May 2010 On Sale: May 4, 2010 Featuring: Zachary; Logan; Aura 320 pages ISBN: 1416994068 EAN: 9781416994060 Hardcover $17.99 Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready When her boyfriend dies a most untimely death, Aura–who can see ghosts–is forced to reconsider her relationship with the living and dead in SHADE. Love ties them together. Death can’t tear them apart. Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan’s band playing a critical gig and Aura’s plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend’s life. She never thought it would be his last. Logan’s sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He’s gone. Well, sort of. Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost. It doesn’t help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit….

Some cool books coming out this month, including from adult author Sherrilyn Kenyon and deceased (or possibly undead) author Louisa May Alcott. And more! We start with the lovely and talented Jeri Smith-Ready. She’s already a successful author of grown up urban fantasy (WICKED GAME) and romantic fantasy (EYES OF CROW). Now she debuts a new YA series with SHADE. Mystery, ghosts, romance… This one is right up my alley. I asked Jeri a little about her spooky new project. RCM: So, what’s the pitch? Jeri: 16-year-old Aura can see ghosts. Then again, so can everyone around the world who was born after her. In fact, they have a word for the moment of her birth: the Shift. Aura suspects that the Shift might be connected to her missing mystery dad and an event that happened at Newgrange tomb in Ireland a year before her birth. Ghosts can be annoying at their best. At their worst, as dark, powerful “shades,” they can be deadly. So Aura’s major goal in life is to undo the Shift and make the ghosts go away. And then, her boyfriend dies and becomes a ghost. RCM: Well, there’s an obstacle to True Love for you….

Thanks so much for having me as a guest at Fresh Fiction. I’m thrilled to be here! For me, knowing where a character hails from is an essential part of figuring out what makes them tick. This background—the place and time—is especially vital for the vampire characters in my new novel, WICKED GAME (Pocket Books, May 13). My vamps are psychologically and culturally stuck in the era in which they were ‘turned,’ making them walking, stalking time capsules (and perfect for their jobs as disc jockeys at WVMP, The Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll). WICKED GAME’s hero Shane McAllister, for example, was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1968. He was just a boy when the steel mills closed, collapsing the city’s economy. Shane’s own family fell into poverty and despair. Growing up poor made him tough and pessimistic, but it also gave him a core of compassion and understanding. The oldest vampire DJ, blues musician Monroe Jefferson, hails from Natchez, Mississippi. He grew up in a place and time governed by Jim Crow laws, which institutionalized racial segregation. Even now, he’s extremely cautious around the heroine of WICKED GAME, since in Monroe’s day in the Deep South, a black man…