Uncovered Books (blog review) 11/16/15
Manhattan with a Twist (blog review) 11/12 /15
Huffington Post Religion 10/4/15
Palm Beach Post – Civic Center Show announcement
Palm Beach LWP (Live Work Play)
Rewire Me
FirstForWomen with Sunrise book2
Nothing But Good News magazine (p. 30)
amazon (the best review of all!!)
The Sun Sentinel (second story)
Inspyr.com
Library Journal
MindBodyGreen
Sun Sentinel
Coastal Star
Mindful Word
Beliefnet
Feisty Side of Fifty Radio Interview
Boca Raton Observor
Palm Beach Post
Miami Herald
PGB Lifestyle Magazine
Mystic Living Today
Foster Folly News
Book Bargains and Previews
Better You
Stunning Sunsets Reminds Us To Experience Awe In Daily Life
Never doubt the power of a simple sunset to inspire a deep sense of wonder and gratitude.
Photographer Kim Weiss has spent countless moments observing sunrises and sunsets above the ocean from her 14th floor balcony. For years she would photograph nature’s splendor and share the images with her friends. And eventually, the idea came to her to develop a book from her photographs, paired with meditations to lyrically accompany the beauty of Mother Nature.
Weiss’ resulting book, Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude, was released in 2014 and guides readers through a year-long meditative journey.
“My little book was sewn together with a thread of awe coated in gratitude,” Weiss said in an email to The Huffington Post. “Corny as that may sound, the emotions I felt—and feel—every day surprise even me.”
The book includes poems, affirmations, meditations and reflections from authors and thinkers like Jack Canfield, Arielle Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., Jean Houston and Betsey Chasse.
“I invite you to take in the vibrancy of both the pictures and the words Nature gives me a gift every day and I share this with you,” Weiss said.
Scroll down to see a sample of the images and meditations from Sunrise, Sunset:
REWIRE ME, April 8, 2015
Sunrise, Sunset: Gratitude Inspired by Nature
Kim Weiss’ new book pairs nature photographs with sage words of wisdom
I love inspirational quotes especially when they are paired with beautiful photography. I know I’m not the only one, so I am excited to tell you about a very special book by Kim Weiss called Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude (HCI Books). Kim, a photographer and publicist, created a beautiful cocktail table book from 52 sunrises and sunsets, which she paired with thought-provoking quotes, poems, affirmations, and meditations.
Kim photographed the sunset and sunrise for 52 days from the same spot on her balcony in Florida. While all from the same perspective, no two pictures are the same. The weather and clouds, the angle of the sun, and time of year, all conspire to provide the reader with unique variations of the beauty that nature provided every day, right outside her window.
Each photo, a meditation on the magic of every day life, is paired with pieces of wisdom from thought leaders like Jack Canfield, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., Candace Bushnell, and many others. When I received Sunrise, Sunset, I was excited to delve into all the bite-sites inspirations. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Sunrise, Sunset:
“I once had a bedroom where I could see the sunrise through one window and the sunset thought another. Mornings, I’d watch the sun spread its butter thicker and thicker around the oak trees, and then brilliantly dissolve in a flood of glowing light. Nights I’d sit in awe as the sky played with the sun’s box of crayons. These sacred bookends of light and color always lifted my heart and filled me with gratitude for the beauty of both beginnings and endings.” –HeatherAsh Amara
“Stand tall with your feet on the ground, feel the earth under your feet and raise your head towards the sun. Take in its warmth and carry it with you. When you feel cold with fear, when you feel alone and lost, look to the sun, close your eyes and let it warm your heart, let it feed your soul, let it remind you of your divinity.” –Betsy Chasse
“I can’t think of anything except sunrise at my house-when it sets the tops of the trees on fire I know it’s going to be a glorious day.” –Candace Bushnell
Sunrise, Sunset is a book that you can turn to for daily inspiration or flip through occasionally. It is a stunning reflection on the everyday yet amazing things we all too often take for granted.
Rose Caiola
Inspired. Rewired.
Local Photographer’s Book Is a Hit
When Kim Weiss moved to a Boynton Beach high rise building to live in, she never imagined the inspiration that would follow. Living in a tall building can afford views never experienced before, and when Kim Weiss realized the beauty and splendor she had been missing, it dawned on her that she should start capturing the incredible sunrise and sunset she experienced on a daily basis.
It all started with her I Phone, and after sharing some of her work with friends and family, she thought that having a book that captures the unique beauty of Palm Beach County from her home vantage point would be a good idea, however, she felt something was missing. A friend suggested she ask for passages to accompany the images she had captured, she did not have to go far to reach out to experienced published authors to help her. Weiss after all is employed by a publisher, in fact she is the Director of Communications for HCI for the past 21 years. In case that does not ring a bell, HCI published “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.
This project has had life for a while, by 2007 she had collected over 20,000 images, the idea for a book came in 2014, and it was published in the same year. The title of her book is appropriate, “Sunrise Sunset 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude”, and it is published by HCI. The book is starting to spread in a big way, commercially speaking, it is now being sold in airports, in June it will be available in Walmart, Barnes and Noble, supermarkets, and of course Amazon.com.
She still is hard at work as Director of Communications at Health Communications, Inc. of Deerfield Beach, and is grateful for the opportunity to have her work published. A portion of the proceeds go to help victims of domestic abuse, in fact Peter Vegso, the President of HCI is a supporter of this worthy charity as well, for more information go to AVDAonline.org.
For more information on the book go to http://www.sunrisesunsetbook.com, and on Facebook at Kim Weiss Sunrise-Sunset, and be sure to tell your friends that you read this on PalmBeachlwp.com. We at Palm Beach Live Work Play wish Kim continued success with this book, and in all she does.
The Happy Herald:
Thursday, February 5,2015
(The Happy Herlad) Sunrise Sunset A labor of Love or A Happy Accident
At this very moment, it is dawn.
The brilliant colors in the sky have come to life again. Another day begins as I set out to elucidate a tale of awe, inspiration and gratitude. It’s not unlike a good Chicken Soup for the Soul story that started with a simple idea. This is the story of loss, birth, love, labor and hope. We will discover that not all happy endings are planned. Oftentimes, destiny will color our world with just enough light to make us believe in happy accidents.
New author, Kim Weiss, has been a publicist in the book industry for many years and had been penning a book about relationships subtitled Conjuring Up Love Later in Life. She worked under the tutelage of a New York agent, studied writing techniques, and attended writers´ workshops and retreats. She was passionate about helping others find love. Kim also worked full time, took care of her aging mother; visiting her each and every day at lunchtime, traveling from her busy and demanding world to the quiet solitude of a woman in the winter of her life.
Kim was the daughter we all desire:
loving, caring and entertaining. She would share stories with her mom, pictures of her life and songs that she wrote and played on her guitar. Kim was engaged in the proverbial juggle of caring for an aging parent, working a full time job, writing a book, and looking for her own special someone to love. One day, the book idea went thud! Kim knew to let it go. Then, her mom took a turn for the worse and died. It was a difficult time for Kim, yet she honored the grieving process. She never picked the relationship book up again but she did manifest love in her life. She told me, “The book wasn’t a literary success, it was a personal success.” Even though she had that good thing happen and attracted her dream man, she put the pen down and lost a bit of her confidence. Yet, she kept doing what she did best by writing songs, playing music, singing and on a whim, as day would break or evening would fall, Kim would capture the beauty of the sunrise or sunset from her 14th story penthouse balcony in Boynton Beach, Florida. It was merely a lark that her newfound boyfriend would go on Facebook, where Kim was posting her spectacular photos, and write Haiku to express the inspiration he received from her images.
The rest of this story is a fairy-tale, personally and professionally. The love story has turned from a budding relationship to a true flowering. Kim and John are the product of an intention to conjure up love later in life and although no announcements have yet been made, I predict wedding bells will ring soon at a beachside destination during sunrise or sunset.
Facebook and the viral world of the Internet is very powerful. It is also a good feedback system and moniker for potential success.
Each day Kim’s Facebook friends would be greeted by another spectacular image of the blazing colors that burst forth from the horizon. More and more, she was encouraged to share her photos with a wider audience. Being in the book publishing industry, it was, in hindsight, a no brainer. Destiny truly took Kim’s morning and evening labor of love, her beautiful sunrise and sunset photos, and turned them into an awesome idea that has manifested as a great gift book, Sunrise, Sunset 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude published by HCI in Deerfield Beach, Florida, the original Chicken Soup for the Soul Series publishers.
In 1993 with a simple idea – that people could help each other by sharing stories about their lives – Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen compiled the best 101 stories they’d been told in a book. They called it Chicken Soup for the Soul because they wanted it to soothe and provide comfort, just like their grandmothers’ cooking. They took the book to New York, hoping to sell it to one of the big publishers, but every single one turned them down. The project appeared to have stalled until they met Peter Vegso, the owner of a small health and wellness publisher in Florida named HCI. Peter read some of the stories and loved them, so he decided to give the book a chance, becoming Chicken Soup for the Soul’s founding publisher. Never, in Jack and Mark’s wildest dreams, had they imagined what the book would become. Chicken Soup for the Soul turned into one of the most popular and loved books ever published, selling 11 million copies around the world.
In a similar genre, each photograph in SUNRISE, SUNSET is accompanied by a reflective passage – an affirmation, poem, inspirational quote – from some of the best known and loved inspirational leaders of our time including John Bradshaw , Candace Bushnell, Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff, Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., Roger Kamenetz, Arielle Ford and many more. The book serves as a perennial source of inspiration for all readers.
“Even though I have worked with authors for 21 years,” Kim Weiss reflected in our interview, “I have a brand new empathy for the book process. I recognize how personal it is and how much of your soul you are baring when you release a book. I have to remind myself to keep a healthy detachment from the process since the nature of marketing anything is that you can never do enough and there is always more. I have to strike a healthy balance on a regular basis from my book. When I refer to detachment, it means to let the universe do its thing and not feel like I am going to cause everything to happen. Detachment means to let things cook. I have put all the ingredients in the pot, in both my book and my relationship. Now it’s time to trust the balance in the universe to move the process along.”
Each of us is asked periodically to keep the flame of faith stoked and to recognize that happy accidents are a blend of what we desire and what is meant to be. Whether in our personal lives, or professional lives let this month be a colorful month of beauty, love, awe and gratitude, and a reminder that dreams do come true.
Director of Communications Author of Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude www.sunrisesunsetbook.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/boynton-beach/fl-bbf-weiss-0204-20150204-story.html
(Sun Sentinel) Photographer captures sunrises, sunsets in book
Kim Weiss (submitted photo, FPG)
Jan Engoren jengoren@tribune.com
Photographer Kim Weiss to sign copies of “Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude”
Inspired by the sunrises and sunsets visible from her balcony on the 14th floor of Marina Village in Boynton Beach, Kim Weiss, a communications director for a publishing company, was moved to photograph the vivid colors and patterns into a book titled, “Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude.”
A public relations professional and a writer, Weiss, 59, was used to publishing the books of others at HCI Books in Deerfield Beach and contributed to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series and “The Ultimate Bird Lover” with Marty Becker, who is known as “America’s Vet.”
“It was a happy accident,” Weiss said from her office where she has worked with many notable authors, including Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols and Arielle Ford. “My boyfriend John Jenicek, a marine engineer and photographer, wrote haikus on my Facebook page to go along with the mood of the photos.”
“Everything happened gracefully and easily,” she said. “It was a perfect storm and I knew I was on the right track.”
Shooting many of the photos with an iPhone and her Sony Cybershot camera, Weiss developed a Facebook community of backyard photographers and drew inspiration from many of their photos and comments.
She reached out to the authors she knew from work and asked to contribute original comments about the photographs.
“It’s become a labor of love,” Weiss said.
Peter Vegso, HCI’s publisher and Weiss’ boss, thought her book was beautiful and inspirational.
“I’m a nature lover and tree-hugger,” he said, jokingly. “Kim has worked for me for 20 years and has done a wonderful job. Her photography is great. When you see a sunset, it’s never the same twice. Many people take them for granted.”
“This book gives you the opportunity to pause,” Vegso said.
Weiss plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from the book to AVDA, an organization which helps victims of domestic violence, and in which Vegso and his wife, Anne, are involved.
Pam O’Brien, president and CEO of AVDA, said, “We are grateful for Kim Weiss’ generous donation of the proceeds of her book to be designated for AVDA.”
“Donations from the sale of her book will directly benefit AVDA’s programs and services,” she said.
Since becoming involved in photography, Weiss has become fascinated by birds and photographs the many species visible in her neighborhood – pelicans, herons and a sea hawk who lives across the Intracoastal.
Weiss said she had no plans to become a publicist or a photographer, thinking she’d be a professional musician or a Motown background singer.
“I didn’t see the PR coming,” she said. “It just fell in my lap.”
An admirer of renowned photographers Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams and Robin Hill, Weiss said the first photograph in her book is her favorite.
She shot it left-handed with an iPhone looking west toward the Woolbright Road bridge from A1A, on the way home from a meeting.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I posted it on Facebook and got an amazing response. It’s a very Boynton shot.”
Weiss will sign copies of her book, “Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude,” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 14 at Barnes & Noble, 333 N. Congress Ave., in Boynton Beach.
Visit facebook.com/KimWeissSunriseSunset.
Strategy Magazine
Photographer Kim Weiss Chronicles One Year of Awe
Written by Strategy Magazine
Inspired by the ever-changing vista outside her own back door, photographer and publicist Kim Weiss decided to photograph the fingerprint-like artistic display of each rising and setting of the sun. She photographed her own personal front-row view of dawn and dusk for 52 weeks and paired the photos with inspirational writing that helps bring those awe-inspiring moments to life in her new book, Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude. She says she hopes that it will help others connect with themselves, and with something bigger than themselves.
Strategy: What was your motivation for putting together this book?
Weiss: My real motivation was merely to capture the sense of awe I felt every time I either woke up to witness a beautiful sunrise or, later in the day when the sun was setting to the west, sharing that same amazement. I am lucky that my 14th-story view shows me both amazing displays of nature, and not one day goes by where I don’t appreciate what I see. Magic abounds right outside my sliding glass door every day. Hopefully, the photos convey what I feel and see.
Strategy: Were you the photographer or are these submitted works?
Weiss: Yes, all of the photographs are mine mostly taken on my SONY camera, but a few [were] actually [taken] from my trusty cell phone.
Strategy: Did you choose your favorite sources of inspiration or did these contributors send you fresh pieces?
Weiss: About 90% of the pieces submitted to my book were freshly created for Sunrise, Sunset. But, I had no problem accepting the hand full of passages that were previously published but approved for my use. The content on both accounts is timeless and would be hard to differentiate.
Strategy: What do you hope readers will get from the book?
Weiss: Simply, I hope readers experience that momentary whoosh of excitement, that “happy to be alive” feeling that nature inspires and that I am feeling when taking the pictures. From my heart through my camera and back again, I hope people really take a moment to feel connected to nature—hence their hearts. The words on the page will get them if the photos don’t! But, I think it’s a winning combination.
Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude is now available for pre-order online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million. Visit the author’s web site at http://www.sunrisesunsetbook.com.
Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitide 