At long last a LiveJournal by Jeri Smith-Ready

Need some nummies? Tails of Hope, the animal rescue organization I volunteer with, is having a giant Bake Sale tomorrow at the Guilford Mansion in Frederick, MD, from 11am to 3pm. One of the people making goodies for the sale is a professional chef, so this ain't your average Bake Sale with Duncan Hines cupcakes (although those will probably be available, too).

If you're in the area, please stop by. I won't be there due to this annoying cold (what with the swine flu worries, I might scare people by sneezing and coughing), but Tails of Hope could really use your help. They had $9,000 in vet bills last month for the shelter animals in their care. Yeesh!

Here's a map to help you find it, as well as more information on this and other Tails of Hope events.

If you're not in the area, you can still help my favorite animal folks by helping them win a grant. It's super easy to do. I'll let Linda Junkins, our president, explain it:

The Animal Rescue Site is having another Shelter Challenge, and Tails of Hope has the potential to win up to a $20,000 grant! You can help by voting for Tails of Hope--today and every day--and by forwarding this to everyone you know.

To vote for us, simply click on the above icon, and then search for "Tails of Hope" in Maryland. You can vote every day until July 26, 2009. So program your PDA, set your alarm clock, tie a string around your finger--whatever it takes--but please don't forget to cast your daily vote!

Thanks for all you do to help our animals in need.

Since I don't have much time to volunteer these days due to book deadlines, this is one of the few ways I can help, by spreading the word. So please in turn help me by reposting the link and the voting instructions on your blog, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever.

Thanks and have a great weekend! If you go to the bake sale, tell them Jeri sent you. :-)

The winner of a signed copy of Victoria Dahl's A Rake's Guide to Pleasure is...MEME!  Yay!  MEME, send your mailing address to me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com, and I'll pass it on to Victoria.

In other news...our foster dog Tommy got adopted!  He left us a week ago to go live with a very nice couple and their very active nine-month-old puppy, who will provide him with a lot more exercise (and possibly a heart attack) than Meadow ever could.  The new mom reports that he's doing fantastic.

I've got company coming this weekend, so I've gotta go clean the house and buy food and figure out how to make the dishwasher child-safe (the bottom piece fell off--the part that the fixit guy opens to work on the wiring--and now there's a gaping hole, which is perfectly safe as long as you don't stick your hand in there--in other words, if you don't act like a little kid).

Wish me luck.

----------------
Now playing: Ritchie Valens - Come On, Let's Go
via FoxyTunes    

Don't forget, you have until Thursday at 5 eastern to enter to win a copy of Nancy Hunter's debut historical novel Taste of Liberty!

And now, an update on Tommy, or should we call him, the Stair Master! As of yesterday, he has now conquered all staircases, inside and out (yes, even those slick wooden ones on the deck).

The only thing he's unsure about are slick floors like the kitchen. It's pretty hilarious, feeding the cat in the middle of the kitchen floor, and Tommy wants so badly to taste that yummy cat food, but he can't...quite...reach if he insists on leaving one toe on the carpet. The cat just eats, smugly.

This morning I finally got him to hold still enough to take two pictures that actually show what he looks like:

( Are you ready for the cute? I said, are you ready for the cute?? )

Tommy has three applications to adopt him so far, but the process is a little slowed by the fact that the volunteers who do the home visits are on vacation, so he might be with us another week. He's a really good dog, so we don't mind.

----------------
Now playing: Flogging Molly - Seven Deadly Sins
via FoxyTunes

Podcasters Stuart and Glory Jaffe of The Eclectic Review discuss the evolution of the portrayal of vampires, from Dracula to Anne Rice to the Anita Blake books to Buffy to...Wicked Game in their latest episode, "Vampires are Deadly and Fun Part 2".

Very interesting discussion. Check it out! Apparently there'll be more about Wicked Game in a future podcast, so stay tuned.

And here's a new shot of Tommy:


It's very hard to get them to stay still for a photo, as I mentioned before.

That's all for today--I plan to finish a rough draft of my sample chapters by tonight (note to self: rough draft means it doesn't have to be perfect.  Let yourself put in too much backstory this time around.), so I'll be offline most of the day.

Have a good one!

---------------
Now playing: Home Of The Blues - Johnny Cash
via FoxyTunes   

Tommy made it to the basement this morning by going in the lower back door to the storeroom. I guess a few concrete stairs are not such a big deal. So now he has the run of half the house, with access to the backyard.  Baby steps!

I did an interview with the lovely Sidhe Vicious, who posted it this week on her blog. And of course, you can win a signed copy of Wicked Game by commenting on the interview (there, not here).

I'm making a big trip to the post office tomorrow, so anyone waiting for me to send them stuff, it'll be on its way this week. Hopefully by the end of July I'll be all caught up on e-mail and maybe *gasp!* filing. Today and tomorrow I hope to bang out a few sample chapters of my proposed YA novel to send to my agent, then I'll get to work on Spencer's story, which I hope to have up by mid-August at the latest.

Lastly, but most important, thanks a million to the *gulp* 200+ people who sent me birthday wishes by e-mail, MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, and I promise to reply to each of you before my next birthday.

----------------
Now playing: The Smiths - Girl Afraid
via FoxyTunes   

At last...we have a new foster dog! His name is Tommy (insert Chris saying "Tommy Tommy Tommy Tommy" in a Philip-Seymour-Hoffman-from-The Talented Mr. Ripley-voice, constantly, probably until the day the dog gets adopted). My camera batteries have died, but here's a picture from his page on the Tails of Hope website:

( Click for cute-itude. )

He slept all the way from Frederick, curled up on the floor behind the driver's seat, only looking up when I had to slow down from 60 to 0 to avoid hitting a groundhog sitting in the middle of the highway (they're the world's most suicidal animal). He seems like a real sweetheart.

So he got home, played in the backyard with Meadow, who is thrilled to have him, as is Misha (well, Misha's cautiously indifferent). Then it was time to go inside, since there was a thunderstorm coming.

No dice. Mr. Ripley doesn't like stairs. At all. Unfortunately, we live in a split foyer home, which means that the only way in and out of the house is by stairs. After a lot of coaxing, he came up to the top floor, drank some water, and explored all the rooms. Then it was time to try the downstairs family room. He ran down the first level, then...got stuck on the front landing. Wouldn't go back up or go all the way down.

He was so anxious about it, I decided to just let him stay there for now. Forcing a dog to do something they're afraid of just makes the fear worse. So he's sleeping on a nice bed with a few chew toys. The landing is about 15 square feet, probably bigger than his cage at the shelter. As soon as he wakes up, I'll feed him, give him some more water, then take him out for potties.

Wish me luck getting him back in the house, and eventually back up the stairs! Always an adventure....

Just got an e-mail from our foster coordinator, one of those blanket e-mails she sends to all the foster parents. There's a German Shepherd puppy in Ohio that needs out of the shelter. I don't know if it's life or death (they usually tell us when it is), and I might not be the only one available to do it (it's a big list).

We haven't fostered a small puppy (< 6 months old) in about 30 months (since little Zack, whose two-part story can be read here and here). They're a ton of work. They usually result in sleep deprivation. They wear down my nerves to the very last nubs, and I start to see myself as a Very Nasty Person.

On the plus side:

Puppies are easier to crate than adults--they might not like it, but they rarely have a panic attack over it
Puppies are rarely a danger to cats--they tend to annoy, but are easily bullied
Puppies are quickly adopted

And puppies are...well, dammit, just look at him:



It would be a pain in the butt, but I sort of feel like we need some new life around here.  It's been almost seven months since Tiggy died, and since then I've mostly been in one deadline fog or another.  It might be nice to have something other than work demand my time and thoughts.  Having a puppy means a lot more noise in the house, but a lot of it comes in the form of laughter.

I'm going to sleep on it overnight, then ask Chris what he thinks.  He'll say, "Whatever you want, honey."

What do y'all think?  Is anyone out there on this holiday weekend eve?

UPDATE: Answer: To Pup!!  Or at least, I told the foster coordinator we would take him if no one else had offered yet.  So we'll see...

UPDATE AGAIN: He's already taken!  But I told her we'd be up for another puppy, since my workload is not insane for the next month. 

Time for a few sundry items.

Bitten by Books reviewed Wicked Game yesterday. I post a link not only so you can read the review (Five Headstones!), because I don't blog about every review (seems a bit brag-alicious, and besides, if you're reading my blog regularly you've probably already decided whether or not to buy Wicked Game), but also to introduce you to this fabulous new site. Rachel Smith has put together a great design and a very active community, so if you like paranormal fiction, it's the new place to be!

Ciara has blogged again, this time about her fear of being interviewed by Dante from A Rush of Wings. It'll happen soon, whether she likes it or not. I mean, I give her free room and board--the least she can do is field a few interviews for me.

Misha was walking wobbly this morning, with his back legs giving out on him, so I rushed him to the vet, fearing a thrombosis (blood clot). Of course, once we got there, he steadily improved and now seems a lot better. (Probably regretting getting into the Jim Beam.) The vet said to keep an eye on him all weekend to make sure he doesn't get worse. He's a very athletic cat, so it's sad to see him sort of feeble.

Speaking of beasts, Baron went into a foster-to-adopt home, so we're not sure which foster dog we're getting and when. I'll be sure to update you and post pictures when I find out.

Still working on Monroe's story and planning to have it up on jerismithready.com on Monday. Will post when live! Have great weekends.

----------------
Now playing: Robert Johnson - Sweet Home Chicago
via FoxyTunes    

Still untangling the end of Bad to the Bone (important lesson: sometimes when a scene doesn't want to be written, it means it wasn't meant to exist), so I've only got time for a quick Furface post.

Turns out, Annie got adopted (yay!), so we'll just be fostering her sister Beanie, beginning next week (Wednesday, I think).



Must.  Hug.  Now.

A few updates:

After nearly a year of crushing deadlines (me), a pinched nerve (Meadow), and madcap traveling (me), we're getting another foster dog next week! Her name is Annie (web page TBA), and if things go well, she'll be joined shortly by her "sister" Beanie. Yes, we are making up for lost time.

I have a deadline next Monday morning for Bad to the Bone, the sequel to Wicked Game. I'm putting in all-dayers between now and then, so this might be my last blog post for a week, though I do have half of one I might be able to post tomorrow if I get a few minutes tonight. Also, don't get mad if I don't return e-mails right away. Do you want another vampire book or not? (Don't answer that.)

Also, the winner of a signed copy of Nancy Haddock's La Vida Vampire is...Diana Cosby! Yay! Diana, just send your mailing address to me at jeri AT jerismithready DOT com, and I'll pass it on to Nancy. Thanks to everyone who commented and made Nancy feel at home, and also thanks for all those great ideas for vampire hobbies (taking notes).

And now my last bit of news, which was originally going to be Friday's update....

Wicked Game was #4 on Mysterious Galaxy's paperback bestseller list for the month of May!

Thanks a million to all of you who pre-ordered the book to have me sign, or came to the Birthday Bash on May 10, or who have ordered it since. I appreciate the support for the book, but even more I appreciate your support for this phenomenal independent bookseller. These people work very hard (and have a lot of fun) promoting the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. They know their stuff and deserve all the success they get.

They should still have some signed First Editions of Wicked Game at the store, so if you'd like one (or more), go order today!

----------------
Now playing: Fast As You Can - FIONA APPLE
via FoxyTunes