Jeri Smith-Ready

Crows rule, and last chance at REAWAKENED ARC

A new study shows that crows are the smartest non-human animal, including chimpanzees. Take that, you damned dirty apes!

As some of you know, I'm not fond of non-human primates. They freak me out. Maybe I'm particularly susceptible to the Uncanny Valley, an innate revulsion to things that are almost human but not quite. Like mannequins or clowns or [insert easy celebrity joke here].

But I was able to get past my pithikosophobia recently to read the Y: The Last Man graphic novel series. I loved it despite the monkey.

(I should add that I didn't like the ending, partly because my favorite character was killed, and between that and Harry Potter and The Dark Tower and The Sopranos and Deadwood and Twin Peaks and Six Feet Under, I am forever swearing off series. My favorite characters always always always bite it in the last few episodes or final book. Not that I have room to talk, but hey.)

Where was I? Oh yeah--I hate monkeys, but I'll still read about them if the rest of the story is good.

How is this relevant to The Reawakened? Well, when I wrote this book, I figured it was the last in the series, so I would go for broke, write it exactly the way I thought it should be written and not worry about what people thought. Some of you will love it, and some of you will hate it. I respect that.

One of the risks I took was making two of the lead characters have the Aspect of Snake. Many people don't like snakes. But I always try to subvert stereotypes in my work, turn traditional symbols of evil (like crows or snakes) into something redemptive, and turn traditional symbols of good (like the sun or the color white) into something oppressive (i.e., the Ilion nation).

The Snake Spirit's domains are fire and sex (and, to a lesser extent, memory). So when our two Snakes, Sura and Dravek, meet for the first time, things get figuratively and literally H-O-T. This is bad for a lot of reasons I won't go into in this post. But Snake is one bad-ass Spirit who will not be denied.*

So....for a chance to win an Advance Reader's Copy of The Reawakened, all you have to do is answer the following poll in the comments (or e-mail me at jeri@jerismithready.com if you feel shy):

Snakes are:

a) cool
b) gross
c) scary
d) sexy
e) more than one of the above (please specify)

That's it! I'll take entries through 11:59pm Eastern time Sunday night, then draw a random name to win an autographed ARC of The Reawakened. These suckers are pretty scarce, so it's a nice prize if you can get it.

If you comment as anonymous, make sure you check back to see if you won, or leave a way for me to get in touch with you.

Also, there's one more day to enter the drawing for autographed copies of Eyes of Crow and Voice of Crow. That's two free books for one lucky person. Read them now and get ready for The Reawakened's November 1 release.

Good luck!

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Now playing: Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
via FoxyTunes

*Ask Indiana Jones and Neville Flynn if you don't believe me.

EDITED TO ADD: This just in: THE REAWAKENED just got a Top Pick review from Romantic Times--that makes it 3 for 3 for the trilogy! Hat trick, bay-bee! I'll post the review tomorrow.

EDITED TO ADD MORE: The winner of the REAWAKENED ARC is...flip! Flip, please send your mailing address to jeri AT jerismithready.com. Congrats, and thanks to everyone who entered!

Labels: animals, Contests, Eyes of Crow, The Reawakened, Voice of Crow

• posted by Jeri @ 2:45 PM
• 20 comments