Free Chapter

I would be delighted for you to read the first chapter of my next novel, He Loves It When She Smiles, which will be available later this year. 

Download Chapter One Here

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About He Loves It When She Smiles 
Determined to start with a clean slate, freshman Kyle Davis heads off to Boston’s Klondike College. His academic studies quickly take a back seat when his crush on a flirty co-ed with a mesmerizing smile leads him down an unexpected path. His new-found friends provide Kyle with a plethora of unsolicited dating advice, all of which cause him to flounder. Confused and discouraged, he finally hears the one voice he should have been listening to all along.

Bittersweet, funny and believable dialogue peppered throughout the story will make you simultaneously laugh and cringe over the series of crazy missteps the young characters make.

He Loves It When She Smiles is the second novel by Karl Bimshas, whose Three Blinks and a Sigh debuted in early 2012. Both books, set in the city of Boston, explore difficult relationships with fun characters engaged in conversations you’ll swear you’ve overheard yourself.

Find other fiction and non-fiction titles here or ask for them at your bookseller.

Vision + Passion + Action

Vision + Passion + Action = Exceptional Performance 

With your goal firmly set in your mind, use this matrix to see where you fit in. Make adjustments if needed and then advance confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Categories

• Vision: 
Can you vividly imagine the outcome of your goal?

• Passion: 
Can you feel a burning desire to complete your goal?

• Action: 
Do you execute your plans and accomplish what you set out to do?

Results

• Daydreamers
have passion and vision, but lack action.

• Workaholics
have tremendous action and passion, but no vision.

• The Mediocre have vision and action but no passion.

• Exceptional Performers
have the inspired combination of vision, passion and action.

Determine if you're running at optimal performance in each category. Focus on your strengths and fill in your gaps.

It's Obvious

Want to figure out what you’re good at? Need to find a way to be useful to humanity? There is no shortage of books and programs designed to help you explore those questions. I'll save you a few hundred, maybe a few thousand dollars, and give you the answer. It's obvious.

Think for a moment about some of the best gifts you’ve received. Undoubtedly they were meticulously wrapped and presented by someone who loved you. They wore a huge smile and were brimming over with confidence when they gave it to you. They knew they had found the perfect present for you and were excited to see you open it. It was probably something you hadn’t asked for, hadn’t even thought about. But they did. They thought about you and knew this was something you had to have. When you think back on it, they were right.

We all start out with a special gift or two. I believe they were presented to us from God with that same enthusiasm and knowing smile, but maybe for you, it was someone else. As a blob of a kid you didn't know what it was, but you gurgled and squealed, happy to receive it. God didn’t tell you how to use it, or even what it was. The wrapping is part of the gift. You get to guess what’s inside by shaking it around a little and going through some trial and error.

Some people unwrap their present at a very young age, others wait until they are much older. After a lot of poking, prodding, staring and guessing, everyone unwraps their gift eventually, but not everyone knows what they’ve been given.  

It’s obvious.

Your gift is the thing you do well. It’s your talent. The thing that comes so easy for you that you mistakenly assume everybody has it. They don't. Your gift is the thing that you do nearly effortlessly and without thought. It’s frustratingly simple to uncover. You've probably been ignoring your gift because it has seemed too easy, or not grand enough, or you haven't felt worthy because you've been tricked into thinking your gift needs to be some complicated thing. Powerful gifts are not complicated. Your talent is easy to identify. How you choose to use it is the present you pass along to others. Once you’ve identify your gift, use it. It's insulting not to.

How to Put Your Hero in Peril

When writing fiction, it’s sometimes difficult to create what feels like enough conflict for the hero to overcome. We often root for the protagonist as we’re creating them and probably subconsciously protect them from too many of the evils in the world. Like our children, we want them to grow and show their mettle, but we’re also ever vigilant and try to mitigate hardships they may encounter. Good for a parent, less good for a writer.

A devious idea struck me. I’m a big fan of The Haddon Matrix, which helps design interventions to reduce injury to people. It’s an excellent system for problem solving. Invert it and the writer now has a template on how to put the story’s protagonist in ever increasing peril.

Use negative events as inspiration to increase the factors of peril your main character has to endure. Then plot how they’ll respond to the mounting adversity. This eliminates the protective shield you may be inclined to put around your hero, and that will make for a better story to write and to read.