Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

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What Is The Best Food For Rain?

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by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The weather guessers say we are getting rain today. Normally this would not be a major deal in Oregon, but we haven’t had a good soaking in almost three months. We’re pretty much talking Ark ramifications here in my home state.  Our Duck web toes and Beaver tails are pretty dry and cracked.

Since I just picked my last three Fall strawberries from my patio garden on Monday, I kid you not, I guess it’s time to welcome the monsoons. One of the best ways for me to enjoy the dark damp season here is to concentrate on food; favorite comfort food. So for this Quirky Friday I give you S’mores engineering. Make sure your pantry is stocked for the winter! Happy Quirky Friday!

Can You Capture The Best Tech To Build Your Media Empire?

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

My name is Kim and I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I yell at my new cell phone when I can’t figure out how to answer a phone call, then later gush in amazement when the digital photo I uploaded to Costco prints as a fabulous poster. Welcome to digital ditzy.

One of the main reasons I changed to an Android phone, besides the fact Blackberry was sinking, is I wanted to use the Square. www.square.com For those not in the know, the Square is this fabulous little white cube you plug into a smart phone or iPad. (Not a Blackberry) Square processes credit cards, charges you a small fee, then delivers money in your bank account the next day. Nirvana for those of us with BORS (back of room sales) for physical books.

Mourning Dove in my backyard birdie spa.

I read business news to see what other digital developments might help make me more moola. An announcement that Starbucks will be taking mobile payments from Square at their 7,000 corporate-run stores in November perked me up. Pun intended. Starbucks invested $25 million in Square in August to adopt the technology and process all its credit and debit payments.As goes Starbucks, so go I. Learning from the best includes business advice as well as writing advice. Starbucks will be using Square’s Wallet app so you can pay with your phone, no cube needed. Square also launched their online directory last Wednesday so you can find which of the 200,000 vendors use Wallet app right now; it will even point you to the closest Starbucks. A necessity for all writers.

Square was founded in 2009 by CEO Jack Dorsey, the same guy who invented that other little app, Twitter. And next summer those using the Wallet app will be able to tip their barista. Another great idea.

So while I’m having fun thinking about being an author/publisher wallet app vendor in the future who can sell ebooks anywhere in the world, I’m also keeping my eye on Mark Cuban, the “Shark Tank” guy. Cuban invested $1 million in a Portland startup company here called Little Bird. www.getlittlebird.com

“Little Bird (as in “a little bird told me…”) helps find and reach online experts on any topic. It’s aimed at marketers and others seeking to reach and communicate with people who have influence in a given community,” said The Oregonian article by Mike Rogoway on Oct. 6. Another little Portland company also kicked in some bucks, our own Wieden+Kennedy ad firm.

What better place for an author to be than up close and in tight with a Little Bird and a Square? In the spirit of business, success and “putting a bird on it,” follow the money!

Got Stress? Think Outside The Cupcake!

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

It’s been one of those weeks. I admit I’ve returned from lunch where I had a chocolate mousse shooter dessert at our local Applebee’s. Sometimes chocolate really is the only answer. Whether in cookie or cupcake form, it works.

When life gives you big challenges or bumps in the road, you have to learn to think outside the cupcake. So in case you need to “Keep Calm and Eat A Cupcake,” here is how to do it. Happy Quirky Friday!

How Much Energy Does Creativity Take?

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by Kimberly A. Cook      (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last Friday’s Quirky Friday video post of hamsters running themselves in circles got me thinking about my writing career. Note the resemblance. While many times we writers feel we are running in circles, part of the time we actually are making screaming car tire donuts in our minds, complete with smoke.

A recent head conversation went this way. “I want to shut down my Facebook account. Just because I am supposed to be on Facebook, doesn’t mean I have to. I prefer Twitter. But I don’t really interact with my Twitterai or Tweeters. Don’t have the time. And who actually reads this anyway?” (Besides Cindy and Janet that is.)

“Between the day job, volunteer activities, writing business, sleep, housework and family obligations, who is in charge of this chaos? Me. Well piffle. How much energy can I afford to spend on social media and networking and blogging if I can’t carve enough time to write?”

If you think this head talk is bad, you should be in my gray matter when my fiction characters take after each other. Yikes. They tend to fight when I am trying to answer questions at a fast food drive through speaker box. Challenging!

Speaking as a former journalist who worked in a busy press room with police and fire scanners going, people yelling at the front counter, flashes from the camera room and the press banging out papers in the back, you’d think chaos would work for me. At the newspaper we were all working as a team toward getting the paper out. One group goal.

As an author/writer/publisher, I am doing all that stuff without staff and a team of other priorities tearing at me for a zillion different goals. While killer discipline is a good thing, it doesn’t really work when the cat needs to be fed and your family has a crisis. We women writers can put everybody else before us until there is no us left. Then we hit a wall and fall over. Do not do that, it leaves marks on your forehead.

My new motto is do more and less. More of what I want to spend my time on and less of what I don’t like. Teeth cleaning and paying taxes are still required, but not everything is a must do. So lower your expectations and save some energy for your creativity.

Sometimes the best way to survive your life and the fast approaching holiday season is to do less or leave altogether; exit stage left like the cartoon character Snagglepuss above. Figure out how to take a writer retreat and do it now. One hour works! The mind you save may be your own. Got comments?

Take Yourself For A Spin?

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by Kimberly A. Cook        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Trying to get myself back on track and in gear again after a great month of summer weather. We still have high temperatures and tomatoes ripening on the vine, but cool weather is creeping closer, along with forest fire smoke. There are even rumors of rain in a week.

Times like these it pays to take a lesson from our furry friends. These wild and wooly hamsters are having a blast going for a spin, without even leaving their abode. Sometimes you just have to put the paw to the metal and enjoy the G forces.

Holy crumb cakes little guys, you are mov’in! I’m sure these thrill seeking hamsters would make great fighter pilots or astronauts! Happy Quirky Friday!

Have You Given Your Brain A Break Today?

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last night I listened to a radio program about how our tech toys and tools are making us forget to play. We’re so plugged in we can’t unplug and unwind. If we can’t play our creative muse will take a walk. Maybe it’s time to back away from the tech.

Spec Ops Cat demonstrates one way to daydream using the advanced mastery pose.

Recently I switched from a Blackberry cell phone to an Android. We are still getting used to each other, but what has overwhelmed me is the number of apps available on the thing. Who on the planet has time for all these apps?

There are a few apps I see doing good things, like the PTSD Coach app the Department of Veterans Affairs has come up with to help veterans manage their PTSD symptoms. Yes, there is an app for that, see here http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/7895/mobile-app-helps-veterans-manage-ptsd/

The ebook apps work for me, of course. But I’m not sure why AT&T thinks I need 10 different apps to manage my account. They came loaded on the phone. There are the apps to check up on the other apps. While I am enjoying my new tool, I really am able to shut it off and put it to bed. It needs a nap and so do I.

On Sunday I actually sat on the lawn swing in the back yard for a few hours and read an old school paperback book. Outside. Natural light. No batteries required. Amazing. With all the demands of our busy world, our creative brains need a break. Daydreaming is required work for writers. We need brain down time to let our subconscious run free in the woods and solve our writing dilemmas.

Perhaps the increase in yoga and meditation these days is to give our brains a chance to unplug from the non-stop digital streams and just be a brain. No batteries needed. Give your brain a break today. Go play!