Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 42
October 3, 2012
New Bill and Michael? Oh, yes!
Head on over to JCP Books to find the re-release of Channeling Morpheus 10: Elixir, Heaven Sent (2nd edition bonus short) and the ALL NEW bonus short, Jackpot!*sigh*
Oh yes.
Visit JCP Books and see what's new!
September 27, 2012
Wild Bill sighting
I'm working a new Channeling Morpheus flash fic to accompany the second edition release of Elixir, and I spotted the Wild Bill model in this Esquire article about how to be a "mature" drunk... I'm sure Bill would be pleased.
September 26, 2012
JCP-UK 2012: Watery Matters
In my foray across the pond, I was particularly interested in small cultural differences, and I took particular delight in discovering things that were done differently in the UK than they were in the US.
While the electric kettle is hardly an exotic appliance here, they’re absolutely essential in the UK. Personally, I’m more likely to boil a cup of water in the microwave, but now I see that’s so much less accurate and efficient. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting one of those single-cup coffeemaker, but I suspect I would eventually feel like the K-cups are a ripoff and end up not using the device. Now I’m thinking I’d rather have an electric kettle. While the kettles in the US are a different wattage due to our wimpy 110 volt electrical system and they won’t blast water to a boil in no time flat like a UK kettle, I still think I’d like it better than a more limited appliance like a single-cup coffeemaker.
All that coffee and tea brewed by the kick-ass kettle has got to go somewhere. Another unexpected difference was that the toilets in the UK weren’t quite the same as in the US. On the surface, they may look similar enough, but the flush is different. In the US, water squirts out sideways and shoots around the bowl in a circular motion, whereas in the UK as far as I can tell the water shoots across the bowl from both the back and the front.
Initially, I would press the handle and the toilet would give a little chug, and then I’d think, “It doesn’t work. Damn.” Then I’d re-attempt my flush five or six times until finally the big front-to-back cleanse occurred. Once I finally got the hang of UK toilet flushing I found that the key was to sneak up on the unsuspecting handle and then really lay into the flushing motion. This would give me a satisfactory flush every other time, as opposed to one out of six.
During my stay I also had the first experience I can remember with a pay toilet. It seems to me that when I was a child, pay toilets existed in the US, but I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. Or maybe I’ve never seen one, and I only think I have, because most Americans my age are can recite the infamous two-line bathroom verse:
Here I sit, brokenhearted
Paid a dime and only farted
I’m not sure how typical the pay toilet is in the UK, but they are common enough that I did run across one I wanted to visit during my stay. Luckily, at this point, I had British money in my pocket and didn’t need to go beg 20p off someone. But it also meant I needed to stand there with a crowd milling around me and sift through each and every coin in my possession to determine whether I did indeed have 20p. (The coinage would be another big difference. There are more coins in common use in the UK than the US. The 1p, 5p and 10p I understood. Then they have 2p, 20p, 50p, plus one and two pound coins that don’t have much of an equivalent in the US. We have half-dollars or dollar coins, though we don’t use them much. And if you give a dollar or half-dollar coin to a clerk, they’ll stare at it for a while.)
As I experienced the pay toilet, I pondered whether it was ethical to demand 20p from someone in their time of need, and I decided that I didn’t mind paying for the upkeep of a decent bathroom. Plus, if the alternative was to have no toilet at all, it was worth the money. Though I suspect most people didn’t get quite the same thrill that I did from correctly identifying the proper coin to put in the slot.
While the electric kettle is hardly an exotic appliance here, they’re absolutely essential in the UK. Personally, I’m more likely to boil a cup of water in the microwave, but now I see that’s so much less accurate and efficient. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting one of those single-cup coffeemaker, but I suspect I would eventually feel like the K-cups are a ripoff and end up not using the device. Now I’m thinking I’d rather have an electric kettle. While the kettles in the US are a different wattage due to our wimpy 110 volt electrical system and they won’t blast water to a boil in no time flat like a UK kettle, I still think I’d like it better than a more limited appliance like a single-cup coffeemaker.
All that coffee and tea brewed by the kick-ass kettle has got to go somewhere. Another unexpected difference was that the toilets in the UK weren’t quite the same as in the US. On the surface, they may look similar enough, but the flush is different. In the US, water squirts out sideways and shoots around the bowl in a circular motion, whereas in the UK as far as I can tell the water shoots across the bowl from both the back and the front.Initially, I would press the handle and the toilet would give a little chug, and then I’d think, “It doesn’t work. Damn.” Then I’d re-attempt my flush five or six times until finally the big front-to-back cleanse occurred. Once I finally got the hang of UK toilet flushing I found that the key was to sneak up on the unsuspecting handle and then really lay into the flushing motion. This would give me a satisfactory flush every other time, as opposed to one out of six.
During my stay I also had the first experience I can remember with a pay toilet. It seems to me that when I was a child, pay toilets existed in the US, but I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. Or maybe I’ve never seen one, and I only think I have, because most Americans my age are can recite the infamous two-line bathroom verse:
Here I sit, brokenhearted
Paid a dime and only farted
I’m not sure how typical the pay toilet is in the UK, but they are common enough that I did run across one I wanted to visit during my stay. Luckily, at this point, I had British money in my pocket and didn’t need to go beg 20p off someone. But it also meant I needed to stand there with a crowd milling around me and sift through each and every coin in my possession to determine whether I did indeed have 20p. (The coinage would be another big difference. There are more coins in common use in the UK than the US. The 1p, 5p and 10p I understood. Then they have 2p, 20p, 50p, plus one and two pound coins that don’t have much of an equivalent in the US. We have half-dollars or dollar coins, though we don’t use them much. And if you give a dollar or half-dollar coin to a clerk, they’ll stare at it for a while.)
As I experienced the pay toilet, I pondered whether it was ethical to demand 20p from someone in their time of need, and I decided that I didn’t mind paying for the upkeep of a decent bathroom. Plus, if the alternative was to have no toilet at all, it was worth the money. Though I suspect most people didn’t get quite the same thrill that I did from correctly identifying the proper coin to put in the slot.
September 22, 2012
JCP-UK 2012: Neighborhood Pub
I'm back from my 10-day trip to the UK all in one piece! Wow, what a whirlwind of an experience it was...so much so that I've got absolutely no idea how to organize the various highlights of it. Since many of the UK Meet attendees are already blogging about it, I'm going to start somewhere random: my trip to a neighborhood pub.
One thing I really wanted to do when I got to England was go grocery shopping. Yes, I know that's mundane. I just enjoy seeing what's different whenever I arrive in a new locale. Clare and her older son were happy to oblige! We hit the local store and gravitated toward the beer. Since Clare's son has bartending experience, he could tell me knowledgeably about the differences between the varieties, and we decided to stock up on a few different types and have a beer tasting.
Once the hectic excitement of Brighton was over and we returned to London, we settled in for our tasting...and then Clare's husband came home and offered to take us down to the local pub! (We were already nice and lubricated at this point.) One of the things on my checklist was to visit a REAL British pub, rather than a place that catered to tourists, so we jumped at the chance to go.
There were patrons drinking there, but not many. I think Clare and I were the only women there other than the bartender. We ran into a friend of Mr. London's who bought us a round and had a nice chat with us, and the atmosphere felt convivial and very right. The entire ceiling was covered in the little plates they put on the taps to show which sort of beer is in there (I don't know what they're called) and it made for a striking decor!
Clare and I had a fabulous time. She and her family welcomed me into their home and made me feel like an honorary Londoner. How funny, I hadn't noticed that union jack in the corner of the shot until now! Just in case you couldn't tell where we were ;-)
I could never really predict where businesses would be. Something would look like a residential street to me, and then there would be a pub (or a surgeon or something) right there among the houses. Maybe US neighborhoods are more strictly zoned as to residential or business uses.
One thing I really wanted to do when I got to England was go grocery shopping. Yes, I know that's mundane. I just enjoy seeing what's different whenever I arrive in a new locale. Clare and her older son were happy to oblige! We hit the local store and gravitated toward the beer. Since Clare's son has bartending experience, he could tell me knowledgeably about the differences between the varieties, and we decided to stock up on a few different types and have a beer tasting.
Once the hectic excitement of Brighton was over and we returned to London, we settled in for our tasting...and then Clare's husband came home and offered to take us down to the local pub! (We were already nice and lubricated at this point.) One of the things on my checklist was to visit a REAL British pub, rather than a place that catered to tourists, so we jumped at the chance to go.
There were patrons drinking there, but not many. I think Clare and I were the only women there other than the bartender. We ran into a friend of Mr. London's who bought us a round and had a nice chat with us, and the atmosphere felt convivial and very right. The entire ceiling was covered in the little plates they put on the taps to show which sort of beer is in there (I don't know what they're called) and it made for a striking decor!
Clare and I had a fabulous time. She and her family welcomed me into their home and made me feel like an honorary Londoner. How funny, I hadn't noticed that union jack in the corner of the shot until now! Just in case you couldn't tell where we were ;-)
I could never really predict where businesses would be. Something would look like a residential street to me, and then there would be a pub (or a surgeon or something) right there among the houses. Maybe US neighborhoods are more strictly zoned as to residential or business uses.
September 10, 2012
Getting ready for the UK Meet!
So, I haven't blogged in a while...not here, at any rate. I probably ran out of blog juice from my recent postings at Reviews by Jessewave, Chicks and Dicks and MM Good Book Reviews.
What's going on with me? Getting ready for my first transcontinental flight, basically. Cleaning the house so I don't come back to yuck-house. Realizing I don't have a tiny travel-sized shampoo. (Really? I used to have a million of them. I must have used them all up swimming.) Practicing my keynote address with the cats. They love that.
JCP News will be delayed this month. I'll probably do a September/October issue at the end of the month. Once I recover from my trip ;-)
What's going on with me? Getting ready for my first transcontinental flight, basically. Cleaning the house so I don't come back to yuck-house. Realizing I don't have a tiny travel-sized shampoo. (Really? I used to have a million of them. I must have used them all up swimming.) Practicing my keynote address with the cats. They love that.
JCP News will be delayed this month. I'll probably do a September/October issue at the end of the month. Once I recover from my trip ;-)
September 5, 2012
Notion Potion #5: Shopping for Ideas
It's time for this month's Notion Potion! Creative types: get inspired to shop for some ideas.
I'd love it if you stop by and say hi!
I'd love it if you stop by and say hi!
September 2, 2012
JCP Guest Post at MMGood Book Reviews
Three reasons NOT to self-publish. Stop by and leave a comment!
August 31, 2012
Belated link - JCP News August 2012
Eep! I forgot to post a link to my August newsletter when it came out a couple weeks ago. I'm vowing to be more regular about it now that I'm promoting the RSS feed for those of you using feed-readers.http://jordan-c-price.livejournal.com...
So what's new this August? "Old and New," an article about revamping re-relases, second edition of Channeling Morpheus Swarm, Lashings of Sauce anthology, and the fourth installment of the Turbulence series, Connecting Flight.
Read online here
Or subscribe here and receive JCP News in your inbox
When writing a series...
What's the difference between fixed and mutable characters? Find out today as I guest post on Chicks & Dicks.
I'd love it if you left a comment.
I'd love it if you left a comment.
August 25, 2012
Pre-order paperbacks to reserve your copy
For those of you coming to the UK GLBTQ Fiction meet, you can pre-order paperbacks from me and pay via PayPal.
PRE-PAY VIA PAYPAL
If you'd like to pre-pay for your order so there's no futzing around for money at the time of the Meet, fabulous! You will receive a 5% discount from the list price, and your book will be reserved for you. I'll sign it there so we get a chance to chat.
PAY AT THE MEET
You may also pay at the meet. If you opt for this, you'll pay the list price and your book will not be reserved. Although this doesn't seem to carry any advantage, if you're thinking you want a specific book, it's a good idea to let me know so I order enough copies for the event.
HOW IT WORKS
Email me privately at sales - at - jcpbooks - dot - com and let me know
1. which titles you'd like
2. whether you're pre-paying or paying at the meet
If you're pre-paying, I'll follow up with a PayPal invoice. Let me know which email address it should go to.
TITLES
The following titles will be available.
Channeling Morpheus
A Bitter Taste of Sweet Oblivion £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary £9.25 or £8.80 prepaid
PsyCop
GhosTV £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Camp Hell £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Property £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Partners £9.25 or £8.80 prepaid
Other Novels
The Starving Years £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Magic Mansion £11.95 or £11.35 prepaid
Zero Hour £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Mnevermind 1: The Persistence of Memory £9.95 or £9.50 prepaid
Nonfiction
50 Odious Over-and-Under Mazes £3.99 or £3.80 prepaid
50 Excruciating Mazes £3.99 or £3.80 prepaid
I'll need your orders by August 31. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. I'll send another reminder at the end of the month.
Can't wait to see you all in September!
PRE-PAY VIA PAYPAL
If you'd like to pre-pay for your order so there's no futzing around for money at the time of the Meet, fabulous! You will receive a 5% discount from the list price, and your book will be reserved for you. I'll sign it there so we get a chance to chat.
PAY AT THE MEET
You may also pay at the meet. If you opt for this, you'll pay the list price and your book will not be reserved. Although this doesn't seem to carry any advantage, if you're thinking you want a specific book, it's a good idea to let me know so I order enough copies for the event.
HOW IT WORKS
Email me privately at sales - at - jcpbooks - dot - com and let me know
1. which titles you'd like
2. whether you're pre-paying or paying at the meet
If you're pre-paying, I'll follow up with a PayPal invoice. Let me know which email address it should go to.
TITLES
The following titles will be available.
Channeling Morpheus
A Bitter Taste of Sweet Oblivion £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary £9.25 or £8.80 prepaid
PsyCop
GhosTV £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Camp Hell £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Property £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Partners £9.25 or £8.80 prepaid
Other Novels
The Starving Years £10.95 or £10.40 prepaid
Magic Mansion £11.95 or £11.35 prepaid
Zero Hour £9.99 or £9.50 prepaid
Mnevermind 1: The Persistence of Memory £9.95 or £9.50 prepaid
Nonfiction
50 Odious Over-and-Under Mazes £3.99 or £3.80 prepaid
50 Excruciating Mazes £3.99 or £3.80 prepaid
I'll need your orders by August 31. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. I'll send another reminder at the end of the month.
Can't wait to see you all in September!
