Terry Odell's Blog, page 249

WPA #5 — Clearing a Building

What I’m reading: Desert Blood, by Ronald Cree

[image error]Continuing with recaps of the Writers Police Academy. A small group of us had the chance to go off site to an apartment building the Sheriffs Department used for training exercises, to learn how to clear an apartment.

Our instructor, Lt. Randy Shepherd, who’s a sniper for the SERT team, began by showing us the “hardware” their teams would use. He started with body shields. The first two were considered type 3A shields, although one was much stronge...

What’s Cooking Wednesday — Ofenschlupfer

Today’s recipe comes from Karla Brandenburg — if you missed her guest post yesterday, scroll down. Ofenschlupfer is a traditional German recipe for apple bread pudding which will be featured in her upcoming novel.

Ofenschlupfer

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of salt

½ cup milk

3–4 ripe apples

4 slices of bread or egg rolls

¼ cup raisins

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast bread slices lightly....

Write What You Know?

Today I welcome Karla Brandenburg to Terry’s Place. Karla writes romance with a touch of the supernatural thrown in. Today, she dispels the myth that authors should only “write what they know.”

For years, burgeoning authors have been encouraged to “write what you know.” The problem with that is that it can be boring.It’s helpful from the standpoint that you know all the ins and outs and you don’t have to worry about people questioning your knowledge on a subject, but for me, I like to learn ne...

Give Me A Beach

Today I welcome Susan M. Boyer to Terry’s Place. Susan is a life-long book lover and author of the Liz Talbot mystery series. She tags along with her husband on business trips whenever she can because hotels are great places to write: fresh coffee all day and cookies at 4 p.m. They have a home in Greenville, SC, which they occasionally visit.

Susan will be giving away a copy of her book, LOWCOUNTRY BOIL to one lucky commenter. Winner will get to choose format: digital or print. You have until Friday to enter.

Like many folks, I love the beach. Give me a beach umbrella, a chair, and a book, and I am one happy camper. I used to swim in the ocean, or perhaps more accurately, bob around in it, and ride the waves on anything that would float. That was before my close encounter with a stingray.
The waters off the coast of South Carolina have a fair amount of sand and such stirring around in them courtesy of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic in the vicinity. Disclaimer: I’m not a scientist who studies such things. This is the reason I’ve been given since childhood when I ask why the water in South Carolina isn’t as clear as south Florida and the Caribbean. This could just as easily be something Mamma pulled out of thin air to keep me quite. I digress. The point is, you can’t see the bottom.
A few summers ago we rented a beach house in Garden City, South Carolina for a family vacation. It had a boat dock in the backyard and the Atlantic in the front. The first day—it was a beautiful day—Sugar, (my husband) my brother, and my brother-in-law took the pontoon boat out fishing. Daddy, my sister, and I were taking a late afternoon dip. Mamma was sitting in her beach chair watching us try to push each other down in the waves. We aggravate each other as a way of showing affection.

Suddenly, fish started jumping out of the water—lots of fish. They’d break the surface, hit the water and jump again. They flopped and splashed all around us. Now, I’ve always heard that when small fish do this, it’s because a bigger fish is trying to have them for supper. Naturally, I’m thinking, Shark!
“Run!” I screamed and bolted for the beach. We were almost out of the water when something got ahold of my foot and I just knew I was going to have a stump where my foot used to be. I expected gallons of blood. I’d have to be helicopter-lifted to the hospital. Would I ever walk again? Would I die on the beach from blood loss? These were the things that ran through my mind because it felt like something had chewed my foot clean off.
Imagine my shock seconds later when I reached the beach and my foot looked nearly normal—still attached and everything. It still hurt like blazes. But aside from a little redness and a mark just below my ankle, it looked fine—still attached and everything.
“A jellyfish must have gotten you,” my sister said. “I know those hurt.”
She sounded real sympathetic, but I knew there was no way on God’s green earth she could possibly know how bad my foot hurt or she would be calling 911. I wanted Sugar.
“Find Jim,” I wailed.
“Let’s put some vinegar on it,” my sister said.
“This was not a jellyfish,” I growled. My foot was now a brighter shade of red, and it had puffed up.
I limped towards the house. Someone called Sugar on his cell phone, and by the time I made it to the house, he was there. He put me in the car and off to the ER we went.
I am telling y’all right now, this hurt worse than childbirth. The pain radiated up my leg and the swelling spread. It hurt so bad I howled all the way to the hospital, which took only about twenty minutes but felt like days. I was scared.
I kept right on howling in the ER. They were busy, and wanted to shut me up, so someone brought out some hot towels and wrapped my leg in them. “Does that feel better?”
I stopped my caterwauling. “Yes—that helps.”
“A stingray got you. Heat breaks down the venom.”
Every time the towels cooled off, I started howling again and they’d bring more. I didn’t have to wait long. The doctor had to cut open my foot to make sure the barb wasn’t in there. Thankfully it wasn’t. After several shots and prescriptions for antibiotics and painkillers, I left on crutches.
I spent the remainder of that vacation propped on pillows in the screened porch or hobbling around. I still love beaches, but I have one iron-clad rule: If I can’t see the bottom, I don’t get in the water.

For more about Susan and her books, you can find her at her website, on Facebook, and  Twitter. 

Writers Police Academy Retrospective

Since I knew I’d be getting home very late last night from the Writers Police Academy, and I knew there would be very little down time during the conference to create and upload new posts, I thought I’d share the pictures I took at the first WPA in 2010.  Click here to see them.[image error]

And a little “housekeeping.” It’s almost time for my next quarterly newsletter. If you’re not signed up, you’re missing a chance to get some sneak peek updates about what I’m working on. In addition, there’s always some kind of contest or giveaway that’s announced only to newsletter subscribers. Last time, my lucky winner, Marta Chausee, won the right to name a character in my next book.  If you’re not signed up, there’s a newsletter link in the nav bar. I’ve got something special planned for the Fall Newsletter–everyone’s a winner, but you have to be subscribed.

Tomorrow my guest is author Susan M. Boyer talking about the beach. She’s giving away a book, so be sure to come back.

Friday Field Trip — Winged Things

Today’s field trip comes via my neighbor’s father, Stewart Rowe. He took up photography as a hobby after he retired from his years as a pediatrician. Enjoy!

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Idea Tracking

[image error]Thanks to cyberspace technology, I’m not really here, but you get to read this post anyway. Today, I’ll have dealt with my alarm clock going of at 3 AM to make it to the airport for a 6 AM flight. I’ll be winging my way to Greensboro, NC for the Writers Police Academy. It’ll be my second trip to this fantastic conference aimed at anyone writing books that touch upon any aspects of law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs and first responders in general. One of my ‘perks’ is that I won a slot on the jail tour, which I’ll be doing tonight. And yes, I’ll be doing my usual post-conference recaps in upcoming blogs.

But as I write this, it’s really Monday, and I’m still involved in edits for my new book, which are due to my editor next week, so this is a short post.

On Tuesday, I blogged at The Blood-Red Pencil about making editors happy by turning in the cleanest possible manuscript. I’d like to expand a little on that post.

Plotting is not my thing. Tracking is how I operate. But I also have my “Idea Board” where I slap up sticky notes as potential scenes, conflicts, or clues and red herrings occur to me. These can be very simple notes to myself, such as, “Who is Fred’s daughter?” or “Find Bones.” I don’t have these all at the start of the book by any means. I may start with the idea as basic as “something bad has to happen” and as the story unfolds, I zero in on what happened, and to whom. In a romance, the basic ideas would include things like “First Kiss” or, “Happily Ever After” since they’re givens. I know I’ll need them, but not how they’ll play out. Yes, it’s unlikely I’d forget these, but you get the idea.

Here’s an example of what my Idea Board looks like:

[image error]Thus, as I’m wrapping up the book, I want to look at my board to make sure there’s nothing important left. Normally, I’ll remove the sticky note once it’s addressed (or put it on the back side of the board). I saved some of them so I could illustrate what I do, and also, so you can see how sketchy these notes are.

Yes, this is a low-tech method. I’ve had people tell me about programs that will do this on my computer. But when I’m working, I want to see things without having to stop and open up a new program. Or, I might want to sit somewhere away from the computer and brainstorm. This light foam core board is easy to move around—and it works if the power goes out. It’s also easy to move thing around, and there’s no accidental hitting of the “delete” key.

Come back tomorrow for some fantastic photos of things with wings.

What’s Cooking Wednesday — Warm Your Honey’s Toes

Today’s recipe comes from author Leslie Diehl, author of the Microbrewing Series, A Deadly Draught and Deadly Pairings.

Warm Your Honey’s Toes Ginger Stout Cake or Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 tablespoon candied ginger (finely chopped) or 1 teaspoon ground ginger or 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

12 ounces stout (Use your favorite stout from a local microbrewery.  I do!

½ cup molasses

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin pans or 13X9 baking pan. Combine flour, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cloves; set aside.

2. Beat butter and candied ginger with electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add sugars; beat to combine. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Mix stout and molasses to combine and add to wet ingredients. Alternately add dry ingredients in 3 additions, with the beer mixture; beating until combined and scraping down side of bowl as needed.  Batter will be runny.

4. Pour into the muffin pans. Bake 12–15 minutes. Makes over 24 muffins.  If using cake pan, bake 45 minutes.  In both cases, muffins or cake is done when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Note: You may also make this as mini-muffins.  Reduce heat to 300 degrees F and bake for 10 minutes.  Test with toothpick.  Make about 80 minis.

Cake and muffins do not round up when baked. Try with a dollop of ginger spiced whipped cream or top with a slice of crystallized ginger.

 

Truth or Fiction

Today I welcome Alison Naomi Holt to Terry’s Place. Alison is a fiction writer who also sidelined as a cop for twenty years. She has arrested everything from homicide suspects to emus, the latter earning her a spot on America’s Funniest Home Videos. This experience has given her a unique perspective on writing fiction.

And while Alison is here, it’s my turn for my monthly blog at The Blood-Red Pencil.

As a retired cop, and as a writer, especially as a mystery writer, I’ve been privileged to be able to see the lives of some of my characters from both sides of the fence. One fun question I get to play with while I’m populating my stories is whether my fiction is going to mimic real life or do I get to write the real lives of my characters as though they mimic fiction.
There were many, many times when I was handling a call where my partner would turn to me and say “You know, even if we put this into a book, no one would believe it really happened.” I’ve found that to be true. For example, during a writing seminar, I had the opportunity to discuss my books with one of my readers. She was teasing me about what a vivid imagination I had when it came to one of the chapters in the first book of my Credo series. My protagonist, Alex Wolfe, had to go undercover as a prostitute and my reader refused to believe that all of the situations my character found herself in had actually happened to either me or to some of our undercover vice detectives.  This is a perfect example where fiction mimics the eccentricities of real life.

On the other hand, I’ve had more than one of my police colleagues ask me whether I’ve ever heard of internal affairs because many of the antics of the detectives in my novels would obviously get a real officer fired. My answer always brings a knowing smile and a wistful nod of their head.
For twenty years, I had to toe the line. Heck, I was a sergeant in Internal Affairs for part of my career. One of my great joys as a writer is allowing my characters to act like most officers wish they could act if they were living in a fictional world.  It’s very difficult to have to be polite to jerks or to have to call a sweating, foul mouthed idiot sir or ma’am.
What I enjoy even more while I’m writing, is allowing Alex to get even with “superior” officers, i.e. sergeant’s, lieutenants and above, who are less than a credit to their profession. Being a cop on the street is a little stressful but it’s also a lot of fun. Being a cop who has to put up with idiots for bosses is a lot stressful, and no fun. I love allowing my characters to mouth off, or to act unprofessional or even downright juvenile at times. I consider it one of the perks of the writing profession.
So what do you think? Should fiction always mimic real life or should we allow our characters to be a little off the wall and perhaps a little unrealistic? I’d love to hear your opinions on the subject.

If you’d like to know more about Alison, you can find her at her website www.Alisonholtbooks.com or you can order her books from Amazon, Smashwords (any format for any type of eReader) or Barnes and Noble.

Second Chances

What I’m reading – my manuscript for the sequel to Deadly Secrets.

I’m getting ready to leave for the Writers Police Academy later this week. Today is also Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (it’s 5773 in that calendar), which means there’s another chance to reflect on the previous year and another chance to review those resolutions and goals.

Did you set goals? How are you doing? Whether they’re writing related or life related isn’t the point. It’s having a direction, and a way to measure that direction. The key word is measurable. If you don’t know what you’ve done, you can’t know if you’re succeeding. And if your goals are too vague, you’ll get frustrated and abandon them.

So, before you set a vague goal like, “I’m going to lose weight” or “I’m going to finish a book,” look at them more carefully. How can you break them down?

If you’re looking to lose weight, what are your options? You can increase exercise. However, saying, “I’m going to exercise more” won’t cut it. You have to say, “I will go to the gym 3 times a week,” or “I will walk 2 miles four times a week.” You can’t say, “I’ll cut back on calories.” You have to say, “I will eat xxx calories per day,” or “I will have one piece of chocolate” (I’m never going to recommend giving up chocolate.)

For writing goals, finishing a book is kind of like eating an elephant. You look at what a finished book is going to be—my current one was over 100,000 words when I typed ‘the end’—and your first reaction is, “I can never do this.” But the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. If your goal is to write 500 words a day, you have something to measure. Know your limits, and set goals you can attain. But don’t make the bar so low that you’re not challenging yourself.

For example, my writing goal is to write 1000 words a day, 6 days a week. Do I meet the goal every day? No. But when I don’t, I’ll ask myself why—is it because of personal challenges? This year, I’m faced with an aging parent and have had to make several trips out to LA to visit. Writing came to an abrupt halt for those trips. Or, is it because I’m researching, or working out a plot problem? That, to me, is still working on the book, but it’s not putting words on the page.

I’d promised my manuscript to my editor by a specific date. When it looked like it was going to require a strong push to complete it on time, I upped my word count goals, but I did it in smaller increments. To double my production looked daunting. However, to try to write 300 extra words wasn’t a stretch. And from that, I could move the bar to 500 extra words, until I was writing well over double my word count.

So, on this first day of 5773, take a moment to reflect on how your own year is going—and there are nearly 4 months left in 2012 to address any changes you might want to make.

 

Tomorrow my guest is Allison Holt, a retired law enforcement officer, and she’s talking about Truth or Fiction.