Military Romance Author
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Spring is my favorite time of year and bunnies are everywhere in my house. Ceramic bunnies that is. Here is a favorite video with Snoopy and his bunny friends. On the eve of Easter weekend, it’s time to celebrate the change in season, be thankful for family and friends and especially chocolate.
Have a wonderful weekend and maybe learn the bunny dance yourself. Happy Quirky Friday!
By Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
When I worked on the newspaper, silence was impossible. Between the front door opening with visitors to place ads and fight over stories, the presses running in the next room, 20 phones ringing and the police and fire scanners going off all the time, quiet didn’t exist. I wrote in the middle of noise chaos on deadline.
Writers must focus to create. While taking an online writing class about being a successful writer from Bob Mayer, he asked an interesting question. Where do you write? Which environment? I discovered I write and edit different types of writing in different locations with varying noise levels. It all depends how we have trained ourselves to create.
Writers attach ourselves to keyboards in quiet places to coffee shops and then as published authors have to go out and sell our wares. Different skill sets. Right now I am reading the book Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. She writes about how today’s’ society has made it a requirement to be an extrovert and more than one-third of us are introverts. She wonders what happened to it being okay to think, ponder and listen.
Very interesting book. When we age, we tend to become more of what our type is, not less. So perhaps this is why when we get away from the stress of our day jobs and want to write at home or on the road, us introverted writers seek quiet. Silence to let the muse run wild and catch up with our subconscious.
With all the beeps, tweets, cell phone jingles, cross walk chiming and general noise in everyday life, silence is truly golden. Many times when I write music plays in the background. Then other times I want complete silence, until the cat can’t stand it anymore and knocks a pen off the desk. Have you given yourself the gift of quiet lately?
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
We started spring break here in Oregon with great sunny weather, the day after we were snowed on. So in honor of the rains returning during the middle of this past week, wanted to give a future glimpse of summer for all of us. I played Beach Boy music throughout the snow, so it really does bring the sun. Crank it up!
Happy Quirky Friday!
http://youtu.be/cqxTUxzOceE
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Back in the stone age when I was getting my journalism degree in the 1980s, it seemed most students had a fair idea of how to do research. With the Internet, the challenge for many writers is to make sure we double-check our facts and findings with original sources.
First let’s define an original source, because it’s not Google or Bing. An original source means you spoke to the person directly involved to get information or saw the source documents with your own eyes. Legally, the STP rule applies; when considering which document is valid, signed then typed then printed is the order of precedence. In reporter training, if we uncovered particularly sensitive or new information, we had to verify the information with two sources, not one.
For instance, if an astronomer told us the moon was made of green cheese, we better be chatting up NASA and an astronaut or two for additional confirmation. It’s difficult to know exactly who might be posting information online at any given time. The best way to get good research is to find original sources for information. If you read something on a company website, call and verify the information with the company and ask for permission by email if you want to quote the online source.
People who produce blogs, Tweets, YouTube videos and hang photos on Pinterest all have copyright to their work if they created the writing, photo or video. Copyright infringement is a huge issue with creatives since we earn our living from the gray matter between our ears. Some folks and countries don’t recognize this ownership and can quickly find themselves in court running afoul of lawyers.
One way I like to explain copyright is to imagine you built your dog a very fancy dog house. You spent the time to cut out the wood, nail it together, paint it, get the heating pad and carpeting just right. It’s a doggie palace. Your dog loves it. The next day you go out in your backyard and it’s gone. Your neighbor took it for his dog because he thought it was cool and he doesn’t see a problem. “Building” a book or song or photo or video is the same thing; their our dog houses!
The Associated Press Style Book contains an excellent section on media law and copyright infringement. If you publish online you should read it and own a copy. A favorite quote from the media law section says reporters should never use social media “as a reporting shortcut.” That goes for writers looking for information and research online as well.
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
One of the many joys of summer is the bumper crop of summer movies released. Being the huge Scrat fan that I am, I couldn’t resist highlighting the new trailer for Ice Age 4. Remember, Scrat is an author and the acorn is publishing; always changing, always challenging.
It will be good to check in on the cast and see what our favorites are up to, including Sid the Sloth. Can’t wait for July. I can almost smell the BBQ now. Happy Quirky Friday!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Some writers always know what they want to write about from age three, while others discover they want to write about erotic vampires only after years of trial and error. Other writers have one book published and never write again. Some writers publish in multiple genres and then find their true love; author Bob Mayer is one example. Just like swimsuits, one size does not fit all.
So how do we know what we really want to write? For me, I was hooked after picking up young adult romances from Surfboard Summer to When Boy Likes Girl. Moving on to Harlequin romances in my teens, the happy endings lifted my hopes and made me believe in the power of love. Disney did a fine job of reinforcement with Lady and the Tramp and Hayley Mills brought me full circle in Summer Magic.
Working on my fifth romance manuscript these days, those four under-the-bed romance novels helped me learn my craft. To be a writer we have to write. Odd but funny truth. After my non-fiction writing book was published in 2006, a strange thing happened to my fiction writing; it was tight. Very tight. Seems the discipline of fact-filled writing and teaching on the page was strangling my fiction creation. I needed to let light, senses and joy back in my writing. Fluff it up, so to speak.
This was confirmed when I asked author Suzanne Brockmann to answer three secret questions when I won the bid to have her critique my first chapter. She agreed about the tight prose, I needed to let the writing breathe. So what do we do if we feel strangled by the genre or field we are writing in? Do we get to change?
Author friends of mine do it all the time. Cindy Hiday moved from romance to women’s fiction, Irene Radford Karr switched from romance to fantasy. New York Times bestseller Janet Evanovich moved from romance to mystery and it paid off quite well for her. If we are going to marry a manuscript for the long haul, we better like the vehicle we are riding in. We all know how those road trips with people who make us nuts turn out; not well.
How can we tell if the grinding on our current writing project is slogging in the trenches hard work or we are truly not writing what we want? Here’s a test; do we still love it in the morning? Every morning? If not, it might be time to change. We do get to change; it’s allowed.
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