Hi peeps, we have Jordan Castillo Price and her brand new release PsyCop Briefs Vol 01, we have some great teasers, a brilliant giveaway and my review, so check out the post and click that giveaway link <3 ~Pixie~
PsyCop Briefs Vol 01
by
Jordan Castillo Price
Victor Bayne sees dead people for a living…and he sees them off the clock, too. After all, ghosts don’t confine their appearances to a psychic medium’s work hours.
From the mundane to the macabre, these PsyCop shorts feature stolen moments between the novels. Get a glimpse of Vic’s life with Jacob between cases, from both men’s viewpoints. Gain new insight on their psychic talents by accompanying them on odd jobs, shopping runs and family visits, or simply enjoy some downtime in the cannery.
The twenty short works range in length from flash fiction to novelettes, woven together to create a novel-length narrative of Vic and Jacob’s relationship from a fresh perspective. The stories are gleaned from various sources: anthologies, newsletters, and web, with four all-new pieces to tie the collection together and delve deeper into a PsyCop’s domestic life.
Coffee O’Clock Thaw Mind Reader Stroke of Midnight No Sale Most Likely To… Jock Straps On Sale Piece of Cake In the Dark Let the Chips Fall Memento Impact Everyone’s Afraid of Clowns Waiting Game On the Road Wood Off the Cuff Locked and Loaded Inside Out Witness
Title: Body Art, A Thriller Series: N/A Author: Jordan Castillo Price Narrator: Gomez Pugh Genre: Thriller / Mystery Length: 3 hours and 24 minutes Publisher: JCP Books LLC (May 13th 2015) Heat Level: Explicit Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts
Blurb: Does everyone have a certain “type” they end up with…whether they want to or not?
If Ray Carlucci’s ex is anything to go by, Ray likes his men gorgeous, rebellious, and chock-full of issues. But now that Ray is single again, he has a shot at a fresh start—a very fresh start, since his tattoo shop was gutted by repo men and he can fit all his belongings in the trunk of a taxi.
Ray’s shiny new chauffeur’s license lands him a job as a driver for an elderly couple on Red Wing Island. It’s a cold fall, and since the Michigan island is the summer home to snowbirds who fly south for the winter, it’s practically deserted—save for Ray’s new household and a sculptor named Anton Kopec, who works day and night twisting brambles and twine into the distorted shapes of macabre creatures. Compelling, bizarre, and somewhat disturbing…not just the sculptures, but the artist, too. Ray has a feeling Anton is just his “type.”
Despite their scorching chemistry, when a dead body is unearthed by some workers and a freak ice storm traps them all on the island, Ray can’t say for certain that his new flame isn’t capable of murder.
Review: Ray Carlucci has lost everything, except his will to live, barely. Broke, unemployed and homeless, he takes a job as a driver for a reclusive elderly couple on a lonely, frozen island in Michigan. Things are a little off from the start. Mister White suffers from Alzheimer’s and occasionally, his episodes turn violent. Missus White is entirely to chipper for her circumstances, and the cook is a very odd bird. Speaking of birds, Ray isn’t on the job an entire day before there is a dead bird left on his doorstep.
Then there is the enigmatic beauty Anton Kopec. The man is bi-polar, eccentric and passionate all at the same time. His mood swings almost give Ray whiplash, and his sexual prowess is absolutely amazing. Needless to say, the two become lovers very quickly. But when bodies start piling up and Anton is taken in for questioning, Ray has to ask himself if getting involved with the Artist is a wise decision. His track record for boyfriends is one shot shy of America’s most wanted as it is.
I had never read any of JCP’s work before until I got a request to review the audio for Scary Mary. Let me tell you, I became an instant fan! So when this title showed up in my recommendations I grabbed a copy before I even read the blurb. I am so intrigued by the raw sexuality the characters Price writes wear like a badge of honor. Usually damaged in some way or another, at first glance they are the dregs that no one could possibly want, much less love. But then they turn out to be these completely misunderstood human beings that just want to love, and be loved in return.
Ray lost everything, including the shirt off his back, when his ex snorted all their money up his nose. Slightly psychotic and definitely disturbing Artist, Anton, is secluded on the island by his sister who only wants to cash in on his fame, not actually have to deal with the person that holds all the creativity. The two come together and it’s like a bolt of lightning. It’s frenetic, crazed and passionate, and they don’t seem to be able to love each other any other way.
In just three short hours, Price delivered a shivering murder mystery that was suspenseful and engaging all while weaving this insane love story between two lonely souls. I absolutely loved it! Highly recommend it! If you like the author, you’ll surely enjoy this audio.
But if you are a fan of suspense thrillers, passionate love stories with zero romance, and sexy inked up alpha males, then you can’t pass this one up.
Title: Body Art, 2nd Edition Series: N/A Author: Jordan Castillo Price Genre: Horror/Urban Fantasy Length: Novella (108 Pages) Publisher: JCP Books, LLC (November 20th 2013) Heat Level: Explicit Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4 ½ Hearts Blurb: Does everyone have a certain “type” they end up with… whether they want to or not? If Ray Carlucci’s ex is anything to go by, Ray likes his men gorgeous, rebellious, and chock-full of issues. But now that Ray is single again, he has a shot at a fresh start—a very fresh start, since his tattoo shop was gutted by repo men and he can fit all his belongings in the trunk of a taxi.
Ray’s shiny new chauffeur’s license lands him a job as a driver for an elderly couple on Red Wing Island. It’s a cold fall, and since the Michigan island is the summer home to snowbirds who fly south for the winter, it’s practically deserted—save for Ray’s new household and a sculptor named Anton Kopec, who works day and night twisting brambles and twine into the distorted shapes of macabre creatures. Compelling, bizarre, and somewhat disturbing…not just the sculptures, but the artist, too. Ray has a feeling Anton is just his “type”.
Despite their scorching chemistry, when a dead body is unearthed by some workers and a freak ice storm traps them all on the island, Ray can’t say for certain that his new flame isn’t capable of murder.
Note: This novella originally appeared in the anthology Partners in Crime 4: The Art of Dying
Review: A weird, fascinating mystery that tries desperately to point you in the direction of the suspect, from the title of the story to the descriptions of Anton’s artwork. I, however, always route for the artiste. It takes one to know one sometimes, and I know artist find beauty in the oddities of life, sometimes the gruesome aspects of life, and let’s face the numbers…77% of artists/musicians/writers suffer from bipolar or manic depression.
So just because Anton has a voracious sexual appetite, when he has company, runs out into the woods in the night to perform odd rituals, likes to play with dead things and decorate graves, and is sometimes off his rocker, doesn’t mean he’s the bad guy…..right?
I like this question, because given Ray’s past, and his taste in men, he has to seriously reflect on it. Is he drawn to the rotten apples? Or is Anton being painted with a broad and blackened brush?
From the beginning my list of possible baddies is as long as my arm. I wanted to believe anyone was suspect, except for Anton….I still held out hope for him. Was my hope in vain? You’ll have to read and thoroughly enjoy, as I did, this delectable tale of oddball artists, new beginnings, and running from the past.
And yes, there is some fast and furious, hot and heavy lovin’ but it only added to the pace and mood of the story.
Title: Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary Series: Sweet Oblivion, 1-5 Author: Jordan Castillo Price Narrator: Gomez Pugh Genre: Paranormal Length: 7 hours and 44 minutes Publisher: JCP Books LLC (04-13-15) Heat Level: Explicit Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4.5 Hearts
Blurb: Michael is a waif in eyeliner who’s determined to wipe vampires off the face of the earth. Wild Bill’s got the hots for Michael, and will stop at nothing to go home with him. Forget about moonlit castles and windswept moors. These bad boys haunt all-night diners and cheap motels, cut-rate department stores and long, lonely stretches of the Interstate.
Ride along with Wild Bill and Michael as the twists and turns of Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary unfold in America’s Heartland.
Review: Michael is bound and determined to cleanse the earth of the vile race of vampires. Well, until he falls in love with one. When Michael’s best friend Mary was killed, drained by bad vamps, he set out to kill them all. His messenger bag is full of wooden stakes and blister packs of Rohypnol (roofies). When Michael meets Bill in a bar, he takes him for just another horny guy and blows him off. Michael not only learns he was wrong about Bill, but he’s wrong about vamps, they aren’t all murdering psychos.
Bill only wanted to kill one vampire. The one that accidentally created him when he fed on Bill then left him for dead. He figured out quickly what Michael had planned, so he helped the kid out, and then dumped him off at the greyhound station. What Bill didn’t count on was the twenty-one year old with those sexy, kohl lined, blue eyes, and dyed black hair tracking him down.
Michael has found something intriguing in Wild Bill, the James Dean-esque vampire that cranks his shaft. And while Michael is figuring out that not all vamps are bad, he still makes it his life mission to kill the bad ones, with his bad ass vampire lover by his side.
They are a very passionate couple, let me tell you. They go at everywhere from parks to picnic tables, abandoned houses, seedy motels and the back of their van that they’ve turned into a coffin on wheels. What really drew me into their love story was how normal it was in the middle of all the madness, murder and mayhem.
In the beginning, Bill tells Michael he doesn’t kiss, it’s too personal. But by the end, he can’t kiss Michael enough. He’s very possessive of Michael, but he’s just as protective of his human lover. They even have the whole meet the parents drama most couples face right down to the grand parents that have joined a prayer group to pray for Michael’s soul. You know, since he’s going to hell and all for being in love with another man.
The writing was off the chains intense, serious and yet, slightly hysterical. It mirrored the storyline and the characters which only made the story that much better. It’s a dark, fantasy world where vamps live out in the open and at the same time, the way Price has written the characters the story has a depth of reality to it. There are several twists and turns along the way, Michael gets himself into a tight spot here and there and you are left to wonder if Bill will always be there, be himself.
Narrated by Gomez Pugh, the story is written and told from alternating POV, from both Michael and Bill’s perspectives. I absolutely loved the way Pugh conveyed the character of Michael. He was headstrong and driven, even a bit on the melancholy side at times, and Pugh nailed that throughout. Then there was the raspy, sexy tone he used for Wild Bill.
There were a few times during the more erotic aspects of the story that Pugh had to go back and forth from one mind to the other and he did an amazing job of keeping each guy completely separate voice wise, as well as enticing the listener with lovely little moans and groans.
I had just one little issue with this story. It is just a deal breaker for me. I absolutely loath the term ‘piss slit’. It makes my skin crawl. It is not even remotely sexy, romantic or endearing. If I read or hear those two words being used one after the other, I will mark off for it every time. I usually take off a point for the term, but I loved this sexy, psychotic duo so much, I’m only taking off half a point.
If you like vampire stories, especially True Blood, you’ll really enjoy this concoction of serials. I felt liked Wild Bill was a lot like Bill in that series. Just if Bill had fallen for Lafayette instead of Sookie!
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *
Hiya peeps, today we have the pleasure of welcoming Jordan Castillo Price with her fantastic cover for her upcoming release Mnevermind 03: Life is Awesome. We get to see her incredible cover and JCP also chats about her covers and the incredible artwork. So peeps enjoy the post and check out the Mnevermind series! <3 ~Pixie~
Mnevermind 03: Life is Awesome
by
Jordan Castillo Price
Daniel Schroeder wants nothing more than to repair his father’s broken memories, but it’s been a long time since he’s thought of himself as a memorysmith. Even though convincing Big Dan of their current reality is the most painful task Daniel faces every morning, somehow life manages to prevent him from finding a cure. He needs to keep their family business running. And he needs to moonlight at a competitor’s shop to keep all his employees paid. Or maybe he’s just trying to keep himself from exacerbating the situation.
A year ago, Daniel would have presumed he was clever enough to memorysmith his way out of their predicament, but nowadays he’s not so cavalier. Playing with people’s memories shouldn’t be taken lightly, and things can always get worse. Even with the help of some of the best minds in the business, Daniel still isn’t sure how to navigate his way out of the persistent false memory that’s crippled his life. Is new programming the answer? Better gear? More money? Or is time the only thing that can heal Big Dan’s memories…if they can even be fixed at all.
What Daniel needs most is some breathing room, and Elijah Crowe is eager to provide it. Since he’s smitten with Daniel, Elijah is determined to prove himself—and he’s more than qualified to clear Daniel’s schedule by taking over some duties at Adventuretech. With the support of his new boyfriend, possibilities begin to open up for Daniel, hints of things he hasn’t even realized he’d stopped hoping for: the contentment of a harmonious family, the fulfillment of his creative expression, and a chance at a relationship with a man he loves.
Blurb: No two people are exactly alike, but Elijah Crowe is very, very different.
Elijah is on the autism spectrum, so the tasks of day-to-day life most people breeze through are a challenge for him. His career suffered because he never got the hang of schmoozing, and now he wastes his talents teaching classes at the mall. His social circle is limited to his ex, his therapist, and a structured inclusion group at the Rec Center. The one bright spot in his life is the memory science of Mnemography.
Although he loves nothing better than devouring the latest research and tinkering with all the specialized equipment, he never clicked with any other experts in the field until he met Daniel Schroeder. Daniel runs a memory palace—he even writes his own mnems—and that shared interest alone would make him fascinating. But Daniel and Elijah met under unusual circumstances, where the statement, “I like you, and I think you like me,” held some surprising nuances.
Now Elijah suspects he’s gay, but the few prominent people in his life are less than supportive. Some are downright hostile. Elijah might not be neurotypical, but he’s plenty smart. Surely, there’s some way to get people to accept him for who he is. If only he could figure out how.
Review:The thing I like about the Mnevermind trilogy is that this constructed futuristic world of Mnem technology is highly believable. The characters are engaging, the plot a bit mind-bending, and the entire story thoroughly unique. Forget Me Not introduces us to the mysterious Elijah Crowe, who high tails it off at the end of The Persistence of Memory after a sexual encounter with Daniel. Jordan has done her homework. We get to look into the mind of a highly functioning genius who is on the spectrum of those living with an autism disorder. Instead of a generalized clinical description of an autistic person, we get to understand why Elijah needs to stimm, or stimulate with the touches to himself and twitches we so often turn away from when encountered. We get taken along for the ride as he starts to analyze the world around him, getting lost, and taken off track, only to remember lessons learned from his many therapy sessions as Elijah applies them to allow himself to function on a daily basis. We see how he views his relationships and how he tries to wade through basic social interaction, without the filter we have to understand basic body language and nuances of communication. It may sound like heavy reading but Price presents this material in such a smooth flowing, fascinating way, that I found myself totally engrossed. I was brought through the gamut of emotional reactions throughout the story, from Elijah’s fear when he is threatened by a coworker, to his confusion in his developing relationship with Daniel, his confusion about his own sexuality, and his heartbreak when the stress gets to be too much for Daniel and he strikes out verbally at Elijah in misunderstanding of his disorder.
I don’t want you to think this entire book is entirely about Elijah’s experience with autism spectrum disorder, because there is so much more going on. We’re brought back into the intriguing world of Mnem as Daniel, Big D, and Elijah attend a conference about new Mnem technology. Daniel, desperately seeking a way to help rid his father if his persistent memory or Mnem, gets duped for a short time into believing a new development can provide the answers. After a confrontation leads to hurt and misunderstanding between Daniel and Elijah, Eli makes the effort to bridge the distance, not only to save their growing relationship but also to help Daniel find a way to heal his father. By the end of Forget Me Not, many characters enter the stew and someone from Daniel and Big D’s past shows up to stir the pot and create even more turmoil in Daniel’s life.
Jordan Castillo Price constantly raises the bar in her writing. Her style is unique, as she paints her characters and unique worlds in shades of gray and black, dark but intriguing, with layers and depth of character that keep me hooked. The thing I like most, being a fan of m/m fiction, is that Jordan is foremost an amazing psy-fi/paranormal/mystery/suspense writer…that her main characters are also gay seems secondary. I would like to see this in the real world, that we get to judge characters/people by what they do, how they interact, how they treat those around them, not by their sexuality.
I highly recommend this trilogy, be sure to read them in order. And if you are not already familiar with Jordan Castillo Price, invest in her backlist…you won’t’ be disappointed.
Blurb: Everyone enjoys peace and tranquility, and Victor Bayne is no exception. He goes to great lengths to maintain a harmonious home with his partner, Jacob. Although the cannery is huge, it’s grown difficult to avoid the elephant in the room…the elephant with the letters FPMP scrawled on its hide.
Once Jacob surrendered his PsyCop badge, he infiltrated the Federal Psychic Monitoring Program. In his typical restrained fashion, he hasn’t been sharing much about what he actually does behind its vigilantly guarded doors. And true to form, Vic hasn’t asked. In fact, he would prefer not to think about the FPMP at all, since he’s owed Director Dreyfuss an exorcism since their private flight to PsyTrain.
While Vic has successfully avoided FPMP entanglement for several months, now his debt has finally come due.
Review:This story is part of a series and must be read in order. Vic is still stinging from Jacob taking a job at FPMP (Federal Psychic Monitoring Program) even if it is to find out just what is going on. Vic still wants nothing to do with Con and his program but he owes the man an exorcism and decides it is time to get it out-of-the-way. But, there are still some questions left unanswered from the Roger Burke fiasco and the puzzle of Dr. Chance’s demise and haunting and then there is the GhosTV, nothing is quite what it seems and Vic begins to .
Ah, Vic and Jacob, two exceptional humans who make it a joy to read the PsyCop series. While I enjoyed this story and had much entertainment while reading it, I couldn’t help feel like it was pretty directionless in its quest to wrap up loose ends. Vic decides it is time to do the exorcism that he owes Con Dreyfuss and then instead of just doing it and walking away from FPMP, he visits and then keeps going back and getting involved in finding out who the repeaters are before he exorcises them. He then gets pulled into Jacob’s case and he discovers he might have just misjudged Con all along, but maybe not misjudged the FPMP.
As I turned each page I was waiting for that spark that made PsyCop special but it just kept missing the mark, the story felt directionless, there wasn’t one thing to grab hold of and say ‘yep this is it’, there were several things that pulled your attention and you were never quite sure which was important and what was filler. Yes, some might say that they are interesting plot threads and are woven together brilliantly but unlike the other stories there doesn’t seem to be a main single thread to attach the others to, unless you count Vic dragging out an exorcism the main thread. Don’t get me wrong, I really did enjoy this story and yes I have had a good whine but I was really expecting more in the way of a gripping storyline like in the rest of PsyCops. Vic and Jacob are still great characters with both of them being relaxed in their relationship, Vic seems much more stable than before although he still has his moments and Vic is disillusioned by the court results of his arrests. Lisa is much more prominent in this story but even with knowing the background, I couldn’t quite understand why Vic and Jacob were so protective of her.
I recommend this if you love ghosts and psychics, wrapping up loose ends, beginning the move in a new direction and a very interesting story.
Self-publishing has become incredibly doable. The year 2007, which was the year I began self-publishing, doesn’t seem all that long ago. Not until you realize that the Kindle eReader didn’t even come out until mid-November! Back then, the idea of making a living writing eBooks seemed pretty implausible. My entire Kindle eBook sales for the year of 2008 totaled less than $10. How stunning that by the end of 2009 I was able to hand in my resignation to my day job and begin writing and publishing full-time the following year.
Writing is an intensely personal endeavor, so the appeal to own the entire process, from the genesis of the story idea to the receipt of the royalty check, is understandably strong. But is self-publishing necessarily the best way to go?
Motivation
Some people are more internally motivated than others. You may be the type of person who thrives under the direction of a mentor, who gets crazy amounts of work done as a deadline approaches, who enjoys the camaraderie of touching base with co-authors in the publishers’ private groups. If so, working alone may feel too isolated for you.
Stigma
As long as an eBook is well-produced, and it’s sold in convenient locations, many readers don’t care whether it’s self-published or not. Unfortunately, so many self-published authors are unable to handle every aspect of eBook production themselves, and unwilling to pay someone else to do it professionally, that they end up putting out an inferior product. The more authors do this, the longer “self-published” will be synonymous in many readers’ minds with “unedited” and “poorly formatted.”
Expense
An ePublisher will typically keep 60-75% of the cover price of an eBook, so it stands to reason that if you self-publish and keep all the sales, you’ll make more money. Right? Not necessarily. There are many expenses that the publisher absorbs. In all third-party sales (places like Amazon or B&N) the seller keeps a cut of the cover price. Publishers also need to pay their own operating expenses, as well as the fees of the rest of the team responsible for editing, typesetting, and creating a cover for your book.
Many new self-publishers can certainly save money on overhead by working from home, but then they skimp on things they shouldn’t, like professional editing, proofing, cover design and typesetting, then attempting to do these things themselves. If they do succeed in training themselves to handle each of these tasks, the outlay in time spent learning all the skills is quite high. And if they’re not as brilliant of a cover designer or proofreader as they think they are, chances are they’re contributing to the stigma of self-published work being amateurish that I described above.
Yes, you might slap an unedited book on Amazon and find yourself with a runaway success that makes you a bazillionaire overnight…but you have just as much of a chance at winning the lottery. Most of the “overnight” self-publishing successes you hear about are the result of years of work. This isn’t meant to deter anyone, only to give a more balanced view of what self-publishing involves. While self-publishing may not be for everyone, many authors (myself included) do enjoy the creative control resulting from our investment of time, money and energy.
Author and artist Jordan Castillo Price is the owner of JCP Books and the author of many award-winning gay paranormal thrillers, including PsyCop and Magic Mansion. Her latest series, Turbulence, is a twisted foray into the Bermuda Triangle. Check it out at JCPbooks.com
Title: Body Art, A Thriller
Title: Body Art, 2nd Edition
Title: Channeling Morpheus for Scary Mary
But by the end, he can’t kiss Michael enough. He’s very possessive of Michael, but he’s just as protective of his human lover. They even have the whole meet the parents drama most couples face right down to the grand parents that have joined a prayer group to pray for Michael’s soul. You know, since he’s going to hell and all for being in love with another man.
