Nicole Zoltack's Blog, page 40

Review and Giveaway: Canale Originals introduces Bracelet-Mate, The Purseless Purse and Wrist-Bling

This product, the Bracelet-Mate by Canale Originals, is definitely original. When you go to a fancy holiday party, who wants to be stuck carrying their clutch all night long? With the Bracelet-Mate, you have a bracelet that functions as your wallet and purse! Just put your ID, cash, lipstick, and key and keychain inside, slip it on, and you're all set!

It does take a few minutes to get used to wearing but after that, you'll forget you're wearing it. And what's nice is that there are so many different designs and colors to choose from. I received the black one to review, since black goes with everything. And besides wearing it to parties, you can wear it when you go out dancing, on the beach, shopping… anywhere.

Bracelet-Mate Click HERE to get more info.



Want to win a Bracelet-Mate?



1. "Like" Canale Originals on FACEBOOK.



2. Follow me - through GFC, or email, or twitter, or on facebook.



3. Leave a comment telling me where you would wear your bracelet-mate or which one you like best.



Last day to enter: December 15, 2011

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Question of the Week - Christmas Shopping

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Have you started your holiday shopping yet? All finished? Do you do most of your shopping in stores or online?



Me? I'm just about done and actually finished all of my shopping early last week - just have to get some stocking stuffers. This is way ahead of the game for me, normally I wouldn't make my purchases for another week or so. And since I do all of my shopping online, that's not a good thing. I usually only buy stocking stuffers in stores, which is why I haven't bought them yet.

Weekly Progress Report - Post Nano and Editing

During the month of November, I wrote about 87K - 80K for Crystal's Magic and a 7K short romance story.



Now that November is over and it's December, I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting back into the writing saddle. I want to finish my fantasy MG story about a princess who loves adventures and has a tendency to lie before next year so I better get started. I'm about a 1/4 of the way through it, but that's where I was before Nano.



Instead of writing, I've been doing a lot of editing. My brain is gonna melt, I swear.



What have you been up to post Nano?





Check out some other great progress report this week:



http://www.writersally.blogspot.com/

http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/

http://waibelworld.blogspot.com

http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com

http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/p/tuesday-wip-status.html

http://margoberendsen.blogspot.com

http://www.sherryauger.blogspot.com

http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com--in/

http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/

http://lynneawest.blogspot.com

Creature of the Week – Griffin

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The griffin is one of the most well-known legendary animals, known in Mesopotamia and Egypt since 3300 BC.

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The griffin has the body of a lion, and the head, wings, legs, and talon of an eagle. Lions are the king of beasts and eagles are the king of birds, so the griffin is a powerful and majesty creature. Because of their dual nature, medieval Christians saw them as a symbol of Christ's human and divine qualities, which is why many medieval churches had griffin sculptures.

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Griffins are said to guard treasures and to be fiercely protect of their hoard, just like dragons. Their favorite prey were horses.

According to the American Museum of Natural History, dinosaur bones have been discovered of a half-eagle, half-lion hybrid, the Protoceratops. Perhaps our ancestors saw their bones and fossils and that's how the origins of the griffin myth originated from.

Call For Bloggers To Review and Giveaway Unique Soy Candles

Diamond Candles Campaign Announcement ~ Call For Bloggers To Review & Giveaway Unique Soy Candles With Ring Surprises!



Would you like to do a review of soy candles? Well here's your chance.



Hurry over they are only looking for 100 blogs to participate!

Question of the Week – Go Back in Time

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If you could live in another time period, when would you pick?

Me? You need to ask? The Middle Ages, shortly bef

Weekly Progress Report - Nano done!

Before November started, all I had was a title - Crystal's Magic.



On November 28th, I finished the entire rough draft - all 79,919 words of it.



I'm fairly happy with the story. I know it needs work and editing and smoothing things out, but this is by far the fastest I've completed an entire novel. Hopefully when I read it over again in January (I'm not going to touch it in December), it would be all crap.



Some teasers (a whole bunch since I didn't post an update last week):

           

            The icy tendril of fear wrapped itself around her rapidly beating heart. "Who are you?" she repeated.



            Crystal opened her bedroom window and inhaled a deep breath of the cool, refreshing air. Thousands of stars littered the nighttime sky, and the moon shone like a lighthouse's beacon. 

           

            "A limo? What do I look like, a million bucks?"

            "No, definitely not." Crystal covered her mouth to conceal her grin.

            Vince looked down at his T-shirt and jeans. "Next you'll be wanting me to take dancing lessons."

           

             She glanced up at the sky, expecting to see clouds but none were there. Only then did she realize that she was crying.

            

             The sudden piercing ring of her phone made Crystal jump. She practically ripped her jean pocket as she scrambled to free her phone. The hope in her heart died when she saw the caller.

          

             "His eyes. I'll never forget his eyes. They were green, a deep, dark green, and he never looked away from Dad. I never saw the face of fear until that day."

          

             She could almost see the twisted blackness of revenge already living in his heart. To have the added vengeance of the countless witches as well as their power—he would become even more consumed by revenge, the world would become the focal point of his wrath. No matter what, she couldn't allow that to happen.

          

             His eyes were closed, and he looked peaceful, as if he were sleeping.

             If only that was the case.

          

             The Vince she heard in her mind, he sounded broken, lost. As if everything important had been stripped of him, and all he had left were hurts and regrets.

          

             If letting him sleep longer saved him from fear, she was more than willing to wait to be reunited with him.

          

            Doubt and confusion swam in the creature's eyes. The dark orbs changed into human eyes before becoming animalistic again. The rhino lowered its head again and then brought it up swiftly, gorging Crystal.



            She was losing herself, her emotions, her control, her feelings. She no longer knew who she was, what she was becoming.

            And yet the power within her… she knew that if she gave herself over to it completely, nothing, no one, would be able to stop her.

            Not even herself.



            A sentinel, magical storm… no one would be able to stop it.

            Have I unknowingly doomed the world?



            Tears streamed down her face. Not because of the pain or the growing coldness. She didn't fear death.



---



How's your Nano story coming along? If you aren't doing Nano, what have you been up to this month?







Check out some other great progress report this week:



http://www.writersally.blogspot.com/

http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/

http://waibelworld.blogspot.com

http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com

http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/p/tuesday-wip-status.html

http://margoberendsen.blogspot.com

http://www.sherryauger.blogspot.com

http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com--in/

http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/

http://lynneawest.blogspot.com Email Thi

Creature of the Week – Questing Beast

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The Questing Beast is one of the mythical creatures mentioned in King Arthur legends.

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The Questing Beast is a hybrid – with the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the hind of a lion, and the feet of a stag. It name comes from its bark because it sounds like the barking of twenty hounds on the quest.

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In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the Questing Beast appears to Arthur after he unknowingly slept with his half-sister, Morgause. Their son, Mordred, eventually kills Arthur. Merlin says that the Questing Beast is the offspring of an incestuous union between a royal brother and sister, like Mordred.

Did you do any work in college? Guest blog from Laurel Gans

College is wasted on college kids. While I was away at school, I had no idea how great I had it. For four years I lived in a tiny bubble where weekends started on Thursdays and the idea of getting up before ten was literally laughed at.  Nobody was over the age of twenty-two and the swipe of a card brought unlimited food. It was awesome.  

The ironic thing is I remember thinking that I was working really hard during college. In my head, I was always in class or a science lab. At home, I was constantly studying physics or writing a Spanish essay.

Somehow, my mind seemed to filter out the two hour dinners I had with my friends every single night and the afternoons we spent sliding down snow-covered stairs in laundry baskets (don't worry, we wore helmets). Now that I think about it, I didn't even go to class half the time.

Some days I have to ask myself---Did I do any work in college???

Lucky for me I got to go back to college every day while writing my new novel, Waitlisted. My main character, Kacey Barlow, is a cocky college senior who is having a little bit too much fun as an undergrad.  She's been kicked out of the grad school her family has been attending for generations. She's mortified to tell her parents and can't stand the thought of her friends learning her little secret. She's forced to jump through every hoop the admissions process has to offer. As if applying once wasn't bad enough…

Here is a scene in which Kacey attempts to master organic chemistry lab. I wish I could say it's purely fictional but I have to admit, I wasn't so honest in my lab reports either.   I wash and dry my pathetic, minuscule product. Just as I thought, it turns out to be a fine white powder. Luckily, I'm able to scrape just enough into a tiny tube to take a melting point. I place my little tube in the heating machine and wait for the moment my crystals become a liquid.The book says these crystals should melt at around thirty degrees Celsius if made right. Well, I made mine pretty much right. It should melt at thirty degrees. I wait as the temperature continues to rise. Thirty-five…forty…forty-three degrees. What the heck? Are my crystals immune to heat? Why aren't they melting?Forty-five…forty-eight…fifty-two. This is ridiculous. My product couldn't be that messed up! The machine must be wrong.I yank out my tube and place it in the neighboring machine.Once again, I stare in amazement as the temperature rises and my product stays a solid. What did I make???Finally the product melts at an impressive sixty-two degrees. That's not so off. Is it? "How's it going, Kacey?" I hear a deep voice say from behind me.I turn around and my heart jumps. Oh no! It's Mean Teaching Assistant #1. And he's got the clip board! He'll never check off that I got my product. He's going to make me start over again and I'll be stuck here all afternoon."Great!" I say."Did you get your product?" he says.He stares at me with serious eyes. It's like this guy has nothing better to do than harass little undergrads. "Yup! Perfect white crystals," I say."Did you get your melting point?" he says."Yup! Thirty-seven degrees!"I couldn't say thirty degrees. That would make it way too obvious that I'm lying. And I, of course, couldn't say sixty-two degrees. That would make it way too obvious that I'm a moron.He seems disappointed. "Thirty-seven? Why do you think your melting point is so off?"Off? He thinks thirty-seven degrees is off? Try sixty-two! "There are lots of reasons it could be off!" I say. "Like?" "Maybe the flask wasn't clean from the last experiment?" "It was your flask. You didn't clean it?" he says. "No!" "No, you didn't?" "No, I did!"Gosh, this guy confuses me."Then your flask was clean," he says.If he says so! "Well, there are other reasons for an impure product." I say. "Maybe I measured wrong or the thermometer was off."He rolls his eyes. "Those are possibilities." He doesn't seem to think those are really possibilities. "Or maybe…the solutions we used weren't pure to begin with," I say.I seem to have struck a nerve. A little wrinkle forms between his eyes."I made those myself. The solutions were fine.""Are you sure? Were the flasks you used clean?" I ask. I probably shouldn't have said that but it was so tempting."Of course. I know what I'm doing," he says."I'm sure you do," I say."There's nothing wrong with the solutions." "Well." I pause. "Then there should be nothing wrong with my product." He glares at me for a moment, and I stare back. Finally, he looks down. He takes out a pen from his pocket and makes a check mark next to Barlow, Kacey on the attendance sheet."Just try harder next time. People die from impure products." He turns around and stomps off.Did he really check me off? That's amazing! I'm done!He probably thinks I'm a little crazy now but that's OK. It works to my advantage! I'm out of here!

Thanks so much for having me as your guest today! You can find more information about Waitlisted at the following links!

http://www.amazon.com/Waitlisted-ebook/dp/B005SWDRBEhttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/waitlisted-laurel-gans/1106367627You can follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/laurelgans  ---Thanks for the great post and excerpt, Laurel! Did you do any work in college? I did, and yet I probably should have done a lot more. Laurel's so right - college is wasted on college kids.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



I'm thankful first and foremost for my family. I love my husband. I would not be the person I am today without him. And I love our two boys. They're both so precious. Son #1 is starting to learn how to write the letters of the alphabet and he's also starting potty training. Son #2 just loves to run and laugh and play.



I'm thankful that all of my pregnancies, including this one, have been relatively easy and that son #3 is healthy.



I'm thankful that although son #2 has severe allergies to milk, eggs, and peanuts, he hasn't had an anaphylactic reaction to any of them (and God willing wont' ever!)



I'm thankful that I'm able to stay home all day with the boys and to be able to get my writing and editing done.



I'm thankful that we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and food to eat.



I'm thankful to just be alive!



What about you? What are you thankful for? Enjoy lots of turkey and gravy and stuffing!