Coffee Lounge

What would you like us to call you?
At Writing.com I'm Nicki, which is what I went by in college. My grown-up name is Nicole, and I answer to both!

Are you female or male? (Sometimes we get mixed up with text!)
I'm a just a girl... (Good thing you can't hear my singing. I'm tone deaf!)

How old are you? (Ballpark?)
Ugh. Early 40s. I don't want to talk about it.

Do you have a spouse? Siblings? Children?
I'm happily married to a Frenchman and we have two kids, a boy (13yo) and a girl (11yo).

How did you find Writing.Com?
Google search for info on copyright laws. WDC was the first link that popped up.

How did you find "I.N.K.E.D." ?
Justine!!

Who are your favorite authors?
Stephen King, Alice Sebold, Michael Crichton, Toni Morrison...

What type of writing is your passion?
I love writing anything character-driven, especially thriller/drama with a literary bent.

What genres are you interested in writing? (Or reading?)
Literary fiction runs through all my work. Right now I love reading dystopian YA. (Hunger Games, anyone??)

What do you hope most to gain by being an active member on this site?
The more I interact with writers, the more I discover about my own craft. I'm an avid blogger in the online writing community (Blogger and WordPress), but here at WDC it's about sharing my stories and reading/reviewing others works.

What's one thing about this site that you like so far?
Strong sense of community.

What are some things you feel other members may be able to help you with?
Reviewers' feedback, even the poorly-written, scathing reviews, offer insight into how parts of the reading audience are receiving my work.

If you could give one piece of writing advice, what would it be?
Write with the door closed. That's actually straight from Stephen King's On Writing. It means write with your computer browser shut down, your phone off, and no interruptions. Do this every day, for no matter how short a time, and you will grow in your craft.

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?
That first drafts are supposed to suck. I'm one of those anal writers that is terrified of shutting up my internal editor. It's okay if your first draft is full of creativity and poor in grammar. Really, it is!

What is your favorite quote? By who?
"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, but it hasn't stopped me from doing a damn thing I wanted to do." Georgia O'Keefe

What's your favorite color?
It's much easier to identify the color I hate. It's beige. Ick!

If you had only 24 hours to live, what would you do?
Spend time outdoors with my hubs and kids. And eat a lot of chocolate.

If the whole world were listening, what would you say? (We're not the whole world, but we're listening!)
Give peace a chance.

If there was one thing you could do in your life you can't right now, for whatever reason, what would it be and why?
Travel the world, extensively.

If one song were to describe your life, what song would it be and who is it by?
Going to have to come back to this one...

If you could spend $10,000 dollars on anything you wanted, what would you do with it?
I'd buy myself a kick-ass MacBook, and put the rest away in my kids' college funds.