Military Romance Author
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
I can’t seem to get my act together with a trash compactor these days, so today’s late post will feature some oldie but goodie photographs. Have a ton of new photos to share from recent adventures, but can’t get on top of things. Stay tuned, some day I might get organized. Maybe.
Then we need to add some beauty to our visual break.
And last but not least, every writer needs a wingman, so here is mine, Spec Ops Cat.
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Between fighting the creeping crud the last three weeks, dark nights, wind, rain, holiday craziness, news nightmares, and a neighborhood zoning fiasco that would break Ghandi’s patience, it’s Holiday Time Out Time.
What do I do when the Grinch grumpies hit this time of year? I have a plan of attack. First I bake. Food therapy. Sunday’s treat of choice was a box mix of poppy seed muffins. Perfect. I used up some leftover milk and all I had to do was stir.
After tons of time watching the Barefoot Contessa on HGTV, I use the big scoop to transfer the batter from the bowl to the muffin tins. Works like a charm. Much faster too. I do the same for cookie batter except I use the smaller scoop. Tip: you have to push the round dough balls down for cookies. Took me awhile to figure that out, had cookie globes for a bit.
Next on the agenda is to move. While I may need to have the LaZBoy surgically removed from my butt after this siege and replenish my tissue stockpile, moving is the key to getting energy and endorphins.
I always like to start with what’s bugging me the most in the house. Sunday it turned out to be the toilet bowls. Yucky. After a quick cleaning I felt much better and happier. Sometimes it’s the dishes, or vacuuming or piles of mail, but this time it was the toilet bowls.
Then I get on the treadmill for at least ten minutes. When you’re trying to get energy back you have to expend energy. It’s some stupid physics law, but it’s true. Always add my workout tunes – disco to movie themes – and that helps too. Grinchy moods don’t like music.
Then I work up to walking twenty to thirty minutes a day. It really helps having a treadmill in the Oregon monsoon season, since we have flood warnings this week I prefer to walk inside instead of using a scuba suit and rubber raft.
Third action on the Grinch grumpies be gone list is to create. Anything. It can range from my holiday shopping list to printing out photos or gluing on the top bead to the mini Christmas tree that fell off. Wrapping a present works too.
Any hands on activity helps the left brain relax and the right brain engage. Another reason I’m taking my knitting back to the day job. Knitting also keeps me from eating since it’s hard to snack and eat at the same time as it mucks up the yarn. A good way to prevent too much holiday grazing.
Last but not least I review my gratitude list. Since I write down five things every night I’m grateful for, it’s always a good time to sit and ponder any time of day and reflect on my blessings. Some days it’s clean toilet bowls, kitty hugs, friends, family and sleeping in on a day off.
And today it’s knowing there are some fine folks out there willing to read my little blog and make comments or likes and communicate with me. Those are Big Magic Moments Thank you. And before I know it the Grinch grumpies are gone!
So my Grinch grumpies be gone action plan is bake, move, create, and gratitude. What’s yours? Got clean toilet bowls? Poppy seed muffins?
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
True confessions time. Last weekend I put my book in a box. Literally. I took it off my desk and put it in a plastic container with a lid and stuck it in a corner. We both need a time out. Now some writers might think I am avoiding hard work or procrastinating or all of the above. Probably.
However, when I am avoiding my entire home office because the manuscript is in there, it’s telling me something else is going on with the book. Like, maybe I don’t want to write this book at all. Forget the fact it is a second edition, originally published in 2006, it’s almost done – except for all the final grunt work.
A big part of this is the “been there, done that” where’s the new hot spicy fun stuff part. But a bigger part I am coming to realize is after specializing in my military niche for 16 years, its wearing a little thin on me or I am too thin in the creativity department right now. Think both apply.
Rather than slog through the grunt work and produce a second edition book with mediocre updates, I decided to give both of us recess time. Immediately felt better. Yes, the siren call of my other fiction and non-fiction manuscripts are luring me, but right now my right brain wants to do one thing; knit.
So that is what I am going to do for a while, be a creative knitter, write my blog posts, take pictures and see what happens. Maybe my muse needs a sabbatical summer to get itself in gear again. Or maybe there are bigger shifts afoot here in writer brain land. It’s been a bumpy eight months for me for various reasons and I think all the parts of my brain want a summer sojourn.
Warm summer evenings spent swinging in the lawn swing and knitting up a storm may be just what my muse needs to refresh and reinvigorate itself. Or maybe it is making grand plans I have no inkling about. One never knows.
Have you ever put your work in a box or drawer for a time and then gotten back to it? Was it fermenting or decomposing or growing in there? My quirky mind would like to know!
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