Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

fiction

Did You See Damian’s Shot?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                   (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Fiction is wonderful to write since we get to create worlds and make fairytale endings come true.  Then sometimes real life provides us with those moments. I think Spec Ops Cat is still trying to get his hearing back after the end of Game 6 on Friday night when Damian Lillard put our Trailblazers into the second round of the NBA Playoffs with the buzzer beater shot.

So for today I am going to revel in that perfect moment and prepare snacks and goodies to watch the Trailblazers and Spurs in Game 1 tonight. Sometimes life is about basketball. Here’s hoping all the teams win, but since that isn’t mathematically possible, here’s hoping the best for our Trailblazers. Rip City!

http://www.nba.com/blazers/video/2014/05/02/BlazersWinLillardclutch3ptmp4-3257826/

 

Is The Writing Always Greener On The Other Writing Project?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

A funny thing happened last month, I started writing again. Not the non-fiction book stuck in the box in the corner, if you remember that project, but my fiction book. Then a weird thing happened.

I wrote the opening few pages of the sequel to the second fiction book in the series. Got it down on paper and out of my head, then went back to the first fiction book. Then another wacky thing occurred; I wrote the story climax of the first book out of sequence and then expanded on it.

Up close and personal with the apple crisp remains.
Up close and personal with the apple crisp remains.

Normally I write fiction straight through from beginning to end. I have a rough outline, plot points and my hero’s journey framework, then I write like a crazy woman. Not this time. I’m engrossed in getting the story climax correct, then will go back and fill in the gaping hole from past the halfway mark to the new writing. I know the ending, so I can then wrap the puppy up. Next I will have to hard edit the whole mess.

I wondered what it meant when the first pages of the second book arrived in my mind, then I figured it out; this first book is ready to be finished. When the next project calls like a siren from the sea, it can mean procrastination, avoidance of grunt work, or the first project is ready to be finished.

Do I have all the plot and action answers for the first book? Not in my conscious mind, but I’m pretty sure my subconscious is figuring it out. When I write, it will be there. This might be the place where I confess the first few pages of the third book in this series were written a couple of years ago.

That third book is going to be a challenge, so I was happy to turn that assignment back to my muse and let her chew on it for a while until I get to it. Speed is not the key in writing these books, staying true to the character’s stories and the series arc is the important focus.

Fiction is fun for me to write. This time it feels like my process is changing and I’m okay with this new adventure.

When I was deciding the Easter lunch menu for this past Sunday, I had a big debate about dessert. I settled on  making both apple crisp with maple nut ice cream and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Everyone decided to have a little of both.

Sometimes with both dessert and writing projects embracing variety is the true spice of life. We can get words down on paper so we don’t lose our new ideas and then go back to our first project. We don’t have to choose one or the other, but we do have to finish one. Then we get dessert!

 

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!

Are Writers Really Swashbuckling Pirates In Disguise?

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by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Waiting for new books from our favorite authors is like the night before Christmas; we hope we get what we asked for and the gift lives up to our fantasies. One of my favorite writers is Elizabeth Gilbert and her new fiction book is titled, “The Signature of All Things.”

http://youtu.be/AgungmlfYwk

Gilbert is famous for her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love,” but her first love is fiction. We have that in common. In the October 2013 issue of “The Oprah Magazine,” there is a wonderful interview with her about her writing life now and how she came to write this book.

A great quote in the article from Gilbert is, “Creativity is a scavenger hunt. It’s your obligation to pay attention to clues, to the thing that gives you that little tweak. The muses or fairies – they’re trying to get your attention.” Writer Katie Arnold-Ratliff does a very nice job of interviewing and profiling Gilbert. Pick up a copy of the magazine if you get a chance.

The scavenger hunt is such a wonderful metaphor for the creative process. It’s also how I buy clothes, shoes and houses; I know it when I see it. The same is true for my story ideas and plot lines. One small book review launched a novel idea and then a series outline. I gather random items into my memory and later a book idea or three spit out. Totally a fun scavenger hunt.

Paying attention is the hard part. With all the distractions, interruptions, noise and tech in today’s world, we have to be diligent to hear our muse speak up and point out clues on our daily journeys. Perhaps that is one of the things I love the most about being a writer, creativity feels a lot like being a pirate in search of booty – even in a grocery store line.

Can’t wait to buy my copy of Gilbert’s book this week, I always get hard copies for my keeper shelf. So climb aboard and raise the sails on the story ship. Fly the Jolly Roger high up on the mast. Let your muse sail into adventure today wherever ye are bound!

Do You Edit On Screen Or Paper?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                    (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Love the smell of school supplies in the morning. This time of year I buy school supplies to re-stock my writer gear, not that I need more but it makes me happy. Got me to wondering about how other folks edit their work. Since I am of the “every manuscript in a three-ring binder” persuasion, in case all the tech goes belly up, hard copy-edit is my preference.

It's school supply time. Stock up your writer supplies. Bet I need more pens, I'm getting low on my stash.
It’s school supply time. Stock up your writer supplies. Bet I need more pens, I’m getting low on my stash.

No matter how many times I look at something on the computer screen, my tricky brain can fill in words that are not even there until I see them in a finished manuscript. Argh! The weight and heft of a binder also lets me feel like I have accomplished something important instead of fonts in space.

When I first started writing fiction I worried about manuscript format, margin width, how many words the book should be, how many lines on a page, how many pages it took to make that many words, double spacing the manuscript, etc. Now I worry about the story. Seems to be the main reason people actually read what we write.

Binders require no batteries, USB ports or charging plug-in to cart it to a quiet spot and focus on editing. In the best of times editing is grunt work, tedious and requires a clear mind. What better way to let your inner critic loose than on paper with a purple ink edit pen – no red ink allowed; too many bad memories from corrected school papers.

So if you haven’t tried the three-ring binder method of manuscript editing, now is the perfect time to get out and purchase some fabulous new school supplies at bargain prices. Patterned binders. With zippers! You might need some paper too. And pens. And erasers. Cute pencil boxes. Not that I have an office supply addiction. Really. Glue sticks. Composition books.

Got school supplies?