Alex Draven recently interviewed Jordan Castillo Price:

AD: Vic's voice in this story is absolutely delicious, and you pull off that noir-ish first person style so well : are you a big fan of noir stories? Do you have a favorite fictional detective, outside of the PsyCop world?

JCP: I'd say my biggest fannish influence is horror. I'm crazy about zombie flicks, ghost stories, and, of course, vampires. What I like about Among the Living is that all of these horror elements are described through the eyes of a cop. The noir voice works really well with paranormal/horror because it's so matter-of-fact. There's a wonderful realism to it that makes the fantastic aspects of horror jump off the page more boldly than it would otherwise. Cops are factual people, and when they start trying to categorize and process these mystical things with their plain language and pragmatic world views, the paranormal aspect feels that much creepier.

I do have a couple of favorite detectives, though they're nothing at all like Vic! Sherlock Holmes is such a classic icon that he might almost seem old-hat at times, but when I watched the Grenada Television Sherlock Holmes productions from the 80's-90's I was totally bowled over by Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Holmes. There were a couple of different Watsons in that series. The earlier Watson, David Burke, is serious eye candy. There was a scene in which Burke's Watson lit a cigarette for Holmes and I nearly swooned watching it!

My latest favorite sleuth is about as far from Vic as you can get. I'm a major Stephanie Plum fan! I was tickled by the idea that Janet Evanovich could start her whole series off with a description of the way a neighbor boy lured Stephanie into a garage to play "choo-choo train" when she was six and he was eight. I mean, all kinds of people are reading this series and loving it, and it's so risqué! Stephanie doesn't usually know what she's doing but she's got a lot of heart--maybe that could describe Vic in certain circumstances, too. They both find themselves in over their heads most of the time, which makes the story exciting. Maybe they're more alike than I thought! Don't tell Vic I said that, he'd freak.

AD: Have you ever had a paranormal experience? Do you, in fact, believe in ghosts?

JCP: I would love to have a big-time paranormal experience, though I suspect that having one would make it that much more difficult to do things like shopping for groceries or taking out the trash. It must be hard to shift from the metaphysical to the mundane on a daily basis. And yet without the contrast of the mundane, the metaphysical would become dull.

Even though I was raised hyper-Catholic, there was a superstitious sort of magical thinking that was prevalent in my upbringing. My mother claims to have had an out-of-the-body experience after I was born, and my grandmother thought she could cure a relative's cancer if only she said enough rosaries. When I was ten years old or so, I got a fortune-telling kit as a gift. It probably looked pretty harmless, like a box of magician's tricks, but there was some hardcore stuff in there: tarot cards, I Ching coins, palmistry maps, tea leaf guides and in-depth astrology charts. In retrospect, I'm pretty amazed that my family let me fool around with this stuff.

And there were many hours of fun to be had with the Oujia board! (This was best done with younger cousins on the floor of a closet with the door shut.) I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts in the traditional sense, since reincarnation makes more sense to me. But I think it's possible that a violent death could leave a psychic signature behind, even if that person's soul has moved on. And possibly there are beings on other planes who might be able to communicate with us who aren't ghosts in a technical sense. I'm open to all kinds of explanations.

AD: If you were part of a PI unit, would you prefer to be a Psych or a Stiff? and if you were Psych, what would your talent be?

JCP: Oooh, I would HATE to be the Stiff! Some people, like Maurice, would rather be the Stiff. But others, like Jacob, are like kids with their noses pressed against the candy store window, unable to get in. Every time I write Jacob I feel bad for him because he's practically handicapped. He's lacking this magical sense that everyone else seems to have but him, so he's got to overcompensate by being the smartest, sexiest, slickest one there. If I was a Stiff, I'd probably be a Psych-groupie like Jacob.

On the other hand, I think that the talents themselves are often hindrances. I would hate to be Carolyn and always know if someone's lying or not. "Hi, your hair looks great, did you do something new?" and in your gut you know your friend hates your hair. It must become demoralizing after a while!

I could never deal with seeing dead people all over the place. Eep! I could be some sort of psychic healer, but that sounds really boring, plus you'd have to deal with all kinds of needy whiners day in and day out. I guess I'd pick some kind of non-precognitive clairvoyance so I could reconstruct bizarre crime scenes. My specialty would be scenes without dead bodies, because of course they'd just call in the mediums to handle those!

AD: Do you prefer to ask questions or listen to stories? Drive or be driven?

JCP: I was about to say I liked both to ask and to listen, but if I'm honest I'd say that's not really true. Most people don't tell a very good story! Maybe dead people would tell better stories, although most of the dead people Vic meets certainly don't. When I do find a good storyteller I can listen for hours.

I'm embarrassed to say I am better at being driven. I attempted to drive somewhere this weekend and we ended up about 45 minutes out of our way. This 4-lane highway became 2 lanes, and then a narrow country road that started twisting and turning, until I said, "Hm, we've never been this way before, have we?" I guess that's my way of admitting I'm lost.

I'm a kick-ass navigator, though. Give me a map and I can get the driver anywhere.

I'm also a very nice passenger. I hardly ever criticize the driver.

AD: What's the next project you're working on?

JCP: Like most writers, I get more plot bunnies than I could ever possibly develop. A pirate story's been niggling at me, though the dilemma is whether I want it to be high fantasy or gritty and realistic. I'm also pondering whether I need to find a way to take a sailboat ride before I can write about the sensation of being on the water, since the largest craft I've ridden is a small motorboat. Where I live I'm fairly landlocked, but where there's a will, there's a way. Then again, I have a very vivid imagination and would probably be able to wing it, so that could just be my way of stalling. Maybe I'll just take my raft out on a lake and use my imagination.

I'm in the midst of the next PsyCop story, in which the Fifth Precinct is still trying to find an appropriate Stiff for Vic. His talent is in overdrive and the doctors are telling him he has to stop taking the medication that suppresses his psychic sensitivity. I'm excited to be working on more PsyCop because I began missing the characters from Among the Living even as it was being finished up!

Thanks so much for this opportunity to talk about Psychs and Stiffs, and things that go bump in the night!

 

Buy Among the Living at JCP Books.com!