Terry Odell's Blog, page 140

World MS Day

photo by Mark Shaiken

Today is World MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Day. Some of you may know my daughter was diagnosed with this disease about a year ago. She’s continuing to live her life as close to “normal” as possible, but wouldn’t it be nice if we found a cure.

She’s a triathlete, and will be participating in “Bike MS” next month. She’ll be cycling 150 miles over two days, and has set a lofty fund-raising goal. All monies raised go to finding a cure (not to her!).

If anyone is so inclined to...

In The Interview Room – Tena Stetler

Today I welcome Tena Stetler to Terry’s Place. Tena is the author of paranormal romances her latest is A Witch’s Journey which releases June 15, 2016.

What’s your biggest distraction when you should be writing?
Social Media it swallows up big chunks of time when I only intend to be on for a few minutes.

Plotter or Pantser?
Definitely pantser. My characters derive devilish pleasure from deviating from even a basic outline to start my story.

Setting: real, totally made up, or based on a real pl...

Choices

I’m on a cattle ranch all this week. I’m rerunning some older posts I hope you find interesting.

Last week, I talked about authors making choices for characters. This post is one that ran on my blog a number of years ago, and covers more about giving choices to your characters.

A while back, on an episode of “The Closer” the police had been searching for a serial killer. The twist was that organs were missing from the victims, and the victims all were suspected of being rapists. The police fi...

Making Heroic Heroes

I read a book recently in which the hero, a wealthy man, had been blinded in an accident, and the heroine was a psychologist who’d been hired by the man’s family to help him accept his blindness. He was resigned to living a life of seclusion where he wouldn’t have to interact with anyone. There was plenty of conflict for the two characters, as he wanted nothing to do with her, and she was forced to keep working with him.

The book was a romance, so there were the usual conventions—why she refu...

What’s Cooking Wednesday – Chopped Veggie Salad

Another of Hubster’s Night to Cook choices. He opted to slice, not chop the cucumbers, but he’s the cook.

Chopped Veggie Salad

Ingredients:
Salad:
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
red onion, slivered
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded & chopped
1 orange bell pepper, seeded & chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded & chopped
2 c grape tomatoes, sliced
2-4 small English cucumbers, chopped
4 stalks celery, sliced
cup kalamata olives, sliced
4 oz feta cheese, cubed

Dressing:
c extra virgin oliv...

In The Interview Room – Terry Ambrose

Today I welcome Terry Ambrose to Terry’s Place. Terry is the author of the Trouble in Paradise McKenna Mysteries and a thriller series.

What’s your biggest distraction when you should be writing?
The biggest used to be email, then I realized I don’t have to answer every email within thirty seconds. Now, the big issue is social media. I hate “doing just one thing” because it’s never just one. There’s always something else the social media channel shoves in your face. Then another…

Plotter or P...

Caring About Tenses

At a recent conference, all attendees were given an Advance Reader Copy of a book by a NYT best-selling author. I brought mine home and because I was reading something else at the time, offered it to my husband to read. It was billed as a thriller, and I thought he might enjoy it.

He started it, then gave it back saying he couldn’t get into it. When I finished the book I was reading, I picked up the new one. I read the prologue, then about five pages of the first chapter, but because there ar...

Apostrophes Made Simple

The other day I noticed an ad from an editorial service that began “Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there.” Cringe. I’ve seen this error more and more lately, so I thought I’d rerun an article I wrote several years ago.

An Apostrophe Has Two Uses

It shows possession. Something belongs to someone or something.

The man’s hat. The dog’s leash. My biggest trouble-spot with this is dealing with plurals. There’s a difference (as my crit partner loves to point out) between the Detective’s...

Some Behind the Scenes – In Deep Trouble

I’m over at the Just Romantic Suspense Blog today, talking about research surprises I had when working on In Deep Trouble. I’ve also got an excerpt for you, and there’s a giveaway. Please stop by and leave a comment.

In addition (if you subscribe to my newsletter, you got this news yesterday), until May 15th, In Hot Water, Book 1 in the Triple-D Ranch series, is on sale for 25% off. If you need to start at the beginning, here’s your chance to do it and save.

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In Deep Trouble Available Now

The countdown is over. In Deep Trouble is available now.

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