Terry Odell's Blog, page 101
February 13, 2018
WCW – Chocolate Cake for Valentine’s Day
This is a family standard for birthdays but Valentine’s Day calls for chocolate, so I’m rerunning this recipe for Grandma Lena’s Chocolate Cake.
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cups sugar
cup cocoa
cup hot water
2 tsp baking soda
tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13×9 pan. Add the cocoa to the hot water and mix. In large bowl combine all ingredients. If you want to get “prop...
February 11, 2018
Handling Quiet Scenes in the Novel
Handling Quiet Scenes in the Novel
We’re told to keep things moving, but quiet scenes can be useful if they’re handled properly.
As part of my process, I print out each scene or chapter as I finish it, and do a read-through at night in bed. Often, before I get to this point, I’ll give the printout to the Hubster. We have similar, but not identical tastes in reading. I’ve learned he likes scenes with lots of action, especially if there’s gunfire or an explosion. When he drops those scenes back...
February 7, 2018
Don’t Let Word Choices Slow the Read
Don’t Let Word Choices Slow the Read
Once you start learning the craft of writing, the entire reading experience changes. All of a sudden (a phrase one of my editors did NOT like), you start noticing things like speaker tags. Point of view. And word choices, which is today’s topic. Sometimes word choices will clunk; sometimes they’ll trigger an, “I’ve got to borrow that one,” moment. Sometimes both.
One author seems to love the phrase “blew out a sigh.” Or there’s the dialogue tag that says,...
February 6, 2018
WCW – Roasted Cod, Korean Style
Although this recipe for roasted cod isn’t a Korean dish, per se, the sauce has Korean flavors. Hubster found the recipe in the Weeknight Fresh & Fast Cookbook.
Roasted Cod, Korean Style
Ingredients:
1 T Olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 t fresh ginger, grated (see note below)
1 t minced Serrano chilie
c soy sauce
c brown sugar
3 T rice vinegar
3 T water
1 t sesame oil
4 black cod fillets, about 6 oz each.
2 green onions, sliced for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400
In a small sa...
February 4, 2018
But What’s at Stake?
But What’s at Stake?
I’d hit about 60,000 words in the WIP, my 8th Blackthorne, Inc. book when I realized I was floundering. I’d set my heroine up in a Blackthorne safe house that was so safe nothing could possibly get to her. After a couple of days of getting nowhere, I figured it was time to take my own advice.
Last year, I volunteered to judge a contest for unpublished or previously published but not under contract authors. Submissions were the first twenty pages of the manuscript. The gen...
AOL, Verizon and RR Email Users – Alert!
When I sent my newsletter on Friday, it was rejected by subscribers with AOL, Verizon, or Roadrunner email addresses. For that reason, and because I don’t want you to miss my special offers and announcements, I’ve put the newsletter up on my website. Normally, my newsletter is for subscribers only, but if you’re not a subscriber and follow the link, I hope you’ll take a moment to subscribe.
The post AOL, Verizon and RR Email Users – Alert! appeared fir...
January 31, 2018
Deadly Engagement is Live
Deadly Engagement is live!
Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. It also happens to be the anniversary of when the Hubster and I got engaged. So, I figured that would be a perfect day to release Deadly Engagement. Because the various e-bookstores are unpredictable in how long they will take to approve and upload a book, I wanted to start early to be sure it would be ready to go.
(Note: Kobo is the only store that lets you choose the release date in advance if you don’t want to set up preorders. I wish t...
January 30, 2018
WCW – Beef Stew
Beef Stew
The liquid ingredients include Worcestershire and soy sauces, which gives the stew juices a hint of tang. The brown sugar mellows out the acid in the tomato paste. There are a lot more vegetables than beef, which keeps the cost down while still providing a hearty meal. I’m not a big beef eater, so this was perfect for me. Feel free to adjust to your personal preferences.
Beef Stew
Ingredients:
1 lb beef stew meat, cubed
2 T flour
2 T oil
2 c beef broth
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 T s...
January 28, 2018
Handling Romance in Romantic Suspense
Handling Romance (and the sex) in Romantic Suspense
… Or, what’s happening on page 191?
When I first realized I wasn’t writing a mystery when I began writing Finding Sarah, I had to back up and read romance, something I’d never read before, but early readers (my daughters) told me the book was more romance than mystery. Off to the library! I was reading some time-travel historical romances and noticed that the first sex scene usually hit right around page 191.
I looked at my own WIP and I’m o...
January 27, 2018
Deadly Engagement
The post Deadly Engagement appeared first on Terry Odell.
