Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 31

Haunted Piano

I don't normally post dreams, but this one was too cinematic to not share:

I've brought an old piano home and it's in my bedroom. I wake up and hear it making noises, playing itself, not like a player piano, but little plinks like someone's brushed against a string, and other sounds, like wind blowing over the top of a bottle. I don't mind it at first until I think about it too hard. I tell myself maybe it's actually an organ, though I'm pretty sure it's a piano. I creep toward the light switch hoping I don't flip it on and find a scary dead thing seated at the keys. I flip the light switch and the room remains completely black. The piano is still whistling. And then I realize there's not even supposed to be a light switch on that wall where I've found one.

I run out into the apartment growing hysterical and none of the lights work. Then some roommates of mine come home and I try to babble out why I'm afraid of the piano and why I'm crying because the lights won't come on, and I sound really stupid. However the apartment was haunted prior to this (something exploded in a roommate's room--a deer I think) and it feels like we're cycling into another round of hauntings, with the piano as the vehicle from the spirit world.

Interesting Days

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, all! I ended up cooking a turkey last night (it was cheap, so why not?) but man, I was in a world of sadness when it came time to clean the kitchen this morning.

Every Sunday I review my goals and tasks--I use ToDoist.com to keep track of what I'm doing--and then I journal about what I'd like to do the upcoming week. I think it's a practice that keeps me sane while I'm working on long, long projects where the rewards and achievements are intermittent at best. Today it occurred to me that I'd like to do "something interesting" every day. In a low-key way, though. I didn't put it on my to-do list because, well...I felt like it would defeat the fragile spirit of the idea. Today I went outside because it was sunny and I walked to a field I hadn't yet explored. Another day I might watch a TED Talks video or draw a picture or discover some new music. Small stuff. But hopefully stuff to feed my soul.

Recently I put up a Thanksgiving coupon that was a big hit, and it occurs to me there's still about 6 hours left on it. Enter THANKS2013 at JCP Books checkout and get 10% off $10 or more--and you can combine it with the already-discounted bundles to amass a pretty sweet deal.

I also ran a free PsyCop short that I was pretty pleased with: Off the Cuff

May your days be interesting! And not in that scary proverb way, either.

A newsy newsletter: JCP News Nov 2013

All kinds of fun news in this month's newsletter, plus links to several Saturday Snippet flash fics, pics from GRL and important info about the Packing Heat podcast.
Subscribe to JCP News here to receive it via email!

The Vic Subject

Every now and then I hit a milestone moment. For an ex-library clerk like me, this is one of 'em:

(From The Free Library in Philadelphia.)

Yep. Victor Bayne is a SUBJECT. So cool. So, so, so cool. I am covered in goosebumps right now.
There are 10 JCP paperbacks altogether in the system for you to enjoy, Philadelphians! Go show 'em some use!

New flash fic: Cram - JCP Saturday Snippet

I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with Edmond Manning in Atlanta at GRL. If you haven't checked out his work yet, YOU NEED TO. RIGHT NOW. His first book, King Perry, rocked my world. King Mai is the second installment in his funny, freakish and thought-provoking Lost and Founds series.

We've co-written a tasty 800 word flash fic for your weekend enjoyment called Cram.

Read Cram at Edmond's site

See the whole Saturday Snippet email

Channeling Morpheus giveaway

The Novel Approach Reviews is doing a backlist bump for the Channeling Morpheus series today. Come say hi, I'm giving away a novelette from the series (winners' choice) to three lucky commenters!

I also spotted the fantastic review of the series Lisa did last year.

It's funny to think the series is five years old now. The only thing that shows its age is Michael's pink netbook :D

It's what time?

Cripes, it's 4:30? It looks like 7 pm!
*shakes fist*
"Damn you Daylight Savings Time!"

Dang, it's early!

Over the past couple of weeks, I'd been sleeping in until the unheard of realm of 7:30 - 8:00 am. I was glad. I tend to pop out of bed too damn early, and I figured I was simply in training for Daylight Savings Time. So of course today I woke up at 5. I told myself it was "really" six and it "wasn't too bad." But still. It's early.

Last week I had some back issues that laid me up for a couple of days, but I used the time to make a small dent in my TBR pile (which is now massive after the GRL Retreat). It seems mostly resolved now which is fantastic, since similar injuries have lingered a month or more in the past.

At the GRL booksigning with Clare London :D

I toyed with the idea of putting out a late edition of JCP News for October, but decided that since most of you are getting the Saturday Snippets anyway, it's not like I've dropped off the radar or anything. The big newsletter will be back on schedule in November.

A lot of readers have asked me what's next, now that Spook Squad is finished. I'm working on Mnevermind II, but I've hit a plot problem, so I'm in thinking mode. I've realized that while it's entirely doable to force my way through a story, it takes me twice as long, and it makes me miserable. It would've been a lot more pleasurable writing Spook Squad if I'd just waited until the solutions became evident. In my ideal world I'd be able to release another novel this calendar year, but if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to stress over it.

I've been writing flash fic in between to keep limber. Some of it's running long. I'm thinking I might put out a collection of new PsyCop shorts before I dig into book 8.

Q&A - Victor Bayne, father material? JCP Saturday Snippet

This week's Saturday Snippet is more Q&A - the origin of the series, and Vic's thoughts on fatherhood.

Last week's snippet is a PsyCop flash fic called Impact that features some ghostly action.

Enjoy!

Cover Art: the (Re)Making of Secrets

Recently I’ve begun revamping the PsyCop series ebooks to give the covers a more cohesive look, and to clean up some of the older ebooks to make sure they work well across various devices. The Secrets ebook was showing its age. It came out in 2007 before many devices in use today even existed, and its cover art pre-dated the use of the Vic model, so I was eager to freshen it up.

The scene I chose to showcase for the new cover art was the moment where Vic decides he’s going to step outside of his comfort zone to help the victim. He’ll be sorry later, but right now he’s working himself up to gagging down a Jack and Coke. Here’s an insider look at the making of the can.

See the rest in Saturday Snippets
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