Thumbs Down, Thumbs Up

So here it is the morning of June 5th and I have barely STARTED my end of month work crunch. Our server died last week, and after receiving assurances that the field engineer would be available to install a new one last Friday, we paid the extra hundreds to have it shipped second day air. Well, Friday morning comes, new server is delivered, and FE decides that he doesn't feel like starting the install on a Friday. WTF? Needless to say, we already informed the company that we WILL be deducting the second day air fees from their invoice.

So he shows up Monday, doesn't finish till Tuesday afternoon, and I FINALLY start working on end of month. Yesterday, we had graduation Mass for our 6th grader, then went to lunch. I came home, signed into the server, worked for a bit and... we're down again. By then it's 5:30 so you KNOW the field engineer isn't going to return my call! I'm pretty sure it's the modem, which means we'll have to wait for them to ship us another one. He SAYS he'll be here today to check it out, but this guy has a long history of not showing up when he says.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I am soooooo far behind now! So if I disappear for several days, just 'member that I iz not ded, I iz bizzy, k?

And dammit! I have books to buy!! But I don't dare buy them now, cuz it will KILL me not to be able to take the time to read them!

Oh, and now that work has also put a screeching halt to my TBR diving, maybe I can do a few commentaries before I dive back in. It's just that I've had this insatiable urge to read, Read, READ and only felt like stopping a couple of times to write about what I've read.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

In the meantime, I want to spotlight a book I recently learned about...

Jeri Smith-Ready guest blogged over on The Bradford Bunch about the research and worldbuilding she did for her new book Wicked Game. Well, by the time I got to the bottom of the post, I KNEW this new take on vampires was going on my Constant Cravings wish list.

From Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
Newbie marketing intern Ciara Griffin lands a job at WMMP, a station threatened with being sold to Skyware, a giant communications conglomerate, unless ad revenue picks up. A former con artist with a canny way with people, Ciara soon learns that the DJs are undead and specialists in the musical eras in which they were turned into vampires. One of them, Shane McAllister (turned in 1995), is really hot and dangerously tempting. In order to attract more listeners, Ciara promotes a new marketing strategy and the Sherwood, Md., station becomes 94.3 WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock and Roll, exploiting the fang factor (which no listener takes seriously) for profit. It works, until an ancient vampire cult wants to pull the plug. Also playing in is The Control, an equally ancient paramilitary group created to protect good vampires and kill bad ones. Smith-Ready's musical references are spot on, as is her take on corporate radio's creeping airwave hegemony. Add in the irrepressible Ciara, who grew up in a family of grifters, and the results rock. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author of DARK NEEDS AT NIGHT'S EDGE
An addictive page-turner revving with red hot sex, truly cool vampires, and rock 'n' roll soul.

You'll find a longer summary when you read her Bradford Bunch guest post. And trust me-- it's worth a read!

So then, down in the comments, Jeri mentions that she has a website for the radio station, WVMP, and you can click on the DJs to hear music that would have been on their playlist. BUT WAIT! If that's not cool enough, over on Jeri's website, she has the exact playlist as mentioned in the books. Cool, huh? So instead of buggin' the hell outta me when she mentions a song in the book that I don't know or don't remember, she's set up what is, in effect, an interactive book. I can play the songs as I'm reading and really get caught up in the atmosphere of the story!

Well, by the time I went to both sites and played around with the music associated with the story, I had decided that Wicked Game needed to be moved up to my Insatiable Lusts booklust list!

Yeah, it could be gimmicky hype, but from the buzz I'm reading, Jeri Smith-Ready has the writing chops to back it up. Oddly enough, I didn't start to research Wicked Game until AFTER I had moved it up to must-buy status! But I remembered that Ann Aguirre (who received some great news... and found a new pen she loves) had posted about it, and a quick search found a whole lotta positive buzz around the time of its release in May.

I think I must have seen the word "vampire" and my eyes skated right past any other words in any of the reviews. The fact is, I've been reading paranormal romances and urban fantasy for a looooong time, so what seems different and new to someone with less reading time in those genres may seem been-there/done-that to me. It's rare for me to see the word "vampire" and work up any enthusiasm for a new-to-me author. But Jeri's post and comments on The Bradford Bunch really DID make me sit up and take notice.