Kobo is offering a 30% off discount on three of my books as part of their Long Weekend Special: Nowhere to Hide, What’s in a Name? and Deadly Secrets.
To take advantage of this special, use the coupon code SPRINGSAVE.
***Important*** You can use this code only once, so choose wisely.
Long Weekend Special – 30% off Select Titles at Kobo
Kobo is offering three of my books as part of their Long Weekend Special: Nowhere to Hide, What’s in a Name? and Deadly Secrets. To take advantage of this special, use the coupon code SPRINGSAVE at checkout.
***Important*** You can use this code only once, so choose wisely.
Now, onto our regular Friday Feature.
Hubster’s class took a second field trip last weekend. Here are more “rocks and stuff.” Next week, Jason will be back with pictures from his birding field trip to Texas.
Concretion
Dinosaur Footprints
Marsh Quarry
I’m continuing my recap of seminars given at the Superstars Writing Conference. Today, it’s Kevin J. Anderson’s Eleven Steps to Productivity.
1. Shut up and write.
2. Defy the empty page.
3. Dare to be bad. (at first)
And, because it’s my day to post at The Blood-Red Pencil, you can find the other 8 tips over there.
Also, I’ve decided to match bids, up to $200, for my donation to Brenda Novak’s auction. It’s for a great cause, so please spread the word.
Hubster is getting more adventuresome with his cooking and recipe variations. Here’s one he made a while back. (He’s responsible for dinner every Friday.)
Hubster’s Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
½ T olive oil
½ t minced garlic
½ c diced onion
2 celery stalks, sliced
4–5 baby carrots, sliced
½ c chopped bell pepper
1 T chopped pickled Jalapeno
2 slices turkey bacon
1 c zucchini
1 c fresh spinach leaves
½ c diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
¼ c breadcrumbs
¾ c Marinara sauce
½ c Mozzarella cheese + more for topping
Parmesan cheese
basil
salt, pepper to taste
Instructions:
Cook the spaghetti squash. Easiest method for me is to stab it a few times, nuke it about 5–10 minutes until it’s tender enough to slice lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and continue cooking until it’s tender all the way through. Let it cool.
In a large skillet, saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil. Add the celery, carrots, peppers, and bacon. Cook until softened. Add the zucchini, tomatoes and spinach. Cook an additional 5 minutes.
Scrape the ‘meat’ out of the spaghetti squash into a large bowl. Save the shells! Add the sautéed vegetables, breadcrumbs, Marinara, and seasonings. Mix and stuff into the spaghetti squash shells. Top with extra Marinara, Mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 375 until the cheese is melted and the topping is bubbly.
Today I welcome Chief of Police Scott Silverii, PhD,l to Terry’s Place. Chief Silverii is a highly decorated officer with over 23 years in policing. Many of those were served working undercover narcotics and SWAT operations. He is now in the process of writing his first police procedural, and thinks it may possibly be more frightening than busting down drug dealer’s doors!
Don’t forget the Brenda Novak Auction, and my box of books giveaway. I’ve got overflowing bookshelves, but I’m not going to open the contest until I have 1500 Likes on my Facebook Page. Tell your friends!
As I mentioned last week, I had the good fortune to win one of two Kobo scholarships to a writing conference held in Colorado Springs: Superstars Writing Seminars. This turned out to be a fascinating experience. First, it was a business-focused three days, something that’s normally covered in a panel or workshop or two, but not for three intensive days. It was also geared toward the aspiring-to-get-published crowd, and there were a lot of motivational talks as well as the ‘how-to” variety. And, lastly, it was attended and led by authors who write in the realm of fantasy and science fiction, with the related sub-genres. Not the world I’m used to.
As someone coming from mystery and romance based conferences, it was a quick reality check. The speakers were all renowned, multi-published authors, but our business is so compartmentalized that I hadn’t heard of any of them. Nor had they heard of me. They did invite one “outsider” to speak. Romance author Joan Johnston, whose sales probably surpass the combined total of all the panelists, spoke about her experiences as a traditionally published romance writer. Her advice holds for anyone wanting to get published, regardless of genre, and I’ll share some of the points she made.
Read like a crazy person. Before she wrote her first book, she read every single title in the imprint she was targeting. (If you’re a writer, movies are research–think tax deduction–because they’re stories.)
Go to Craft Conferences – buy the tapes. Listen to them—many times.
She also stressed NOT pitching to editors or agents while networking. Make yourself memorable as a person, and then when you’re going to submit, you can say, “We met at such and such a conference and we talked about raising poodles”—anything to remind them of you, but they’ll never remember you from the other hundreds of people trying to pitch their own book. Just talk.
Hubster has been taking a geology class about the local ‘rocks and stuff’ for the past month or so. The class went on a field trip to reinforce what the instructor had been talking about. I told him suggested he share his pictures. Here they are. Enjoy.
Boudan
Oil Creek Fault Face
Dome Rock
For a change of pace, I thought I’d share one of those “life’s embarrassing moments” today.
I know I’ve mentioned that I print out hard copies of scenes as I finish them, because reading a printed page is different from reading on a computer screen. New and different things pop out. It’s also a way for me to get a jump start on the next day’s work as I make the changes I’ve noted on the hard copy read.
Normally, once I’ve marked up the pages and made my changes, I put them into my husband’s printer because it’s got 2 trays, and unless something is important, we’ll print the day to day stuff from the ‘recycle’ tray. Doing our part to keep green.
So, a few weeks ago, I was talking to our accountant. He mentioned enjoying one of the ‘scraps of paper’ I’d included in the paperwork I’d given him. I couldn’t remember giving him any scraps of paper, so I asked him what he meant. He clarified by saying I’d printed out a copy of one of the forms—I can’t remember the form number, but it was one of those forms where someone you’ve paid over $600 has to fill out, a form they emailed to me, and I printed out a copy for my records.
As promised, Duffy Brown is sharing a recipe she picked up in Savannah–a traditional dessert: pecan pie. Be sure to scroll down to yesterday’s post for a chance to win a Tote.
Simple Savannah Pecan Pie
9″ unbaked pie crust
1 c light corn syrup
1 c firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs slightly beaten
1/3 c butter, melted
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecan halves (or walnuts)
Heat oven to 350. Combine corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, vanilla and mix well. Pour into crust, sprinkle with nuts and bake for 50 min till knife comes out clean. Cool. Add whipped cream, ice cream etc.
Today I welcome Duffy Brown to Terry’s Place. Duffy is the author of the Consignment: Murder series. She’s giving away two “Killer in Crinolines” totes***, so be sure to leave a comment. You have until Friday: winners announced over the weekend.
(***Cat not included***)
