Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Kimberly A. Cook

What Would Hayley Mills Do?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                 (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Growing up in the 1960s there were many role models for women; feminists, stay at home moms, movie stars and women entering the workforce. To say the mixed messages were confusing to young girls is an understatement. 

The 1960s superwoman image and the do it all mantra was trumpeted. Seemed illogical to me. Watching my own mother juggle taking care of a home, two daughters, work two part-time jobs, attend college, lead my Camp Fire Group and hold down the fort while Dad worked out-of-town on long business trips; it became clear to me the “news” might be fibbing. Picking a few roles seemed possible, but not all of them at once.

Who became one of my female role models? Actress Hayley Mills. Watching “The Wonderful World of Disney” on Sunday nights rocked. When her teenage movies came out, I decided I wanted to be like Hayley; a pirate, princess and tomboy. The movie “The Moon-Spinners” had me fall in love with romantic suspense, adventure and Greece. It also introduced me to author Mary Stewart, a lifetime favorite.

From “That Darn Cat!” to “Summer Magic,” I always found a message in her films which spoke to me about being a woman who can take many paths, not just the one society decided I should take. If Hayley could have adventures, travel and do what she wanted, so could I. Being a warrior and a writer would be okay in Hayley’s world. 

Her favorite film of mine is “The Truth ABout Spring,” a British movie she did with her father, actor John Mills, and James MacArthur of the first “Hawaii 5-0” fame. It’s a fun movie about growing up, doing what one needs to make ends meet, and to never give up. There’s always a secret escape route just around the rocks whenever you’re in a jam.

With 2012 heading this way at full speed, I like to ponder what my creativity and life goals will be for the new year. January begins like a clean whiteboard I can diagram with colored pens to my heart’s content. If I get stuck and life seems too complicated or ugly, I can always pull out my secret weapon; what would Hayley Mills do? 

Do you have a childhood role model? It might be time to revisit that person with fresh eyes and find the inspiration you got years ago. Why not? Happy adventures in 2012!

Watch Out For Santa And Rudolph!

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by Kimberly A. Cook                         (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Heading into the holiday weekend I wanted to put my favorite Claymation Christmas video up today. While the Prep & Landing Elves are making final preparations to deploy Santa for Christmas eve, the California Raisins are also going to be out there, courtesy of The Temptations.

With all this air activity going on around the world, the men and women of the U.S. and Canadian militaries staff the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). They have a busy job managing the air space, keeping it clear, coordinated and safe. If you want to follow their expert tracking of Santa, check out http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html They started their countdown on Dec. 2 to make sure all tracking systems are operational.

I took a tour of NORAD while stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado with the Army. One of things I remember is how thorough their military police were in scanning my entire body with the metal detector. Twice. Guess they were just being very careful. Right.

Happy Holidays and a very happy quirky Friday!

Are Creatives Born Or Made?

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By Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Creativity fascinates me.  Since I think of myself as a creative with imagination, the biggest challenge I have is explaining the “process” to other folks. The classic, “where do you get your ideas?” question stumps or terrorizes many a writer.

My answer is where don’t I get ideas? If I keep my eyes and ears open, I’m flooded with input. I consider myself a writing pirate; always looking for writing adventures and seeing buried story treasure everywhere.

Not to get clinical, but I believe creativity is rooted in being a lifelong learner and having the curiosity of a cat. While past public school system curriculum may have taught to primarily left brains, I always knew I was a right brain creative type.   I conformed to get through school, but kept my right brain engaged. Luckily I had many teachers who helped me keep it alive.

A big challenge for creatives is to not lose the sense of wonder and awe we experience on this planet and reinforce our childlike love of play. Before I could read I made up stories to match the pictures in my books. Then movies were my imagination made real in front of my eyes.  Everything from how I decorate my home to my wardrobe are influenced. There are no limits on my brain’s need to explore and make up worlds. 

We are all creatives; some of us might be a bit out of practice or not think of ourselves that way. I know great cooks who make me swoon with the amazing food they produce and wood workers who can make a piece of furniture look so gorgeous I have to caress it. When my plumber or accountant help me out of a jam, they are using their creative right brain in an area I am lacking. Double ditto for all the tech hijinks my IT elf fixes.  

At one conference an ad agency creative director said the hardest part of his job was trying to explain to the company executives who hired their firm how they came up with an ad campaign. You really can’t make a schematic diagram for the creative process – it happens. Like finding buried treasure off the coast of Florida or in your own backyard, you must exercise your creativity muscle – the brain. Music helps me create. I play a special set of creativity music cds when I’m writing; if we only use 10 percent of our brain, I think the music is for the 90 percent of my grey matter responsible for my imagination. Don’t want it to get bored.   

Who can imagine how The Glass Duo in the video began learning the ancient art of the glass harp? How did the first glass harp player start back in Mozart’s day? Think about what you are passionate about and love to do – from writing to travel to your chosen profession – you might realize you’re a creative pirate too!

The Perfect Holiday Gift!

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by Kimberly A. Cook                       (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

What do you get the woman who has everything? A gift certificate to drive a tank! I’ve always wanted to go through the Army’s M1A1 tank driving course where they swim in mud, but this would be a great option until I can make that happen. So in my holiday shopping public service announcement mode, go check out how you can drive a tank.

While I served in the Fourth Infantry Division MECHANIZED (capitalized because it means tanks!), I once rode in an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) coming back in from downrange and got to ride in a big tank being delivered at Fort Carson, Colorado, but I never got to drive. Add a big red bow and we are good to go! Happy Quirky Friday!   

What’s In An Author’s Name?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

When I first started my writing business back in the dark ages, 1997, I tried to get the domain for my name. Taken. Seems my name is quite common and a photographer in Denver already had the domain.  Curses.  So I named my business Warrior Tales and went about my business life.

About five years ago at the Willamette Writer’s Conference, a speaker suggested aspiring writers keep checking for their name domain. So ten years after the fact I checked and it was available. I snapped it up so fast my URL registrar www.dynadot.com almost caught fire.  So www.kimberlyacook.com was mine. Joy in Whoville!

Space Shuttle Atlantis - Photo by NASA

But how did I settle on using my name in its current configuration? Simple. I went to Amazon.com and checked to see how many Kim Cook authors there were. Plenty. That was my byline with the newspaper, but too many folks thought it was a great name for little girls. How about Kimberly Cook? Still a ton. Kimberly A. Cook took the numbers down to a manageable few. That is the exhaustive marketing research I did to figure out what form of my name to use for my first book and career. 

Flash forward to establishing my blog. Since my company name is now considered an “aged domain,” which means its been online so long it holds first place in Google searches. Who knew I’d be rewarded for staying on course like the ol’ tortoise I am. I decided to use my name as the blog domain to increase my author awareness, I write fiction in addition to non-fiction, and I still need to separate myself  from the gigantic “kim cook pack.”

According to Google, a ton of Kimberly Cooks are high-powered divorce attorneys across the nation, except for me.  When one query told me there were 3,350 Kimberly Cooks on Facebook, I knew I needed to build up my name marketing strategy.  Started my blog this past Fall using WordPress and I redirect my name domain to my blog. Truth in advertising: Okay, I did that after three months of trying to get the blog imported to my web site and having numerous nervous breakdowns. I will be hiring tech elves to figure that out. It would’ve been easier for me to launch the space shuttle. If it was still flying…..

But a funny thing happened on my way to marketing savvy. I like to do exhaustive research about my online profile to test how things are going; I Google myself, with and without quote marks. When I started the blog my name/blog pages came up on page 4 of the Google pages.  Part of this is due to the fact my name has been on my web site for eons and I’ve Tweeted for more than a year, so I wasn’t in the weeds on the search page ranking. Checked back three months later and I am on page one.

How in the heck did that happen? Great news, but how? First I had added my blog posts to my Amazon.com author page and Amazon is the big online gorilla on the block. But I accidently did something else right. I think.

When I was reading about blogging, one person noted it was a good idea to put your byline on each blog post in case someone shared it. Some folks wanted to know who had written a shared post and couldn’t easily figure it out. Since I always had a byline when writing for the newspaper, figured it was the right thing to do. Here’s the dumb luck part; it didn’t dawn on me that everytime I post my name is right there in my byline being scanned by the Google spiders. Duh? 

 I like to think my experience gives authors hope about social media. If you make a plan and just keep at it, it pays off. The old adage about “just show up.” I Tweet three times a week all at once and I blog twice a week. That’s it! Just like writing, you have to persevere and keep at it. You too could be an aged domain! Woo Hoo! Or maybe fly a new space shuttle. I’ve always loved the movie Space Camp……

When Engineers Get Into The Spiked Eggnog, This Happens

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by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The holiday season is here and folks are in the mood to drink spirits and celebrate the seasons, whichever season people choose to celebrate. These lighting engineers must have had great fun working on this project. But, geez Mabel, the lighting bill! These are the kind of displays I like to watch and then retreat to my low-key Christmas of shooting off artillery. Enjoy the show! Happy Quirky Friday!