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Happy January!

It seems like people either love New Years resolutions or they hate them. The resolution-haters are tired of the same old intentions falling apart like they've done every year before, and having a new reason to feel crappy about themselves.

I'm in the love-it camp (Here's my treadmill with an InDesign training video playing on it...I started this resolution early.) I love New Years Day because it's the symbolic beginning of a new phase in my life. It's time to take stock and appreciate where I've been, and plan where I'd like to go from here.

My ambitious goal for 2012 is to focus on my internal compass this year rather than allowing the negative opinion of others to derail me. And I realize it might take more than a year. It might take the rest of my lifetime. But I'd rather start and get partway than to allow people who don't have my best interest in mind to make me doubt myself.

For the resolution-haters out there who don't want to completely dismiss the possibility of making positive changes, I propose the following tweaks to your mindset:

1. call it something else - if "resolution" fills you with disgust and represents "failure" and "yet another reason to be down on myself," re-name it something that's more hopeful, or at least neutral. "Getting more exercise consistently is my topic of focus" is less of a failure setup than "I resolve to lose 50 lbs."

2. don't be so all-or-nothing - small changes make big differences if you can forget about them and allow them to add up. Let's say you want to write more. If you wrote an additional 300 words per day (even starting from zero) you'd end up with an additional chapter a week or a novel a year. You don't need to rearrange your whole schedule, start getting up two hours earlier, quit watching TV and disown all your friends to write 300 words, either. It could take you as little as 15 minutes

3. gentle reminders - Google Calendar (multi-platform) and iCal (Mac) have pop-up alerts. I make a deal with myself to leave the pop-up there on my monitor, annoying me, until I've done the task it's prompting me to do. If your task is a small enough chunk (15 minute exercise, take your vitamin, etc.) then it becomes easier to do it and get it over with than to keep avoiding it. My meditation reminder is blinking at me right now, in fact. Very annoying.

4. start now - if the artificiality of waiting until January 1 annoys you, when you decide there's a change you'd like to make, start now! Or start within a week, if you feel you need to gear up for it. I had a goal to increase my daily wordcount and I got going with it in November rather than waiting for January 1 to roll around, and I'm glad I did! That's how I've been able to bring you such big installments of Magic Mansion!

Until next month, think small, and think do-able!

Jordan

P.S. - high five, I did my treadmill 30 minutes today.

Attention, Kindle Owners!
I experimented with a Kindle-optimized version of the newsletter last month, and then forgot to include code in the web page that would allow me to see if it was even being used. D'oh! So I'll do another one this month and track whether it's worth the extra effort or not. Note: when I tested this month's edition, it took a really long time to show up on my Kindle, kind of a drag!

But if you're willing to tinker with it anyway, go here for the Kindle Version of this newsletter, with instructions on how to transfer it to your Kindle!

My maze books are now available at Amazon and B&N! Find free samples of the various maze types at Prestidigital Press website.

It would really help me out if you clicked the tags on these books so they appeared more readily in Amazon searches. What are tags? If you've bought a copy, I'd love it if you left a good review!

Go to 50 Excruciating Mazes

Go to 50 Odious Over-and-Under Mazes

Channeling Morpheus week kicks off at Brief Encounters Reviews tomorrow, 1/16/12! Come chat about these 2011 re-releases and gear up for the second half of the re-released series coming in 2012! Win a full set of the re-vamped ebooks, read brand new reviews (dueling reviewers, Wild Bill vs. Michael!) and catch an in-depth JCP interview.

Go to Brief Encounters

Channeling Morpheus Bundle

Channeling Morpheus #1-5 are now available in a bundle at JCP Books for only $13.45. Save 10%!

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Inquiring readers want to know! By request, I diagramed the dorm room at PsyTrain and the cannery on my LiveJournal. (Click image to go to LJ post)

PsyCop Bundle

The PsyCop series is now available in a great big bundle at JCP Books for only $29.99 (that's Among the Living free and 10% off the rest!) Find the bundle deal on any PsyCop story page at JCP Books.

I'd love it if you told your friends about Magic Mansion! It's free...and there's VOTING!

Please spread the word and link to it in your blog, Twitter, FB, etc. or post about it to any of your groups.

Magic Mansion

Where Reality is More than it Seems

Chapter Twenty-Six: Producer's Warning

Though the previous night’s farewell dinner had been congenial enough, it followed on the heels of a shoot so long it had drained everyone giddy. That morning’s breakfast felt depressingly sober to John in comparison. Faye, who Jia had immediately embraced as a potential ally, was now the team member who needed to be voted out of the mansion to ensure Jia would stay. Faye had betrayed her winning team, and was now poised for elimination. And Kevin had simply drained a protein shake in two swallows and stormed away in the direction of the gym.

Strains of laughter emanated from the small parlor where the Gold Team congregated over coffee and bagels. John considered joining them. After all, it wasn’t like his presence was any comfort to Faye and Jia. And yet…did he really want to announce his lack of support by blowing off his teammates like Kevin had? No. Better to stay with the Red Team. Dismal as it might be.

High heels on parquet cut the thick silence as the producer Marlene crossed the ballroom. Red Team observed her approach in silence. “Where’s your fearless leader?”

“The gym,” Jia said. It sounded like a snarl.

“How are the three of you holding up?” Marlene asked. “Do you need anything? Aspirin? Self-tanner? A fresh pair of socks?”

“I don’t know,” Faye said. “Do we? I thought one of us was going home.”

The magic continues... (NSFW)

Feedback

Some readers were disappointed in last month's NSFW tag. Really? You'd want your boss reading over your shoulder about how hard Ricardo thinks he's going to "ahem"? You've got a more liberal workplace than I've ever had. :)

Voting

This will be the last vote, so be sure to weigh in by 7am CST January 23!

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PsyCop Paperbacks:
Psycop: Property Body & Soul and Secrets)
PsyCop: Partners (Paperback, contains Among the Living and Criss Cross)
Camp Hell: A PsyCop Novel (Paperback)
With free worldwide shipping at The Book Depository
GhosTV: A PsyCop Novel (paperback)
With free worldwide shipping at The Book Depository

PsyCop Ebooks:
Among the Living - PsyCop Book 1
Criss Cross - PsyCop Book 2
Body & Soul - PsyCop Book 3
Secrets - PsyCop Book 4
Camp Hell - PsyCop Book 5
GhosTV -PsyCop Book 6
Thaw PsyCop Short 1.1, FREE!
Striking Sparks PsyCop Novelette 2.1
Many Happy Returns PsyCop Short 2.2
Mind Reader PsyCop Short 2.3, FREE!
Stroke of Midnight PsyCop Short 3.1, FREE!
Inside Out PsyCop Short 0.1, FREE!

Petit Morts Paperbacks:
Petit Morts 1: Sweets to the Sweet Amazon - Book Depository
Petit Morts 2: Food of the Gods Amazon - Book Depository

Email me at jordan (at) psycop (dot) com

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JCP News • Jordan Castillo Price • PO Box 153 • Barneveld, WI 53507