Jordan Castillo Price's Blog, page 94

Ann Leckie Chat on Packing Heat

SF/Fantasy author Ann Leckie joins me today! Some of the things we talk about include:Two types of "stuck"Getting unstuckWhat's difficult about writing a sex sceneWhat to include in a cover letterHow to come off as a psycho in a cover letter (which you obviously do not want to do.)
Ann and I met at WisCon, where we were on a panel together called, "Getting Published: Are You Your Own Biggest Roadblock?"

Find a transcript of that panel here

Check out Podcastle

Ann's LiveJournal

Ann's Website

More Marketing

More Marketing
I got an awesome email from a reader who told me what kept her interested in my marketing:Opt in (not unsolicited)Regular and consistentMultiple channels of contentEasy to findNot spammy Meta Tags
Another listener mentioned a couple of quick things that will raise the search engine ranking of your webpage:
Alt text for images
Meta keywords

I'll add another:
Title your pages

Your assignment
Look at the code of a publisher or author who you think markets themselves successfully, and see wha

June Newsletter is up!

JCP News June 2009 is here. What's inside? Why you should check out GLBT BookshelfThe PsyCop book trailerExclusive Crash interviewJordan and Josh Interrogated by Miss DoreenAnother cliffhanger chapter of Zero HourCheck it out!

It's so me.

So, I swear I'm not going to be one of those people who posts eight million YouTube links, but I couldn't resist sharing that based on what I watch (or perhaps what I post), YouTube recommended HOW TO SHAVE YOUR GROIN for my viewing pleasure.



No doubt I will have Channeling Morpheus dreams from it. That wouldn't be a bad thing.

And in crazy cat person news, I was outside working and when I came in, Puffy had eaten a hole in the side of a bag of unopened cat food and was happily mowing away at it.

The light, it burns my eyes...

I need a drink of water -- or something stronger, if you've got it. My head's spinning. I've been in that dank, lightless room for God knows how long... I don't think I even know what day it is.

Is Josh still here? Has anyone seen Josh? Someone needs to stop this Miss Doreen woman... I think she's a few bulls short of a rodeo.

Interrogation transcripts here

PsyCop trailer on YouTube

I'm trying my hand at a book trailer -- and some of my friends will probably roll their eyes, because I always say, "I can't imagine that book trailers influence sales in any way; they're probably just a big timesink."

But I was watching some discussion on just that topic and I started to think about, "What would I want my book trailer to look like, if I had one...?" and the imagination kinda took over from there. I think I'm liking my Planet of the Apes-inspired score the best.

Maybe now I've got

Because I am a Crazy Cat Person...

Because I am a crazy cat person, I save the little numbers inside the bags of Pounce treats, even though they stink to high heaven (which the cat probably loves), and I take them to the computer and enter them into a website and try to win prizes.


This guy could eat his weight in treats every day.

And because I am a crazy cat person, I have entered enough of these numbers to win a toy. Oh joy, a toy! So I order the toy, and it gets here many weeks later, and a part is missing so I can't put it to

Getting Hit with Tips - Packing Heat episode

Writing tips are funny things. You don't really hear them until you're in a spot where you need to hear them. The key is putting ourselves in that spot as often as possible. Here are three tips I brought home from WisCon.

Here's the podcast

1. Instead of setting yourself a wordcount goal, imagine what needs to happen in the next section you'll write. It's a much more tangible goal to sit down and accomplish. A wordcount goal is pretty abstract when you think about it. (I do think you can do this i

Yay, a winner!

Marietta wins a free JCP ebook just for opening the last "Quick Link" email I sent out. Yay! A private email is winging her way.

Sweet Oblivion 3 Splashes onto the scene

It's been a couple of decades since Wild Bill has been able to savor the bite of an ice-cold, freshly tapped keg. Twenty-odd years since the shivery pucker of a cheap, boxed wine has assaulted his palate. But that doesn't mean Bill's forgotten how to party.

Wild Bill and Michael have holed up in a week-to-week hotel in an iffy Milwaukee neighborhood, and even though it's been a year or two, the fringe art happenings are just as edgy as Bill remembers.

There's a girl covered in frosting in the midd