Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Writing Muse

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.

http://youtu.be/3_xUoXQ0YQo

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

What Type Are You?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Back in the ancient days, I was a business trainer for the federal government. Some of the fun things we did were take tests to know ourselves better and help teach others. Enjoyable tests, not the SATS or anything. One I really enjoyed was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.

We answered questions on a large form and then our results came back to tell us which of the 16 “types” we were. The great thing is there are no wrong answers and it explains a lot about group and family dynamics. Mine came back as an INFJ, which translates into a writer and emotional sponge. Always good to know.

Moon pic from last night since today is the Corn Planting Moon. What type of plant are you?
Moon pic from last night since today is the Corn Planting Moon. What type of plant are you?

One of the best books we used is “Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type” by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. Not only does this book help you for your own career choices, but it is a goldmine for information to use when creating characters.

The four letters specify if you are an Extrovert or Introvert, Sensing or Intuitive, Thinking or Feeling and Judging or Perceiving. When you get all the combinations possible, it ends up being sixteen.

Each personality type and their motivations are explained in a chapter in the book. Perfect for building fiction characters, figuring out yourself and your family. My sister had taken the test  at one time and we found out we were exact opposites except we both wanted to be in charge. That explained a lot about our childhood! There is usually always one type opposite from the other types in any given biological family. The cliché of a black sheep in the family might really mean a different type!

Learning about ourselves as writers and how we fit into the world is fascinating from a creative and personal standpoint. What type are you?

(P.S. I know I’m a day late posting, but the Trailblazers won Game 4 with their backs against the wall! Rip City!)

 

Is Procrastination Part Of The Writing Process?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Of course. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Spent last Thursday night through Monday morning snowed and iced in at home. Late start at the day job Monday and my trusty Subie got me safely back to that job. Let’s review what I accomplished over the long weekend.

Perfect procrastination by taking pink flamingo pics. Yes, I have a heater in the bird bath. A.k.a. birdie spa is very popular with my feathered visitors.
Perfect procrastination by taking pink flamingo pics. Yes, I have a heater in the bird bath. A.k.a. birdie spa is very popular with my feathered visitors.

Cleaned out my front room and rearranged the furniture in it, tried on all my dresses and will be donating a bunch, cleaned and organized my linen closet, took snow pictures, cleaned the kitchen, purged my magazines, watched a movie plus lots of Olympics coverage and some non-stop tv snow news. What did I not do? Write or clean my disaster of an office/craft studio.

So if I am literally snowed in and I don’t clean my office or write what does that mean? It doesn’t feel fun? Sorting paper is never enjoyable and that is what I have to do in the home office. Since I crammed the craft room into the home office banker boxes have exploded out into the hallway and taken up residence.

They are really bugging me, but obviously not enough. One of my favorite bloggers/artists www.susanbranch.com says Mark Twain said procrastination is part of the creative process. Well Holy Cow Cakes I must have a dozen novels backed up in my subconscious.

I’ve decided to whittle away at the boxes by dragging one over to the LaZBoy each night and sorting during Olympics coverage commercials. Maybe that will do it. The writing part? Half of the office/craft room feels fun, the craft part, the other half is cluttered and feels like work. My muse is not happy with the environment. It can get snippy.

Clutter does cause stress and creative chaos. So maybe when I finish the gargantuan paper sort and get my creative craft nest organized my muse will be happy. We shall see. If not, I can always blame Mark Twain!

See the snow was one thing, but when the freezing rain showed up on top of the snow, everything stopped; except my cleaning binge!
See the snow was one thing, but when the freezing rain showed up on top of the snow, everything stopped; except my cleaning binge!

How About A Thanksgiving Writing Retreat?

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by Kimberly A. Cook       (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Here comes turkey day and then the slippery slope to holiday festivities. In amongst all the carting, preparing, eating and clean-up, perhaps we can all steal some time to write. At some point we may try to lock ourselves in the coat closet anyway, given too much people time, but just in case make a back-up plan to steal some sacred writing time away from the chaos of the season.

The classic Libby's recipe pumpkin pies from my very own kitchen. Can you smell the joy?
The classic Libby’s recipe pumpkin pies from my very own kitchen. Can you smell the joy?

To get us started in the right direction, read these Thoughts on Writing from Elizabeth Gilbert at http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/thoughts-on-writing/  Yes, we know I am a huge fan of hers, but with good reason. She seems so sane. And funny!

An article about her in the Nov/Dec 2013 “Poets & Writers” magazine said she didn’t write for three years while she researched her newly released fiction book. Three years! Fabulous. Here I was worried about sticking my non-fiction book in a box for a couple of months. (http://www.pw.org/content/novemberdecember_2013)

Every one of us has to find our own writer’s path. It’s like cleaning the cat’s litter box – we have to do it because the cat sure isn’t about to scoop poop, he’s got staff. Writers are our own staff and everything else – logistics! (And no, UPS will not write our books. Deliver them? Yes.)

With the changes I am making with knitting, combining my craft and writing spaces, plus focusing on what makes me happy and ignoring the rest, my muse is waking up from slumber. The creative power is eeking back into my veins and I might actually be a tad more pleasant to be around these days, Frustrated creatives are cranky people to be sure, I know this because my family has told me so.

So whether you are participating in the holidays at a DefCon 5 level or ignoring them completely, both are allowed, give yourself the gift of writing time. Plus pumpkin pie of course!

P.S. Turkey Bonus: For the three of you on the planet who don’t know about www.blackfriday.com, you can do shopping recon of the after turkey day ads right now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tighten Your Seatbelt, Here Come The Holidays!

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by Kimberly A. Cook                         (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Chatting with a friend recently whose decided to concentrate on her quilting during the holidays. Such a great idea. Focus is a challenge for us creatives on any given day, but the holidays add a special spice of chaos to the normal distractions. Squirrel! Santa! Cookies! Icky weather! Gifts! You get my drift – pun intended.

Field trips can happen in your backyard. Dashing to work I saw this and snapped two photos. First October frost.
Field trips can happen in your backyard. Dashing to work I saw this and snapped two photos. First October frost.

At lunch with the family in August I asked us to map out the holidays – folks were a little taken aback, but I said it will be here before we know it and voila! When the Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day decorations are all crashing together in the stores right now, overwhelmed is a normal reaction for us.

I cope by surrendering in early August. Like a runaway stagecoach, holidays happen. I make my plans, try to keep things simple and pick ways to celebrate to make it fun and focus on using my off time from the day job for creative activities. Everything from baking cookies to sorting beads and egad, reading, make the list. Keeps my muse well fed and out of the Grinch cranky zone.

Add in the recent time change this past weekend and all I want to do is curl up with a book, blankie, bottle of chocolate milk and hibernate. So planning fun things to do to feed my muse and taking some time for myself is job one during the holiday season.

“Try to do one thing a day for yourself,” my sister told me recently. Actually she said two, but it’s the holidays. Simplify! These are not big things, but small tokens of time which reinvigorate our creative soul and keep us from losing balance. Lunch out with a friend, taking leaf pictures, buying a new writer magazine, actually sitting down on a weekend afternoon and reading, plus watching football or Hallmark movies all work for me.

Keep your muse in mind this holiday season and take it out for a few field trips. See how doing less means more for your creative health. Slow down and smell the leaves, cider or holiday cookies. Be a kid again. Unleash the crayons!

Are All Pumpkins And Writing The Same?

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by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Got together with my writer support group this past weekend. We always have interesting conversations. One topic included how writers trained in one type of writing can run into roadblocks and challenges switching to another style of writing.

Pumpkin pallooza! Took a couple of these fun baby pumpkins home with me from The Barn in Northeast Portland - each has their own personality.
Pumpkin pallooza! Took a couple of these fun baby pumpkins home with me from The Barn in Northeast Portland – each has their own personality.

Isn’t all writing the same? Nope. On the newspaper it seemed pretty clear; news, editorial, feature and sports writing were all different animals. News would be like a police report with more details, editorial an opinion supported by evidence, features were true short stories and sports a combination of feature and news with more storytelling.

When a  journalist tries to write memoir, they can fall down Alice’s rabbit hole. Trained to be objective and keep personal thoughts and feelings out of reporting, a memoir requires running naked for all the world to see including thoughts, feelings and (gasp) our personal emotions. It takes time and practice to master the switch.

The same goes for fiction, poetry, short stories, screenwriting, non-fiction and blogs. Each writing type requires different care and feeding. No two writers are alike. Or pumpkins. Imagine if everyone only liked one type of writing? Boring. If there was only one way to carve or decorate a pumpkin or if all pumpkins had to be the same size and shape? Really boring.

Writing genres and pumpkins have a lot in common. No two are really the same and every reader gets to choose their favorite. Pumpkin or book. Or comic. Or YouTube video. Are writers allowed to change pumpkins, er genres? Yes. Will it require homework and study? Yup. Should that stop us? No.

All writing improves the craft, even if we find out we don’t want to write fiction or non-fiction or ad copy. That is part of the process. So when you are picking out your favorite pumpkin and admiring the creations displayed this week remember; in writing and pumpkins – variety is the spice in writing – or something like that. Happy Halloween!