For the Criminally Inane

 I published my first book with the Wild Rose Press nearly ten years ago now. It's been an amazing journey. I have learned and grown so much! Here are a few things I wish I would've done when I first started writing. Start a newsletter and social media before publishing. I wish I would've let more people know I was writing. I was a little shy about it. It also took me a long time to figure out how to write a book, so partially this was because I wasn't sure I could do a good job. But having a group cheer you on, follow your journey, supporting you spiritually is such a blessing. I see other authors just starting out with their friends cheering them on. Realized this is a business, not just art. When I first started writing, I was creating stories that were personal, deep and complicated. Now I wish I had just written stories that were more marketable. So many people ask me what I write and often I can't exactly say. If I had started with a business mindset, I think ...

 I'll have to say, when I first saw Spirited Away with my husband after we were first married, I was uncomfortable. The movie didn't employ usual Western storytelling techniques and I couldn't predict the ending or what would happen next. Although the animation was beautiful and the characters were interesting, I still struggled. Now, fast forward twenty odd years. I'm so glad I raised my kids on Studio Gibli films. In case you are unfamiliar, let me give you a summary of my favorite ones and then I'll explain what I feel these movies do over other animation studios. Here are a few of our favorites Spirited Away: a young girl gets separated from her parents in the land of spirits and must work in a spirit bath house to find her parents and to find answers. She befriends lots of people who help her reach her goal. Porco Rosso: A young girl engineers a bi-plane to help a pilot win an arial battle post the Great War. Howl's Moving Castle: A young girl gets turne...

Actually, failing and anything worth doing should have been the title. But since I'm a writer, I'll use my personal example. When I first started writing, I was worried I wouldn't be talented enough to write. Thankfully I read in a book somewhere that you don't have to be wildly talented to succeed (although it helps). You just have to work hard to learn your craft. And be prepared to fail. Be prepared to fail A LOT. Anything worth learning how to do is worth failing for. Sometimes we get this weird idea that we shouldn't fail or that failure is bad. It's not. You're learning. You will make mistakes. I try not to let ego or pride get in the way of that. I know I'm going to fail. And trust me, I have made a TON of mistakes while I've been writing--business mistakes, marketing mistakes, writing mistakes. It never ends. I'll continue to make mistakes. But I learn and grow. I read somewhere that it's actually not easier for children to learn lang...

 Every few years I put out a gift guide because at this point in the season or maybe it's in my life, I am an adult with adult money. Also nearly all my kids are out of the house. (But I'm not willing to give up my minivan yet. Mine's almost 20 years old!)  So it's harder to buy for them because I don't see them every day. But here's what I'm thinking of getting them for Christmas. (Mostly 20 bucks or less.) Husband: I bought him a towel warmer . Our bathroom faces northward it never seems to get warm. I like that this one is collapsable for storage in the summer. I would love to put socks in here too or pants before wearing them so that you can get the out-of-the-dryer feel every day. I usually get him tickets to a local performance as he loves music. Japanese-insipried things like chopsticks or t-shirts since he lived there for two years and still speaks Japanese.  Anime-inspired stuff since it's becoming more mainstream is easier to find. Here's a...

  We funded my second book, Chains Of Deceit!  Yay! Thank you so much for all your support and for helping me bring these beautiful books into the world. I am finishing the final revisions before sending it to the editor. My Alpha reader (aka my husband) says it needs more kissing and a more epic ending! So I MUST deliver. Usually my fight scenes while I'm writing the first draft goes something like this: They stare down the corridor with menacing grins and glinting eyes. ***come back and describe fight scene here*** Result is that MCG is wounded. Which is funny to my husband. But I have to write the overall plot before I describe the details. It's jut how it works for me. *shrug* I don't mess with the formula. Details for me come last. I think it's because I write the first draft so quickly and roughly, I imagine it's like a sketch before the ink and pen. A rough in, if you will. Details comes later. So more kissing and a more epic ending is coming your way. I had ...

I realized when someone asked me recently about my reading order for my books that I probably haven't published this online yet. So without further ado, ahem.  Short answer: It doesn't really matter. My books are mostly standalones. Now, having said that, there are a few series where it matters which book you read first if you want the full effect. But honestly, all my books make sense on their own with the exception of my YA fantasy. I'll list my books by genre and by most popular. Oh, and by the way...All my paperbacks and ebooks bundles can be found at a steep discount (up to 50%-off) at  books.ameyzeigler.com  I also sell book-related merchandise and will try to get more up this year or next. Gromance ( or romantic women's fiction where characters learn and grow . Get it? Grow-mance? haha!) Helping of Hope series The Casserole Dish* The Christmas Mug* The Cookie Platter is slated for later this year or early next year.  *ebooks not available on my site,...

 Okay, okay. I watched it. I did. And I enjoyed it! In case you've been living under a rock these past few months and don't know, K-Pop Demon Hunters is a Netflix animated movie about...K-pop stars (Korean pop singers) who also save us from demons who are breaking through from the other side. It was actually a lot of fun. My daughter told me about it at the beginning of summer, but since I don't have a Netflix account, I had to wait until she came to visit and we watched it on her account. What I liked about it It was actually refreshing to watch something so fun without a "message" attached. The girls were relatable. sure they dressed up in their pop clothes but we have lots of scenes with them wearing comfy clothes when in their down time. The characters are relatable. They're actually like real people, not artificial people.  The demons were HOT. Popcorn is coming out of my eyes right now. Can you have a crush on a cartoon? I love it that the characters we...

 I would travel to Japan just to eat the food. What we call Japanese food here or even supermarket sushi just can't compare to the majesty of authentic Japanese food. Here are a couple of things I noticed while eating in Japan. I've heard rumors you can't leave your plate empty. I don't know if this is true. If so, I'd guess it's left over from WW2 when wasting food was ungrateful. They might give you long looks if you don't finish, but you won't get berated. Don't put bags on the floors. Japanese restaurants even small ones will have a place for your bag. Most of the time, we found bins by our tables to put our shopping treasures in. But this one, teeny tiny yakiniku place had a hook to hang a bag or a few bags from.  Use the wet towels to clean your hands before eating. Even in the cheapest ekiben shop, they'll give you a wet towel to wipe your hands with. You've been on public transportation every day. Use the wet towel to wash your hands....

  I am crowdfunding Book 2 in the Stitchbinding Chronicles. If you don't know about Crowdfunding READ HERE  to get details on what crowdfunding means. About the book: If you like hot assassins, secret lairs, and people being unjustly imprisoned, join me for the next installment of the Stitchbinding Chronicles. Lineya heads to the Krashe mountains to learn the secrets of Woolworsting. But Oakum sends an assassin to make sure she never returns. But while she's there, she must find out the mystery behind why people are disappearing from Krashe.  You can sign up for the pre-launch so that you'll be notified on launch day Nov 12, `2025. Join the party! 

I feel like writing a blog is passé now that we have social media but I do like the long form of storytelling that I just miss from short form social media. I don't do it often because I feel like it takes away from my precious writing time, especially during the summer when I want to spend the last few rays of summer sunshine with my kids at home. But I also love telling stories. Especially funny ones. And this is a story I think you'll enjoy. Once upon a time, Rob and I got engaged, about 1000 years ago. We were dirt poor. I had about $200 in the bank and we got married on love and hope. But I had attended a church meeting where they gave out those fake plastic, but they look metallic, rings as part of a lesson. It looked real, complete with little carvings on it. You could only tell it was plastic by the weight (it was light) and the little slit in the circumference. Well, I went to a local jewelers to buy Rob a ring (he has since lost this little relic) and I asked him his ...

 Shopping in Japan is a beautiful experience! I love how they make everything beautiful and appealing. Here are a differences of shopping in Japan than in USA. The first thing is that if you are trying clothes on, they will ask you to remove your shoes in the dressing room. They may also have a facial cover for you to put on so that your makeup or sweat won't get on the item. They are very polite about this, so please remember to do it. Often the item you are trying on isn't the item you will purchase. They have "try on" items and then in the back, they have the same items already wrapped and ready for purchase. I actually like this since you won't take home an item of clothing that has been tried on a thousand times by other shoppers and I kinda wish we'd do that too. It also makes their sales floor less crowded since they only have displays out, not their inventory. Maybe it's also Inventory Loss protection, but I kind of doubt it. It just looks really n...

So you want to go to Japan... First off, if you're going, congrats! It's a cool very unique country with strong ties to culture and tradition and yet they fully embrace technology too. This will focus on Tokyo. I can do one for Osaka later if you wish. The flight: We flew ZipAir which is a new cheaper flight over to Japan. We flew LAX to Narita airport. 11 hours or so. Zipair is cheap but you'll have to pay extras including checked luggage and meals. You can bring your own food and I highly suggest it. If you order something from them, you'll need to retain your boarding pass so they can confirm your seat. So keep that handy or in a pocket. We pre-paid and reserved a ticket on the train going into town. You'll still have to find the ticket office to get your assigned seating. It took us an hour to get into Tokyo proper from Narita. Jet lag: Because Japan's time zone is so different, I would suggest going to sleep at 11pm local time. That was one piece of travel ...

Clean and Wholesome was a category designated on Amazon. The term clean came from them and those of us who write “no-spice” romance wanted a way to better communicate what was in our books and better meet readers’ expectations. “Clean” can mean a whole lot of things, but let’s start with this. Clean romance is not the opposite of dirty --or imply that intimacy is dirty or smuty. I see the definition as more of “free from” like I had a clean performance, free from mistakes. I went to a conference once where a very popular author said that talking about sex on page through metaphor was considered clean. I want to say this, no one in the clean author community that I’ve talked to agreed with that statement. Most clean authors will say no sex on page--not even in metaphor. But even if we say clean doesn’t have sex on page, there is still a large variation from a chaste kiss to implied sex through closed-door. So what can you expect from a clean author? First, let’s define a few words: Clos...

 Many people poo-poo reading as a waste of time, or even worse, bad for you for introducing bad ideas into your head. Hello, Gaston! Here are five reasons why reading is good for you! #1-- Reading makes you smarter. Whether you're reading non-fiction or fiction, you are learning new things--vocabulary or even how things work. My husband learned so much about the West while reading Louis L'amour books when he was a kid. #2-- Reading makes you empathic and compassionate. When you read, you are walking a mile in someone else's shoes for a while. You learn that every one has reasons for their actions. You can experience another person's life, all from the safety of your own room. #3-- Reading helps you to understand the world better. I read to see the world in a different light. I gain perspective and knowledge. It gives me context for certain behaviors. It introduces me to other cultures. #4-- Reading gives you good hormones . The endorphins you get when you accomplish a...

 If your goals for 2025 included reading more books or reading more often, then I'm here to help you out with five tips to get more reading in. #5-- Audiobooks are a no-brainer! You can put them on your phone, put in headphones and make chores less boring. I have listened to many hours of audio while exercising, folding laundry and running errands in the car. If you're a commuter and spend extra time in the car, there is no reason for that time to go to waste. Enjoy it instead with audio. If you like Audible, you can sign up here. OR.... BONUS #1: Many authors are now offering audiobooks for free on their YouTube Channel. Subscribe to my YouTube for free audiobooks.   (Coming soon!) I'll create another post with all my sweet/clean friends who have FREE audiobooks up on their channels. #4-- Find a designated time. I read just a few minutes before bed. I've discovered that even if I read a few pages before bedtime, I'm more relaxed and have cooler dreams than if I ...

 Hello friends! What's coming down the pike for 2025? Are you excited? What books are you most anticipating? Seasons of Sugar Creek Book 4 Three Spring Wedding s (outlined, not started.) Helping of Hope book 3 The Cookie Platter  (15k words so far) Chains Of Deceit by A. E. Zeigler (40k words so far) Books/series in planning stages: (Hopefully happening beginning in 2026) Gauche Girl book 2: Wing Girl (plotting stages)--Reverse Cyrano de Bergerac. She writes song lyrics and but gets a job as a social media manager for a famous singer and starts communicating for her boss via social media with a hot DJ (LiveR@ from book 1) . Everything is fine until she falls in love with him. Mark of the Beast : Baker's Dozen book 3 (plotting/planning stages) These take me a long time to write because of all the research! I have a few ideas of where it's going, I just need to dig into the details. Serving of Self Series: firefighter's series set in the same world as the Helping of Hope ...

Young Adult fantasy is my favorite genre. If you look at my shelves, they are filled with YA fantasy books. I love YA because it's clean, it's adventurous, it's all about growth, making mistakes, and taking responsibility. It was about putting off more mature decisions like intimacy until you're older and focused on the emotional relationship in the romance. YA lit is written for CHILDREN ages 12-18. However... Recently that's changed. I'm not sure when or why. I opened a book a while ago and was SHOCKED to find a scene in YA fantasy where they legit had S3X! It was euphemized. But it was totally obvious what they were talking about and they were clearly in bed. Another book talked about how they were gloriously naked after a tactful description of the act. GLORIOUSLY NAKED? WHAT THE HECK????  I know that some people are like, I let my kids read whatever they want and they're turning out okay. Fine. I get it. You can let your kid read Game of Thrones or wh...

 Waaaaaaay back in 2010 when we were still in grad school, my husband met a Japanese man at church who had come me to St. Louis on business. Since my husband lived in Japan as a missionary for two years and is fluent in Japanese, we invited him over for dinner after the services. I made homemade pizza which was fast and easy for me to make and fed a lot.  Then my husband offered to take him to the train station so he could catch his flight. (He offered to take him all the way to the airport, but the man insisted on taking the train--public transportation is much more common in Japan and it wasn't much of a hassle to take the train to the airport and our family had taken it many times.) During dinner, the man casually asked my husband what he missed as food from Japan. My husband listed off a few things including Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. The Osaka-style was more of a pancake where it's prepared omelet-style of throwing everything into a bowl and then cooking it. Hiroshima-s...

  November is national bell pepper month. Do you know what that means? That means that sweet romance writers all over the internet are celebrating sweet romance. Get it? Bell peppers are sweet. Sweet romance don't have any spice? I hope you're laughing or at least looking at this screen amused. So what does that mean for you, dear reader? Lots of sweet/closed-door/fade-to-black romances coming your way!  How do I find what I'm looking for in the midst of these books? We've divided the sweet category up into different categories: Cherry --Sweet novellas Bell --all sweet full-length novels Shishito --action and adventures (romantic suspense) Mini sweet --light and adorable Sweet Banana --complexity PNR, Sci-fi Romance etc romantasy Cubanelle--love and food!  (Mine is in here!) CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO ALL OF THESE And giveaways. Paperback giveaways!! I love getting paperbacks in the mail. Be sure to check the dates (some haven't started yet...) and check and see if...

 I found this list and I'm going to be joining these authors in a promo. I want to check them out! If you have read any of these let me know! The Duchess: Tales of Kelnore Hannah E. Carey The Princess: Tales of Kelnore Hannah E. Carey Tutored By a Fae: An Enemies to Lovers Soulmates Romance Layla K Wood Trained by a Fae: A Fated Mates Romance Layla K Wood Crowned A Traitor : A Hellish Fairytale Book 1 Kate Callaghan Peaceweaver Everly Haywood Rejected By a Fae: An Enemies To Lovers Soulmate Romance Layla K Wood Motor Girl and the Endless Race A. A. Achibane The Three Fates Aisha Urooj A Hare in the Wilderness S E Turner A Winter of Fish and Favor E. M. Epps Queen of Deception Epic Fantasy Romance Healer's Blade Kyrie Wang Mask of Deception and Sacrifice Callie Thomas The Almost Queen Laura Greenwood Wicked Woods Complete Series Box Set Kailin Gow ...