At long last a LiveJournal by Jeri Smith-Ready

I’ve posted the fourth story in my “Days the Music Died”/how-the-DJs-became-vampires series. Shane’s, not surprisingly, is the longest and most complex story of all. If you’ve read Wicked Game, you know who turns him. Here’s how they met. As always, it includes a short playlist of the music that appears in the story. Listen to it before, during, or after, and enjoy!

By no small coincidence, today is the fourteenth anniversary of his big change. You can follow Shane on Twitter, or visit his page at WVMPradio.com, where you can listen to his new-and-improved playlist, a sample of the sort of music he plays on his show.

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Everyone who leaves a comment on Shane’s story (either here or by e-mailing me), will be put into a drawing to win a very special prize, one that can’t be bought in stores, not even on eBay:

I’ll send the winner the marked-up, scribbled-on manuscript of the story’s first draft. You can see where I messed up, how I (hopefully) fixed it, and even a few arguments with myself over word choice, characterization, and plot.

NOTE: this will be a Xeroxed copy, because the original manuscript came down with a severe case of raspberry jelly. I have no idea how that happened.

The drawing will take place at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time on April 12.

Regina’s and Noah’s stories will appear later, but I have to work around my ever-tightening book deadlines, so hang in there!

Congrats to Hockeyvampiress (love that name), whose name I drew last night to win an ARC of Bad to the Bone! Thanks so much to everyone who shared their pet stories and photos and memories with us. They made me smile and go, "Awwww" a heckuva lot. I'll be sure to reply to you individually once these next two madcap days are over (see below for a hint of the madcappiness).

Also, a quick heads-up: I'll be sending out my newsletter either late tonight or tomorrow morning, so if you haven't signed up, here are a few reasons why you should:

1. You'll be the first to get a glimpse of Shane's short story. Most of the world won't see it until April 5.
2. Before each issue goes out, I draw two names at random to win a prize. Not surprisingly, this issue's prize is an ARC of Bad to the Bone.
3. All the cool people are doing it. You wanna be cool, right?
4. It only comes out four times a year.
5. It's totally text-based (i.e., no HTML) to minimize inbox clutter and download time.
6. It's entertaining. At least, I guess it is, because only two or three people (out of 1000+) unsubscribe after each issue. So I must be doing something right (or at least not doing anything very wrong).

Signup boxes are located on every page of my website. Come...join us....

In November 2006, I wrote a twenty-part serial short story for my publisher's Daily Reads feature. That story, "The Wild's Call," is a distant prequel to the Aspect of Crow trilogy.

And it's now available for Kindle, absolutely free! Which means they gave it some bitchin' cover art. I'm pretty sure this is the first urban fantasy to feature a fox on its cover.

If you're like me and you don't have a Kindle, you can still read it online.

Also new for the Kindle this week is an "enhanced" version of the final Aspect of Crow novel, The Reawakened. It features several deleted scenes, with accompanying director's author commentary. It sells for the same price as the regular version.

Warning: deleted scenes contain major spoilers, so read the novel first.

All Aspect of Crow novels are available in e-book, in the three major non-Kindle formats. You can find them at Mysterious Galaxy, or pretty much any other place e-books are sold. Same goes for Requiem for the Devil (<<direct Kindle link there). Sorry, my WVMP Radio books (Wicked Game and the upcoming sequel Bad to the Bone) are only available in good old-fashioned paperback at this point.

Happy Kindling!

Welcome back, all you lazy sods relaxed folk who took off the entire holiday season. Here's what you've almost missed:

My latest Aspect of Crow tie-in short story is now live in its entirety! All eight weekly chapters are posted on my publisher's site, so grab a cup of cocoa and read all of "Storm Reaper" at once.

- The first in a series of booze-soaked mutual interviews between Dante Baptiste and Ciara Griffin, along with a chance to win a signed copy of Adrian Phoenix's fabulous new release, In the Blood (and possibly an Amazon gift certificate, too!) You can read my review and find out more about the subsequent giveaways in the previous post.

- On Friday, Justin Gustainis gave us an entertaining look at The Future of Urban Fantasy. Comment on his post and enter to win his newest Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigations release, Evil Ways.

Now, for my 2009 goals. They're pretty much a knockoff of my 2008 goals, which I reviewed last week. The only difference is they're a little bit more attainable.

( Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to click LJ cuts. )

Overall, more writing and less not-writing, which makes everyone happier. And of course, much of 7-10 depends on #2 coming to pass. Hopefully I'll know about that in the next couple of months, and I'll shout it from the virtual rooftops if it happens.

What are your goals for this year? Are they like mine, simply tweaks and updates from last year, or are you doing a major overhaul of priorities? How do you measure your progress? Do you see goals as a chance to stretch yourself, or as a way to set yourself up for failure? Or both?

Have a great 2009! I'll see you back here next year! (Just kidding. I think I'll be back tomorrow with another guest, but I have to check with them.)

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Now playing: The Newlydeads - Cities In Dust

Sorry I've been slack on blogging lately. Actually, not so much slack, just really busy writing and taking care of my invalid dog (mostly the latter--she's a very demanding patient).

- A full fifty percent (50%) of "Storm Reaper" is now available on my publisher's website. The link there goes to the main page where you can access chapters 1-4 at will.

- You have one more day to enter two giveaways:

Lori Devoti's 30 Days of Vampires ends tomorrow, and so does the chance to win a signed ARC of Bad to the Bone (or a signed copy of Wicked Game, if you prefer).

Patrick Rothfuss's phenomenal fundraiser for Heifer International will end tomorrow. He's already met his new goal of $40,000 raised by fans and friends, which he will match, because he is a dude of the highest order.

I bought a goat (not for me, for a family somewhere in Foreign Lands) to celebrate a few things I'm grateful for this Christmas:

1. My husband still has a job. Two, in fact! And no, you can't have one. We need them both, because of #2.

2. Meadow had surgery the week before Thanksgiving to fix four ruptured discs in her back. She is recovering nicely and is no longer in massive amounts of pain and fear. It was really bad there for awhile. Her regular vet was starting to suggest that she be put out of her misery, and he was pessimistic about how well she would handle the operation and recovery. Mainly because, unlike her neurologist, he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Pbbbttt! We'll be looking for a new vet pronto. More on that later, because I think it's important for all dog owners to be aware of the symptoms of ruptured discs and what to do in that event.

3. Um, can't tell you about #3 yet, so for now we'll put in a placeholder: the Ravens are having a spectacular season, despite the fact that they have a first-time head coach and a rookie quarterback. For the first time since, uh, ever, they have an offense that doesn't embarrass their terrific defense.

Where was I? Oh, a goat. So the least you can do (for the chance to win an ARC of The Reawakened and prizes much cooler, like the manuscript for Kevin J. Anderson's Batman/Superman: Enemies and Allies, the book where Batman and Superman apparently meet for the first time, and which won't be out until May) is pony up twenty bucks for some chicks. Or name your own donation amount in the white box.

Patrick's already met his 40K goal, but I bet if we get tons of people donating today, he'll raise it to $50,000. That's not a dare, just a hunch.

- Four more days to enter the giant Spirit Animal/Aspect of Crow trilogy giveaway. Details on the click-through.

Anyway, I'm pretty much giving myself permission these days to do nothing but take care of my dog and work on books in various stages of existence. So blogging has to fall by the wayside.

But as always, I'm active on Twitter. If I go off Twitter for more than 48 hours, just assume I'm either dead or held captive by a roving band of clown monkeys. If it's the latter, please pray for the former.

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:

The sixties are dying, and now, so am I.

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

Chapter One of my new Aspect of Crow tie-in story is now up on my publisher's website!

"Storm Reaper" takes place about two years before The Reawakened, but since it's set in a completely different area with different characters, you can read it either before or after that book.

Fans of Voice of Crow will remember Kiril, Filip's comrade from the Ilion cavalry.  He's one of the protagonists of this story, along with a disgraced noblewoman named Helena.  Filip and Alanka make an appearance in the story as well.

I was thrilled to be able to visit this world one last time.  As I might have mentioned, several characters and plots were cut from The Reawakened as I was working on it.  The biggest deletion dealt with how the war and revolution were affecting Filip and Kiril's native country of Ilios.

A new chapter will appear every Monday between now and January 19.  Enjoy!

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Now playing: The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
via FoxyTunes    

I'm the Affiliate of the Month over at my favorite bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, which means I wrote a guest blog post connected to my new release, The Reawakened.  "When 'The End' means THE END" discusses what it feels like to end a series on purpose (hint: there are smiles involved) and when an author knows it's time to say goodbye.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on when a series should end.  If you don't have a MySpace account, feel free to discuss it here.  I've copied the questions from that blog post here:

Is the "stand-alone trilogy" a thing of the past?  Are you more likely to start reading a series if you know when it will end?  Do you have different expectations for open-ended series versus those with a defined story arc?  Does it depend on the genre or subgenre?

---

Monday I'll be sending out the Fall issue of my quarterly newsletter.  As always, I'll draw two names to win a prize just before it goes out and announce it in the issue.  This issue's prize will be an autographed copy of The Reawakened. 

And that's not all!  Newsletter subscribers will get a link to my new short story, "When the Music's Over," which depicts the weird and wild way Jim from Wicked Game became a vampire.  I swear, I was not on drugs when I wrote it, except Aleve and Tylenol.  The rest of the world will have to wait an extra week to read the story. 

If you haven't read the previous tie-in short stories, here they are: "Crossroads" (Monroe) and "Rave On" (Spencer).

To subscribe, just put your e-mail address in the SIGN UP FOR JERI'S NEWSLETTER box on the sidebar on my home page.  I'm getting really close to 1,000 subscribers, and I think there might be a special prize for #1,000.  Good luck!

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Now playing: You on the Run - The Black Angels
via FoxyTunes  

Found this app through one of my LJ friends (sorry, I can't remember which one you were!), and tried it out today on Jim's story, "When the Music's Over."  I wanted to do the whole 1500 word-story in 1.5 hours, but have to take a dog feeding/medicating break, so I'll do the rest soon.

	1028
61
lab.drwicked.com

Not bad!  I just in the last few paragraphs scraped the surface of the weirdness this story needs to have, but it's getting there.  Definitely more humorous than the last two have been.  I decided it couldn't always be sad to become a vampire. Sometimes it would be pretty groovy.


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Now playing: When The Music's Over - The Doors
via FoxyTunes    

I'm getting to that pre-deadline place (story due tomorrow, novel rewrite due three weeks later) where I'm generally cranky about dealing with the internet at all, so forgive my lack of interesting/important news. I'm sure there's something really cool I forgot to tell you about.

Here are the best Urban Dictionary Words of the Day from last week:

September 29: Blackberry Jam A people traffic jam that occurrs in subway tunnels and bus stations. Caused by inconsiderate workaholics walking too slow while their noses are glued to their Blackberry device.

I was late for work because there was a Blackberry Jam getting out of the A train.

October 04: manicorn

a mythical male creature who is successful (read: pursuing his passion and can pay his electric bills/rent), funny, chivalrous, masculine (read: not chauvinistic), adventurous, artistic (read: not suicidal).

See any John Cusack film (or Chuck Klosterman's witty commentary on Fake Love in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Pops), any romantic comedy where the flawed guy comes through in the end...

"Where is my manicorn? I keep going out with all these losers!"

"Too bad I settled when I got married, I just met my manicorn."

And now your list of states whose voter registration rolls are still open. The blinking ones will close either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday (i.e., before my next blog post--guest blogger coming tomorrow, then deadline Tuesday). Most of them end on Monday! As always, check with VotersUnite! to see the specific rules and regs for your state. Don't get Left Behind!

( Behold the blinkies! It's your civic duty! )

And now, for a video suggested by fellow author Yasmine Galenorn (yasminegalenorn ), Devo's "Freedom of Choice."






Now I know what my next nightmare will look like.


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Now playing: Glimr - Shella Sometimes and the Blacker Shadow - Various Artists
via FoxyTunes    

The winner of the multi-CD Sun Records compilation disc is...Kay M.!  Kay won by commenting/e-mailing me her thoughts on Spencer's 'turning' story, "Rave On."  I drew a name at random from all the comments on my three blogs and e-mails I received.  Thanks to everyone who entered--glad you found it enjoyable/fun/disturbing!

There's one more open contest, running through Thursday night.  Read and comment on my synopsis for the Aspect of Crow trilogy from last Friday's post to be entered to win the first TWO BOOKS in the trilogy, Eyes of Crow and Voice of Crow.  (The final volume, The Reawakened, comes out November 1, in case you're not sick of me telling you yet.)

Tomorrow I'll hold one last contest to give away the remaining ARC of The Reawakened.

But now, I must breakfast.

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Now playing: My Lover's Box - Garbage
via FoxyTunes   

Starting November 17, one of my publishers will be posting eight weekly installments of "Storm Reaper" (tentative title), a short story in the same universe as my Aspect of Crow fantasy trilogy. It takes place a couple of years before The Reawakened and features several characters from Voice of Crow (Alanka, Kiril, Filip) who mostly didn't make it into The Reawakened, due to my publisher not wanting the novel to be 1,000 pages long (go figure!).

Naturally, I'll remind you when it starts.  The story will be completely free to readers online.  Basically, it'll be just like  "The Wild's Call", except the installments will be longer and only once a week.  Oh, and with a completely different story.

P.S.: I'm also blogging the Topic of the Week over at Fangs Fur & Fey today.  This week's topic is money money money, as in, where do characters get it?

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Now playing: Hole - Asking For It
via FoxyTunes   

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me guessing the identity of the Raven child, a mystery proposed in Voice of Crow, the answer to which will be revealed in The Reawakened (coming November 1).

The prize was an Advanced Readers Copy of the new novel, and the winner was...Janice Y.! I'll have another ARC contest next week, so stay tuned.

Also, thanks for all your comments on the amazing cover for The Reawakened. I drew three names from the commenters to win cover flats:

TT (Lena)
Nozomi429
MEME

Yay!

Patricia is getting ready to draw a name from her Wicked Game giveaway, so that just leaves the Spencer story contest open...for now. Check back next week, like I said, for another chance to win a Reawakened ARC.

Have a great weekend, and if you're in southeast Texas, don't be stupid--do what the authorities tell you to do. If you're in Galveston, get the hell out. This may be the first and last time I ever quote Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff (emphasis mine):

Chertoff also urged people not to succumb to "hurricane fatigue," referring to concerns that authorities were overestimating Ike's potential impact.

"Unless you're fatigued with living, I suggest you want to take seriously a storm of this size and scale," he said Thursday.

Stay safe, people.

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Now playing: ... But Home in Nowhere - A.F.I.
via FoxyTunes    

As promised, I’ve posted the second story in the how-the-Wicked-Game-DJs-became-vampires series. So now, for your absolutely free reading pleasure, I present "Rave On".

On the Day the Music Died (February 3, 1959), Spencer literally meets his maker. For the first time, we get to see what happens to a brand-new vampire as he deals with the transformation into an immortal being. It doesn't involve Valentines and teddy bears, that's for sure.

It's more of a typical story-story than Monroe's "Crossroads," which was largely a mood piece. "Rave On" features fight scenes, cheatin' hearts, and a cameo by one of the other WVMP DJs. I hope y'all like it.

There’s a playlist at the bottom of each page for you to listen to, featuring tunes that inspired the story and/or appeared in it.

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Everyone who e-mails me at jeri@jerismithready.com (or just comments on this post) with a comment on Spencer’s story will be put into a drawing to win a Sun Records 50th Anniversary multi-CD collection, featuring artists like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash in their primes. Great stuff! The drawing will take place at 11:59pm Eastern on Wednesday, September 17.

If you subscribed to my newsletter, you could've read the story a week ago. I'm just sayin'.

Jim's story, tentatively titled, "When the Music's Over," will be posted in late October/early November, depending on my other deadlines. His will probably be a little weird. Maybe more than a little.


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Now playing: Diminished - R.E.M.
via FoxyTunes   

(another LJ-exclusive post!)

Still putting the finishing touches on Spencer's story, "Rave On." Heard back early yesterday from my other beta reader, who had one tiny nitpick but otherwise thought it was fine.

So what's the problem?

She said she "liked it."

I thought, hmmmm. She loved Monroe's story but just liked this one. And my first beta reader said she "really liked it" but her reaction lacked the breathlessness she had after reading Monroe's story. So no negatives, but none of what we at Ruby Tuesday's used to call the "WOW Experience" (at least, for the four weeks I worked there in 1996).

Curse my perfectionism, but I can't bear the thought of any work not kicking the ever-loving ass of its predecessor. So I spent all of last evening and today trimming and polishing and knocking out weak words. I realized the love lust interest had no appeal aside from her (un)natural vampire charisma.

None of the story changed, aside from a few minor details. Mostly it was the choice of language.

The biggest challenge with this story (aside from figuring out the plot from scratch) was writing compelling prose from the POV of a plainspoken, matter-of-fact man like Spencer. He's not bright and funny like Ciara, or mystical spooky like Monroe. He tells us what happened and, to the best of his ability, why it happened. A man from his place and time (Memphis 1959) wouldn't indulge in endless psychobabble about his inner child. We have to figure out a lot of what goes on in his head based on his words and actions.

Tightening the prose was another challenge.  Southerners do not employ economy of language, so some sentences had to be a little wordier in order to sound like him.

Quick example: instead of "against the wall," it's "up against the wall." Horrors! An extra word!! Rap my knuckles with the Strunk & White Ruler of Shame!

I'll let it sit for an hour, then read it out loud for the thirtieth time.  Then hopefully post it and send my newsletter tonight.  Tomorrow I start Supah Sekrit Project that will consume my next week.  Also, as a reward for finishing the story, I finally get to open my new CD, The Black Angels' Directions to See a Ghost.

How do you know when your work is done?  Do you ever find yourself at that last stage slaving over each word?  Does it show professionalism or obsessiveness, or both?  How do you get from LIKE to LUUUUURRRRVE?

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Now playing: If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day - Robert Johnson
via FoxyTunes    

Here's the first of two chances to win an Advance Review Copy of The Reawakened. Here's a new image--now with bonus back cover!




(Click image to embigulate. Depending on your screen's resolution, clicking a second time might get you an even bigger, clearer image.)

As I mentioned in my post last week (where the cover flat giveaway is going on for one more day), The Reawakened is the final installment in my award-winning Aspect of Crow trilogy.

For those who've just joined me since Wicked Game, a little more about this trilogy:

Aspect of Crow takes place in a world where everyone has magic bestowed by their Guardian Spirit Animal (what some might call a "totem" or "power animal"). Sort of X-Men meets Clan of the Cave Bear.

( Four out of five doctors recommend clicking to learn more! )

Now for the ARC. I’d like to see them go to current fans of the series, the ones who are really salivating for it, so to enter, please e-mail me (or message me here through LJ) with your best-guess answer to the following question:


Everyone who sends me a character name will be entered in a random drawing to take place at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time on September 10, 2008. All entries will be eligible for the drawing, not just the correct ones.

BONUS entry opportunity! To double your chances to win, tell me WHY you think this person is the Raven.

(Note: I'm disabling comments so that people send their guesses to me directly instead of giving away hints in public.  Spoiler-free blogging ahoy!)

Yesterday I managed to tear my eyes away from the Sarah Palin Train Wreck long enough to write my newsletter and, um, read part of a book. OK, not the world's most productive day.

But over the weekend I finally finished Spencer's story, or at least a first draft. Still waiting for comments from my second beta reader. My first reader basically just said what she liked but had no ideas for improvement. Sigh...nice ego juice, but it doesn't help much.

It took me nearly a month to write this 5K-word story (not working all day every day, just from the time I started until I finished, including research and taking several days to work on other projects). Monroe's story was relatively easy, because he basically told it in Wicked Game. (Of course, he fudged some of the details.)

But Spencer is relatively enigmatic. The only clue I gave myself (and readers) in WG was his speech at the Smoking Pig debut party, where he talks about rock 'n' roll being about immortality, but more importantly about eternal youth--hence the parallel to vampires.

“Thank you all for coming out to hear our little show.” He holds the mike in one hand and shifts the stand in a gesture of false bashfulness. “Along with playing some tunes to get you moving, we’ve been asked to tell our stories tonight. Stories of how we became vampires.” The crowd emits scattered snickers, but Spencer’s face bears such an earnest look of wild innocence that most people just stare.

"Some of us wanted to live forever," he says. “Some of us just wanted to live.” His Adam’s apple bobs once, and his eyes go far away for a moment so brief I’d have missed it if I’d blinked.

“But for all of us,” he continues, “it was about the music. The music turned us as much as the blood.”

That's all I had to work with. That and the fact that he was from Memphis and died in 1959 (but not necessarily in Memphis).

But I'm very happy with it now. I love fleshing out the WVMP universe this way, from points-of-view other than Ciara's.  The things I discover while writing these stories will no doubt give me ideas for Bad to the Bone and beyond (if there is a beyond *fingers crossed*).  In Spencer's story, for example, we get to see and feel what happens during and after the Change. 

I hope y'all like it. Newsletter subscribers will get to see it by tomorrow, a week ahead of everyone else. (You can sign up for the newsletter on my home page.)

And since I cannot look away, I thought I'd link to this excellent post about why Sarah Palin's lack of experience is so scary. Fivethirtyeight.com is a fantastic site for political junkies who want something a little more solid than the average poll watch sites.  The analysis is staggeringly robust, and makes me fondly recall my days as a Statistics tutor.  (Yes, writers can do math!)


So what did you do this weekend?

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?

It's coming!!  I'll be sending out the summer issue of my quarterly newsletter the week of August 31.   If you haven't signed up, you should, and here's why:

1) It'll include a link to the new vampire DJ short story, depicting the night Spencer went undead.  Newsletter subscribers will get to see it a week before the rest of the world.

2) It'll offer a contest to win an ARC of the concluding volume of my Aspect of Crow trilogy, The Reawakened.

3) As always, two subscribers will be drawn at random the day the newsletter goes out.  They'll each win a signed copy of one of my books (winner's choice).

4) The newsletter will be concise, entertaining, and totally text-based.  At the risk of bragging, after each issue goes out, an average of two people unsubscribe.  TWO, out of many hundreds.  So I must be doing something right.

You can sign up in the box on the right side of my home page.  It's easy, and if you're already on the list, a little message will tell you.  So when in doubt, subscribe!

I've got a full weekend of work planned, but it's all fun stuff, and the weather is gorgeous. 

What about you?  Any exciting plans?  Movies?  Beaches?  Hurricanes?

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Now playing: Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
via FoxyTunes   

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 (on my website), and get in on all the vampire action early.

Enjoy!