Jeri Smith-Ready

Voice of Crow takes the bronze in the PRISM!

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Voice of Crow (Luna Books, Oct 2007) just won Third Place in the Fantasy category of the PRISM Award!

The PRISM Award is given out by the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal (FF&P) chapter of the Romance Writers of America.

Here's the list of the award-winners in all the categories. Congrats to everyone!

Light Paranormal
1. Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey
2. More Than Fiends by Maureen Child
3. Highland Guardian by Melissa Mayhue

Time Travel
1. Wired by Liz Maverick
2. Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Mayhue
3. Forgiveness by JL Wilson.

Erotica
1. Mona Lisa Blossoming by Sunny
2. Pleasures of the Night by Sylvia Day
3. Double Dating with the Dead by Karen Kelly

Futuristic
1. My Favorite Earthling by Susan Grant
2. How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 days by Susan Grant
3. Insufficient Mating Material by Rowena Cherry

Novella
1. Over the Moon by Sunny
2. Street Corners and Halos by Catherine Spangler
3. Wild Hearts in Atlantis by Alyssa Day

Dark Paranormal
1. Immortals: The Awakening by Joy Nash
2. Betrayed: A House of Night Novel by PC Cast
3. Touched by Darkness by catherine Spangler

Fantasy
1. The Eternal Rose by Gail Dayton
2. Lucinda, Darkly by Sunny
3. Voice of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready

Best of the Best
Wired by Liz Maverick

Best First Book
1. Grave Illusions by Lina Gardiner
2. She Wolf by Teresa D'Amario
3. Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Mayhue

A special congrats to my friend Gail Dayton, whose Rose book beat my Crow book for the second year running. But hey, her trilogy is over and mine isn't, so maybe The Reawakened will have a chance next year!


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Now playing: Wrong Impression - Natalie Imbruglia
via FoxyTunes

Labels: awards, Voice of Crow

• posted by Jeri @ 10:25 AM
• 2 comments

Novel Chopper, Beyond Her Book blurb (and John & Abigail play on our conscience)

Making this quick, as I’m heading into the Abject Panic phase of this Bad to the Bone rewrite. This always happens, because to make the book better, I have to dismantle and rebuild it. Right now it’s like an engine that’s been taken apart, and all the little pieces are lying around on the garage floor. If this were American Chopper, Big Paul would be screaming his head off and throwing wrenches at the head of his son Paulie and that other guy, the one I always liked (I looked it up, it's Mikey). There’d be a lot of bleeped words.

Anyway, yesterday Joyce Ann McLaughlin blurbed THE REAWAKENED for Publisher’s Weekly’s Beyond Her Book blog, saying,

The Reawakened concludes the Aspect of Crow trilogy, and fulfills the expectations raised in Eyes of Crow and Voice of Crow. I read and enjoy a lot of books, and series of books, and when I'm done, I can move along. Sometimes, though, there are stories that are special enough to touch me, and I will go back to them again and again. This is one of those. Aspect of Crow is more than just enjoyable; it is memorable.

Another Aspect of Crow fan who doesn’t want to kill me—yay!

Thanks to everyone who participated in Margie Lawson's guest blog appearance this week, and congrats to the winners of the lecture packets!

Today’s Voter Registration nag video (see below) was sent to me by fellow author Alex Bledsoe, who writes science fiction and horror for Tor Books. I had the privilege of giving a cover quote for his first vampire novel BLOOD GROOVE, which comes out April 1. Scary and funny stuff.

(Also, I forgot to give a hat tip to author Victoria Dahl for yesterday’s BotherVoting.org e-card site.)

Usual spiel: below are the states where voter registration is still open, and the blinking states close tomorrow, Friday October 10, Brett Favre’s 39th birthday,through Sunday, October 12, which is probably the next time you'll hear from me.


As always, visit VotersUnite! for rules and regs pertaining to your state of mind.

Alabama
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Dakota
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Labels: reviews, The Reawakened, vampire series, voter registration, writing life

• posted by Jeri @ 10:47 PM
• 0 comments

A whole lotta lotta going on (and cards to show you sort of care)

Bunches of news, all of it good. (Nothing huge, and most of it can be doled out in small pieces over the next few days, so don't sit on the edge of your seat waiting for some big announcement. Yeah, I wish.)

Zero-eth, I turned in "Storm Reaper" yesterday, four whole minutes before the deadline. Thank you, thank you. The first chapter will be posted on my publisher's site on Monday, November 17, and another chapter will appear each Monday through January 19, 2009. This will be, as far as I know, the last hurrah of the Aspect of Crow world (after the "colorful" (Publisher's Weekly) and "powerful" (Romantic Times) conclusion of the trilogy with The Reawakened).

First, you have the rest of today to enter to win a lecture packet from writing instructor extraordinaire Margie Lawson. Go to yesterday's post, take the cognitive style quiz (i.e., are you left-, right-, or whole-brained?), and leave a comment. Not only will she pick one winner from every 25 commenters, but she'll also answer your questions and generally interact with you in a positive manner, which is more than you can expect from me most days.

Second, Amberkatze's Book Blog is going to interview me about the Aspect of Crow series over Halloween weekend. Amber's looking for reader input on the interview, so please go to this post and leave a question you've been burning to ask me. Make it look like people care about my books. Pretty please? (Just don't sign your name "Jeri's Mom.")

Third, I have a really Really REALLY cool WVMP-related contest coming up this month. I will ask you to be as creative and devious and outrageous as you can. The prize will be the very first ARC of Bad to the Bone, which will probably be available in January.) Stay tuned for details.

And now...back to our regularly scheduled Voter Registration Nag-athon. Below is the list of states in which you can still register to vote. You'll notice that none of them are blinking; that's because no states have a deadline of tomorrow, October 9. You'll also notice that I took Virgin Islands off the list. They sort of never should've been there in the first place. They don't get to help pick a President, but they do get to live in the Virgin Islands, so it all balances out.

As always, visit VotersUnite! for rules and regs pertaining to your neck of the electoral woods.

Alabama
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Dakota
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin


Visit Bother Voting for swell e-cards like this one:


and this one:


The ones I really like I can't show on a family blog. Just go check 'em out.

Labels: Contests, short stories, The Reawakened, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 8:15 AM
• 1 comments

Guest blogger Margie Lawson on Cognitive Style and the Editing Process

Hey everyone, today's guest is the amazing Margie Lawson, whose classes have helped me immeasurably with my craft. I've used her Deep Edits system and Empowering Character Emotions lessons at the final stage of my last three books, and I can't begin to express how great they are (the lessons, not the books--though if you think the books are great, Margie's system had a lot to do with it).

I'm seriously tempted to take this new course she's offering next week. I'm coming up on a deadline, but on the other hand, it's an edit/rewrite deadline, so the timing is perfect. Hmmm....

Today Margie helps us figure out whether we're right-, left, or whole-brained and how that affects our creative process. I took the quiz and scored a 9--whole-brained but leaning slightly to the left, which explains why I enjoy the rewrite stage more than the first draft "vomit" (my term, not Margie's).

Anyway, Margie is giving away free lecture packets (a $20 value!) to commenters on this blog. See the end of the post for details.

Hold Your Editing Horses! Cognitive Style and the Editing Process

Are you riding the editing horse with a saddle, or bareback?

By Margie Lawson

Writers – Humor me. Go with that image!

Readers – Humor me. Read along and learn how writers stretch the hemispheres of their brains to make their writing stellar.

Picture yourself riding a horse. Sitting comfortably on that saddle. Holding the reins. Galloping. In control. Enjoying your ride.

Now ---- picture riding a horse with no saddle. You’re leaning forward, riding bareback, moving with the horse, enjoying your wild ride.

Both riders love the rhythm. Love the exhilaration. Love their visceral responses.

HELLO Jeri’s blog readers who know me! You know I’m all about visceral responses. You know I love rhetorical devices too. Did you notice ANAPHORA in those last three sentences?

We could use those two images as metaphors for deep editing. You’re either Left-Brained, in charge of editing . . . or Right-Brained, and editing is horsing around with you, running you in circles, riding you ragged, or scaring you to death.

Multi-Cliché-Alert!

Does anyone want to rewrite that cliché-loaded sentence and WRITE IT FRESH?

If you take the challenge, post it for all of us to applaud your talent. ;-)))

I get Margie-points for backloading the cliché-riddled sentence with DEATH. In that sentence, DEATH is definitely the strongest word, the word that carries the most POWER.

I also backloaded with the power words FRESH and TALENT.

BACK TO DEEP EDITING:

Left-Brained writers usually love editing. Right-Brained writers usually have an aversion to editing. They’d rather head to the barn, grab a shovel, and muck out stalls that are knee-deep in horse poop.

I had to work to end the sentence above with POOP. Always go for power!

It would have been easier to write: They’d rather muck out horse stalls.

I wanted to use MUCK OUT – it’s scene-themed and evocative. Plus, the word MUCK sounds like the word it describes. Using onomatopoeia elicits an unconscious association to uckiness.

BUT – ending with STALLS, seemed weak. Hence, my rewrite, resulting in a longer sentence, anchored with setting details, ending with POOP.

Some of you know I go deeper with editing. The Deep Editing that I teach is editing to increase psychological power. Editing to hook the reader viscerally. Editing to create a page-turner.

You can add Deep Editing power in a gazillion ways. Once learned, it doesn’t take long before you’re writing to deep editing, adding power while writing your first draft or in an early quick-fix pass. You automatically think about power-builders like backloading, cadence, balance, motivation reaction units, visceral responses, nonverbals, writing fresh, and endless possibilities for rhetorical power.

Okay – it may take a few weeks to get to the automatic response level. :-))) BUT – it will happen.

Right-brained writers love the creative freedom of writing new scenes. They’re happy, happy, happy in THE ZONE. It seems like the happier they are in the fresh writing zone, the more they struggle and get mired in the editing process.

Left-brained writers may work harder at getting a new scene on paper. However, they’re nestled in their happy place when they edit and edit and edit, reworking the same passage for eons.

OKAY – Not eons. But it was a good place to slip in another rhetorical device. Hyperbole. ;-)))

Whole-Brained writers may have preferences for writing fresh or editing, but they have strengths in both hemispheres of the brain.

Are you wondering if you’re RIGHT-BRAINED, LEFT-BRAINED, OR WHOLE-BRAINED?

Take this COGNITIVE STYLE QUIZ – and you’ll soon know!

COGNITIVE STYLE QUIZ: Choose the one sentence that is more true.

1. 1
   
   1. A. It's fun to take risks.
   2. B. I have fun without taking risks.
2. 2
   
   1. A. I look for new ways to do old jobs.
   2. B. When one way works well, I don't change it.
3. 3
   
   1. A. I begin many jobs that I never finish.
   2. B. I finish a job before starting a new one.
4. 4
   
   1. A. I'm not very imaginative in my work.
   2. B. I use my imagination in everything I do.
5. 5
   
   1. A. I can analyze what is going to happen next.
   2. B. I can sense what is going to happen next.
6. 6
   
   1. A. I try to find the one best way to solve a problem.
   2. B. I try to find different answers to problems.
7. 7
   
   1. A. My thinking is like pictures going through my head.
   2. B. My thinking is like words going through my head.
8. 8
   
   1. A. I agree with new ideas before other people do.
   2. B. I question new ideas more than other people do.
9. 9
   
   1. A. Other people don't understand how I organize things.
   2. B. Other people think I organize well.
10. 10
    
    1. A. I have good self-discipline.
    2. B. I usually act on my feelings.
11. 11.
    
    1. A. I plan time for doing my work.
    2. B. I don't think about the time when I work.
12. 12
    
    1. A. With a hard decision, I choose what I know is right.
    2. B. With a hard decision, I choose what I feel is right.
13. 13
    
    1. A. I do easy things first, important things later.
    2. B. I do important things first, easy things later.
14. 14
    
    1. A. Sometimes in a new situation, I have too many ideas.
    2. B. Sometimes in a new situation, I don't have any ideas.
15. 15
    
    1. A. I have to have a lot of change and variety in my life.
    2. B. I have to have an orderly and well-planned life.
16. 16
    
    1. A. I know I'm right, because I have good reasons.
    2. B. I know I'm right, even without good reasons.
17. 17
    
    1. A. I spread my work evenly over the time I have.
    2. B. I prefer to do my work at the last minute.
18. 18
    
    1. A. I keep everything in a particular place.
    2. B. Where I keep things depends on what I'm doing.
19. 19
    
    1. A. I have to make my own plans.
    2. B. I can follow anyone's plans.
20. 20
    
    1. A. I am a very flexible and unpredictable person.
    2. B. I am a consistent and stable person.
21. 21
    
    1. A. With a new task, I want to find my own way to do it.
    2. B. With a new task, I want to be told the best way.

To Score: One point for each time you answered "A" for questions: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21

One point for each time you answered "B" for questions: 4 ,5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18

Add all points:

• 0-4 strong left brain
• 5-8 moderate left brain
• 9-13 whole brain
• 14-16 moderate right brain
• 17-21 strong right brain

I’m curious. HOW DO YOU EDIT? DOES YOUR COGNITIVE STYLE MATCH YOUR EDITING PREFERENCE?

What’s your process?

Do you procrastinate?

Do you edit in layers? Follow a plan?

What’s fun for you?

How do you know when you’re finished editing so you can send your work on to a contest, an agent, or editor?

Do you usually feel successful at editing? Do you typically edit some sections of your book more heavily (first third, turning points, last few chapters), or are you an equal-opportunity, deep-edit-all-chapters person?

I look forward to your input. And – you could win a Lecture Packet!

YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO WIN A LECTURE PACKET:

Anyone who posts a comment has a chance to WIN one of my LECTURE PACKETS (a $20 value). I’ll draw one name from every 25 people who post a comment.

Winners select one of the following Lecture Packets:

1. Digging Deep into the EDITS System - offered on-line OCTOBER 13th, 2008
2. Empowering Characters' Emotions - offered on-line in March
3. Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More - offered on-line in May
4. Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors - offered on-line in May

LECTURE PACKETS for each course are available any time. They can be ordered through Paypal from my web site.

Please visit my web site, www.MargieLawson.com , and click on Lecture Packets, to read the course descriptions.

I will respond to comments as time allows during my work day. I’ll be on-line this evening (Mountain Time).

Thank you for visiting Jeri’s blog!

Labels: Contests, craft, guests

• posted by Jeri @ 8:40 AM
• 137 comments

The Great 2008 Cave-In Part Two (and freedom to Devo!)

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!

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Virgin Islands
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Wow, that is nauseatingly blink-tastic. Let that be a lesson to you, or something.

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

Now I know what my next nightmare will look like.

Labels: short stories, vampire series, voter registration

• posted by Jeri @ 9:56 PM
• 0 comments

Wicked Game finals in Golden Leaf (and know your rights!)

In its first contest entered, the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Awards, Wicked Game has made the finals in the Paranormal category! The finalists aren't listed on the website yet, but since the awards will be given out on October 24, I figured I better mention it now before I lose.

Once again, your daily voter registration nag. Below is the list of states where voter registration is still open. And at the bottom, a new video, this time a concert video of The Clash's "Know Your Rights."

I picked this video because of a story coming out of Philadelphia yesterday on voter suppression, where once again, inner city folks are being told, falsely, that voting will result in their arrest for outstanding parking tickets. (The headline, I confess, at first made me wonder why a hockey team would be involved. Maybe because of their mom running for vice president?)

Mississippi was voted off the voter registration island, since their last day to register is today, or tomorrow at noon if the clerk's office is open on Saturdays.

The blinky states close their registration roles tomorrow, so Washingtonians and Rhode Islandianianers, get your butts in gear! After you watch a nice video.

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Virgin Islands
Washington - that's Washington State, folks
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Labels: awards, evil, vampire series, voter registration

• posted by Jeri @ 7:39 AM
• 4 comments

I'm all a-Twitter! (and how not to be a moron)

We interrupt the social studies class for a moment to announce that I finally joined Twitter, where you can check out my random thoughts during the day. Since I'll have less and less time to blog this month, Twitter is a good place to go to keep up with All Things Jeri. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me, but whatever. I rarely answer the question posed, "What are you doing?" because frankly, WHO CARES???

Anyway, you don't have to join Twitter to follow me. Just lurk and listen, then shake your head in bewilderment at this exercise in self-importance.

Now...as promised yesterday, the list of states where voter registration is still open. I'll employ the world's most obnoxious HTML code--the dreaded blink tag--to denote states where voter registration closes tomorrow. And at the bottom, a new video, featuring a hysterical rant by late night talk show host Craig Ferguson! He's from Scotland, which means anything he says is funny.

Please check out VotersUnite! for any special rules or concerns regarding the voter registration process in your state. In a few states they make you reregister if you didn't vote in 2006, or show a photo ID at the polls, or or eat fried lizard tails (which taste like chicken, but only when wrapped in chicken), just to see if you're serious about voting.

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi (or until noon on 10/4 if clerk's office is open Saturdays)
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Virgin Islands
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

And now, your reward for scrolling through the list of great states:

Labels: twitter, voter registration

• posted by Jeri @ 7:59 AM
• 1 comments