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I love the new show "Raising Hope" and this week the song they played at the end of the show peaked my curiosity. I had no idea the name of the song. I'd never heard it before, but with the awesomeness that is the internet (you can find EVERYTHING you will ever need on the internet) and a quick search, WAH-LA--I found out the name of the song, "Losers" by The Belle Brigade and it struck a cord with me. I love it. I love the message. I love the concept and I want to share this with you. (Okay, I'm not sure what the heck the video has to do with the song, but still . . . ) There will always be someone better than you. There will always be someone worse than you too. For me, I like knowing this. I'm only in competition with myself.
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 I’m a jerk and I’m also a sucker. Depending upon the day of the week, I fluctuate between the two. Let me explain. First, I’m a complete sucker. If you knock on my door, selling magazines that will keep you from joining a gang, and then flash me a picture of your babies waiting for you back home in Georgia, or Florida, or California, I WILL buy a slew of magazines from you. Magazines I don’t need (thus the reason I subscribe to Allure—a magazine I despise). I’m such a sucker that I’ve been known to hand these solicitors ice cold drinks. I’ve even filled up their water bottles for them on more than one occasion. And once, I had a girl from Sweden ask me if there was any way I might be able to drive her to her sponsor’s home when she was through knocking on doors. She was young. It was getting dark. I said yes. Several hours later, she came back, and I piled her big bag of books and her bike in my van, and drove her home. This is why my husband placed a NO SOLICITING sign on our front door. To stop the madness.  I’m also a jerk. Last week, I went to our local Costco with my husband. We happened to walk up the aisle where an author had set up a station to sell her book. I noticed it was YA (my genre) and the pull to go over and talk to her was great. But at the same time I didn’t want to have to buy her book. So I refused to look at her. I’ve done this same thing at writer’s conventions. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t make eye contact. Because I know myself. Even if the book was about “How to Watch Paint Dry”, I know I would buy it. All they would have to do is look at me, and I would handing over my Visa. So, to keep myself from becoming a sucker and buying something I don’t need, I become a jerk. I ignore them or I pretend I’m on my phone (which makes ignoring easier). I’ve done this at Barnes and Noble (my children slowly gravitated towards an author who had cookies set out on her table, and I yanked my kids back—“NO COOKIES! I don’t need a picture book!”) . I’ve done this at writer’s conventions as well. I have completely ignored Richard Paul Evans when he had set up shop years ago at my local book store; I just passed him on by. And now, I was doing it to this poor author at Costco. I mean come on, that takes a lot of guts to set up a book signing at Costco, a place where people are coming to buy frozen chicken and boxes of soup in bulk. It’s tough enough to do a book signing at a book store let alone a warehouse. But I did it. I passed her by. I didn’t even turn my head her way. I bought my stuff and then I left. I also knew I had to come back in an hour to pick up my pictures, and that whole hour I kept thinking about how rotten I was. How could I do that to her? I’m an author myself, for Pete’s sake! I should be supportive. I should have at least said hi. What a jerk I was! Karma was going to come back and bite in my big ol’ behind. I was certain of it. The idea of being a jerk ate at me for that whole hour and I just couldn’t let it go. When I went back to pick up the photos, I noticed the author was still there. So I made my way to her. Even though she had no idea I had been a jerk, probably hadn’t even notice me pass her by like all the others, I knew it and I had to make things right. I approached her and said hi, and then ended up talking with her for quite some time. Come to find out, she was a pretty nice person (an author a nice person? Of course). She gave me some great advice, answered my questions, and even told me to email her if I had more. And yes, I bought her book. But it was so worth it. The price of the book balanced out the advice she gave me. I need to be more supportive of the local authors in my area and I’m determined to do just that. I may not buy their books, but I can at least say hi. I know, if ever I do a book signing (a very tough and humble thing to do—makes me shudder just to think about it), someone smiling and saying hi would be highly appreciated. Karma. What goes around comes around, I’m certain of it.  And to pass on more Karma, I’m giving away my signed copy of WATCHED by Cindy M. Hogan, the author brave enough to set up shop at Costco. If you would like a chance to own this book and pass on some karma too, just leave a comment to this post saying so. What do you do in those situations? Do you walk on by or do you stop and say hello? Am I the only rotten one out there who does this kind of thing?  I have no idea how I even came across this random, yet completely funny, tidbit. But there are people you search novel titles, finding odd (and sometimes extremely funny) titles. Then they narrow it down to one and hand them an award called: The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. I'm not kidding. Heck, if you can't get a literary award for your writing, maybe shoot for having the oddest title. Keep in mind, though, titles that are believed to be purposefully made up to be funny or odd will be disqualified. So you would have to go about this carefully. Most won out of sheer dumb luck; they weren't even trying.  Last years winner (2010) was this lovely book -----> Don't we all want our dentists to have a Genghis Khan approach to dentistry? I sure know I do! Actually, the book discusses the way to manage a dentist practice much the way Genghis Khan lead his band of warlords. Not actually terrorize your patients and yank out teeth with swords while screaming in their face. But still.  A few other winners include the following: --1979 Winner "The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution" --1980 Winner "The Joy of Chickens" --1983 Winner "The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling" --1986 Winner " Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality" --1992 Winner "How to Avoid Large Ships" --2003 Winner "The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories" --2004 Winner "Bombproof Your Horse" --2006 Winner "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification" The Diagram Prize receives a lot of publicity each year. Not to mention all the attention the winning book receives. There have only been two years in which an award was not given due to lack of odd book titles. If you want to see more, click the link above. Personally, these titles, though not winners, are pretty darn funny too:     You’re always going to suck at writing. That’s just the way it is. Get used to it.
AND, if you ever get to a point in which you think, “Holy Crap! I’m amazingly gifted! The words I put down on paper--every single one of them—should be read by ALL!” Then you need to stop writing. Put down the laptop, pen, pencil, whatever, and just stop. Stop it. Do not write another word. Because once you stop thinking that you no longer suck as a writer, you stop improving. And once you stop improving, you will become stagnant and your writing will too. You will become complacent. As for myself, I will always, always suck at writing. That is my promise. I will never think my work is good enough. I know for a fact that even if I publish something in the near future, I will look at it knowing it could have been better, SO much better. I have no doubt. Let me explain this suck-factor a little more: I wrote a book called “Out of My Head” a couple of years ago. I loved the story. I loved the characters. I thought it was a pretty good book. (It’s not published—thank heavens—so don’t even try Googling it). I just looked at it the other day and realized it sucks. It really does. I wrote stuff in that book in a way I would NEVER do now—I know better. I’ve improved. But even before “Out of My Head,” I had other stories I wrote that make “Out of My Head” look brilliant. (No one will ever, EVER see those. They are filed in a safe, which is locked, and sitting on the bottom of the sea. They’re that bad). With every book I write, I know I’m getting better. But I realize that the stories I write today will suck in comparison to the stories I will write five years from now, ten years from now, and so on. I get that. So what do we do? Do we wait five years from now, ten years from now? Am I to wait until I’m ninety-nine when realize that my writing is probably not going to improve anymore, since I will be dead soon, before releasing my work into the world? In some respects, waiting until I’m ninety-nine would be good. People will look at my writing and think, “Ahh, look what the little old lady wrote. Ain’t that nice?” and give me some slack. You don’t get that kind of slack when you’re thirty-nine. In fact, people can be pretty dang mean. But waiting until I’m ninety-nine is the chicken way out. What I do suggest is this: Embrace the idea of sucking as a writer. Just wrap that idea around yourself, like a nice snuggly coat, get comfortable, and then never take it off. Always strive to write better. Always look for ways to improve. There is NO shortcut to writing amazing stories. It’s a long, hard journey in which every step is measured. You can’t climb to the top of a mountain without first starting at the bottom. That’s just the way it is. Above all else, be kind to other writers. Realize they suck too and they’re aware of it. They know. They’re trying. They’re somewhere on the mountain, climbing just like you. Some of us are taking baby steps. Some of us are sprinting. Regardless, no one is going to make it to the top. There is no top. There never has been. And personally, I find that amazing. I suck at writing. But I have a lifetime to improve. And it’s only going to get better and better from here. This is my very first Author Interview. It excites me. I wanna do more. So you have what it takes to sit in the HOT SEAT and be asked the questions others fail to ask, then hit my contact button and send me a line. The chair is waiting.  Kimbery Kinrade, Author of Forbidden Mind My take on this book: If you like books where kids can hover in the air, read minds, and walk through walls--then THIS is just the book for you. AND if you like conspiracy and bad guys who manipulate kids (thinking the kids will NEVER figure out what's going on because they're "just kids"), then be prepared to double your pleasure, my friend.  Forbidden Mind She reads minds. He controls minds. Together, they might get out alive. Meet Sam. She reads minds. It’s why she's spent her life raised in a secret school and rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy. But soon she’ll be eighteen and free. At least that’s what she thought before she met Drake, a paranormal who controls minds. Now, everything she ever believed is challenged, and what she thought would be her freedom turns out to be her worst nightmare. Will their powers be enough to save them before it’s too late? Kimberly Kinrade get's comfortable in THE HOT SEAT  The Important Questions will be followed by: |
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