Terry Odell's Blog, page 48

Manuscript Surgery

I’m taking a short break from my Croatia posts because it’s my day over at The Kill Zone Blog. I’ve reached “The End” of my manuscript, which is really “The Beginning.” I’m talking about making sure every scene pulls its weight, and things to look out for when cutting, both scenes, threads, and unnecessary words. Although I firmly believe that a story should be as long as it needs to be, the operative word is needs, and I check to make sure that every scene pulls its weight and advances the stor...

My Croatia Trip, Part 6

My Croatia Trip, Part 5

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

Our tour included a stop in Korčula, the proclaimed birthplace of Marco Polo. Again, we had a narrated city tour. Have I mentioned that because of the makeup of the passengers, American, British, and German, we got tours in both languages. They gave us “Whisperer” amplification devices which we used to hear the guides (twice). This allowed for some freedom—we didn’t have to stay close within earshot, so we could wander a short dis...

My Croatia Trip, Part 5

My Croatia Trip, Part 5

Part 1.  Part 2.  Part 3.  Part 4.

Since our trip to the Blue Cave was cancelled, we spent a full day on the island of Vis. Vis is the name of the island as well as the town (the oldest in Croatia), and it’s rich in history. We took a bus tour and, along with countless vineyards and olive trees, saw the landing strip for emergency landings of Allied bombers. Vis was at one point the site of the general headquarters for Marshal Tito, and some of us climbed to the cave wher...

My Croatia Trip, Part 4

My Croatia Trip, Part 4

Not everything goes as expected. One thing the cruise company can’t control is the weather. Due to unexpected Bura winds, our trip deviated from the published itinerary on several occasions. Since everything was new and interesting, none of us seemed to mind. We missed the Blue Cave, which is more tourist attraction than anything else, so no great loss as far as I was concerned. We also missed Mljet National Park: one boat went in and got stuck, and our captain and cruise...

My Croatia Trip, Part 3 – A Writer’s Take

A Writer’s Take on Travel

As a writer, my trip to Croatia was more than sightseeing. I want to be able to use what I experienced in a future book.  It’s my turn at The Kill Zone Blog today, and I’m going into much more detail about the trip through a writer’s eyes. I hope you’ll take a moment and pop over. (There are more pictures there, if that’s an adequate bribe.)

Meanwhile, if you missed my first two posts, Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.

 

The post My Croatia Trip, Part 3 – A Writer’s T...

My Croatia Trip, Part 2

My Croatia Trip, Part 2

See Part 1 here.

Split was still the focus of our tour. We’d arrived a day early to adjust to the time, explore on our own a little, and get organized. Once the official tour began, we had a city tour of Diocletian’s Palace and it was interesting to learn the history of places we’d been looking at as photo subjects.

Diocletian renounced the throne and retired in 305. The palace he had built as his retirement home was constructed (a lot of slave labor) between 295 and 305....

My Croatia Trip, Part 1

Croatia Trip Part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m starting my recaps of my trip to Croatia.

Overall Impressions, in no particular order:

The Croatian language uses lots of consonants and not many vowels. They also love to throw Js into words.Tip: Get the “Google Translate” ap for your phone. You use the camera to show it something written in Croatian, and it translates it into English.Ubers are all over, friendly, and inexpensive. Where a taxi wanted 100 kuna to bring us back to the hotel, the Uber r...

Home Again!

I’m home from Croatia! Getting from Dubrovnik to my mountain took 24 hours, and my body clock won’t get reset for some time, so bear with me as Terry’s Place slowly gets back in gear.

I got some great photos (it was a photography trip, after all–I have hundreds to go through),

learned a lot about the history of Croatia as well as Bosnia/Herzegovina, ate amazing food–prepared on the boat by our amazing chef, and at amazing restaurants and cafes in port.

 

and I picked up a few ideas for the ...

Blogcation

Happy October!

I’m going to be traveling soon, and don’t know how much, if any, access to the internet I’ll have, or how much time I’ll have to work. Postings here may be sporadic.

It’s a photography trip, so if possible, I’ll post some pictures, but whether they’ll have to wait until I get home remains to be seen.

Where am I going? On a photo safari to Croatia. I’ll be on a yacht sailing from Split to Dubrovnik.

Am I taking my manuscript? Yes.

Do I expect to have a lot of time to work on it? ...

Haiku, Themes, and the Subconscious

Photo by Terry Odell

A breezeless morning
Aspen leaves are motionless
I miss the rustling

I’m over at The Kill Zone today, talking about a challenge a guest contributor hit us with last week. Not my comfort zone, to be sure. Pop on over and let me know your thoughts.

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Trusting Uncertainty, Book 10 in the Blackthorne, Inc. series.
You can’t go back and fix the past. Moving on means moving forward.
“Filled with action, explosions, dangling in mid-air, a kick-ass heroine and an understated hero...