Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

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Is Boutique Book Printing The Future Of Publishing?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

A few years ago I found out about the Espresso Book Machine. This fabulous piece of equipment prints a book in front of your eyes. What they’ve done is taken the print on demand machines kept in the warehouses which spit out books ordered online and made them into retail destination machines.

This is great for so many reasons. If you want to print one book, you can do it. If you are on vacation in Melbourne, Australia and you need a copy of your book, you can go to the one there and have it produced for you. Most of these machines are in university bookstores or independent bookstores, but they are spreading across the globe.

They can publish your book and put it in their program, but that is not the same as being with Ingram or a major distributor. But in these times of fiscal issues for all authors, I’ve been seriously considering using this as a way to have paperback books when I need them and focus on having my future ebooks in multiple formats.

Author Bob Mayer said he was seeing his fiction work sell 99 percent in ebooks and non-fiction 50 percent ebook and 50 percent paperback. There will always be a need and room for the paper books, but I want to cut my expenses. With locations around the world, it also makes any author available internationally without having to ship!

Our mega book store in Portland, Powell’s Books, put in an Espresso Book Machine last year. I chatted on the phone recently with the representative. Excellent customer service and I could actually go down and visit with them in person and then watch my first edition non-fiction book print if I wanted. How cool is that?

Check out the company at www.ondemandbooks.com and check out Powell’s page about it at www.powells.com/bookmachine/

Could this be the future of print on demand book publishing?

Who Knew Kangaroos Liked Golf?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The end of another busy week and time for Quirky Friday. In between gearing up for spring cleaning and getting the dreaded taxes finished, anyone up for a game of golf? Never golfed myself, but these kangaroos thought the nice green fairways were the perfect place to grab some snacks.

Best of luck to the two news anchors trying to get through this story about the marsupial invasion of the Australian Women’s Open. Not sure how they mark that on the scoring cards, but I do believe the kangaroos get to play through! Fore! Happy Quirky Friday!

Can Watching Movies Make Us Better Writers?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Over the holidays I spent a lot of time watching Hallmark Christmas movies while getting over a series of colds. After about 3,000 of those little gems, it was time for a change. Seems I’ve put myself on a tv diet. What we put in our head affects how our writer brains work and my imagination was sick and tired of bad news and grim times, including my favorite tv cop shows.

What to do? Movie-therapy!

We all have our favorite movies, but I have a special group I call Kim’s Classics. These are movies I pull out like old friends to come visit; I know we’re going to have a great time. The trailer for “The Hallelujah Trail” above is one of my go to movie picks. It’s got comedy, romance, military strategy, Brian Keith, drinking, miners and Irish teamsters, just to name a few things.

When I first read Syd Field’s “The Screenwriter’s Workbook,” he made the three act screenplay structure so clear and understandable. When I discovered how Chris Vogler took the twelve steps of the Hero’s Journey and put it together with the three act screenplay structure in “The Writer’s Journey; Mythic Structure For Storytellers and Screenwriters,” First Edition, page 18 – I felt I’d discovered the Ark of the Covenant! “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – gang. (Vogler is up to the Third Edition now, I own all of them.)

Using Syd and Chris’s combined structure outline is how I plot my fiction books. It makes plotting very simple for me. I’m one of those “give me the framework pantsers” and let me run with it type of writers, but only after years of writing too freely in all directions and then having to do major rewrites. Not a big fan of major rewrites – my inner journalist gets quite testy. This way I get the turning points and the Hero’s Journey events outlined and then I know where I start, end and avoid the mush in the middle.

The screenwriting classes I took helped me write better dialogue and even more with book structure. Now when I watch movies I look for the turning points and how the Hero’s Journey propels the movie along. See, learning by watching movies can be fun and educational. If you’re having issues with structure, I recommend reading those two books and maybe tattooing parts of them on your body; they’re that good.

Not every writing tool works for every writer, we have to find what works for us by “Trial and Error,” another Kim Classic movie. So dust off those DVDs and VHS tapes and study! Make a batch of popcorn and fire up the remote. What are your favorite classic movies?

Guinea Pigs To The Rescue!

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by Kimberly A. Cook        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

There may not be much creativity in Washington, D.C. these days, but this country rocks when it comes to up and coming filmmakers. Found this gem on YouTube and it made me smile. Besides a good three act storyline complete with character arc, these GPs have got some darn good firing skills.

When the going gets crazy in this country, the crazy go to the Guinea Pigs! Happy Quirky Friday everybody!

Adapting Skills for Writers, Veterans And Rhinos

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by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

When I left the Army I joked I could work for Barnum & Bailey Circus or Mayflower Moving and Storage; supply and logistics training comes in very handy after the military. While we writers are constantly adapting to changes in the publishing world and upgrades in technology, basic skills and training help us to shift our careers and stay relevant in the marketplace.

The same could be said for the military skills of many veterans today. On Thursday night the Animal Planet will start a three-part mini-series about former military members called in to help stop poachers from decimating the White Rhinos in Africa. Once again, adapting.

Watch the video preview here: http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/battleground-rhino-wars/videos/rhino-wars-taking-down-the-bad-guys.htm

I’ve always thought military veterans would make the perfect animal rescue teams specially trained by Humane Societies to work here in the United States and around the world during disasters and wartime situations. The challenges the troops faced fighting in Iraq and coming across the Baghdad Zoo, with some animals caged and some loose, comes to mind.

I wanted to spread the word about this program which I support on many levels; our veterans working after their service working to help save the world’s Rhinos. As animal guardians of the planet, not only must we protect, witness and record animal’s stories, we must make sure the Rhino’s story does not end forever.

If you have time, check out the show Thursday night at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. For more information about the series go to  http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/battleground-rhino-wars

It’s Doggie Dance Friday!

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

It’s been a weird and wild week here and now the sequester-mess. While D.C. tries to get its act together, here is a hard-working little dog showing folks what a true work ethic really means! He does the doggie dance with style and stamina. Let’s salsa!

Hope you’ve had a great week. Happy Quirky Friday!