Sunday, 29 June 2008
This week I am very honoured to have author Jeri Smith-Ready as my guest and she has also been nice enough to donate a contest prize! So keep reading and don't forget to enter your name into the pot!Here is what I thought of Wicked Game!
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Amber - First I want to say a huge thank you to Jeri for taking the time to answer my questions and for visting Amberkatze's Book Blog! Her amazing book 'Wicked Game
' has been one of my favourite reads so far this year and I love her leading lady Ciara!To start things off could you maybe tell us a little about your book 'Wicked Game' for the people who haven't read it yet?
Jeri - WICKED GAME
is a fun, sexy, dark urban fantasy. Here’s the back cover blurb (which I helped write, so this isn’t a total cop out ;-):Late-night radio you can sink your teeth into
Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.
Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WMMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station—and the link it provides to their original Life Times—the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover becomes a matter of life and un-death.
To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara re-brands the station as “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs’ vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around—next to Ciara’s complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the “gimmick” enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher-and the perils graver-than any con game Ciara’s ever played…
Amber - Wicked Game
blew me away! While being typical in some ways you also put your own unique twist on things. How did you come up with the concept? Jeri - It was total serendipity. I was driving to work flipping the dial and came to a classic rock station playing “Bad Company” by the band of the same name. I thought, Hmm, “Bad Company” would be a perfect title for a paranormal book with a shady main character. Ooh, and there could be a whole series with “Bad” songs as the title: “Bad to the Bone,” “Bad Medicine,” “Bad Moon Rising”…
By the time I got to the office, I had a fully formed idea for vampire DJs stuck in time and a heroine with a criminal past. If I hadn’t been listening to that station at that moment, the series would have never been born. (Cue Twilight Zone music…)
The punch line is that even though it all began with “Bad Company,” the publisher ultimately asked me to change the title.
Amber - Lots of authors have been putting playlists into their books lately but you have taken that a bit further by bringing the music into your books. How long did it take you to come up with the playlist or did the playlist come first?
Jeri - The story came first, with the music in it. For instance, in a given scene a song might be on in the background, or Shane might play something for Ciara on the guitar. Music is really integral to the novel. Sometimes it transforms a character’s mood and therefore that of the entire scene, as it does at the end of Chapter One.
So my publisher asked me to make a list of all the songs mentioned in the text, and that became the “playlist” that is literally a soundtrack to the novel.
The fun part of forming the list was figuring out which songs to choose when they were mentioned only obliquely. For instance, the text in one of the creepier scenes said that a Cure song was playing on this 1940s-era radio, but it doesn’t say which song. I chose “10:15 Saturday Night” because it’s a particularly haunting tune, providing great atmosphere. Also, that bass line would sound bizarre coming out of a Mono speaker.
Even though the playlist came from the novel and not the other way around, there was one instance where I changed a detail: I went back and put "a Liz Phair song" in the background of one scene, so I could add "Flower" to the playlist. It's a perfectly raunchy song for Ciara and Shane. Every line fits the way she feels about him at that point in the book.
Amber - You obviously listen to music but are you a fan of the music you are writing about in 'Wicked Game
'? Do you have any other favourites that didn't fit into this book?Jeri - I’m a passionate fan of every kind of music in the book—-blues, rockabilly, psychedelic, reggae, punk, Goth, indie, and grunge. Each of these genres were revolutionary in their times, which fits nicely with the counterculture nature of vampires.
I love all kinds of Celtic music—from traditional to rock to New Age. It’s just in my blood, I guess. I also love bluegrass and classical. But none of these are really associated with a specific time period, so they don’t fit the framework of the book.
You never know, maybe one day there could be a swing or jazz DJ from the 20s!
Amber - Reading through the book it came to my attention that some, if not all, of the chapter titles are names of songs. Was it hard work coming up with those titles?
Jeri - I knew I was going to name the chapters after songs, so over the course of writing the book I collected cool song titles from the radio, and then of course from my own CD collection. Unlike the “playlist” tunes, these would all be relatively popular songs (i.e., released as singles, no deep album cuts) that at least some readers would recognize.
Then I wrote for myself a brief paragraph about what happened in each chapter. Lastly, I paired up the songs with the events and made sure I didn’t repeat any artists or have too many from any one decade. These last two steps took a full day.
The chapter title playlist can be heard on the Wicked Game music page. A fun game for readers would be to go through the book and try to name the artist from the title, then look it up on the website to see if you’re right!
Or at least, I think it’d be fun. But maybe I’m just a total geek.
Amber - Ciara and the vamps are very interesting characters. Any similarities to yourself there? ;) or anyone else you know?
Jeri - Hah! I wish I could have Ciara’s self-confidence, not to mention her acting ability. I’m a terrible liar--a polygraph machine would laugh at me. (Unless I’m lying about that.) She’s way more practical and realistic than I am. Publisher’s Weekly called her “irrepressible.” I, on the other hand, am easily repressed.
I relate most easily to Shane--not just his age and taste in music, but his idealistic pessimism. He wants the world to be perfect but knows more than most people how much it can suck. I wonder if but for the grace of good fortune, I’d be as haunted as he and his hero Kurt Cobain were during their lifetimes.
Regina is a tiny bit inspired by my best friend from college, who first turned me on to punk and Goth music. But I didn’t realize this until just now. Wow. No wonder Regina totally kicks ass. *waves to Anne Marie*
Amber - I hope Wicked Game
wasn't a one off and we will be seeing more of Ciara and the crew! What can we expect in the future? Jeri - Absolutely! A sequel, BAD TO THE BONE, will be published May 2009. To tide readers over until then, I’m writing a series of tie-in short stories, to appear on my website every other month beginning at the end of June, that depict the “turning” of each of the vampire DJs. These are very secret stories they only share with people they trust with their lives.
Also, subscribers to my totally-unannoying-quarterly newsletter will get early access to each story, as a gift for putting up with me. There’s a sign-up box for the newsletter on pretty much every page of my website.
Hopefully there’ll be many more WVMP books to come after BAD TO THE BONE. I have big plans for Ciara ‘n’ Crew! (Heh-heh, little do they know… *rubs hands together, Montgomery Burns-like*)
Amber - Wicked Game
isn't your first book. I know I have your other books on my wishlist and hope to get hold of some of them soon. Maybe you can tell us a little about your previous novels?Jeri - My first book, REQUIEM FOR THE DEVIL
, is most like WICKED GAME in terms of tone and story, because it's urban fantasy. It's a love story but not a romance. Can't guarantee an HEA for that one. But I've reformed since then--no more tragedies for me. ;-)My other series is a romantic epic fantasy trilogy called ASPECT OF CROW. It takes place in a world where everyone has magic according to their Guardian Spirit Animal or totem. I guess it’s kind of Native American-esque, but they’re not meant to be Native Americans. The totem animal concept is universal to shamanistic cultures around the world.
ASPECT OF CROW follows the same heroine through three books: EYES OF CROW
(November 2006), VOICE OF CROW
(October 2007), and THE REAWAKENED 
(November 2008). Each has a romance subplot. They're quite different in tone and style from WG, in that they're serious and dark (and somehow with no profanity!). But if you like animals and magic, you might dig this series. I’m really proud of it.Amber - What books do you enjoy reading when you aren't writing your own?
Jeri - I tend to read widely rather than deeply and seldom follow series for more than a book or two, unless I can slurp them up all in a row (like I did with Harry Potter last July). So I’ll read Book One, then if I like it I’ll wait until they’re all out and read the entire series at once.
And if a series shows no sign of ending, like, ever? Forget it. Just send the 55-volume box set to me at the nursing home, okay?
My current favorite authors tend to write stand-alone novels or loosely connected series, usually either fantasy or mainstream fiction: Neil Gaiman, PC Cast, Charles de Lint, Christopher Moore, James Morrow, Caprice Crane, Nick Hornby, and John Irving, to name a few. They also tend to be funny.
Amber - If you could only take 3 things on to a desert island what would they be?
Jeri - Assuming that basic survival needs like water, food, shelter, bathroom facilities, sunscreen, and my husband and pets are provided…
Music and a way to play it (iPod, victrola, whatever)
Books
My favorite stuffed animal Nork. He’s sort of a cat, and my mom gave him to me when I was 16. I take him traveling with me everywhere—he’s been to the Grand Canyon, the Bahamas, and even the Situation Room at the White House.
For more about WICKED GAME, check out My site. To visit the DJs, listen to a musical sample of their shows, and get yourself some cool Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll, swag, go to WVMP Radio. Jeri and Ciara can also be found on MySpace, though mysteriously never at the same time.
Amber - Thank you Jeri for the great interview! I will be checking out more of Jeri's books and I can't wait for 'Bad to the Bone'.
If you want a little sample of Jeri's work then go here to read 'The Wild's Call' a Free online short story!
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Contest time!So when I asked Jeri if she had time to be interviewed I also mentioned giving away my copy of 'Wicked Game
' for the contest. However the lovely lady said (and I quote) I'll give away a signed copy of WICKED GAME to a randomly drawn winner. :-)
So who wants a copy of Wicked Game
? And signed? How to enter -
To enter the contest to win a signed copy of Wicked Game
make a comment here on this thread letting us know what songs you would have to put on your songlist!But wait...you can get an extra entry if you post about this contest somewhere else (you need to post a link so I can confirm your entry)
And you can get another entry if you sign up for my newsletter! (entry form below and in the sidebar).
So you could get up to 3 entries if you play along!
Also feel free to ask Jeri questions! She may pop by and answer them if you are really lucky!!
The contest is open till Sunday 6th of July (9pm CET) and you have to send me your full name and address if you win.
So enter away!!! Good Luck everyone!
Labels: Book Talk, Contests, Jeri Ready-Smith, Just for Fun, Music, signed copy
posted by Unknown at Sunday, June 29, 2008 | 39 comments 
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