Top Ten signs a book was written by me
Rachel Vincent brought a meme to my attention on the Fangs Fur & Fey LiveJournal community and invited us all to take part. I promised myself I wouldn't take more than half an hour away from Bad to the Bone to jot this down, so forgive the brevity.Here we go, in order in which I thought of them. Call them Jeri Cliches or Smith-Ready Selling Points, it's the Top Ten Signs a Book Came Out of My Head:
1. Hero and heroine hit the sack fast. They don't always go all the way, but they usually break the sexual tension in a hot and hasty fashion. Exception: Voice of Crow. Oh, and The Reawakened, where self-denial reaches new heights of insanity. It's important to break out of ruts.*
2. Main character has hostile and/or distant relationship with father. Exception: Eyes of Crow.
3. Prominent gay or bisexual characters. Exception: Eyes of Crow.
4. Music is integral to the plot and characters. Once again, exception is Eyes of Crow (did I actually write that book?).
5. Moderate to heavy alcohol consumption. NO EXCEPTIONS
6. Natural dialogue and a fast pace. I guess these go together as stylistic factors, and the former certainly helps the latter.
7. Beta male hero. Exception: Requiem for the Devil. They don't get any more alpha than Lucifer. But he's the POV character, which probably increases my tolerance for the attitude.
8. Main character's friends and/or siblings get a lot of "screen time." This is self-explanatory, and yet I'm adding a note here because otherwise it looks funny, like I didn't want to talk about it.
9. Religion is prominent. Whether negatively or positively portrayed, it's always a psychological factor.
10. It's about more than what it's about. This probably sounds pompous, but I like my stories to be meaningful. My primary concern is to entertain, but if a reader comes away from the book looking at the world in a different way (or just looking at the world period), that's a bonus.
*Ruts. Hee. I just got that.
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Now playing: Round & Round (It Won't Be Long) - Neil Young
via FoxyTunes
Labels: Eyes of Crow, motley memes, Requiem for the Devil, vampire series, Voice of Crow
5 Comments:
On the subject of religion, do you discount the possibility of portraying religion neutrally or as a combination of positive/negative? I'm not trying to pick a fight, I was just curious about the options you presented in the meme list.
Final note: I am reading the book on the Metro with my iPod on shuffle, which makes for a fun experience. I am also being diligent in frequently exclaiming "I can't put down this new book by Jeri Smith-Ready (author of Eyes of Crow)!" then changing cars.
Posted by:
Dave S. at 1/08/2008 10:58 AM
I suppose religion itself is portrayed neutrally in REQUIEM. It deals with a load of religious/theological questions in an unorthodox but ultimately affirmative way.
In the ASPECT OF CROW series, religion/spirituality is woven into the fiber of the book, and is seen as something real (the Animal Spirits do exist and are immanent in people's lives), so that's definitely a positive portrayal.
Negative comes in WICKED GAME, or at least it's negative from the heroine's perspective, for understandable reasons stemming from her childhood.
All I can say is, "Read on!" to discover what I mean.
(BTW, to the others, Dave got an ARC because he entered one of my weekly comment contests. Don't you wish you had one? You can't win if you don't play.)
Posted by:
Jeri at 1/08/2008 11:25 AM
I lived in Baltimore for many years and had started a suspense novel when I was there. Very much a location book. I keep promising myself I'll go spend a few weeks and get the territory back in my mind, and updated, too. The last time I visited, a lot had changed already.
Posted by:
Anonymous at 1/08/2008 3:28 PM
That was another thing I should've put on the list: the setting is always the mid-Atlantic, specifically Maryland/DC or PA. (Though REQUIEM has a scene at the Grand Canyon.) I'm getting ready to write some short stories that take place in: London; Isle of Wight, UK; Kingston, Jamaica; Memphis, TN; Youngstown, OH; and northern Mississippi. Should be a stretch, though I've visited all except Kingston and the Isle of Wight (research trip??).
Enjoy the gift card. :-)
Posted by:
Jeri at 1/08/2008 3:41 PM
Posted by:
Ann Aguirre at 1/08/2008 5:52 PM
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