Military Romance Author
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
If you haven’t seen this cute video you are in for a treat. Seems a stray cat at the St. Petersburg Zoo in Russia decided the lynx cat’s house looked much better than his, especially with heat. The obviously Spec Ops trained kitty found his way into the enclosure and they soon became best buds.
The zoo has officially adopted the stray cat and you can see he/she looks to be eating quite well. I love a happy ending. Happy Quirky Friday!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Don’t know if you’ve been following the fight between author and tv personality Stephen Colbert and his publisher vs. Amazon.com. Colbert basically declared war on Amazon.com last week since they would not honor pre-sales, plus other things. In a nice twist of fate, Colbert told everyone to go to www.Powells.com (Powell’s Books) here in Portland to order a book by a new author.
Boy howdy that worked. In fact, Powells.com barely had a heads up from the tv show staff before their servers came grinding almost to a halt to keep up with the order demand. As I watched the videos and read the online articles about the skirmish, I wondered what are a few of the things I’ve accidentally done over the years to survive this juggernaut of digital publishing madness. Besides chocolate, that is.
1. Built my own web site and kept it. Like the authors wrote in “Write. Publish. Repeat.” anything can change, go out of business or be bought in a nanosecond, including this blog. Stake a claim for your career on the Internet and S.P.U.D. – an acronym from one of our former search and rescue deputies – stay put until you die. I ended up with an “aged domain” and top page ranking in Google just by keeping my web site real estate since 1997 or the Pleistocene era, whichever you prefer.
2. Check back. Things change. When I first started my writing business my very common name URL was taken. Rats. So I built the business around Warrior Tales. Several years ago at the Willamette Writers Conference, a speaker mentioned to recheck to see if your name becomes available later. Queried that night, it was and I bought it! Since my name is very common, in 1997 I first checked Amazon.com to see how many authors had my name – holy moly – a ton. So I used my entire name with middle initial to get some separation between moi and the herd of other Kim Cooks online.
3. Self-publishers buy your own ISBNs. When I get ready to launch my ebooks extravaganza, having my own ISBNs means that no matter what Amazon.com, nook.com, itunes.com, kobo.com and the partridge in the pear tree do in the future, I can retrieve my digital work and move it to another home; the ISBN will always be tied to me and I won’t have to keep sending new ISBNs to readers to hunt for in the grand future of digital words. After all, we are all pretty much publishers now going our own way in this new adventure.
4. Keep writing. No matter what. Doesn’t matter if you have to take breaks to handle life’s roller coaster events, write when you can. The other day I asked myself if I got abducted by aliens never to return, the space kind not the green card kind, what would I regret? Besides not having the exclusive story on the whole alien thing? Not getting my stories written. So, write on!
(See Colbert wage war with Amazon.com) http://on.cc.com/1xd6bRS
(View Author Sherman Alexie chime in on the debacle.) http://on.cc.com/1xd660r
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Back to the blog. Unlike many folks this year, I’ve decided not to make any New Year’s resolutions I won’t work on after February. Can’t spare the mental energy, so I’ll quit before I add to my list. I’m still working on last year’s goals, so those will roll-forward into this year. When you pick big goals, they can take more than twelve months or last your entire life when you’re a writer.
Part of the writing challenge these days is deciding to combine my office and craft projects in the same room to make an “art studio.” This decision has morphed into a mess of gargantuan proportions. If you don’t have the staff of hundreds they use on those organizing tv shows, the whole “shove two rooms together spill out in the hall mess” is daunting.
There have been some up sides; my crafty creative mind keeps straying over into the writing side of the “art studio” and vice a versa. When glue dots, beads and stickers hunker next to yarn, writing manuscripts and photos, interesting things begin to happen. Our environments are very important to us creatives. Of course, the whole finishing thing issue now crops up in all areas of the room. Squirrel!
But when life gets crazy and holidays and people need tending, the mess waits. So my goal is to get the “art studio” in shape by the end of this year. If I give myself tons of time, it feels like a fun goal and not a business plan. More fun, less work this year is my main goal. Along with simplifying. Now, if I can just get Spec Ops Cat to dust.
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
With a tap dancing seagull last Friday, it’s time to give the cats a shot at making the big time. This fabulous little kitten seems to be enjoying the play aspect, forget the training. At times walking seems to still be a challenge. I imagine the person with the feather toy is getting a great bicep workout.
Trying to talk Spec Ops Cat into maybe some agility training, but he insists he’s retired. We shall see how that works out. Enjoy the kitten and Happy Quirky Friday!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Heard on the radio this week that the largest quantity of videos on YouTube are of cats. Spec Ops Cat feels this as it should be, cats rule. With gorgeous weather this week, Spec Ops Cat enjoyed lawn swing time. He feels being comfy and watching birdies from the lawn swing is the best thing in life. No hunting for him, he’s retired.
Figuring we can all learn how to enjoy life and slow down for some quality nap time, here is a quick cat tutorial on how to relax. Happy Quirky Friday!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
It’s been a tough week, especially for folks in Boston and Texas. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, all who helped, and law enforcement and emergency responders during these tragic events. When things like this happen we can be hit with compassion fatigue. The military knows this and has units stand down and take some R&R, rest and relaxation. With that in mind, we could all use a little happy break.
While we wait for summer to appear, my budding grape-vine gives me hope there will be warm summer nights and lunches out in the sun again. Just like that 78-year-old gentleman who was knocked down by the bomb in Boston and got up to finish the race – with a concussion! That’s us Yanks, knock us down, we get back up.
So let’s all take a little breather today and venture off to Greece on the budget plan, by video. One of my favorite destinations in Greece is Hydra, let’s go along with Rick Steves. Happy Quirky Friday!
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