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
• 4 comments

Jim's story is live!

I’ve posted the third story in my “Days the Music Died”/how-the-DJs-became-vampires series (thanks to Renee S. for the series title suggestion!).

At the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, Jim tunes in and turns on to a group of hippies who promise him the experience of a lifetime. The last experience, as it turns out.

Here’s the opening line:


Read the rest!

This story’s page features an Isle of Wight set list playlist, as well as a video of The Doors performing “When the Music’s Over,” the song they sang while Jim, uh, broke on through to the other side.

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Everyone who e-mails me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com (or comments on this post) with their thoughts on Jim’s story will be put into a drawing to win a choice of ONE of the following:

1) a DVD of MESSAGE TO LOVE: THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL, featuring performances by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Joni Mitchell
2) a CD of The Who’s Isle of Wight concert
3) a CD of Jimi Hendrix’s Isle of Wight act, which sadly was his final appearance before his death

The drawing will take place at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, December 2.

If you subscribed to my newsletter, you could've read it a week ago. I'm just sayin'. The signup box is on every page of my website.

Read the first in the short story series: “Crossroads” (Monroe’s tale).

And the second, “Rave On” (Spencer’s story).

I probably won't be blogging again until after the holiday weekend. I plan to spend the week catching up on e-mail, cooking scrumptious food, and nursing my convalescent post-surgical pupster.

For frequent updates, this week and always, come follow me on Twitter. You're more likely to see the real, spontaneous me there any day. If you need extra incentive, in February I'll be doing a Twitter-exclusive contest to win an ARC of Bad to the Bone. It's fun, it's quick, it's thoroughly non-annoying: it's Twitter!

(By the way, you don't have to be a Twitter user to follow me--my status updates have an RSS feed. But the contest will be for Twitter users only.)

Don't forget, I'll be signing books and doing a reading from The Reawakened at the Winchester, VA, Borders bookstore this Saturday, 3-5pm. Hope to see you there!


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Now playing: Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy
via FoxyTunes

Labels: appearances, Contests, current contests, short stories, twitter, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 12:23 PM
• 1 comments

Guest blog and another chance to win a BAD TO THE BONE ARC

I'm guest-blogging over at Lori Devoti's 30 Days of Vampires about vampires and rock 'n' roll (go figure). Come tell me which rock star you think is a vampire (or should be), or how you would handle immortality, and automatically enter to win a choice of a signed copy of Wicked Game or a signed ARC of Bad to the Bone when they're available in February.

The contest runs until the end of the 30 Days, which is December 11 at midnight, so stop by and say hi!

Labels: blog tour, Contests, current contests, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 3:08 PM
• 0 comments

Saturday's booksigning, and a great cause

A couple of quick notes before I dive into my main project for the day, catching up on all my e-mail, MySpace, Facebook, etc. correspondences before they saturate my alveoli. (That's not as dirty as it sounds.)

This Saturday I'll be signing all my books (including the new one, The Reawakened) at the Waldenbooks in Cumberland, MD, along with several other local fantasy/science fiction/horror authors. If you're in the area, please come out and say hi. Do your part to keep the economy from imploding.

Fellow fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss is raising money for a wonderful charity, Heifer International, an organization that really makes a difference in the lives of ordinary people by providing them with livestock with which they can continue to earn a living. (Obviously, it's animals like goats and chickens and sheep, which can produce without being slaughtered.) He's matching every donated dollar, and the thermometer thingy on his donation page is getting redder and redder.

Patrick has a similar philosophy toward charitable giving as I do:

There are a lot of worthwhile charities out there. Important causes. Things I feel strongly about. But Heifer is my favorite. Here's why.

Let's say by some miracle I raised ten thousand dollars to help fight cancer, or Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's. While it would help the cause, it would just be a tiny drop in the bucket. Enough to help fund some lab's research for a couple weeks.

But we don't need to research a cure for hunger or poverty. We know how that works. Heifer doesn't just hand out bags of rice, Heifer gives a family a goat and teaches them how to take care of it. Then that family has a continual source of milk for their children. They can sell the extra milk to make money. When the goat has babies, they give those babies to other members of their community, sharing the gift.

Heifer helps people become self-reliant.

As part of his fundraiser, he's giving away fabulous prizes, which will eventually include an autographed Advance Reading Copy of The Reawakened. (I've been saving a couple just for this purpose.) Stay tuned to find out more. The giveaways run through December 11, I believe.

Questions? Click here to read all of Patrick's Heifer International-related posts. Then go forth and give goats.

Labels: appearances, Contests, current contests, good

• posted by Jeri @ 9:52 AM
• 0 comments