Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 54
January 8, 2012
Really? Okay, the cannery.
I think I drew the stairs proportionally wide. The cannery would probably take up two-three Chicago lots. Offhand I don't know how wide that is. The living/dining room is huge, the kitchen is not bad, but the lofted office and bedroom are small, probably less than 10 feet across with a 3 foot hall that overlooks the main cannery. There's a door to the basement under the stairs, and some kind of door that lets outside from there (where equipment could have been moved) that they never open.
January 6, 2012
Unexpected warm snap
It's 49F here today - that's nuts. It's usually cold and snowy in Southern Wisconsin this time of year. But since I'm almost out of cat litter (and since I buy this specific wood-based type from the feed store that's convoluted to get) I decided to make my cat litter pilgrimage today. Then I decided the 40lb bags can probably live right next to my front door for right now, since I don't feel like carrying them any farther. Whew--it's such a big accomplishment. And yay, I don't need to think about it now for several more months.
The process involves going to the feed store, hoping the person at the register can find the obscure item in their system, (sometimes yes sometimes no depending on who's at the register...and I try to keep my receipt for next time but manage to lose it), pulling my car around to the supply sheds, and having a guy (who sometimes tries to give me the wrong thing) load them in. It went really well today, but not as well as last time, when my assistant was home from college and I just gave him thirty bucks and my car keys and had him go deal with it all for me. Including hauling the bags!
Anyway, if you have cats and you ever get dissatisfied with your cat litter, look into wood litter. It's renewable, compostable, biodegradable, controls odor phenomenally well, lasts a long time, and depending on where you buy it, cheap. I realize I live out in farm country so my resources aren't necessarily your resources...but man, I love this stuff.
The process involves going to the feed store, hoping the person at the register can find the obscure item in their system, (sometimes yes sometimes no depending on who's at the register...and I try to keep my receipt for next time but manage to lose it), pulling my car around to the supply sheds, and having a guy (who sometimes tries to give me the wrong thing) load them in. It went really well today, but not as well as last time, when my assistant was home from college and I just gave him thirty bucks and my car keys and had him go deal with it all for me. Including hauling the bags!
Anyway, if you have cats and you ever get dissatisfied with your cat litter, look into wood litter. It's renewable, compostable, biodegradable, controls odor phenomenally well, lasts a long time, and depending on where you buy it, cheap. I realize I live out in farm country so my resources aren't necessarily your resources...but man, I love this stuff.
January 4, 2012
Self-Publishing and Editing
I just read something in one of my author groups where a badly-written blurb of a self-published book was being discussed, and someone stated the lack of editing was the problem with self-publishing.
Self-published books are NOT always unedited.
Publisher-produced books are NOT necessarily edited correctly or well.
There is absolutely nothing stopping a self-published author from hiring an editor and proofers, just like there's nothing stopping her from purchasing a professional cover. I use a content editor and two proofers. In The Starving Years I've used two beta readers as well. I do suspect that many self-published authors are not jumping through the extra hoops. The last self-published work I looked at had errors on the very first page. But there's certainly no secret society of editors who are blacklisting an author simply because they're self-publishing.
Self-published books are NOT always unedited.
Publisher-produced books are NOT necessarily edited correctly or well.
There is absolutely nothing stopping a self-published author from hiring an editor and proofers, just like there's nothing stopping her from purchasing a professional cover. I use a content editor and two proofers. In The Starving Years I've used two beta readers as well. I do suspect that many self-published authors are not jumping through the extra hoops. The last self-published work I looked at had errors on the very first page. But there's certainly no secret society of editors who are blacklisting an author simply because they're self-publishing.
January 3, 2012
Four JCP stories make Wave's top 2011 books!
Good thing
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380916456i/3231018.gif)
kennsea
emailed me to congratulate me on this, otherwise I would have missed it. (I've been writing so much lately my Internet-following skills are slipping.) And it would be a crying shame to not notice coming in FIRST PLACE IN SOMETHING. (Yeah, I get a big thrill seeing a #1 by my name!) No less than FOUR of my stories that came out this year made Wave's Top Books for 2011 list, GhosTV topping the list!WHOOOO!
I'm particularly proud of Media Naranja making the cut, since it's my first professionally co-written piece, and I really loved the energy and character depth that writing with
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380908505i/3173460.gif)
clarelondon
brought to the story.
January 2, 2012
The Old is new Again
I'm over at Clare London's LJ today talking about the hows and whys of re-releases! Stop by and say hi!
December 31, 2011
Gratitude #24 - another chance to get things right
Woo hoo, it's New Year's Eve! It kind of snuck up on me since my brain has been living inside Magic Mansion all week, busy thinking up all kinds of crazy and humiliating challenges to put my Magicians through. I think I'm more grateful than appreciative of today's item, a new year, because I don't think it's "a given" and I don't take it for granted. It's another whole year in which I have 365 days brimming with possibility! I'm totally psyched, and I'll be honest, every day that I don't wake up and feel stifled working for someone else is a fabulous day for me. It honestly may never get old.I've just spent the last couple of minutes re-reading Stroke of Midnight--and in case any of you have come to PsyCop recently and didn't know about this PsyCop short from Jacob's point of view, or if you've just simply forgotten about it, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that I'd love for you to have it as a gift from me to you, along with my well-wishes for a fabulous new year for us all.
This year I've set the goals of losing more weight, keeping up with my meditation, writing/finishing three novels and taking a couple of trips to make sure I stay balanced. No more all-work and no-play.
What are some of your goals?
December 30, 2011
Thinking about Success for 2012
Over the past couple of days, I've been looking at my definition of success...and I've decided that I don't have a good handle on what the word means for me.
Winning second place in the favorite author poll at Wave's felt like a measure of success (or at least popularity), and yet I look at how low my books rank on Amazon and the good number of three-star-and-lower ratings on Goodreads, or the no-ratings-at-all things on Amazon that I had hoped would knock people's socks off because I enjoyed writing them so much and felt they were really vibrant and different from everything else out there...and I think maybe my definition is wonky.
If I had to choose exclusively between writing something I personally loved and writing something I was "meh" about, that the public raved over and made all kinds of top-this-or-that lists...I would pick the first option, to be pleased with a work myself. It would be bittersweet to love something I'd created and feel like I was the only one who did. But it would feel worse to think I'd written something that I half-assed and everyone just loved whatever they'd projected onto it.
So given that I do believe my own opinion of my work is the one that matters most, and given that I've at least achieved the level of independence I needed to create the work I want to create (in exactly the way I want to without bending to someone else's agenda), it follows that stumbling across a lousy review or wondering why no one is rating my books on Amazon should cease to matter.
I think that external validation will continue to play a role, given that sales or non-sales of course affect whether or not I can continue to make my livelihood as a working author. But I do think it's possible for the emotional "OMG I'LL DIE WITHOUT APPROVAL" popularity aspect have less emotional hooks in me.
All that said...finally I come to the actual meat of this post, which is the following question:
How do you define a successful story?
Have at it! I'm eager to hear what makes fiction successful or not to all of you so I can sort through and see which parts resonate with me and build my own definition from there. I think that without a solid definition of success I'm having trouble defining goals, and without goals, I have no gauge, and I'm just floundering around feeling dissatisfied with myself.
Winning second place in the favorite author poll at Wave's felt like a measure of success (or at least popularity), and yet I look at how low my books rank on Amazon and the good number of three-star-and-lower ratings on Goodreads, or the no-ratings-at-all things on Amazon that I had hoped would knock people's socks off because I enjoyed writing them so much and felt they were really vibrant and different from everything else out there...and I think maybe my definition is wonky.
If I had to choose exclusively between writing something I personally loved and writing something I was "meh" about, that the public raved over and made all kinds of top-this-or-that lists...I would pick the first option, to be pleased with a work myself. It would be bittersweet to love something I'd created and feel like I was the only one who did. But it would feel worse to think I'd written something that I half-assed and everyone just loved whatever they'd projected onto it.
So given that I do believe my own opinion of my work is the one that matters most, and given that I've at least achieved the level of independence I needed to create the work I want to create (in exactly the way I want to without bending to someone else's agenda), it follows that stumbling across a lousy review or wondering why no one is rating my books on Amazon should cease to matter.
I think that external validation will continue to play a role, given that sales or non-sales of course affect whether or not I can continue to make my livelihood as a working author. But I do think it's possible for the emotional "OMG I'LL DIE WITHOUT APPROVAL" popularity aspect have less emotional hooks in me.
All that said...finally I come to the actual meat of this post, which is the following question:
How do you define a successful story?
Have at it! I'm eager to hear what makes fiction successful or not to all of you so I can sort through and see which parts resonate with me and build my own definition from there. I think that without a solid definition of success I'm having trouble defining goals, and without goals, I have no gauge, and I'm just floundering around feeling dissatisfied with myself.
December 29, 2011
Appreciation #27 - kidstuff
It's cold outside but there's no snow on the pavement, just the grass. Despite the cold, on my walk to the post office I noticed some kids outside playing, two girls hopping around on their new Christmas pogo sticks! I got a huge kick out of it. I was feeling overly serious at the moment and still I couldn't help but smile.
December 27, 2011
Free Among the Living and a PsyCop bundle
Now through Midnight, New Year's Day - fill your new ereaders with PsyCop! Among the Living is free with coupon. Save big with a PsyCop bundle! (If you already own Among the Living, here's your chance to grab a new format. This 2.1 version ebook has been re-built from the ground up, and contains corrections from the upcoming second print edition of PsyCop: Partners.)
And in case you're new to PsyCop, a bundle of books #1-6 plus all the shorts features Among the Living Free and over 10% off the rest!
Visit JCP Books and see what's new! (Find coupons and bundle deals on the PsyCop ebook product pages.)
