Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 65
April 9, 2011
The bad side of spider amnesty
Yesterday I noticed a rather large, unappealing, long-legged spider on my kitchen island, and I thought, "I should probably put him outside. I'll do it after I eat." And of course later, he was gone.
So I flung it onto the couch and freaked out a while, pointed at it going, "Eeeeee...ptoo--ptoo-ptoo-ptooo!!!!" And my ex picked it off the couch and happily declared, "Wow, it was a big one!"
Seriously re-considering the spider amnesty if they're gonna be that way about it.
So I flung it onto the couch and freaked out a while, pointed at it going, "Eeeeee...ptoo--ptoo-ptoo-ptooo!!!!" And my ex picked it off the couch and happily declared, "Wow, it was a big one!"
Seriously re-considering the spider amnesty if they're gonna be that way about it.
April 6, 2011
Animated Psycop
HOW COOL IS THAT? Some animated PsyCop fanart, a scene with Vic and Jackie the Loudmouthed Prostitute.
http://lacweal.deviantart.com/art/Psycop-Shanked-203716263
http://lacweal.deviantart.com/art/Psycop-Shanked-203716263
Random Shirt
I was feeling lucky, so I ordered the "random shirt" at shirt.woot.com on April Fool's Day...and I got this little beauty. Yay! I like it...after I hit the "buy" button I was a little worried I might get something cutesy. I will probably just wear it around the house so I don't have to go around in public with people staring at my boobs trying to figure out what it means.
March 21, 2011
Edit to Publish, Edit with Focus
The fine folks at NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) have invited me to write an article this year dealing with getting published.
Summary: Not everyone who’s written something has their eye on getting that piece of writing published. But if publication is one of your goals, here are three ways you can increase your story’s chances for publishing success via editing.
Interested? Go have a peek! It's a concise, easy-to-read article with three quick tips--and one of them might be just what your work in progress needs.
Summary: Not everyone who’s written something has their eye on getting that piece of writing published. But if publication is one of your goals, here are three ways you can increase your story’s chances for publishing success via editing.
Interested? Go have a peek! It's a concise, easy-to-read article with three quick tips--and one of them might be just what your work in progress needs.
March 19, 2011
I made Scrivener do something ELSE cool!
This is a post for the Scrivener Mac geeks out there (wouldn't work in Windows).
One thing that pulls me out of typing is when a character has a name that's complicated to type, a sort of tongue-twister, but for my fingers. If I were working on a PC, I'd just write a little macro or something so I didn't need to keep typing that name in. Yes, I could type a goofy symbol in the story and find-and-replace it with the real name later, but that just doesn't flow for me. And I could leave the name on the clipboard and Command-V it in, but then if you cut/paste something else it gets cumbersome.
In Word, if I had a really clumsy name, I'd add a shortened version of that name to the dictionary and have it autocorrect to the full name...but how to do it in Scrivener? Hmm....
Scrivener for Mac utilizes the text edit engine in the Mac's operating system, so if you need Scrivener's text to do something, dig in there. I know I never open that program and I always assume it can't do anything other than type plain text. But it turns out I'm wrong! I was able to access an autocorrect panel on the system level through Text Edit, and program in my shortcut and name. (Look at the bottom entry.)
L0U15E's name in Zero Hour was a total pain to type with the numeric characters in there. If I'd been working on that story in Scrivener, I could have just typed LLL and as soon as I hit the space bar afterward, it would insert her machine-name.
Here are the instructions (found in Text Edit Help) on how to access this yourself if you want to try it:
Automatically replacing text
You can set TextEdit to recognize and replace text you don’t want with text you do want. For example, when you type “teh,” you can have TextEdit automatically convert it to “the.”
To specify text that TextEdit should use to replace particular text:
Choose Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions, click Text Preferences, and then click Text. You can also choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Language & Text, and then click Text.
Use the table to set up text replacement criteria. Each replacement is described in a separate row.
To activate or deactivate a replacement, select or deselect its checkbox in the first column.
To specify a new replacement, click the Add (+) button. Press Tab, and in the second column, type the text you want to automatically replace. Press Tab again, and in the third column, type the replacement text.
To remove a replacement, select it and then click the Delete (-) button.
One thing that pulls me out of typing is when a character has a name that's complicated to type, a sort of tongue-twister, but for my fingers. If I were working on a PC, I'd just write a little macro or something so I didn't need to keep typing that name in. Yes, I could type a goofy symbol in the story and find-and-replace it with the real name later, but that just doesn't flow for me. And I could leave the name on the clipboard and Command-V it in, but then if you cut/paste something else it gets cumbersome.
In Word, if I had a really clumsy name, I'd add a shortened version of that name to the dictionary and have it autocorrect to the full name...but how to do it in Scrivener? Hmm....
Scrivener for Mac utilizes the text edit engine in the Mac's operating system, so if you need Scrivener's text to do something, dig in there. I know I never open that program and I always assume it can't do anything other than type plain text. But it turns out I'm wrong! I was able to access an autocorrect panel on the system level through Text Edit, and program in my shortcut and name. (Look at the bottom entry.)
L0U15E's name in Zero Hour was a total pain to type with the numeric characters in there. If I'd been working on that story in Scrivener, I could have just typed LLL and as soon as I hit the space bar afterward, it would insert her machine-name.
Here are the instructions (found in Text Edit Help) on how to access this yourself if you want to try it:
Automatically replacing text
You can set TextEdit to recognize and replace text you don’t want with text you do want. For example, when you type “teh,” you can have TextEdit automatically convert it to “the.”
To specify text that TextEdit should use to replace particular text:
Choose Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions, click Text Preferences, and then click Text. You can also choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Language & Text, and then click Text.
Use the table to set up text replacement criteria. Each replacement is described in a separate row.
To activate or deactivate a replacement, select or deselect its checkbox in the first column.
To specify a new replacement, click the Add (+) button. Press Tab, and in the second column, type the text you want to automatically replace. Press Tab again, and in the third column, type the replacement text.
To remove a replacement, select it and then click the Delete (-) button.
March 15, 2011
JCP News March 2011
My March newsletter is live! In addition to three chapters of Starving Years, you can read:Groovy Apps Scrivener RocksName the Imprint
http://psycop.com/NL/NL39.html
http://psycop.com/NL/NL39.html
March 7, 2011
Picking a pro
This is the kind of thing I'd usually talk about on Packing Heat, but since I'm not doing Packing Heat anymore, I might as well think aloud about it here.
We writers need the services of other professionals both as businesspeople, and as human beings. Unless you have some very specialized training, it's not a good idea for us to install our own toilets, cut our own hair, edit our own books, or (in my case) do our own taxes. But sometimes we hook up with a professional in what should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, only there's something subtly wrong with the relationship. You feel bad after you meet with them. Inadequate, somehow. You feel guilty for asking them to do the work you've both agreed they would do for you, and that you're paying them for. You start feeling anxious days, or even weeks, before you need to meet with them.
And by you, I mean me.
I had a dentist who made me extremely uncomfortable. (In fact, every dentist I've ever had in my life was hideous except one in Chicago 20 years ago who was nice.) Finally, when my insurance dropped him...back when I HAD dental insurance...I remember thinking, "Oh boy! Now's my chance to get free of him!" The dentist I switched to is like a dream! He's smart and funny, and all the work he's done on my teeth is wonderful.
Okay, how about my accountants? My first accountant was great. So great that he developed a numbers-system and used it to win the lottery and retire. My second accountant...that was one of those awful relationships I was talking about "you" having a few paragraphs up. So I decided I wasn't going to give her any third chances. I prepared all week long and met this morning with my third accountant...and he is great! I'd been re-inventing the wheel every three months to pay my quarterly taxes, and he says he can do my 2010 return AND prepare my estimated quarterly payments for 2011 and all I need to do is mail them in. No re-figuring everything every three months.
Hallelujah!
He's in the same building as my good dentist. Coincidence? I think not.
So anyway...here's my thought on picking a professional to help you out, whether it be with your plumbing or your cover art or your typesetting or your taxes. You are in charge. It's your business or your body or your affairs. There's no reason for you to feel guilty or inferior, and if for some reason this other person manages to make you feel this way, switch! I wish I had switched dentists earlier. The good, funny, competent, smart dentist was three blocks away from the creepy one who whispered all the time and always acted like I was in need of a full mouth transplant. I wish I had picked the current accountant instead of the bad one the last time I was in the market. I had a call in to each of them and ended up going with the bad one because she returned my call first, and seemed intelligent when I met with her. Yes, I realize in psychobabble-talk, no one can "make you feel" anything, but I do know this: sometimes we come away from dealing with certain people feeling worse than we did before.
When you see this pattern, walk away. You're in charge. You.
We writers need the services of other professionals both as businesspeople, and as human beings. Unless you have some very specialized training, it's not a good idea for us to install our own toilets, cut our own hair, edit our own books, or (in my case) do our own taxes. But sometimes we hook up with a professional in what should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, only there's something subtly wrong with the relationship. You feel bad after you meet with them. Inadequate, somehow. You feel guilty for asking them to do the work you've both agreed they would do for you, and that you're paying them for. You start feeling anxious days, or even weeks, before you need to meet with them.
And by you, I mean me.
I had a dentist who made me extremely uncomfortable. (In fact, every dentist I've ever had in my life was hideous except one in Chicago 20 years ago who was nice.) Finally, when my insurance dropped him...back when I HAD dental insurance...I remember thinking, "Oh boy! Now's my chance to get free of him!" The dentist I switched to is like a dream! He's smart and funny, and all the work he's done on my teeth is wonderful.
Okay, how about my accountants? My first accountant was great. So great that he developed a numbers-system and used it to win the lottery and retire. My second accountant...that was one of those awful relationships I was talking about "you" having a few paragraphs up. So I decided I wasn't going to give her any third chances. I prepared all week long and met this morning with my third accountant...and he is great! I'd been re-inventing the wheel every three months to pay my quarterly taxes, and he says he can do my 2010 return AND prepare my estimated quarterly payments for 2011 and all I need to do is mail them in. No re-figuring everything every three months.
Hallelujah!
He's in the same building as my good dentist. Coincidence? I think not.
So anyway...here's my thought on picking a professional to help you out, whether it be with your plumbing or your cover art or your typesetting or your taxes. You are in charge. It's your business or your body or your affairs. There's no reason for you to feel guilty or inferior, and if for some reason this other person manages to make you feel this way, switch! I wish I had switched dentists earlier. The good, funny, competent, smart dentist was three blocks away from the creepy one who whispered all the time and always acted like I was in need of a full mouth transplant. I wish I had picked the current accountant instead of the bad one the last time I was in the market. I had a call in to each of them and ended up going with the bad one because she returned my call first, and seemed intelligent when I met with her. Yes, I realize in psychobabble-talk, no one can "make you feel" anything, but I do know this: sometimes we come away from dealing with certain people feeling worse than we did before.
When you see this pattern, walk away. You're in charge. You.
March 6, 2011
Dreaming dreams
Sometimes, reading about other peoples' dreams can be excruciating...and for that, I apologize in advance, because my own dreams have always fascinated me. And yet, when I see a dream sequence coming on in fiction, I usually think, "Oh God, not that!" (And, of course, I indulged myself probably more than once...I know for sure there is a dream in Criss Cross, but in my own defense I hadn't yet formed the opinion that dreamscapes should really be handled with care at that point.)
I still remember a dream I had when I was pretty young, maybe 8 or 9, in particular because I was distressed enough to wake up, but because I fell back asleep and resumed the dream, and the whole tenor of the thing had changed, and it turned out okay.
I was telling my friend about a driving dream I'd had, and I supposed I'd just presumed it was universal. I probably lead with, "Okay, so you have dreams where you're driving a car all the time, right?"
So of course she said, "No, never."
Of course I thought she was pulling my leg. But no, she'd never had that particular dream, although we had fun dissecting the symbolism. (It was a "company car" so clearly it was about my career. I was also in the back seat and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to pick up enough speed to merge onto the highway without having access to the gas pedal, however the gas pedal was also a brake.)
It got me to thinking about dream themes, because I've always loved them. I want to start making visual art again, and "dream themes" is my best idea...because I think I'm at a point where I want to start tapping into more universal themes then the ubiquitous angsty self-portrait that dominates every art student's repertoire.
Some common dream themes of mine include:
I'm driving but there's something weird about the car or the road.
I don't know where I live (or I have a job but I've forgotten how to do it.)
My teeth are crumbling. I haven't had that one in a while.
One of my pets are in distress and I have to help them. I had this one last night, where Puffy fell in a hole. These can be upsetting enough to wake me up.
I need to go to the bathroom but there's something nasty about the bathroom, or maybe the toilet is in the middle of a public space and I'm embarrassed. (I thought I was disturbed but research tells me this is a common dream.)
I find extra rooms in my house that I hadn't known were there - usually they are also furnished and I love the furniture or appliances, because often they are a second kitchen - this is my FAVORITE dream theme.
One dream my friend and I shared was that we were running really fast until we achieve liftoff and we were flying.
One of her recurring themes was that she was jogging by this scary embankment by a trashy rental house from her childhood and she was filled with dread as if something really bad would happen/had happened there. I dream about my late grandmother's kitchen and basement a lot. I used to hang out with my favorite uncle who was a hobby fisherman in the basement while he cleaned the fish.
So, what about you? Do you dream about something--like the teeth--that you suspect lots of people dream about too?
I still remember a dream I had when I was pretty young, maybe 8 or 9, in particular because I was distressed enough to wake up, but because I fell back asleep and resumed the dream, and the whole tenor of the thing had changed, and it turned out okay.
I was telling my friend about a driving dream I'd had, and I supposed I'd just presumed it was universal. I probably lead with, "Okay, so you have dreams where you're driving a car all the time, right?"
So of course she said, "No, never."
Of course I thought she was pulling my leg. But no, she'd never had that particular dream, although we had fun dissecting the symbolism. (It was a "company car" so clearly it was about my career. I was also in the back seat and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to pick up enough speed to merge onto the highway without having access to the gas pedal, however the gas pedal was also a brake.)
It got me to thinking about dream themes, because I've always loved them. I want to start making visual art again, and "dream themes" is my best idea...because I think I'm at a point where I want to start tapping into more universal themes then the ubiquitous angsty self-portrait that dominates every art student's repertoire.
Some common dream themes of mine include:
I'm driving but there's something weird about the car or the road.
I don't know where I live (or I have a job but I've forgotten how to do it.)
My teeth are crumbling. I haven't had that one in a while.
One of my pets are in distress and I have to help them. I had this one last night, where Puffy fell in a hole. These can be upsetting enough to wake me up.
I need to go to the bathroom but there's something nasty about the bathroom, or maybe the toilet is in the middle of a public space and I'm embarrassed. (I thought I was disturbed but research tells me this is a common dream.)
I find extra rooms in my house that I hadn't known were there - usually they are also furnished and I love the furniture or appliances, because often they are a second kitchen - this is my FAVORITE dream theme.
One dream my friend and I shared was that we were running really fast until we achieve liftoff and we were flying.
One of her recurring themes was that she was jogging by this scary embankment by a trashy rental house from her childhood and she was filled with dread as if something really bad would happen/had happened there. I dream about my late grandmother's kitchen and basement a lot. I used to hang out with my favorite uncle who was a hobby fisherman in the basement while he cleaned the fish.
So, what about you? Do you dream about something--like the teeth--that you suspect lots of people dream about too?
March 1, 2011
Sleep tapes
Do they even make sleep tapes anymore? I imagine they do but they're MP3s and they call them guided meditations. When I was in grad school, my friend said her brother in law was doing some study for his thesis in psychology and asked if I'd be willing to help. I was game. He gave me two tapes, one a guided relaxation (of the sort Jacob reads for Vic off the Internet in GhosTV) and the other something called "Isometric Squeeze." After you did each of them daily for a couple of weeks, your reaction to each type of relaxation was scored against your personality test and he drew a conclusion about which type of tape worked for which type of people.
The very cool thing that I loved was that when I did the "Isometric Squeeze," sometimes I'd hang for an extended time in that pre-sleep twilight called the hypnogogic state, and totally trip. I remember we did the tape as a group at his apartment once and when it was done I was like, "There's a woman, and she's on the roof, and she can see us...oh, wait, that didn't happen."
After the study I found some different tapes to play with--and I remember they were like $12 which was the equivalent of a million or so dollars to me back then. My two favorite tape guys were Bob Griswold and Dick Sutphen. I'm pleased as punch to see they're both still doing this work twenty years later! Yay! I will have to buy something recent by them.
Or will I?
See, I decided I wanted to rotate a different tape into the player tonight, and I grabbed a Sutphen tape with shrink-wrap on it, figuring that I'd left the shrink-wrap on the box but just opened the bottom to slide the tape out. Lo and behold, it is completely sealed. From 1992. Yep, I have not yet gotten around to listening to it. The title?
Overcome Procrastination.
The very cool thing that I loved was that when I did the "Isometric Squeeze," sometimes I'd hang for an extended time in that pre-sleep twilight called the hypnogogic state, and totally trip. I remember we did the tape as a group at his apartment once and when it was done I was like, "There's a woman, and she's on the roof, and she can see us...oh, wait, that didn't happen."
After the study I found some different tapes to play with--and I remember they were like $12 which was the equivalent of a million or so dollars to me back then. My two favorite tape guys were Bob Griswold and Dick Sutphen. I'm pleased as punch to see they're both still doing this work twenty years later! Yay! I will have to buy something recent by them.
Or will I?
See, I decided I wanted to rotate a different tape into the player tonight, and I grabbed a Sutphen tape with shrink-wrap on it, figuring that I'd left the shrink-wrap on the box but just opened the bottom to slide the tape out. Lo and behold, it is completely sealed. From 1992. Yep, I have not yet gotten around to listening to it. The title?
Overcome Procrastination.
February 28, 2011
Oh Amazon, you're so silly.
Since GhosTV has been selling a few copies on Kindle, and since I just put it up there last Thursday, I've been watching GhosTV's page to see when actual rankings appear.
Have you guys ever seen those Kraft American cheese slices commercials where a little kid tries to explain how half a glass of milk gets into a cheese slice? The kid usually starts out really rational, saying, "First they take the milk..." and then it cuts to some wacky Rube Goldberg-like thing for a split second that makes no sense, and then it cuts back to the kid holding the cheese going, "And that's how they do it."
Getting your ebook on Amazon is a lot like that. It seems perfectly logical, and then the Rube Goldberg thing happens, and then you get what you get in terms of a page, rankings, recommendations, etc.
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,792 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #2 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Anthologies #3 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Lesbian #12 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Horror > Ghosts So I guess I'd just like to apologize to the authors of lesbian erotica, and all the gay erotica anthologies, that my book that is neither about lesbians, nor is it an erotica anthology, for elbowing in on your category. I chose the categories "fiction-gay" and "fiction-ghost." I guess we can blame the intermediary cheese steps for the bizarre application of those categories.
I'll enjoy that ghost ranking, though.
Have you guys ever seen those Kraft American cheese slices commercials where a little kid tries to explain how half a glass of milk gets into a cheese slice? The kid usually starts out really rational, saying, "First they take the milk..." and then it cuts to some wacky Rube Goldberg-like thing for a split second that makes no sense, and then it cuts back to the kid holding the cheese going, "And that's how they do it."
Getting your ebook on Amazon is a lot like that. It seems perfectly logical, and then the Rube Goldberg thing happens, and then you get what you get in terms of a page, rankings, recommendations, etc.
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,792 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #2 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Anthologies #3 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Lesbian #12 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Horror > Ghosts So I guess I'd just like to apologize to the authors of lesbian erotica, and all the gay erotica anthologies, that my book that is neither about lesbians, nor is it an erotica anthology, for elbowing in on your category. I chose the categories "fiction-gay" and "fiction-ghost." I guess we can blame the intermediary cheese steps for the bizarre application of those categories.
I'll enjoy that ghost ranking, though.
