Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 30

Characters You Love to Hate

I'm talking about characters I love to hate in this month's JCP News.
Also gearing up for Mnevermind 2, coming this Wednesday!

I've made contact!

For a few months now, I've been really bummed out by my desk. It's a vintage thing I found at Goodwill, and I love it with all its dings and scuffs, but the surface of the desktop was so nasty that I hated even putting my hand on it. (It was kind of rough and flaky, really bad.)

I wanted an easy way to refinish it that didn't involve stripping or sanding, and I researched chemicals that might do that, but I came to the conclusion that living in an apartment like I do, chemically refinishing the desk was impossible, as well as too time consuming, plus it would likely destroy one of the wall-to-wall carpets no matter how I tried to protect it.

I found some scrap linoleum in the Magic Dumpster where I find all kinds of things. I cut it to size and laid it down, and that sort of worked, except the edge felt terrible on my hand while I was typing or mousing. And taping it all around with duct tape seemed like a future-goopy solution, and depressingly ugly to boot.

And then I realized...CONTACT PAPER.

Ta-da, it came out fantastic. Plus it only cost a dollar. Plus the roll was the EXACT WIDTH of my desk. Fixes don't get much better than that!

We all know jerks...here's your chance to name one!

For the upcoming Mnevermind II, I need a chatroom name for an overbearing creep on a gay website. Submit your ickiest idea by January 22 (one week!), and if I use your suggestion, you'll win a free ebook when the story comes out this spring. Find out how in this month's JCP News!

New Flash fic from JCP and friends!

You know how some people leave up their Christmas lights? I left a Halloween decoration on my door. It's an old timey wedding photo where the bride's and groom's faces turn into skulls as you tilt your head and change your angle of approach. I thought of it when I overheard some workmen in the hall say, "Hologram...yeah...weird."

It's 9am and already I've creeped out some workmen. My job is done here.

On a different note, I've written a new NON-creepy (romantic and cute) flash fic in my recent Saturday Snippet. The lovely ladies andy_slayde and ali_wilde have also contributed a delightful and colorful flash fic for your enjoyment!

Read the Saturday Snippet here!

JCP Doesn't Believe in Wind Chill

I've never believed in wind chill, hard to say why. Maybe it's too subjective, too melodramatic? Maybe it sounds like someone's making excuses for the poor performance of the thermometer? Maybe because it's only talked about when it's cold out. After all, no one says, "Well, it's 90 out...but it feels like 78 with the wind chill."

That said, the Midwest is hunkering down for an insane deep freeze tonight. Actual temps here in Madison are expected to go down to -25F/-31C.

And although I never give wind chill any credence, I had to stop and stare at the number -55F/-48C. I can't even comprehend that. Good thing it's fake. (And good thing I don't have to go outside if I don't want to. Cos I don't want to.)

This week's special
The snowbirds are gone for the season when a freak ice storm traps newcomer Ray on an island in Lake Michigan with a bewitching artist loner...and a killer.


$1 off backlist title Body Art with the following coupons:
CHILLMOBI
CHILLPDF
CHILLEPUB

Codes are good 'til midnight Wednesday, January 8. Supposedly that's when our 0-degree heatwave begins.
Go to Body Art at JCP Books!

That's a Wipe

So, I'm working on edits and I see where I had a character show up from a trip to a warehouse club with a massive shrink-wrapped block of toilet paper. (They end up having a big discussion about it in the story so it's kind of important.) I'm single and I don't usually buy things in bulk, so I'd randomly called the cube of TP "half a gross." That'd be 72 rolls, for those of you who don't think in grosses!

Anyway, turns out I just found a pretty sweet deal on toilet paper the last time I went shopping and grabbed a 16 roll pack. As I was trying to fit 15 rolls of it in my linen closet, I realized that if my character were walking around with half a gross of toilet paper, it would be as big as her.

Here's where the ridiculous research comes in. I decided to go to Amazon and try looking at really big honkin' packs of toilet paper to see how gigantic they are. Not that they feature people HOLDING them or anything. Which they probably should if I want a sense of scale. Anyway, I go....

And I get sucked into reading people's bitchy reviews where they have meltdowns about their toilet paper!

Anyway, so none of you worry about me:
1. I decided 36 rolls were feasible
2. I will stop reading toilet paper reviews now
3. The pack I got the other day was a real bargain!

Wurlitzer Day!

A Wurlitzer day...that's what my crit partner calls it when you get an insane amount of stuff done. I freakin love the feeling!

First I got up and wrote 1000 words (this usually takes all day but I'm nearing the end of a story so I have lots of momentum). Then, with the realization that everything will be closing early for New Year's Eve so I'd better get my butt in gear, I hit:
-the bank
-the library
-the grocery store
-the post office
-the pet food store
-and last but not least, Aldi

Holy smokes, I'm tired! I'd like to write another 1000 after I have a little coffee though. My big New Year's Eve plans include a pizza I bought at Aldi...yeah, the glamor of a writer's life, I know.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone.

What's coming in the year ahead - JCP News December 2013

Hey, gang! This month's JCP News has hit the stands. Find out what's coming in 2014, discover how my Crappy Laptop was forced into retirement, and download some Wild Billicious wallpaper for your computer :D

Leaving the Podcast as it stands

Thanks so much for the feedback on Packing Heat. Over the last 24 hours I've managed to obtain a refund from the place I've been dinking around with to no end, and I've decided that it's affordable to keep the cast where it is since the only big loss of functionality is iTunes and the streaming player. The stuff that's more important to me is the navigation, tagging and show notes, and of course hosting the media so it can be downloaded somehow.

It's a relief to not need to worry about this...other than the post that I'll have to put to explain about the streaming player :D I could probably just ask customer service if it can be fixed...and spend a month in hell getting their stupid replies :-O

Should Packing Heat pack it in?

From 2007-2009 I produced a writing podcast called Packing Heat. Much of the information is still relevant today.

There were technical difficulties. The podcast no longer streams through iTunes. They also no longer stream through the site where I have them archived, Packingheat.net. However, they are still available if you click the "download" link on each archived episode, right beneath the streaming players that no longer work. The archive is also searchable and contains extensive show notes.

I'm trying to figure out if I should keep these archived (even though they are not streaming properly) or just throw in the towel at this point. I have been going back and forth all week with a new host and it's a no-go. Earlier this year I went back and forth for over a month with the original host. I keep throwing time, money and effort at it, and the best I can do is to leave it where it is, not streaming properly, but still downloadable.

Is it worth keeping? Might any of you say, "Wow, hundreds of hours of audio content by JCP, how exciting! I'm putting some on my MP3 player right now!" In which case, I should probably just promote it better. I could put a post upfront explaining about the streaming and call it a day.

As an experiment, I'd love it if some of you tried to download an episode or two and see if the media is missing or not. I've successfully downloaded episodes 1, 2, 3 and 50 (Clare London's interview, one of my favorite eps!)

Here's the archive.