Terry Odell's Blog, page 206

Tips for Digital Formatting

A quick reminder: Deadly Puzzles is now available for pre-order at the iTunes store as well as Kobo at the special introductory price of 99 cents. This is your chance to grab it at a huge discount. Pre-orders help a book show up higher in the rankings on “opening day” so I hope you’ll order your copy now.

Getting Deadly Puzzles ready for publication means I’ve been working on formatting a lot recently. In some ways, my late start into writing helped me, because everything I’d ever had publishe...

Friday Field Trip — Seattle

Jason was in Seattle recently. Here’s what he had to say:

We had unusually sunny weather there and did most of the tourist stuff, including the Space Needle, EMP Museum, Aquarium, and Pike Place Market.

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Space Needle, reflected in the EMP Museum. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

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Guitar sculpture, EMP Museum. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, London, 1967. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

Pike Place Market. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

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SR-71 “Blackbird” at the Museum of Fli...

Friday Field Trip — Seattle

Jason was in Seattle recently. Here’s what he had to say:

We had unusually sunny weather there and did most of the tourist stuff, including the Space Needle, EMP Museum, Aquarium, and Pike Place Market.

Space Needle, reflected in the EMP Museum. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

Guitar sculpture, EMP Museum. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, London, 1967. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

Pike Place Market. Photo courtesy of Jason Odell

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SR-71 “Blackbird” at the Museum of Flight. Photo co...

When Edits Are Revisions

On Monday, I talked about my ‘edit as I go’ process for writing and said I’d touch upon revisions today. Much of the editing I do on my daily passes is minor. A word change, better descriptions and imagery, smoother flow. But every now and then I discover I’ve totally missed a critical point.

For example, I’ve brought two secondary characters together for the next Blackthorne, Inc. book. Hotshot, the team medic, has appeared in minor roles in several of the other books. Because it’s easy to se...

What’s Cooking Wednesday — Crock Pot Jambalaya

Hubster made this on his night to cook. He’s been reading Food Network Magazine again. I don’t have a problem with that! Now, if I could just figure out the right settings for the camera to get the color balance right .…

Crock Pot Jambalaya

Ingredients:

1 pound andouille sausage, sliced about ½ inch thick (We used a chicken variety)

2 bell peppers, chopped (recipe called for green, but we had red and yellow)

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 bunch scallions, chopped

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

1 c rice...

What’s Cooking Wednesday — Crock Pot Jambalaya

Hubster made this on his night to cook. He’s been reading Food Network Magazine again. I don’t have a problem with that! Now, if I could just figure out the right settings for the camera to get the color balance right .…

Crock Pot Jambalaya

Ingredients:

1 pound andouille sausage, sliced about ½ inch thick (We used a chicken variety)

2 bell peppers, chopped (recipe called for green, but we had red and yellow)

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 bunch scallions, chopped

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

1 c rice

1 ½ c c...

Relax, It’s a First-World Problem

Today I welcome Sarah Scott to Terry’s Place. Sarah is the author of Lies at Six, a mystery steeped in the South and TV news. She lives in Ashford, Washington where she owns and manages the eco-lodging Cedar Loft Cabin at Mt. Rainier.

Perspective can be all, can’t it?
Next time, after I’ve cued the “Oh me, oh my” soundtrack, I hope I’ll press pause. Is the difficulty of the moment truly calamitous? Or is it just a quandary of privilege? In other words, is it a First-World problem? I...

Relax, It’s a First-World Problem

Today I welcome Sarah Scott to Terry’s Place. Sarah is the author of Lies at Six, a mystery steeped in the South and TV news. She lives in Ashford, Washington where she owns and manages the eco-lodging Cedar Loft Cabin at Mt. Rainier.

Perspective can be all, can’t it?
Next time, after I’ve cued the “Oh me, oh my” soundtrack, I hope I’ll press pause. Is the difficulty of the moment truly calamitous? Or is it just a quandary of privilege? In other words, is it a First-World problem? I came across...

Editing Every Day

What I’m reading: Fallen Seal Legacy, by Sharon Hamilton; Missing You, by Harlan Coben.

First: Deadly Puzzles is now available for pre-order at the iTunes store as well as Kobo at the special introductory price of 99 cents. This is your chance to grab it at a huge discount. Pre-orders help a book show up higher in the rankings on “opening day” so I hope you’ll order your copy now.

And on to today’s post. Since I’m an ‘edit as I go’ person, I read each scene/chapter as I finish it—in hard copy,...

Friday Field Trip — Chihuly in the Gardens

First, a happy 69th wedding anniversary to my parents! Love you both! (It’s really tomorrow, but I don’t post on Saturdays. I don’t think they’ll mind.)

Friend and fellow author Kari Wainwright sent me these pictures. They are Chihuly glass installations at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, where she says she visited in late afternoon and stayed through the sunset (which was glorious that evening) until it turned dark. Enjoy!

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Have a great weekend, everyone!