I Mean Your Little Poodle Dog

Well, so far my Blog Every Day resolution hasn't borne a whole lot of fruit just yet. And since we're heading out to Crawfish Fest to celebrate Kathy's big four-oh for a few days, I'll have some more catch-up to do. But to tide you over, here's one of the weekend's featured performers, the amazing Marcia Ball, who wants to play with your poodle.

(And if you can't join us at Crawfish Fest, why not check out Jeri Smith-Ready's Shade? Jeri's signing at the Border Express at the Springfield Mall on Saturday, and I can tell you without a doubt that it's a damn fine book. Go!)

Rob

It's Shade Day!

Jeri Smith-Ready's new novel, Shade -- her first young-adult book -- is available in bookstores and online today, and it's a hell of a read. Picture this: Ghosts are real, and suddenly, they're commonplace and visible... but only to kids aged 16 and younger -- people born after a mysterious moment dubbed "the Shift." For this new generation, the world is very different, and immeasurably more complicated. Especially when your boyfriend dies and comes back as a ghost. Is it okay to start seeing other flesh-and-blood people?

And -- well, look, Jeri's put up a description on her website that says it better than I could, and, more importantly, gives away only the plot points she wants given away. So  let me just say that the premise of the book, where no one over a certain age can see ghosts -- is a deft allegory for how all generations see the world differently from the ones that precede them. The story isn't about this generation gap -- it's a more personal story than that -- but it takes place in a world with a chasm that separates young from old more efficiently than technology, the way we do it in our world. (No, I don't have a Tumblr account.) In Shade, nature has made that divide crystal clear, and, as ever, parents just don't understand.

I've read all of Jeri's books, and this is my favorite. Jeri writes with confidence and charm, and opens a new world to us where death is not the end, but only teens can see what's next. (Shade also got a fantastic review from Publisher's Weekly. I don't think a direct link to the review is available online, so Jeri's reprinted it on her site. If you need a convincer, it'll do the job nicely.)

Rob
P.S. Had a great time at Lady Jane's Salon last night, where Jeri read from Shade, along with Christina Britton Conroy, who read from One Man's Music, and Leanna Renee Heiber, who gave a delightful reading of The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, a Victorian haunted romance that promises a lot of spooky, proper fun. Also, we hung out in a glass room full of comfyness, including leopard-print beanbag chairs, with some of Jeri's other friends -- one of whom I'm blanking on her name* (beer was involved, and it's best not to guess), and the other of whom a check of Twitter reveals is Kate Milford, whose debut novel The Boneshaker hits the shelves in three weeks, and looks phenomenal. Congratulations to you, too, Kate.

*UPDATE: Thanks to Twitter, I was able to find out/confirm her name, too, and it's what I'd have guessed -- Julie! Although there's no reason for you to believe me. But the fact is, I has considered doing a little parenthetical John Edwardy type thing (not schtupping a woman who's not my wife, that's John Edwards with an S; I mean the cold-reader phony-baloney "psychic"). So I would have been all, like, "I'm getting a "J" and hope that someone would chime in with Julie, and then I'd say "Yes, Julie, I knew it all along." I was like 85% Julie, 12% Judy. And 3% Yuengling, but that was the beer talkin'.

Congratulations, Jeri!

Jeri Smith-Ready's novel Wicked Game just won (and by "just", I mean she announced it on Facebook about a half hour ago) a PRISM Award for Light Paranormal Romance. The awards are presented by the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. The news is too fresh to actually have a link to yet, but here's a list of this year's nominees.


I should also mention that I just finished the sequel to Wicked Game, Bad to the Bone (which you can still see a link to on the upper righthand corner of the blog, for another week or so, at least). First of all, it's just plain fun to read, and I spent most of Monday afternoon finishing it. The characters and the environment (vampires pyschologically frozen in the era they "died", hiding in plain sight, spinning tunes at a vampire-themed radio station) progress in interesting and entertaining ways, as we start to see how romance with a vampire is one thing, but day-to-day living with him is another. It's got a satisfying plot, some great snarky dialogue, and a lot of blood-fueled rock-n-roll fun. Plus a Big Honkin' Cross that's more dangerous than it seems.

But the main thing is, Wicked Game won. That's huge. Congratulations, Jeri.

Rob

Tuesday is Bad to the Bone Day

In case you didn't notice the little doohickey on the right side of the blog (I'm talking to you, one-eyed Pete), Jeri Smith-Ready's Bad to the Bone is finally shipping on Tuesday. It's the sequel to Wicked Game, in which a group of time-stuck vampires have established a radio station playing music from their various eras. (Jeri's actually got an online radio station set up for the vamps... she really goes all-out.)

Anyway, the new book's coming out on Tuesday, and for once I haven't read an earlier draft -- so I'm going to be just as surprised as you are when I first crack the spine. But here's what I've got to go on -- this glowing review from Publisher's Weekly:

In Smith-Ready’s espionage farce sequel to 2008’s Wicked Game, Ciara Griffin and her vampire DJs face another threat to their Maryland radio station 94.3 WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll. When the Family Action Network (FAN) disrupts WVMP’s Halloween broadcast by pirating their signal and jamming it with antivampire rhetoric, Ciara swears revenge. Under the aegis of the International Agency for the Control and Management of Undead Corporeal Entities, Ciara turns spy and infiltrates the cult’s fortress, armed with her wits and her vampire-healing “antiholy” blood. Aiding her are a crew of hip vamp buddies and vampire dog Dexter, whom she rescues after finding him chained to a cross outside a FAN enclave. Smith-Ready pours plenty of fun into her charming, fang-in-cheek urban fantasy, which frequently skirts the edge of parody.

A vampire dog, man. That's badass.

So do yourself a favor and bring Bad to the Bone to the beach or pool this summer. Anywhere there's lots of sun. Because if there are vampire dogs, I think you pretty much have to watch out for anything.

Rob

Webs Woven

It's not enough to write a book anymore... there's a whole lot of ancillary promotion that goes along with it, and much of that is online.

Which means I can link to it.

Neil Gaiman's upcoming Graveyard Book has a new website up. It's got an interview with Neil, some illustrations by Dave McKean, and certainly there's more to come.

I've also been spending time at Jeri-Smith Ready's website for WVMP, the radio station where her vampires deejay. Out of all the deejay playlists, I surprised myself by going to Regina's first -- the only one more unlikely would be Shane's 90s mix -- but I've also been enjoying Monroe's, and am looking foreward to giving Spencer's and Jim's a listen.

So. Two websites to check out. Some good music to listen to. What're you hanging around here for?

Rob
(Oh, hell, now I'm on Shane's... I've had a jones to hear Morphine's "Buena" for a week now, and there it is...)

It's May 14th!

Which means it's the day I thought Jeri Smith-Ready's new novel, Wicked Game, was released. Yes, I could have checked her website and learned that it was coming on the 13th, but instead, I relied on my gut. Which tells me all sorts of things that do me no good, so I don't know why I pay it any attention at all. (Of course novels are released on Tuesdays, it said. Just like CDs and DVDs...)


Anyway, here's the skinny: I've read it, but only (so far) in a prior draft. So what I can tell you is that it's very good, but I have know way of knowing how good it is for real until I read the finished product. Until then, it's Schroedinger's book: One set of pages is pretty darn good, and the other is outrageously awesome. I'm guessing that once it's opened it'll be a lot closer to the second than the first (although, despite how awesome it may be, I doubt you will actually be outraged).

One thing that I know hasn't changed is the concept, and it's a great one: There's a radio station whose DJs are all vampires. Each one plays the music popular at the time he or she "died" -- they're culturally frozen in those time periods, creating some authentic late-night radio.

Problem is, it's not paying the bills, and a predatory cookie-cutter media conglomerate is going to buy the place for peanuts... which will kick the vamps to the curb, depriving them of the one thing that gives their lives focus. Enter Ciara, a recovering conwoman who decides to help the station market itself by hiding the vamps in plain sight. She uses the vampirism as a marketing angle (because who'd believe it?) and turns the station into WVMP: The Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll. (Seriously. I have a logo mug, and mugs don't lie.) And while the marketing starts to do its magic, some folks aren't happy about it...including a cadre of older, more ruthless vampires. And when vampires aren't happy about something, they don't send sternly worded letters to the local paper. They start ripping out throats.

Jeri's doing a ton of promotion for the book -- including lots of signings, blog interviews, and posting a cool-as-hell soundtrack to the book on her website. Go pick up a copy and give it a read. It's a good'n.

UPDATE: I meant to add this last night, but it was ridiculous o'clock and it slipped my mind: You can read Chapter 1 online, and can get up-to-date info and harrowing tales of travel on Jeri's blog.

UPDATE 2: I'm an idiot. And it only took me 17 hours to notice!

Rob