Terry Odell's Blog, page 324

"Twas the Day Before...

What I'm reading: Missing Mark, by Julie KramerFirst -- stop reading and scroll down to Tuesday's post, "New Challenges" by Betina Krahn. She's giving away three books, and if you comment before 6 PM Eastern time today (Thursday), you'll be entered for a chance to win. Winners announced tomorrow. What are you waiting for?I must confess I will be glad when the holiday season is past. Not being a

Real, Right, or Good?

Thanks, Betina for being my guest. Remember, there's still time to win a copy of her newest book. Scroll down and leave a comment on yesterday's post. I'll announce the winner on Christmas.My first crit group used to quote one of their writing professors. "Just because it's right, doesn't make it good." We often incorporate real-life happenstances in our writing, but if they don't come across as

New Challenges

Today I'm very pleased to welcome NYT Best-selling author Betina Krahn to Terry's Place. Have you ever been afraid to try something new? See how Betina embraced the challenge of change. And be sure to leave a comment, because she's giving away books!What's life without a little excitement now and then? By excitement, I don't mean "challenge that could drag you under if you don't come through,"

Rewriting and Darning Socks

What I'm reading: Locked In, by Marcia MullerLong, long ago, when I was a wee lass, my mother was teaching me all the ins and outs of what the school system called "Home Economics". I learned to knit (potholders), to cook (crushing Graham crackers for Mom's cheesecake crust) to make beds with hospital corners. I learned to iron starting with my dad's handkerchiefs (because then all men carried

Catching Up a Bit

What I'm reading: Lakeshore Christmas, by Susan Wiggs; To Scotland with Love, by Karin Hawkins.Good Stuff from while I was gone -I came home to an award from mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig, a previous guest here and a frequent commenter with a marvelous blog of her own. My kind of award - no strings! Thanks, Elizabeth.And an invitation to present my "Storyboard Plotting for Non-Plotters" as

Criminal Thinking 5

This is the last installment of my notes from David Malinowski's workshop on Criminal Thinking, presented to the Civilian Police Academy Alumni in July, 2008. I suggest you read the other 4 parts first, if you haven't. I've run them for the last 4 Fridays, so they should be easy to find. This post originally ran in late July 2008 (worth noting with weather references).To Change a Criminal:

Time Warp

Although technically I'm in Florida when you read this, I'm writing it on Tuesday and still in Colorado. Confused? Kind of the way I feel when I check the desktop weather icon on my laptop, which I never reset to Colorado, so right now it's telling me it's 81 degrees outside. However, a glance out the window shows patches of snow on the ground. I figured I'd round out this Colorado blogging

Queries and House Staging

As I write this, we've been in Colorado for three days. As you read it, we'll have been here six days and I'll be getting ready to leave. We spent virtually all day Friday and Saturday with our Realtor looking at property. Since we haven't sold our house yet, we have no purchase power, but if we're planning to spend the rest of our lives out here, we wanted to get a feel for the various

Blackie - A Lesson in Determination

Today my guest is Mary Ricksen. One quality shared by all writers is determination. Without persistence, the road to publication can be a dead end. Mary shares a real-life story that shows she has what it takes as she relates one of those unexpected, but worth the effort things, that grew to be more than she expected. Welcome, Mary!Determination, that's what it took, that and believing in the

Holiday Giving

We're now in the midst of Hanukkah, and this one's unusual in that it's not only the two of us. We're in Colorado, first, to celebrate our grandson's second birthday. And, as long as we were going to travel, we decided to do some preliminary relocation scouting.It just so happened that our visit coincides with Hanukkah, and so we actually have family around. Or, rather, family has us around. With