Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

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Can Excel Help Right Brain Fiction Writers Control Their Characters?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

My fiction characters are running amuck. Even with the best of intentions, I realized they were getting beyond me in the current book. Remembered a tool author Linda Needham told me about. She has a humongous whiteboard in her office and uses different colored sticky notes to represent the characters in each chapter. That way she can see who is where.

My whiteboard is on the small size, so not enough room. I decided to use an Excel spreadsheet instead. Now, I’m one of the those right brains who would rather dig slit trenches than use Excel, but I’ve learned détente. Actually, the thought of using different colors really won me over.

Fun with Excel, highlighters and crayons. One way to herd your fiction characters.
Fun with Excel, highlighters and crayons. One way to herd your fiction characters.

Gathered up my horde of highlighter pens and crayons and off I went. Put chapter numbers on the top and lines for character names and colors on the side. Then I proceeded to start from chapter one and work my way through the manuscript. Using 8 1/2″ x 14″ paper I can get about 27 chapters on a sheet.

Each character is assigned their own color. Also came up with the idea to draw a circle when a character is mentioned so I can fix or expand that on editing. Managed to get about 17 chapters dissected this past weekend. Found out I had more walk-on characters than I realized. Seems new people are always jumping into this book.

Not sure I’m getting a true handle on my characters, but it is helping me realize who is where and get reacquainted with all the folks running around on the pages. If this tool works for you, yeah. If not, no problem.

The coloring part is fun. I love the smell of crayons in the afternoon!

Are You One With The Feline Force?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

It’s been a week that makes you want to stay in bed and hide under the covers. So as we head into the weekend, time for some wacky antics. Stumbled upon this video and think it’s great.

Also wanted to let folks know that on “My Cat From Hell,” on Animal Planet this Saturday night at 8 p.m. Jackson Galaxy will be taking on the Portland Pussycat Lux, whose owners called 911. It seems Lux is a very complicated cat and put Jackson to the test.

Have a great weekend and hug your pets! Happy Quirky Friday!

How Can One Author/Writer Survive The Publishing Wars?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                     (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Don’t know if you’ve been following the fight between author and tv personality Stephen Colbert and his publisher vs. Amazon.com. Colbert basically declared war on Amazon.com last week since they would not honor pre-sales, plus other things. In a nice twist of fate, Colbert told everyone to go to www.Powells.com (Powell’s Books) here in Portland to order a book by a new author.

Gear up writers and authors! Protect your writing assets! (Me in an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) back in my Army days - such a long story)
Gear up writers and authors! Protect your writing assets! (Me in an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) back in my Army days – such a long story)

Boy howdy that worked. In fact, Powells.com barely had a heads up from the tv show staff before their servers came grinding almost to a halt to keep up with the order demand. As I watched the videos and read the online articles about the skirmish, I wondered what are a few of the things I’ve accidentally done over the years to survive this juggernaut of digital publishing madness. Besides chocolate, that is.

1. Built my own web site and kept it. Like the authors wrote in “Write. Publish. Repeat.”  anything can change, go out of business or be bought in a nanosecond, including this blog. Stake a claim for your career on the Internet and S.P.U.D. – an acronym from one of our former search and rescue deputies – stay put until you die. I ended up with an “aged domain” and top page ranking in Google just by keeping my web site real estate since 1997 or the Pleistocene era, whichever you prefer.

2. Check back. Things change. When I first started my writing business my very common name URL was taken. Rats. So I built the business around Warrior Tales. Several years ago at the Willamette Writers Conference, a speaker mentioned to recheck to see if your name becomes available later. Queried that night, it was and I bought it! Since my name is very common, in 1997 I first checked Amazon.com to see how many authors had my name – holy moly – a ton. So I used my entire name with middle initial to get some separation between moi and the herd of other Kim Cooks online.

3. Self-publishers buy your own ISBNs. When I get ready to launch my ebooks extravaganza, having my own ISBNs means that no matter what Amazon.com, nook.com, itunes.com, kobo.com and the partridge in the pear tree do in the future, I can retrieve my digital work and move it to another home; the ISBN will always be tied to me and I won’t have to keep sending new ISBNs to readers to hunt for in the grand future of digital words.  After all, we are all pretty much publishers now going our own way in this new adventure.

4. Keep writing. No matter what. Doesn’t matter if you have to take breaks to handle life’s roller coaster events, write when you can. The other day I asked myself if I got abducted by aliens never to return, the space kind not the green card kind, what would I regret? Besides not having the exclusive story on the whole alien thing? Not getting my stories written. So, write on!

(See Colbert wage war with Amazon.com)   http://on.cc.com/1xd6bRS

(View Author Sherman Alexie chime in on the debacle.)   http://on.cc.com/1xd660r

Once A Paratrooper, Always A Paratrooper

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by Kimberly A. Cook                            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion and my hat is off to Jim ‘Pee Wee” Martin. This 93-year-old paratrooper jumped in again with troops of the current 101st Airborne. A salute and heartfelt thanks to all World War II veterans, men and women, and all who worked on the home front to keep us free.

See the video and story at the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/world/europe/d-day-paratrooper-jumps-again/

 

U.S. Navy Back At Fleet Week In Portland

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by Kimberly A. Cook                        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last year for the first time in memory, U.S. Navy ships did not attend Fleet Week during the Portland Rose Festival due to federal budget issues. But they are back Thursday to help us thank the active duty sailors, let locals tour the ships and honor veterans.

There are always some challenges getting these big ships more than 120 miles upstream to moor in the exact center of downtown Portland. I’ve seen masts snapped, near misses from turning ships around in the channel and all kinds of fun things. It’s a delicate ballet of tugs and river pilots and Navy bridge personnel making it all work. The Coast Guard protects the big ships while they are in port and the Portland Fire Department boats welcome them with spray and colored water. It’s a blast!

We also have Canadian Navy military ships, U.S. Coast Guard ships to tour, the restored PT boat and a pirate ship or two. It’s a great event and so many fun things to see, including the oldest Rose Show in the nation. It’s just not June without Rose Festival in full swing.

What I love best is people watching. If you park yourself on a bench down near the waterfront, you can see the whole world go by and hear many different languages. A writer loves nothing more than eavesdropping on regular folks to get great quotes.

So while you may have festivals and fairs in your area, go check them out. Not only can you research and have fun, there are always tons of snacks available. Around here we also get to watch the Dragon Boat races held in the Willamette River, right by all the ships. Rose Festival Ho!

www.rosefestival.org

Received A Snail Mail Card Recently?

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by Kimberly A/ Cook               (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The sun is out and it’s going to be a nice weekend here in Oregon. Yeah! Ate my first ripe strawberry out of my garden this week, so life is good. I also have a new favorite tv show to watch; “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” on the Hallmark Channel.

It’s about Fictional Postal Detectives in the Dead Letter Office who reunite letters, packages and people with the important things they mail. The characters are quirky, so of course I love it! Take a look at the promo for the series to give you an idea.

Have a great weekend and Happy Quirky Friday!