Jeri Smith-Ready

Author Extravaganza this Saturday

Well, the big family weekend went smashingly. Meadow loved the kids, and not just because they held food at mouth level. She was positively giddy with happiness, and didn't even flinch when the screaming began.

We are now all very tired.

This Saturday I'll be at the Country Club Mall in Cumberland, MD, from 11-3 for their Author Extravaganza. There'll be about two dozen authors signing books, so if you're in the area, drop on in!

I've done a few website updates:

News page, with new upcoming appearances in 2008 and 2009
Wicked Game page, new reviews and links
About me page, new interviews (all of which I've linked to on this blog at some point)

Enjoy!

Labels: appearances, website

• posted by Jeri @ 12:59 PM
• 0 comments

Monroe's story is live!

In the nick of time (it's still June, barely), I've posted the short story "Crossroads" by Monroe Jefferson.

This is the "true" tale of how vampire DJ Monroe was turned, back in July 1940, at a Mississippi crossroads. It's slightly different than the story he told in Wicked Game. That version was just to impress the crowd at the Smoking Pig, but this here is the real deal.

It even has a playlist at the bottom if you want to listen to the music while you read. (Personally I think it has more impact if heard afterward, but hey, it's a free country).

To celebrate, I'll give away a brand-new copy of the first CD that turned me on to the blues, Alvin Youngblood Hart's Big Mama's Door. To enter, just send me an e-mail telling me what you think of the story, or post a comment here. I'll draw one name at random a week from now, at 11:59pm eastern time, Monday, July 7.

But wait, there's more! Beginning with Spencer's story in August, my newsletter subscribers will get to read the stories a week before the rest of the world. So subscribe now (or stay subscribed) and get in on all the vampire action early.

Enjoy!

Labels: Contests, music, short stories, vampire series, website

• posted by Jeri @ 9:53 PM
• 6 comments

Happy Release Day to You!

Not me. You.

When Wicked Game officially hits the shelves across North America today, my work is done (except for the small detail of handing in the sequel this Friday). Release days are about the reader, not the writer. The reader finally has a chance to form his or her own relationship with the book, outside of reviews and ads and endless blog posts stretching back to the day the contract was signed (eighteen months ago, in my case).

Getting ready for a book’s release is sort of like planning a big party or a wedding. Prepare as much as you can, handle the variables you can control (which, in publishing, isn’t much), then sit back and take the rest as it comes. And just like with a party, don’t let the stress get in the way of enjoying yourself. (I'm of course a total hypocrite--I've been on the verge of a nervous breakdown all day.)

If you're stopping by for the first time, here's a bit about the book. If you're sick of hearing about it, skip down to the new stuff.

Late-night radio you can sink your teeth into

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WMMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station—and the link it provides to their original Life Times—the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover becomes a matter of life and un-death.

To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara re-brands the station as “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs’ vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around—next to Ciara’s complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the “gimmick” enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher-and the perils graver-than any con game Ciara’s ever played…

Smith-Ready’s musical references are spot on, as is her take on corporate radio’s creeping airwave hegemony. Add in the irrepressible Ciara, who grew up in a family of grifters, and the results rock. — Publisher’s Weekly

A colorful premise and engaging characters make the author’s (Aspect of Crow trilogy; Requiem for the Devil) latest a fun read. Recommended for all urban fantasy and paranormal romance collections. — Library Journal

WICKED GAME is an urban fantasy thrill ride. Not only is the story incredibly entertaining and exciting—even a little romantic—but it's also sexy as hell. — Simply Romance Reviews

New news:

— A sequel, Bad to the Bone, will be released May 1, 2009. That’s just fifty weeks away!

— The website for WVMP The Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll is now live! Visit WVMPradio.com to learn more about the DJs and hear their playlists, courtesy of the Playlist Project at Playlist.com. (Hat-tip to author Stephanie Kuehnert for telling me about the site.)

— WVMPradio.com also links to the station's official CafePress store, where you can now buy your own Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll merchandise.

— Our intrepid heroine Ciara Griffin is now on MySpace. Come friend her so she feels like a real person.

— Next signing: Borders Books in Winchester, VA--Saturday, May 17 from 3-5pm. Click here for directions, and check out my news page for more signings in the next few weeks.

And now, a humble request:

As with most series, the longevity of the WVMP vampires depends on reader enthusiasm, which is as it should be. So if you like Wicked Game, tell your friends, family, bookseller, librarian, and that guy/girl you’re always making eye contact with at the bus stop (no, not that one, the other one). That way, there'll be many more books to come.

Thanks to every one of you, whether you've known me since I was a wee bairn, or whether you've just heard of me for the first time this minute.

Now it's time for me to shut up and write. And let you read.

Order links:

Mysterious Galaxy

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Labels: appearances, MySpace, vampire series, website, writing life

• posted by Jeri @ 5:00 PM
• 6 comments

WVMP logo and signed copies

At long last, I'm thrilled to reveal the logo for WVMP, the radio station from Wicked Game. (Click for larger version that will kick you in the head with its coolness.)



Kudos to the folks at Henderson Creative for the design. Several forms of it (mainly different colors and angles of the guitar) will grace T-shirts, mugs, and other forms of swag. It and additional merchandise mentioned in the book--including buttons with slogans like “Feed the Need” and “Bite Me, I’m O-Positive"--will be available on the WVMPradio.com site when it goes live in May.


NEW APPEARANCE

I'm thrilled to announce that on May 10, I'll be a spotlight author at Mysterious Galaxy's 15th Birthday Bash! MG is one of the nation's premier science fiction/fantasy bookstores. Other authors at the Bash will include Charlaine Harris, Susan Hubbard, Jeff Mariotte, Savannah Russe, Samantha Sommersby, and Robert Tenenbaum.

Why should you care, if you're not a San Diegoan? Because if you pre-order your copy of Wicked Game from them, you can ask them to have me sign and personalize it for you while I'm there. Just put "Please have Jeri autograph (and personalize to NAME, if you want it personalized, otherwise I'll just sign my name)" in the comment box when you order online, or say it out loud when you call them at 858-268-4747 to order.

For the online orders, let's say you should do it by May 8 to be safe. Also, put your name instead of the word NAME. Unless that's really your name, in which case, I'm sorry, in both senses of the word.

UPDATE 3/19: In all my excitement over the news, I forgot to announce the winner of the latest book drawing:

Congrats to Tom Gallier, who just won a copy of NIGHT LIFE! Tom, please send your mailing address to me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com, and I'll pass it on to Caitlin.

Thanks to Caitlin for being a great guest and interviewee, and thanks to everyone who commented.


----------------
Now playing: Short Skirt/Long Jacket - CAKE
via FoxyTunes

Labels: appearances, bookstores, vampire series, website

• posted by Jeri @ 5:05 PM
• 7 comments

I'm known for my 'na's

Every once in awhile, I check out BlogPatrol to see where my visitors are coming from. The most entertaining part is the "Last 10 Keywords," where I can see what people Googled to get here. I just found a new favorite:


which came from this post. Yes, I am the 53rd most popular source for information on


But alas, my reign as the Queen of Squeaky Deaky is no more. I've fallen from #1 to #15.

Oh by the way, Voice of Crow is officially released today. Go get it. Tell your friends, your family members, and that friendly FBI agent tapping your phone line. Thanks.

Labels: music, Voice of Crow, website

• posted by Jeri @ 1:27 PM
• 4 comments

Animal of the month - Cougar

When I redesigned this website last year before Eyes of Crow’s release, I intended to create a page for each of the twelve Animals to correspond with the Animal of the Month. I made one for Crow, but it was so much damn work I never got around to making any more. No one wrote me begging to be enlightened as the biology, mythology and cultural history of various critters, so after a few months of feeling guilty, I gave up.

But then it occurred to me that I could still talk about the Animal of the Month as it applies to the books themselves, since that’s probably more interesting to readers, anyway. After all, more information on real animals can be found on the internet.

So let’s start this month, right now, with Cougar. Here’s the description from the Discover Your Spirit Animal quiz results:

Grrr, baby—you're the personification of animal magnetism. Your confidence, beauty, and athleticism make you the target of many romantically inclined individuals. Too bad for them—you don't stick around long enough to make breakfast, much less a lifetime commitment. Hello Kitty, Goodbye Heart.

Sounds dangerous but fun, no? In the Aspect of Crow series, the Cougars are the hunters. They have super-speed and strength, average stamina, and are skillful tree climbers. They can see in the dark and therefore make great sentries.

In a scene from Eyes, Alanka tells Rhia about her blemished relationship history:

Alanka counted on her fingers. “There was Adrek, a Cougar, he was the first. After that came Morran, a Bobcat, then Endrus, another Cougar.” Alanka sighed. “Learned my lesson finally. Thrice bitten, once shy, right? Cats don’t stay around.”

Adrek is less than reliable, but in Eyes he does the right thing when it really counts. In an early draft of Voice, he broke Alanka’s heart again, but the feedback I got from beta readers said that he was too much of a jackass for a strong woman like Alanka to fall for. So I shipped him off to a foreign country to rescue his kidnapped two-year-old daughter, thus

a) making him more heroic, and

b) saving Alanka from his jackassedness.

Labels: Eyes of Crow, Voice of Crow, website

• posted by Jeri @ 8:21 AM
• 2 comments

What took me so long?

After much gentle nudging from friends (with and without cattle prods), I finally got a LiveJournal account. Not only do I have my own journal, but I'm also part of the Fur, Fangs and Fey community of urban fantasy writers.

Color Catie contented.

Labels: website

• posted by Jeri @ 7:51 AM
• 1 comments

First peek at Wicked Game

Behold! The top third of the front cover of my upcoming vampire novel (they're still working on the title font, so this was all I could show). I've also posted the first chapter for your Friday reading pleasure.

No, Ciara doesn't have a tattoo in the book (due to her low pain threshold), and her hair is a bit longer and blonder, but there's no doubt in my mind: This. Is. Ciara. It's got her attitude.

I'm actually glad the hair is shorter than it's supposed to be, because this woman has a beautiful neck. Some would say it's quite biteable. Not Ciara, though (see ref to low pain threshold above).

When I first saw this cover back in July, I decided to redesign the entire radio station to match the one pictured. This was how it was supposed to look--moody and ramshackle, not sterile and utilitarian like I'd always imagined it.

So I played "Extreme Makeover"--I shrunk the building, made it claustrophobic and rickety, with strange items like deer heads and life-size cutouts of--well, just read the excerpt.

Labels: vampire series, website

• posted by Jeri @ 9:27 PM
• 11 comments

Voice of Crow excerpt

At long last, I've picked an excerpt from Voice of Crow to post on my site.

In case you're wondering, Rhia is still the main character as she was in Eyes of Crow, but I thought it'd be fun to introduce the new character ahead of time. Some of you might remember Filip from a brief scene near the end of Eyes.

Filip's scenes in Voice were some of my favorite, and in most cases were the ones that needed the least revision. I "clicked" with him right away, probably because he's more like us than the other characters. He gives us an outsider's perspective on Rhia and Marek's world of the Spirits. To him, all this animal magic is pretty darn freaky.

We also get to see more of his people (the Ilions, or "Descendants" as our friends call them) in Voice of Crow. The nation of Ilios is one part Ancient Rome, one part Ancient Sparta, and three parts I-Made-It-Up-istan.

A-Z Update: "Sick of Myself" by Matthew Sweet

Labels: Voice of Crow, website

• posted by Jeri @ 9:29 PM
• 5 comments

Requiem excerpt

A very nice lady e-mailed recently to tell me that she couldn't pull up the .pdf file of the first chapter of Requiem for the Devil.

Of course, I investigated right away (okay, several days later). It turns out the file didn't even exist on the server. Big fat OOPS.

I'd been meaning to convert it to HTML so it could be read right on the website without the need for Adobe Reader. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

And here it is, for your easy-on-the-eyes pleasure, in case you haven't already read it, the first chapter of Requiem for the Devil.

Note: if you print it, it comes out in a nice printer-friendly version without all the sidebar and menu crap. Because here at JeriSmithReady.com, we want you to be happy. Or at least content. Not disgruntled. Not on our account, anyway.

As a special thanks, I gave a signed copy of Eyes of Crow to the lady who alerted me about the problem. So if you find a serious error on this site, let me know and you might get a tangible representation of my thanks. Because here at JeriSmithReady.com, we don't shoot the messengers, we bring them inside and offer them brunch.

Labels: Requiem for the Devil, website

• posted by Jeri @ 8:26 AM
• 0 comments

PNR Paraphernalia interview

My first online interview! My ramblings forever carved in pixels to embarrass me for the rest of my life. Yay!

I'll be participating in my first live chat on the same site on Monday night at 9PM eastern time.

In other developments, I've added a FAQ page on this website. All of them are true FAQs, not QWWPWA's (Questions We Wish People Would Ask).

A-Z Update: "Brain Damage" by Pink Floyd

Labels: craft, interview, website, writing life

• posted by Jeri @ 7:50 AM
• 2 comments

New site design

Check it out, all around you. The latest triumph of Christian Ready Web Services.

We're still making some nips and tucks here and there (well, my husband is, I'm just telling him where to apply the scalpel) but we'd love to hear your feedback. Tell us what works and what doesn't.

So...whaddya think?

P.S.: If you haven't already, try out the Which animal are you? quiz.

Labels: website

• posted by Jeri @ 10:05 PM
• 3 comments

Which Animal are you?

As you probably know by now, the premise of my Luna series, Aspect of Crow, is that everyone has magic according to their totem animal or Guardian Spirit. Sort of X-Men meets Clan of the Cave Bear, I like to say.

So I've designed a personality quiz to let you find out which of twelve Animals from the book you would be. A test version of the quiz is up now.

I'd love for you all to try it out and give me feedback. Do the results fit you? Are there the right number of questions, or too many (or too little)? Any comments or suggestions are most appreciated. You can either post them here or e-mail me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com.

I'll do some tweaks on Monday night so the final version can launch Tuesday with the rest of the site.

PLEASE NOTE: Many of the links at the top and side of this page don't work yet--this is part of the new design that will be up Tuesday. Only the links to the blog, the home page, and the "Contact" page work, and they take you to the current version of the site.

Have fun, my little beasties!

Labels: Eyes of Crow, website

• posted by Jeri @ 12:05 PM
• 12 comments