Jeri Smith-Ready

Tidbit Tuesday #5 - SHADE ARCs for you & UK news

Oi! Have I got good news today. I've been sitting on this bit for a couple of months, but then today I saw this tweet from SimonKids_UK, so I knew it was public record:

we'll be publishing UK in OCTOBER 2010 - can't wait! RT @jsmithready Giving away signed ARC of SHADE @YABookQueen today. http://is.gd/aUe2L

Translated into non-Twitter speak, that means that Shade will be my very first book to be officially published in the United Kingdom! Here's the catalog page to prove it. (Note: the catalog says September--I will know which month it is for sure before then.)

If you're reading this in the UK, you might be thinking, but Jeri, I've seen your other books in stores here. True, they can be imported there, but the prices are often high, and the distribution is less widespread. This will be the first time an actual UK house will be publishing a book by me.

And before you ask, I don't know if there'll be a UK tour. Chances are slim, since it's my first book, but hey, on ne sait jamais. (I think I mentioned before that I randomly jump into French for no apparent reason. Certainly not to show off, since I often get it wrong.)

Anyway, as you can tell by the above tweet, YA Book Queen is having a drawing for a signed ARC of Shade. The contest runs through Thursday, and international entries are welcome!

Also, the amazing author Lisa Schroeder (I Heart You, You Haunt Me; Chasing Brooklyn) is holding a Shade ARC giveaway for a really good cause: libraries. For every unique commenter on her post between now and Wednesday, she will donate 50 cents to the Salem, Oregon, Public Library, as part of this week's Library Lovin' Blog Challenge. One commenter will get her ARC of Shade, which my editor very thoughtfully sent her.

If you're not familiar with Lisa's books, GO CHECK THEM OUT NOW! They are beautiful and lyrical and heartbreaking. If you love ghosts or verse novels--or heck, even if you think you don't love either, prepare to be wowed. If I ever get around to making my "If you liked Shade" page on this website, her books will be at the top of the list.

Review Roundup

Shade ARCs seem to be making their way out into the big bad blogging wilderness. Here are a few reviews that were sent to me, either by the reviewer or another person (I'm too much of a weenie to hunt them down myself):

Yzhabella's Bookshelf
The Neverending Shelf
Book Reviews by Jess

Also, RT Bookreviews just released their review today. The online review is only viewable by subscribers, so I'm just transcribing it here:

Smith-Ready writes movingly and well about music, first love and the drama of having too much responsibility thrust upon your teenage shoulders. Her world is first-rate and every one of her characters rings true. You'll want to read the next book in this exciting series immediately, but alas, you'll have to wait.

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Aura can see ghosts, but she's not the only one -- everyone born after the Shift can. Like the rest of her generation, she considers this a liability instead of an asset. But then her boyfriend, the sexy musician Logan, dies. Aura used to want to reverse the Shift, but with ghost-Logan around, she's not so sure. Enter dazzling Scottish exchange student Zachary, and Aura is torn between a living and a dead boy -- a dead boy who could turn Shade and be locked up for eternity. (SIMON PULSE, May, 320 pp., $17.99, ISBN: 9781416994060, HC, 14 and Up

I love the summary, especially that last line. And the review paragraph is pretty sweet, too. My stomach is always in knots waiting for the RT review, so I can breathe again until the end of June, when they'll be reviewing Bring on the Night.

I am exactly halfway through the first draft of Shade's sequel, Shift. No kidding--I have 39,999 words in a planned 80K manuscript. This is when I usually sit down and say, OK, have I told half the story yet, or am I filling too much space with meandering scenes that will have to be cut? I think it's great to meander for a while, look around, explore, but at a certain point I have to remember where I'm going. Map check!

Okay, that's enough. Two more words and I'm over the hump!

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Now playing: The Cure - Burn
via FoxyTunes

Labels: Contests, good, reviews, SHADE series

• posted by Jeri @ 3:38 PM
• 6 comments