Terry Odell's Blog, page 61

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope your celebration i...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope your celebration is a sensible one. Staying home this year makes it more likely we can all get together next year.

And here’s a family tradition shared by many others

 

And here’s an interesting article – Arlo Guthrie’s thoughts on the 50 year anniversary tour of Alice’s Restaurant.

And, for anyone who’s looking for a writing post, I’m over at The Kill Zone Blog talking about using that.

The post appeared first on Terry Odell.

Scaled Down Thanksgiving Pie

Scaled Down Thanksgiving Pie

What with smaller Thanksgiving gatherings (at least I hope everyone’s being sensible and not risking spreading the virus), I thought I’d share another family favorite, one that was born out of practicality, but survived over the years. This Pumpkin Apple Pie is our family favorite for Thanksgiving that rolls two traditional desserts into one. Perfect for smaller families, or people who can’t make up their minds!

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe which i...

Family’s Favorite Turkey Dressing

Family’s Favorite Turkey Dressing

When we celebrated together, this was a “must have” at our Thanksgiving table. It’s a bit different, but then, Thanksgiving is going to be different for a lot of us this year.  I know it will be at our house. I found this recipe in a magazine decades ago, and it was stuffing for a goose, but it looked good, so I made it, and it was very well received (to the point that when my son moved away to go to college and was closer to his grandparents, he insisted that ...

Cooking That Turkey

Cooking That Turkey

This year brings holiday challenges for many. Large gatherings–or even small ones–are being cancelled. In our case, Hubster and I are staying home. Covid cases up in our little county are skyrocketing, and it’s much, much worse in Colorado Springs where family lives. Normally, on years when we can’t all get together for whatever reasons, Hubster and I go to a favorite restaurant that does a great Thanksgiving dinner. Not this year. With just the two of us, I decided to vary o...

Promoting at Chirp and BookBub

A while back, I talked about some differences between ACX and Findaway Voices as ways to distribute audiobooks.

One perk of distributing through Findaway is they’re partnered with BookBub and Chirp. Findaway lets you set your own prices and offer promotional opportunities.

Right now, the audio format for The Mapleton Mystery Novellas is marked down from $11.99 to  $1.99 at Chirp for one month. That’s THREE novellas, which comes out to about 67 cents each.

I’m also dropping the price of Deadly Se...

An Unexpected Detour On The Road To Writing

The other day, before I settled into my writing for the day, I wanted to check something on my Amazon bookshelf, and a message popped up that I had 8 issues with Deadly Secrets, one of my e-books. Even though the book is free, I still want it to be the best I can make it.

Strange that (to my knowledge), Amazon had never pointed these out in a direct email, but I looked at the issues and their suggestions for fixing what they’d flagged. One was not an error, and the others were all silly typos. I...

Thanking All Veterans

First, I’m over at The Kill Zone Blog talking about how Winnie the Pooh helped my writing.

Today, those of us in the US celebrate Veterans Day. I want to thank everyone who’s served in any branch of the military.

Some facts about Veterans Day

It’s not the same as Memorial Day, which honors those who have lost their lives in service. Veterans Day honors everyone who’s served, living or dead, but with focus on those still alive.

It was originally called Armistice Day, commemorating the end of Wor...

Plotters, Plansters, Pantsers, and Word Counts

Plotters, Plansters, Pantsers, and Word Counts

I have yet to transition further than “Planster” from my original “Pantster” roots. “Plotter” is something I’m not likely to master. Writing seems to be slogging due to everything going on out in the world, so I decided to do a reality check and see whether I’m making acceptable progress.

I pulled out my word count spreadsheet for the current WIP, which I started working on in July, with significant breaks to get Heather’s Chase edited and published...

Avoiding Stress

Avoiding Stress

This past week has been crazy and stress-filled. I confess I avoided as much news as possible, taking refuge non-network offerings such as Great British Baking Show marathons–which I found were not only calming, but passed blocks of time. I also watched Queen’s Gambit,  the new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, The Unbrella Academy, original Mission Impossible reruns–anything that bypassed even the remotest of chances of stumbling onto the election news. Likewise, I avoided my Fa...

NaNoWriMo Or Not?

NaNoWriMo Or Not?

Yesterday kicked off NaNoWriMo, where participants strive to write a “novel” (50,000 words) in the month. I wish everyone who chooses to participate a productive month. Since the “rules” state that you have to begin a new work, and I’m almost 50,000 words into my current WIP, I won’t be participating. I did try it one year, and my writing process isn’t a good fit. However, I will be trying to make as much forward progress on the WIP as possible. While I won’t say I’ve been ‘sla...