Nicole Amsler http://www.nicoleamsler.com Copywriter by day... Fiction writer by night Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:15:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Wait Times “Our next available operator will be with you shortly. Your wait time is less than four minutes.”

I love the automated messages that tell me how long I have to wait. I don’t even mind if they say I have to wait ten minutes. At least I know.
No one likes to wait without a prescribed time limit.…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/wait-times/ The Cool Kid’s Table If you attend any sort of writer’s conference or workshop, you can consider yourself wildly successful if you walk away with one or two new friends. These fellow writers can become cherished critique partners, a sounding board, a cheerleader or a best friend over time, as you share works in progress.

When I attended the Midwest Writer’s Workshop in…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/the-cool-kidss-table/ Currently: Month of May I stole this meme from A Peek at Karen’s World, a great writing blog. I love how we share many of the same answers. Here’s what I’m into for May:

Current Book

Stuff that Christians Like by Jon Acuff (again) for BookLinks

My own book, Dismantling Spider Webs, on my Nook, before I hand it over to…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/currently-month-of-may/ A to Z Recap I heard about the A to Z Blogging Challenge about a week before it launched. It was the worst time for me to participate because:

  1. I was finishing large scale revisions to my work in progress, Zone Trippers
  2. I had to buy a new car which required research, spreadsheets and boat loads of money
  3. I had to put

…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/a-to-z-recap/ Z is for Zone Trippers Novel Synopsis

Owen MacIntyre’s daughter is missing but he can’t just file a missing person’s report—Eve is a first generation zone tripper. While her body is safe at home, host to a revolving door of other zone trippers; her soul skips into other infected trippers all over the world.

Or at least, her soul had been tripping. Now it’s…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/z-is-for-zone-trippers/ Y is for YouTube For this second to last day of the A to Z Challenge, I have created my Top 5 Favorite YouTube Videos. Enjoy!

Total Eclipse of the Heart -Literal Version

This song will always remind me of middle school slow dances and its accompanying drama. I do remember seeing the video back then but since videos were new to us, it…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/y-is-for-youtube/ X is for uXorious I got a Word a Day calendar in 1995, my first year in a corporate office. On August 23rd, I turned to a word I had never heard.

Uxorious, adjective: excessively devoted to your wife

On February 19th, 1994, it turned out I had married a man who can only be described as uxorious.

As soon as I meet one…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/x-is-for-uxorious/ W is for Writer’s Conferences If I had the money and the freedom, I would be a writer’s conference junkie. I barely leave the house all year long but I love a conference with like-minded writers and fabulous authors.

Going to a conference is like going back to school–but without the scheduling issues, roommate drama or meal plan. Plus I feel it is more educational.…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/w-is-for-writers-conferences/ V is for Vacations I would rather spend money on experiences than things, which is one of the reasons we spent a lot of time planning vacations. Living in Ohio, we try to keep our vacations within driving distance. I am still hoping for a vacation out west eventually. But for now, we stay in the Midwest and South.

The Beach

A beach vacation…

]]> http://www.nicoleamsler.com/v-is-for-vacations/ U is for Unreliable My biggest pet peeve is unreliability and inconsistency. Please, do what you say you are going to do or don’t say anything at all.

As a parent, lack of consistency is an invitation to disaster. Toddlers excel at asking the same question repeatedly, until they get the answer they want. Backing down–even once–starts an avalanche of future nagging.

Once at…

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