ADD: This just in: THE REAWAKENED just got a Top Pick review from Romantic Times--that makes it 3 for 3 for the trilogy! Hat trick, bay-bee! I'll post the review tomorrow.

EDITED TO ADD MORE: The winner of the REAWAKENED ARC is...flip! Flip, please send your mailing address to jeri AT jerismithready.com. Congrats, and thanks to everyone who entered!

Labels: animals, Contests, Eyes of Crow, The Reawakened, Voice of Crow

• posted by Jeri @ 2:45 PM
• 20 comments