At long last a LiveJournal by Jeri Smith-Ready

Just got back from the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference in Cherry Hill, NJ. I love bookseller trade shows because hey, I love booksellers. But I also love them because I get a chance to mingle with people outside my genres, and because I get to see previews of books that aren't coming out for months. Oh, and I might have picked up a book or ARC or two. Or sixty.

My name is Jeri, and I'm a Bookaholic.  {{hiiiii Jeriiiiii}}

Anyway, the work day is over for most people, but I've got a novel to revise, so I've got a full night's work ahead of me.  So this'll be quick, another "They blog so I don't have to" moments.

In a post entitled "Eat your heart out, George Clooney," Ciara brags about a review in Green Man Review, which I have to admit is one of my favorites, too:

Wicked Game is clever, funny, creative, and way too much fun. Jeri Smith-Ready plays with a concept I always thought would work well with vampires, setting them up as nighttime radio DJs whose familiarity with the material comes from actual experience, and she does it well, throwing in a nice mixture of musical styles and character personalities. Honestly, this is a book I wish I'd written, so I'm glad someone went ahead and did it. Smith-Ready's treatment of vampires is slightly skewed from the average depiction; in her world, vampires need to find a balance between the time period in which they were alive, and the modern era, lest they become disconnected and unable to function. Moreover, they're essentially locked in to their "Life Time," unable to easily change or grow or learn new things as time marches on without them. This imbues this particular breed of vampire with a unique and satisfying vulnerability, which makes for some interesting complications in their society. She also plays with the nature of codependency between vampires and humans, showing various ways in which they each get what they want, be it sex, money, protection, or dinner (you guess which is which. . . .) Maybe it's not all entirely original, since there's only so much variation possible, but it's explored nicely here.

Ciara's a fun character in her own right, a natural con artist who's always looking for that extra angle to exploit, and that back door to escape through. She's pragmatic, and naturally skeptical at first when things get weird, reacting like any normal person would, but when the chips are down, she really shines. In fact, it's safe to say she's got some massive reserves of confidence to draw upon, and an amazing amount of chutzpah, given some of the plans she comes up with. It'll be interesting to see what she does next, after what she pulls off in this book.

Wicked Game is a sure-fire winner in my opinion, and the sequel will be one of my must-reads.

Delish.  Read the rest and see if you can figure out Ciara's favorite line.

Then in Shane's World, our favorite vampire DJ (well, my favorite, anyway) waxes nostalgic about 80s video games, and shares with us a clip from a hilarious spoof of "Pac-Man the Movie."

Off to eat my first real meal of the day and then get crackin' on the manuscript.  Tomorrow I'll be back with the results of Spencer's story contest. 

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Now playing: Calico Horse - Awake In the Clouds
via FoxyTunes   

I've decided to start posting little mini-updates here, mostly writing-oriented, on my off-blogging days.  (The "Blogging Days" being MWF, where I cross-post to jerismithready.com and MySpace.)

Uh-oh, now that I've said I was going to do it, I probably never will.  Hate commitment.  So let's pretend this is a one-time thing.  A one-day stand with casual blogging, if you will.

Mini-news:

1) There's a bit of drama on Ciara's MySpace blog.  A marriage proposal from Shane? 
2) I found out last night that a character in THE REAWAKENED has the same name as Barack Obama's older daughter: Malia.  So cool! 
3) Speaking of TR, I'll be posting the full cover along with an excerpt tomorrow.  Oh, crap, I've said I would do it.  Now it won't happen.  Stay tuned....


Yesterday I felt super-productive for the first time in weeks.  I turned in a synopsis for a short story I've been contracted to write.  I'll announce details once I get the signed contract itself--hopefully before the story itself is published (ha!).  I'm very excited about it, especially now that I've outlined the events and conflicts. It's set in a geographical area that's always fascinated me--the Great Dismal Swamp in southeastern VA.  Road trip ahoy!

I also made good progress on the revisions to my YA proposal.  Last night I read the chapters to my husband.  He loved it, but that wasn't the point.  I always read my works out loud at the last stage. Amazing what you pick up on by hearing the words--repetitive phrases, unfortunate rhymes, and dialogue that just clunks, Things your eye skips over when you read it silently.

Some of the descriptive language in one scene sounds off--too poetic, distant, third-persony.  I get that way when I describe music--swoony and hyperbolic.  It just doesn't sound like the MC's first-person voice.

This fine-tuning could make a huge difference in impressing an editor, so it's worth taking the time.  Ultimately I know that an editor makes an offer based on the idea and the voice, not the minor details. But minor details can add up to an overall experience of "Hmm, it's not bad, but I won't fight hard for it in committee." versus "OMFG WOW! *falls off chair, runs down hall to beg boss to write big check*"

So how do you know when your submission is ready to go?  Is it a gut feeling or do you have an obsessive multi-step process?  Or does one result from the other?

I didn't blog yesterday, but that's okay.  I have people for that now.

When Rob Usdin of the Jersey Jamcast told me about a cool new online radio station, I passed it on to Shane, who blogged about it last night and started a discussion about who we think is already dead but isn't.  Go say hi if you have a chance (you need a MySpace account to comment, but not to read).

Which prompted him to check the Abe Vigoda status.  Hat tip to Rob at Laughing at the Pieces for showing me that one oh so long ago.

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Now playing: Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied (1948)
via FoxyTunes