I'm baaack! With a guest of a guest, no less

Hey, everyone! I'm Jeri Smith-Ready, your debut victim author guest blogger last year. I hung out with you for three days and developed such a case of Stockholm Syndrome had such a blast that I begged Tracy to let me come back.

I figured y'all might get a leeetle suspicious and deja vu-ey, though, if I just copied and pasted my posts from last year. So I racked my brain using a rigorous workout of chocolate-covered espresso beans jumping jacks to come up with something fresh and fun.

Tomorrow I will still do a hero's post, on the brand-new Boy (pictured here on the cover) in my upcoming release, Bad to the Bone (release date May 19) sequel to Wicked Game and second in my WVMP Radio series. And the real hero, Shane McAllister, whom I detailed deliciously last year, might stop to chat as well.

But for today, instead of the standard About Me introduction (which you can read, if you're so inclined, by clicking on that link), I decided to try something new, something different. Something a little less, oh, what's the word...WORK.

See, I have a deadline this Friday. If I don't get a rough draft of my next book to my critique partners by then, they will march up to my house with torches. And then I will definitely not make my June 1 editor deadline, because I'll be too busy calling the insurance company and police.

If I learned one thing from Corporate Life in America, it's that when you have too many tasks on your plate...delegate! So for today, I will let you be entertained by my very own real-life hero, Christian Ready. Feel free to ask him any questions about me, or questions about anything at all. He's used to that, as you'll see.

Everyone who comments on today's or tomorrow's posts will be put in a drawing to win signed copies of both Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone (if you already have Wicked Game, you can substitute one of my other books). I'll pull a random name at 11:59pm Eastern time Tuesday night, May 5. International entries welcome. Good luck!

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Hello People Who Like to Read,

My name is Jeri Smith-Ready's Husband. Some call me Chris. As you are probably already aware, Jeri writes. A lot. That's a good thing because it makes her happy, except for when she’s cranky because she has a deadline. Jeri has a deadline for this coming Friday. I love my wife very much and I hate to see her unhappy, mostly because I work from home.

So I offered to write her guest blog for her so she wouldn’t have to take time away from her deadline without feeling guilty for not honoring her guest-blog commitment. I thought my offer alone would remind her of what a loving, devoted husband she has, and that in the grand scheme of things a deadline and guest-blog conflict pale in comparison to what’s really important in life – love, happiness, and a partner to share that with.

Instead she called my bluff.

Jeri thought it might be a nice change of pace if I offered my perspective on what it’s like to be married to a full-time writer; a sort of meta-perspective on what she does. I hope that you will find this interesting and insightful, and that I won’t have to sleep on the couch. Here goes.

Jeri works harder at her job than anyone else I know works at theirs (especially me.) The downside is that she’s always working. I know she cannot help it, partly because there is always a looming deadline, but also because creativity is not something you can stop at 5:00 PM and expect to resume the following morning.

That said, she’s very good about stopping to make dinner or feed our dog and cat. But this also means that Jeri has to stick to a tight schedule in order to make deadlines. Over the years, I have learned how to tactfully tell friends that we cannot meet for dinner because Jeri has a deadline. In four months.

Taking road trips with Jeri is always a pleasure, because she lets me listen to the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius XM radio. I’m a lifelong Deadhead. Jeri hates them. But she does this because she knows that I am driving and wants me to be happy in our travels wants to write scenes out in her notebook and the Dead's music is just boring enough to her to allow her to think. And yet there she is, as beautiful as the day we were married, glancing out the window as the landscape passes us by. Our conversations while traveling often go like this:

ME: "What are you looking at, honey?"

JERI: "Shut up, I'm thinking!"

But perhaps the most unusual part for me is the questions I have been spontaneously asked over the years. You see, when Jeri writes, she thinks about a lot of things, but isn't always sure of some of the specifics. Of course, she could go to Wikipedia or Google for answers, but that would involve getting on the internet and wasting important writing time. So she'll ask me, often while hollering from the other room. Here are some actual questions I have been asked:

"Hey hon, what's larger, a Regiment or a Battalion?"

"How far is it to the Moon?"

"If you decapitated someone while standing behind their right shoulder, would the head roll to the right or to the left?"

What am I, the Great Kreskin?

But you know what? I wouldn't trade any of this for all of the tea in China.

I hope this gave you a little glimpse into life with a writer. Or at least, my life with Jeri. It's now time to retire for a nice quiet evening of the sound of her laptop's keyboard clicking away in a distant corner of the house.

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Isn't he the cutest thing? *swoon*

Feel free to ask me or Chris questions about what it's like to be or live with a writer (I won't even edit his answers. Much.) Or heck, you can even comment on my Favorites post from last year (just be sure to comment here, not there, so I'll see it and enter you to win). I'm easy.

Have a great day, and thanks for having me back on the island!

www.jerismithready.com
http://www.twitter.com/jsmithready
www.myspace.com/jerismithready