Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 22

Slogans and Statements - Why We Do What We Do

Last night at my writing group, I asked the gang what they thought about personal mission statements. With writing, motivation is really a huge part of the puzzle, and as with anything in life, it's easy for goals to shift, for targets to become blurry. In essence, it's super common to lose sight of why you do what you do.

I've always had a drive to make stuff. No doubt there are fancier ways I could say that, but at the core, the statement is very easy to understand, isn't it? I like making stuff. And I especially like seeing other people digging the stuff I make. It's satisfying. Imagine cooking a fantastic new recipe. It's a lot more fun to have a friend squee over it with you than it is to just eat it yourself.

When I was trying to articulate what it is that brings me satisfaction, it occurred to me I had a slogan at some point but couldn't remember when or where. I just found it -- it's on JCPbooks.com, where I used to sell my books direct, where I now just have information and links about my books. Ah, the shifting sands of publishing and ecommerce! Here it is:

Weird and wonderful ebooks you'll want to read again and again!

The "weird and wonderful" ebooks speaks to my desire to create things that people have never seen before. Yeah, everything under the sun has already been done, but it's totally possible to add a twist or a flavor that's new. And the re-read...well, I really can't think of any higher compliment than a reader chosing to re-invest their time in a story I've written.

...I also get a big charge out of knowing someone has skipped work because they couldn't put my book down. So if that ever happens to you, be sure to tell me, it'll make my day :D

Coming soon: Charmed and Dangerous

Immerse YourselfIn TEN worlds of Magic

It’s magical. It’s man on man. And I promise you, my friends, it’s massive. I’ve put together an all new, all-star m/m paranormal anthology. It’s coming August 25, and I can’t wait to unveil it.

There’s something in this gigantic collection for everyone: ghosts and goblins, spellcasters and shifters. You’ll find a great mix of fresh new storyverses and riveting standalone stories from several popular m/m series, including a spiffy newPsyCop novelette.

Just check out our m/m rock star lineup!

Astrid Amara

KJ Charles

Charlie Cochet

Rhys Ford

Ginn Hale

Lou Harper

Jordan L Hawk

Nicole Kimberling

Jordan Castillo Price

Andrea Speed

Find out more in this month's JCP News!!

Escape from popup hell

It seemed to me this is the type of thing that Victor Bayne would do, but then I realized it was poor Elijah in Forget Me Not who had this happen to him :-)

I ended up on some crazy website yesterday with a terrible popup that wouldn't let me close it and wouldn't do anything other than open more and more tabs. (And no, it wasn't even a porn site!)

I could force-quit my app, but then I'd lose my other tabs. So the second time this happened--I'm a glutton for punishment--I discovered something cool. I was able to open up a pane called Task Manager in Chrome and kill the selective punk-ass tabs. There's probably something similar in other browsers.

Maybe this'll help you someday if you ever find yourself in popup hell!

Young at Heart

I was at the library yesterday looking for some recent anthologies to study their layout and typography. Weirdly enough, I could only find anthologies in the Teen (YA) section of the library. I noticed while I was there that the sensibility of teen books really screams out to me. The titles, the cover design, the typography. All of it grabs me by the guts and says "READ ME." But then when I read them, I find myself wishing the characters were more my age, dealing with issues other than peer pressure or school or growing up. The teen series I enjoy most are the ones with the most vestigial appearance of parents, teachers or other teen authority figures and just show the protagonist basically being an adult.

It would be interesting to figure out which buttons of mine are being pushed by the current style of marketing for Teen books.

I'm working on a novella that's an adult coming-of-age. Maybe my relationship with the types of books I'm attracted to has something to do with what I'm compelled to write.

Newsletter Archive, updated

I do my best to make my newsletters fun to read, and I think I'm pretty good at it. However, I'm not so good at archiving them.

I just updated my archive! Yes! I've caught up, now you can too :D

Find archived goodness here.

Whoops, wrong link

Aaaand, here's a working link to my June Newsletter :D  http://eepurl.com/bqflXb

You've got questions, I've got a newsletter!

This month I answered reader questions in the June edition of JCP News!

Michael Martinez asked, “What has been your favorite story or character to write so far?” Find this answer and more.

You are getting very sleeepy....

I've always been fascinated with hypnosis. Last year I treated myself to some sessions with a professional hypnotherapist. That was quite the experience.

But here's where the interest started. Back in the 80's, I helped out a friend by participating in a study where they gave everyone a personality test, then had us listen to two types of self-hypnosis relaxation tapes. One was a guided visualization and one was called "Isometric Squeeze," where you squeezed and relaxed different muscle groups. Then they assessed which type of tape was more effective for which type of person.

I don't know how the results came out. But listening to those tapes (It was a week or two apiece daily) ended up building a lifelong habit. In the 80's, those cassette tapes were pretty pricy. But nowadays with MP3s ... wow, it's like Christmas in June.

I found this freebie today for writers that I really liked, you can grab it here. The recording quality is good, it's short and to the point, and what he's saying resonates with me.

And speaking of hypnosis, there's some pretty heavy duty hypnosis in Camp Hell. When we produced the audio, I asked my narrator Gomez Pugh to listen to one of my favorite 80's hypnotists, Dick Sutphen, to prep for the role of Stefan!

Dick Sutphen is still practicing. He even has a downloadable Writer's Series.

Great, how?

My apartment overlooks a parking lot (it's pretty unobjectionable with lots of trees and a dog walking area where I watch people walk their dogs.) Now that it's June, my windows are all open and I get to hear snatches of conversation.I was sitting in my living room and, loud and clear, a guy says to another guy, "Well, your hair looks great." And then a muffled reply.So I rush over to the window to see this great hair, and they're gone.Now every time I see someone, I'll think, "Are you the one with great hair?"

Better Every Day

Tomorrow will mark two weeks since I had my hysterectomy. I'm really excited that I've had the surgery, it's done, and I'm healing. I've had problems with it my whole adult life.

Dealing with this issue was one of my major goals for 2015, and I looove accomplishing goals!

But I'm realizing I need to be careful not to overdo. I'm easing into writing and editing again. It feels right. But I'm also not being the insane taskmaster that I was pre-surgery. That new pace feels right too.