Blog Posts for Terry Odell

Pulling Weeds, Smoking Guns

Terry Odell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:15:20 -0800

So, the landscaping is finished. We did lose one nice sago palm along with the native shrubs, but a potential buyer won't know it's gone. It was a case of not pointing it out to the contractor when he took stock of what to do with our yard, so the crew simply looked at the overall result, not the specific individual pieces. Like our sago palm, there were valuable passages in my manuscript. ...

Does Your Manuscript Have Curb Appeal?

Terry Odell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:19:55 -0800

I'm over at Pen to Paper. And, despite much resistance, I've been guilted into joining Twitter. I'm one of the "Women to Watch" in the Nov/Dec issue of Orange Appeal. Link on my website. And NOWHERE TO HIDE has a release date: August 20, 1020. Curb Appeal: As I mentioned on Monday, we'd had enough comments that our house lacked any visibility from the street, and if buyers couldn't ...

The Other Side of Rejections

Terry Odell — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:19:44 -0800

Having been the recipient of countless rejection letters, it was strange to have to be on the sending side. I can appreciate what agents and editors have to deal with.If you've been following this blog, you know we've been dealing with selling our house in a very slow market. It's very easy to draw parallels to selling manuscripts. Our first agent was an acquaintance of hubby, and we decided to ...

What's in a Number?

Terry Odell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:26:10 -0800

Are you Triskaidekaphobic? Or just Paraskevidekatriaphobic?The first refers to a fear of the number 13. It's common enough, which is why hotels often don't have a 13th floor (but of course they do, it's simply labeled 14), and some airlines don't have a 13th row. This isn't a universal fear, however.In Italy, 17 is supposed to be an unlucky number. Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4 — ...

Landscape that Manuscript

Terry Odell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:41:32 -0800

Our contract with our current Realtor expires in about 10 days, and it's time to move on. Thus, we've been interviewing Realtors. A tedious chore. Given the state of the market, they're all eager to have our listing, which means we have to weed the hype out of their presentations and figure out which one will work best for us.A while back, I compared selling a house to selling a manuscript. With ...

It's a Wrap

Terry Odell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:27:59 -0800

I met my goal, and as of Thursday night, Draft 1 of my mystery is complete. It came in at close to 96K, which is long. But it's done, and I am very pleased with the storyboard tracking method I used.I ended up with 32 chapters, which just so happens to be the number of squares on my board. I didn't really plan it that way; that's just how I'd originally set up the board based on space ...

"The End" Doesn't Mean You're Done

Terry Odell — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:37:32 -0800

I'll be one of about 20 authors signing books on Saturday. I know the majority of you aren't local, but this is our RWA chapter's annual event to raise money for the Adult Literacy League in Orlando. Twenty percent of the proceeds will be donated to the organization, thanks to Barnes & Noble. Literacy is near and dear to me, and I've been a volunteer for the Adult Literacy League for over a ...

Vegetables or Dessert

Terry Odell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:47:08 -0800

Like countless other children, I was encouraged—with the fear that children all over the world might starve otherwise—to finish whatever my mother put on my plate. Most of the time, I liked her fare, but like countless other children, there were some things I found less palatable than others. Veggies often fell into this category. Still, we were expected to eat them. Not understanding how not ...

No Outlines

Terry Odell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:00:23 -0800

I've now reached the point in my mystery WIP where writing becomes a job. I'm close to the end. I had the revelation about where the "secret" that's been the focus of the book really is. I ran it past hubby over drinks, and he gave it a positive "that's good" as opposed to a grunted, "could work." So now I just have to wrap things up. The plotting is behind me. I've ...

Monday Mailbag

Terry Odell — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:24:11 -0800

I hope everyone is recovered from a surfeit of sugar, and remembered to switch clocks (or, if you're not where you switch your own clocks, that you remember that those who do are now an hour off.) It's November. We're looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner with one of our daughters and her husband's family. They've got a time share not far from us, and have invited us to join them. Should ...