Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 68

The chocolatey goodness continues!

If you haven't checked out Brief Encounters Reviews this week, you're in for a huge treat. Not only are there reviews and discussions about the last five Petit Morts books, not only are the girls giving away chocolate prizes just for posting in any of the threads, but each day features a new and fascinating look at chocolate!

What's fun about the reviews is that they are prompting discussions, so rather than having the tone of, "Here is my opinion, and that is all," it feels more like a book club. We authors have been refraining from commenting on the reviews--totally unplanned, but I think it works great for the atmosphere, so no one feels stymied--but we're there in our interview threads to chat.

Petit Morts week will continue on into the weekend at Rainbowebooks.com, where they'll be giving away a copy of Sweets to the Sweet on their Facebook fanpage, and more discounts and freebies on their site! (I'll link it when the sale goes live later today.)

As for me, I'm going out in the field tomorrow to research a yoga center for GhosTV. It's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it. (The introductory email instructed me to not bring a "strong-smelling" lunch. So much for the garlic fish-heads and cabbage I had packed.)

And it's -11 outside here in Wisconsin right now. I hope my car starts on meditation retreat day :(

All over the web!

I've been in the writing cave for the last few weeks and pretty scarce online...well, how long can that last?

January JCP News is out - and if you haven't been reading The Starving Years, you might want to start, 'cos this freebie is A-grade material--and this month is scorching hot!

Literate Shrew featured me on her blog--and be sure to poke around a while, because there are also fluffy, fuzzy KITTIES in other posts!

Brief Encounters reviews is featuring Petit Morts this week, and they're also giving away CHOCOLATE.
Pretty Ugly Review - I don't usually read my reviews, but this one has me all verklempt because I think PettyProse really dug deep into the subtext
Ten Important Dates in the History of Chocolate - from kings to commoners!
JCP Interview part 1 - answers to crazy questions forthcoming from me, Josh and Sean all week long!

Clare London's LJ - I've got a post coming up any day now called When Man-on-Man is like Brussels Sprouts (you know you're wondering)

A Bitter Taste of Sweet Oblivion will be coming out in paperback soon...here's some cover art to dress up an otherwise text-heavy post!

And those of you who were grossed out by my photo of the Parson's spider will probably find it funny that I was gathering laundry (and shaking out everthing from the room where the Parson's spider was last seen) and then picked up a handkerchief in a totally different room and found a yucky SAC SPIDER under it. Bleah! What if I blew my nose in that and it got on my face??? Bleah bleah bleah. Sac spiders get no amnesty.

And...it's snowing sideways here in Wisconsin. What's it doing by you?

well, hello

I just found a new-to-me spider in the bathroom sink. I have so much more luck identifying spiders than birds! This one is a Parson's spider. He's not very big. He was having trouble climbing up the side of the sink, so I put a piece of paper in there so he could climb out and he ran down the drain. Very fast! It's a ground hunting spider so I guess that makes sense. No doubt I'll now find him somewhere I'd rather not.
Spiders get amnesty in my house unless they're very venomous.

JCP Books coupon!

Yikes, I forgot to post about my New Year's sale here...that's what I get for creating a coupon late at night! You've still got a few more days to take advantage of it. Valid through 1/11/11!

Happy 2011 We're gearing up to have a spectacular 2011 and we hope you are, too.
Enter coupon code HAPPY2011 (no space) and receive 11% off your purchase!
Also, did you know the New Year's Eve PsyCop short story Stroke of Midnight is free?

Go to JCP Books

*******

We're a week into the New Year. How's it going? I'm still full of gung-ho. I'm planning a post about goals but right now I'm in the writing cave trying to wrap up the first draft of GhosTV, so I'll be more social once that's done. Hopefully soon.

It's all in your head

I was going to try to write a more philosophical post, but frankly, I'm feeling kinda lowbrow.

Reality shows. For someone who doesn't watch a whole hell of a lot of TV, I kinda like 'em. Mostly cooking shows, but also the Biggest Loser. (That's probably ironic.)

What I find intriguing is that a whole buttload of tape is shot, and then producers afterward try to construct narrative arcs out of the footage. But RL has no narrative arcs, so it's really interesting to deconstruct how they're spinning the story. Also, I think reality shows have value for writers in that they show how real people speak in an unscripted manner, and also they show more complex character-types than we see in traditional TV or movies because they are real people. They're complicated. And yes, through editing, someone's usually cast as a villain and a hero. But really, personalities can be a lot more nuanced on reality shows than they are in typical TV.

To vary from my diet of Hell's Kitchen and Biggest Loser, I ordered The Amazing Race season 1 from my local library. Now, caveat, I've only seen one episode (and PLEASE don't spoil it for me because I'm sure everyone else knows how it turns out) but if you haven't seen it, so far it's a riot. There are 12 couples trying to navigate to various destinations without computers or cell phones. One couple has a very intense, testosterone-driven alpha-male (obnoxiously so)...and they keep coming in second to the TWO MIDDLE-AGED GAY GUYS IN MATCHING OUTFITS.

Hahahahahaha!!!!

I think there's a bigger lesson to be learned here about mental attitude. One team has a guy screaming and making himself crazy, and the other team just says, "Okay, let's use our heads...tra la la...here we are, yay! You're aweosme...no, you're awesome!" I think that's kind of like life. Sometimes we get worked up when it doesn't further our goals to do so, and we could quite possibly end up in the very same spot without bursting a blood vessel.

That is all.

Where'd that coin go?

I'm researching some old texts on stage magic for a future project, and the diagram in this one struck me as particularly hilarious.


Wanna make something disappear? Drop it down your pants!

Economics of gifting "Stuff"

Stuff, clutter, shopping, gifting--all of this has been on my mind this year. It's nothing new. I've had years of "I'll give wonderful HANDMADE gifts this year" (am I insane?) and "I'll donate to a charity for you" and "everyone loves gift cards." But for this, my first self-employed year, I think enough is enough and I've bought no gifts.

In light of that attitude, it might seem odd that I've created a giftable option for JCP Books, but I think of that option as more of an experiment than anything else, since I've become fascinated with behavioral economics. I offered two choices, a 99¢ gift-pack to give a little token gift to five friends, and a "choose your own." So far, everyone who's purchased has chosen their own, have given their friends specific books rather than dollars-off coupons, and have spend significant money per gift (i.e. given bundles of 5-10 ebooks to their friends).

Interesting! It would suggest to me that the givers are trying to gift a specific experience with their present, and maybe even that they want to then discuss the stories they particularly loved with their good friends and further the experience by sharing it in that way. I would also say that the fact that the buyers are willing to spend into the double-digits to get their friends some ebooks would indicate that they value a piece of electronic content as much as they value a physical item, and that they think of an e-gift as being just as substantial as a physical gift, not just a little, token, "I was thinking of you" throwaway item.

I thought these statistics on gifting and value perception were fascinating (and maybe a bit disturbing.)

I would be totally cool with receiving a fruitcake (see "The Fruitcake Contradiction" in the right column) and I've never understood the bad rap it usually gets. They are very expensive to make. Then again I think the money-time-value equation in my head probably skews differently than it does for most folks.

One of my friends bought vanilla beans and brewed up a homemade vanilla extract this year that she gifted with recipe cards. How cute and clever! I was very impressed. I also thought it looked like a hell of a lot of work :D

So I've been putting vanilla in everything...

Design geekage

I'd been telling neyronrose  (at least I think I did) about a really drool-worthy InDesign conference I wanted to go to in Washington DC, but unfortunately the cost would probably be around $2k and I didn't think I could swing it. InDesign is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, like Photoshop, but it's not quite so glamorous. It's a page layout program where books and magazines are constructed, and I think their focus is shifting more and more toward ebook creation, so I was really eager to go.

And yet, Photoshop World ate a massive hunk of my life last fall, and was a bit overwhelming. I have no doubt any other mega-design-conference would be any different. So I was trolling through some online training today and discovered that not only does Indesign have a local user group near me, but it's free! And they're hoping to have a meeting in February!

This is so perfect for me. I don't have to deal with a flight or motel or an expensive conference fee. I can just show up, hang out for a few hours, and come home without sacrificing a week's worth of work to do it.

YAY! So happy!

PsyCop cited in Library Journal

I've already crowed about this on Facebook, Twitter and my Yahoo Group, but have neglected to do so here! This article cites PsyCop: Partners as one of ten books a library should purchase to build a "core collection" of m/m fiction.

As many of you know, I was a graphic designer at a public library for nine years. I also did some collection development. So having my first novel appear in Library Journal is a big, huge deal for me. The words "core collection" fill me with paroxysms of delight.

All three Petit Morts authors have novels in the core collection, too. How cool is that?

I wish I could figure out a way to work it into a signature line. I feel like I just won an Oscar.

Life Metaphors

I visited the brand new Duluth Trading Company store last night. As I mentioned in a prior post, they make clothes and gear for people who work so hard for a living they wear their clothes out. (I do work hard but have not been known to wear out my clothes, since I mainly work with my brain, but I definitely admire people who work with their bodies that hard.)

Since I know a little something about sewing, I was able to appreciate the fabric and craftsmanship, both of which were outstanding. The prices were high compared to something you'd buy at some trashy place like Wal-Mart, but I think they were dirt cheap for the quality of the items, which would last ten times longer.

My friend has a horse and she mucks out stables to pay for part of his board, so she had much more practical use for the clothing there than I did. We were looking at some hats when she said, "All these warm clothes represent freedom to me."

How fascinating.

It got me to thinking about what represented freedom to me. I think it's a reliable car.

My first car, a '76 Chevy Nova, would just stop working, anytime, anywhere. Driving on an expressway, for instance. Toward the end of its service, my second car, a '92 Dodge Spirit, had a lot of strange electrical issues and eventually did the same. (In fact, I believe I rolled it into the parking lot of the place I traded it in because the engine had cut out.) There were two other cars I co-owned with my ex, one of which was a huge lemon (Saturn), the other now coming to its end. But my trusty old-man-car Buick is still going strong, and I love it. If I need to go somewhere new, I might worry about not knowing where to park, but I won't need to be scared that the Buick's engine is going to cut out on the expressway. I also might not be able to find my car on senior citizen discount day at the grocery store, but I find it rather calming to wander through a lot full of teal Buicks, so that's okay.

(ah, here it is, new-to-me in 2007! I love you, baby!)

What represents freedom to you--anything that surprises you?