Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

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Do You Have Writer Persistence?

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by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Cleaning out the papers in my office last weekend , a lifelong quest, I stumbled across my production worksheet for 2013. Very organized, all my writing projects listed, it was a plan. Unfortunately life intervened and not one of those projects got finished.

Persistence gets bulbs out of the ground to become flowers. Make like a bulb and bloom. Spring rocks!
Persistence gets bulbs out of the ground to become flowers. Make like a bulb and bloom. Spring rocks!

But, it does give me a head start on my 2014-2015 to do list! The cliché “life is what happens while you’re making plans” is a cliché because life does happen. The older I get the more I’ve learned to give myself a break, to put on my big girl shoes and keep moving. The universe does respond to action and it’s harder to hit a moving target, so serpentine! as my Drill Sergeant would say.

So it was with heartwarming glee that I read about an author who was rejected 111 times over nine years trying to get his fiction novel “The Lost Get-Back Boogie,” published. When it did get published, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. See, it does happen. Persistence can pay off.

The author? James Lee Burke. A co-worker at the day job was reading his book, “In The Moon of Red Ponies.” I’m always spying on what people are reading; market research. She told me his words were “strung together like silk.” Now that makes me sit up and stare. What writer wouldn’t kill to have a reader describe their prose that way?

Needless to say, I will be getting a book or two of his to put in my read pile. Whenever I get a little blue about where my writing career is not going, these kind of success stories lift my spirits and make me keep chugging along. Am I doing this for the money? Hell no. I write because I must, pure and simple.

If I can entertain and educate along the way, that’s gravy. Maybe one day I too will be one of those 45-year overnight successes. It could happen! Be persistent with your writing dreams, they might come true. Surprise yourself.

Link:      http://jamesleeburke.com/about_the_author.html

Have You Pruned Your Writing Lately?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last Friday we had a sunny day. Since the monsoons were rolling in Saturday, I jumped out into the yard first thing and pruned my roses. Since I’m not really sure what I’m doing, I’d looked at how the landscapers pruned my Mom’s roses. Pretty severe.

Rose bushes before the great prune-off .....
Rose bushes before the great prune-off …..

Hacking away at the poor bushes reminded me of editing. Like the time I threw out two-thirds of a fiction manuscript and started over. Painful but necessary. It got me to thinking of the top three edits writers need to make, but many times do not. I know these three because I have done them all and still do; then I have to self-prune my writing.

1. Back story overload: Because you know everything about your character from her favorite nail polish to her indigestion issues does not mean the reader needs to know it. We create our characters so we can react how our characters would react and know their motivations. DO NOT put every single item about your character in the book or the first chapter. Sprinkle observations and quirks throughout the manuscript to unfold layers of your heroine and let the reader get to bond with her. Do not overshare or for the younger set do not TMI. (Too much information!)

2. Research hurling: This is a close cousin to back story overload. Research hurling means the writer throws every single tidbit they discovered about the time period, horse carriages, leather harness, brass wax and currier combs into the story. Stop the madness! Pick important details which move the story forward or provide some scene setting but don’t slow down the story. If you get bored editing it, a reader will be comatose.

3. Starting before the action: Everybody does this, really. Then the good writers edit it out. The reader does not need to know exactly what year, political structure or cult history brought the hero to this point in his life – we need to know what is happening right now. Instead of explaining the entire history of the Reno Rodeo, how about starting with the hero trying to escape from the pounding hooves of the bull he’s been thrown from onto the dirt. Drop the history stuff in later as the story requires or if it is important to the character arc. If it doesn’t advance the story, don’t use it.

Self-editing is one of the hardest things to do for beginning writers and all writers. But the more times you edit, the better you become at letting your story free from the overgrowth of deadwood which doesn’t let it grow. Hopefully like my pruned rose bushes. Prune away!

Rose sticks afterwards. Stay tuned for June!
Rose sticks afterwards. Stay tuned for June!

Can You Take A Photo Field Trip From Your Front Porch?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Slogging away on the treadmill Sunday I spied the first robin of the season. Then I saw another and another and another; there were a gaggle of robins. The field across the road seemed to be robin snack central. Since I heard crickets for the first time Saturday night, seemed like a possible reason.

Robin looking for crickets by a mud puddle across from my front porch. Pretty bird!
Robin looking for crickets by a mud puddle across from my front porch. Pretty bird!

So I grabbed both cameras and took a long jaunt on a photo field trip – to my front porch to be exact. Sat down on the top step and proceeded to take pics of the birds. The camera I carry with me all the time is a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph. Adore this camera, even though it only has a 3.8x zoom lens and 7.1 mega pixels. Bought a pink camera case for it at www.cutecamcase.com which has a backup battery slot pouch too, always need one of those.

Since I was too lazy to go out in the rain and get wet, I brought in the big gun for backup: the Canon PowerShot SX200 with a 12x zoom. While the 12.1 mega pixels are great on this camera, it has just enough heft that I can’t carry it in my purse all the time, but I love the long zoom lens.

The better zoom lens shows the difference between a gaggle of robins in a field and getting up beak and personal with the feathered friends. Photography and writers go together; we capture scenes not only in our imagination but in everyday life too and regurgitate those images into writing. Better than eating worms, but the same premise pretty much.

I’ve developed a camera collection by accident since I can’t let go of my 35mms I used on the newspaper. I’m getting ready to make an actual display shelf to show off my camera collection; I still have the 110 camera I carried in my empty ammo pouch during Army basic. Then there is the whole new world of folks taking smart phone pics too, but I find it impossible to give up my wide-angle lenses and zooms – photo details rule!

Have you taken a photo field trip from your porch or front door lately? Give it a try!

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!

Four Marketing Lessons From The Budweiser Puppy

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest marketing platforms on the planet. That’s one reason why I watch the tv commercials so closely. Ad folks at the top of their creative game come to play. The take away for book marketing is always educational.

Budweiser Puppy Tweeting on a very large keyboard!
Budweiser Puppy Tweeting on a very large keyboard!

Four classic marketing rules were demonstrated by the Budweiser Puppy ad this year:

One: Babes, Beauties and Beasts: Working on the newspaper it was widely known pictures of babies – (i.e.*etrade),  good-looking men or women – (GoDaddy) and beasts, (Budweiser Puppy, Clydesdales) always resonate with readers. Us humans like to see pint-sized people, pretty people and fun animals. Score one for Madison Avenue using the age-old rule since the time of the real “Mad Men.”

Two: Hold the viewer/reader to the screen with feeling: We adore the puppy who finds a friend, is taken away from his home and buddies, then rescued by his buds and brought back home. Not one shot of a beer bottle.  Budweiser knows they are selling a feeling, commitment, brand loyalty and family and friends, not a bottle of beer.

Same with selling books. We writers are selling escape, education, thrills, solving problems, providing comfort and laughter.  It’s not really a book or a bottle of beer; our books offer an experience, touch feelings and/or help fix problems.

Can’t get much more heart-string pulling than a puppy, unless it’s the homecoming parade for the soldier from Afghanistan Budweiser used as their second commercial. We still have troops at war and when only his wife greets him when he comes home, then everybody is there it’s a tear-jerker. Besides the fact a crowd like that might freak out a returning combat vet it does send a heartfelt message. (By the way, women veterans come home too and I don’t see much of that, note to advertisers.)

Three: Use the three-act play structure for commercials, movies or books. Commercials are mini-mini movies or short, short stories but the same plotting and structure needs are present. The Budweiser puppy commercial has a set up, turning point and climax complete with a dog adopter villain and a happy ending all in 60 seconds flat. The B-story line sets up a possible human romance too.

Four: Social Media is here to stay and both Super Bowl ad and book launch campaigns require planning. The Budweiser Puppy Love Super Bowl ad was released online Wednesday, by Thursday it had gone viral and the Budweiser Puppy had his own Twitter account and was tweeting. According to the #HashTag Bowl, in 2012 only 25 percent of Super Bowl ads used hashtags, this year hashtags were used by more than 50 percent of the advertisers. So Twitter is here to stay and that Budweiser doggie is one smart social media puppy! #BestBuds

Links:

Budweiser Puppy Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/BudweiserPuppy

Budweiser Puppy Wins Super Bowl! http://marketingland.com/1-3-million-shares-budweiser-puppy-love-ad-declared-years-super-bowl-winner-72922

Twitter Rules Hashtag Bowl http://marketingland.com/game-over-twitter-mentioned-in-50-of-super-bowl-commercials-facebook-only-8-google-shut-out-32420

Which Cat Food/Book Publishing Option Is For You?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Sometimes there are just too many choices. Last month when my family life was crazy, Spec Ops Cat decided to get in on the act and he got very sick. Long story short he is much better, but not before I opened 22 cans of cat food, baby food, tuna and spent big bucks at the veterinarian on my favorite pussy cat.

Cat food refrigerator chaos!
Cat food refrigerator chaos!

My vet had me try many different kinds and brands of food to get him to eat. I cooked up everything from poached fresh chicken breast to Fancy Feast blue can Chicken Primavera; which when I popped off the can top I would have eaten it. Cat? No. In the end, when Spec Ops Cat finally decided to eat one of his regular brands, Friskies salmon shreds with gravy, I of course did my happy dance out of his sight so as not to scare him.

Now a wad of cash and happy cat later, the varieties of cat food reminds me of today’s publishing environment. (How’s that for a transition?) You can go from poached fresh chicken – Smashwords, to baby food – independent print on demand, or choose basic cat food – CreateSpace, or move on up to traditional publishing with Fancy Feast. Pretty much the choices can make your head explode.

Reminds me of an episode from the book “Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko,” by John Barron – a defecting Mig pilot who was taken to an American store thought they had made it just for him. He’d never seen so many choices of toothpaste! We Americans do like our choices.

So while I’m trying to figure out what to be and write when I grow up and all the publishing choices overwhelm me, luckily author/former Green Beret Bob Mayer writes a great blog post about what he sees coming in hybrid publishing. Bob reminded me that in the end it all doesn’t matter if you don’t actually FINISH a book or poem or short story.

There’s the rub of it. So my action plan is to finish the manuscripts and then worry about what choice of cat food/book publishing option I will take from the menu; which will probably have more choices by then. First things first as author Stephen Covey would say.

And that is why when it comes to which publishing option is best for any author, I can refer people to the cat food aisle. Pick what is best for you and your book. Or ask a cat for advice, but remember; cats don’t shop, they have staff.

Bob Mayer’s Blog Post here: http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-illusions-of-traditionalself-publishing-the-reality-of-hybrid-publishing/