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Welcome author Amey Zeigler for this week’s Thirteen for Thursday

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What is the best book to movie adaptation?

Princess Bride, of course. William Goldman wrote the book and the screenplay. If you haven’t read the book, do yourself the favor and read it. It’s one of the books I read every year. Best.Book.Ever. You’re welcome.

What is your favorite childhood memory?

We lived in Alaska in my days of yore. My dad loved to fish every summer during the salmon run. Nearly all summer long we camped on the Kenai peninsula, going to bed when the sun set at 11pm and rising early to go out and fish or play again the next day. We always tent camped. My mom cooked over a propane stove. I can smell the propane, the chill in the air in the morning as she made hot chocolate. I can smell pinecones and tree sap. Back then if we weren’t on the boat, we had to entertain ourselves. Often my mom would hide in the car and read. One time, she decided to take us to the beach. The beaches in Alaska are black with volcanic silt, are pebbley and cold. It was a warm day for an Alaskan summer, probably high 60’s and the tide was out and low, like we walked out fifty yards and it was still up to our knees. Mom let us run out pretty far. We found huge snake-like seaweed with tentacles like a squid. We wrapped it around us and eventually dragged it to shore. We were all soaked in salty sea water and once out of the water had to get warmed quickly so hyperthermia didn’t chatter our teeth out. So we rushed to the van and stripped to our skivvies and rode back to camp in our underwear!

What is your favorite smell and why?

I love the smell of rain, but it smells differently depending on where you live. I grew up all over the United States. In Arizona, the rain smells like wet dirt, hot pavement and desert plants like rosemary and desert sage. In Alaska, the rain smells wet like the bank of a river, like fishing bait and mosquito repellant. In Virginia, it smells like old wood, mildew, dampness that seeps through the cracks of your clothing and houses, wet on mossy rocks and trees.

How far away do you live from your birthplace?

I was born in Colorado, but only lived there a year because we moved to Alaska, Georgia, California, Arizona, Alaska again, Virginia, Utah and then back to Arizona.  Then I lived in Europe for a year and a half, then after marriage, moved to Missouri for grad school. Now we live in Texas and we drove through Colorado Springs for the first time since I left as a one year old to visit a friend who lives there on our way to Yellowstone for a family vacation. It’s a 13 hour drive, but it took a vacation of a lifetime to return.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Original Star Wars.

What is your favorite scent and why?

Cool Water cologne. Way back in my sophomore year of high school, the Secret Garden Broadway musical (original cast) was touring in our city. I had a guy friend who was “off-limits” to me. I think my best friend liked him, but I kinda liked him, too. He ended up with the seat next to mine when we all went as a drama class. He wore Cool Water cologne and we had such a great time, jumping to our feet together, enthusiastically clapping for two standing ovations for their best songs. Whenever I smell that cologne, I am back in the Capitol Theatre, experiencing the show with my guy friend again.

What is the one thing you covet?

A girl’s gotta have some secrets.

What is your favorite time of year and why?

Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter? When I lived in Alaska with a long and snowy winter, I loved and anticipated Spring and it was late coming, sometime in June! Now that I live in Texas with long and hot summers, oh, how I love fall! It’s November and it’s still in the 80’s!

What is the one thing you wanted, but never got, as a kid?

A My Little Pony Castle. Imagine me, a little second grader, finding a My Little Pony castle hidden in the back of the car a few weeks before Christmas. I thought to myself, “My parents knew I wanted something this cool without me even telling them! My parents sure love me.” Turned out that my parents were hiding it there for another family. I had one disappointing Christmas morning. I wonder which of my friends got that My Little Pony Castle for Christmas…

If you could travel anywhere, where would it be and why?

My husband is planning a trip to Japan sometime in the next year. He used to live there, speaks Japanese and still has friends he’d like to see. I love Asian cultures and find them fascinating. I also have plans to set a book in Japan so I have to go for research, right? I wonder if I can take that out of my taxes…

Which famous person have you met, and what is the story behind it? 

I’ve met…

Alton Brown http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2016/10/alton-brown-my-first-author-signed-cook.html

James Dashner  http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2012/09/james-dashner.html

Eoin Coiffer http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2012/08/artemis-fowl-by-eoin-colfer.html

Jody Piccolt http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2012/07/jodi-picoult-comes-to-st-louis.html

Ally Condie http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2011/11/ally-condie.html

and many, many more authors. http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2016/09/signed-author-copies.html

You can read about how John Flannigan, called me a perky American girl. http://ameyzeigler.blogspot.com/2011/12/john-flanagan.html

If you had to dispose of a dead body, how would you do it?

I’d call my friend Jewel. She would know what to do.

Would you rather wear combat boots or heels?

I actually own a pair of Danner boots. My father bought them for me at a military thrift shop. When he first gave them to me, I rolled my eyes and wondered when would I ever use them. Well, I wore them this fall to muck out houses in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. Heels may make my legs look great, but those boots have saved houses.

Bonus Round

What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Live in a foreign country for a year and a half, talking to people about their deepest feelings all day. I wrote a book that fictionalizes some of the crazier things we did. Once we painted a bathroom for service when a guy came in to take a shower. He didn’t even care I was in there and starting, well, bathing. Another time, a guy answered the door in nothing but some skimpy underwear. He invited us in for a chat.

What film or book gave you an intense emotional reaction?

The strongest emotional reaction I had from a movie was Charade starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. I was in sixth grade, and Charade is a little intense. If you haven’t seen it, it opens with the murder of Audrey Hepburn’s husband who stole a quarter of a million dollars (it was the 60’s) from the US Government. All his friends he double-crossed are all after the money and think she has it. I couldn’t sleep that night. I loved it! It’s still one of my favorite movies because of all the suspense, twists and turns. And it doesn’t take itself too seriously–there’s some jokes and laughs. And it has a romance. I guess that’s why I like to write Romantic Suspense with some laughs.

Amey’s Online Playground

website: www.ameyzeigler.com

Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/author/ameyzeigler

blog: www.ameyzeigler.blogspot.com

Twitter: @ameyzeigler – https://twitter.com/ameyzeigler

Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17290110.Amey_Zeigler

Author Bio

I wrote my first mystery with my best friend in fourth grade. I wrote, she illustrated. It also had a cute boy in it with spiky hair (because that was the style back then). Not much has changed. I love mystery. I love romance. I love suspense. I love action, adventure and comedy. But I want it to have a happy ending.

I love writing about different places because I grew up moving all around the United States. In my books, I want to explore the whole world.

Growing up, my poor mom had to be so patient with me as I always wanted to try new things. I played violin, drums, flute, piano, all before I was sixteen. I also discovered I don’t have much talent for music.

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was afraid to tell them I wanted to write because I didn’t know how to write.

I am so grateful for my Sophomore year Honor’s English teacher who gave me a star and five points (highest marks!) on my personal essay in the category for Voice. I wouldn’t have hoped to have had enough talent to pursue writing otherwise.

I’d like to thank my college writing professor who gave me a C in Creative Writing: Short Story writing. I worked even harder on my own and published my first short story the next semester.

I adopt stray furniture left on the side of the road. I like to fix it up and give it a new home and look.

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