Nicole Zoltack's Blog, page 60

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam

Here's a fun link to the Fantasy Novelist's Exam. Basically, it's a list of questions about your fantasy novel. If you answer "yes" to any of the questions, the teacher will give you an "F" and suggests you should abandon your novel.

The list is a joke. It mentions many of the overused tropes in the fantasy genre (Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?) (Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?) (Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?)

However, I have written a fantasy novel or two or three that I would have to answer "Yes" to a few of the questions.

Is this the first book in a planned trilogy? (Yep - Woman of Honor is book I in a trilogy)

Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names? (Trolls do in Knight of Glory and Champion of Valor - there are new races that I explore in Champion of Valor and made sure there weren't any more apostrophes or dashes in them.)

Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings? (Orcs - no but they are mentioned. Elves - well, Drow are. Dwarves - yep. Halfings - no.)

All in all, it's a funny list. What tropes are you sick of seeing in fantasy? What ones don't you mind? Do you think elves are better than dwarves?

The Charlie Schulz Philosophy

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip.
You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them. 

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the  world. 

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant. 

4  Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress! s. 

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.
 

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. 

These are no second-rate achievers. 

They are the best in their fields. 

But the applause dies.. 

Awards tarnish.. 

Achievements are forgotten. 

Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. 

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school. 

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time. 

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile. 

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with. 



Easier?
 
The lesson: 

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money...or the most awards. 

They simply are the ones who care the most.


'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia !' 

Inspiring Mondays

 
I love the colors in this, the blues are beautiful. Who is she? Who is she waiting for?

Friendly Friday - Critiques for Christmas

I'm a Catholic. Grew up Catholic, went to Catholic schooling all my life. Before you stop reading because you're a different religion or have different beliefs or no beliefs, I'm not trying to talk about religion or convert anyone. Just stating a fact about myself.

As a Catholic, I celebrate Christmas every year.

While I hate how commercialized the holiday has become, I love to give presents. Seeing other people smile when they open their presents - it makes me so happy.

So while I've been looking around online for presents for my sons and my hubby and my siblings and parents, I thought about you all.

The writing world is such a wonderful community and I want to give back. So I'm going to do something special for some of you this Christmas. I've giving away critiques. Calling this contest Critiques for Christmas. (So creative, I know, but it's really late when I'm typing this post so forgive me for not coming up with a better name.)

Anyhow, if you win, you can pick your prize:

Query critique
Synopsis critique
First page critique

Number of winners will be determined at a later date.

How to enter? Be a follower and comment on this blog. If you tweet/FB this, you get an additional entry (up to one per day). Leave a link in the comments.

This contest will be open until December 17th. I'll announce the winners on the 20th. If you get back to me right away with your query/synopsis/first page, I'll try to return the critiques before Christmas.

Enjoy!

Friendly Friday

I'm a Catholic. Grew up Catholic, went to Catholic schooling all my life. Before you stop reading because you're a different religion or have different beliefs or no beliefs, I'm not trying to talk about religion or convert anyone. Just stating a fact about myself.

As a Catholic, I celebrate Christmas every year.

While I hate how commercialized the holiday has become, I love to give presents. Seeing other people smile when they open their presents - it makes me so happy.

So while I've been looking around online for presents for my sons and my hubby and my siblings and parents, I thought about you all.

The writing world is such a wonderful community and I want to give back. So I'm going to do something special for some of you this Christmas. I've giving away critiques. Calling this contest Critiques for Christmas. (So creative, I know, but it's really late when I'm typing this post so forgive me for not coming up with a better name.)

Anyhow, if you win, you can pick your prize:

Query critique
Synopsis critique
First page critique

Number of winners will be determined at a later date.

How to enter? Be a follower and comment on this blog. If you tweet/FB this, you get an additional entry (up to one per day). Leave a link in the comments.

This contest will be open until December 17th. I'll announce the winners on the 20th. If you get back to me right away with your query/synopsis/first page, I'll try to return the critiques before Christmas.

Enjoy!

Nano Wrap Up and December Goals

I was originally going to update you all on my Nano story yesterday, considering it was December 1st, but Talli overtook the blog world in a huge way, and my blog was part of the splash.

But today is all me again.

I wrote just over 50k of Champion of Valor in November, making me a winner! Although I still have a lot of words to add - roughly 40-50k - before the story is completely finished. Then it'll need to be edited and sent to beta readers and edited again. I already wrote the ending but I'm sure some of the details will need to be adjusted/fixed. A lot of scenes were glossed over *insert battle between X and Y* *insert battle between Z and A* lol This book is full of action scenes, which is to be expected, after all, it's about a war.

I really like how CoV is shaping up. I don't want to go into too many details but here's the basic gist:

The final war between Speica and Arnhem draws to an end as allies are gained, lines are crossed, people die, and a mage and selkie struggle to make their love work as Lucifer attempts to bring about the Apocalypse before its time.


I've mentioned this before but book I in the series, Woman of Honor has a mostly historical feel to it, with some fantasy thrown in. Knight of Glory focuses more on the fantasy. Champion of Valor has both fantasy and religious undertones. High fantasy - meaning a medieval type world. In the Middle Ages, religion was a huge part of their everyday lives so I had to include religion.

I've created a lot of problems and dilemmas for my characters. It'll be interesting to see how they fix everything and restore order, and who's let standing to see things through til the very end.

Hubby was a big help, watching the boys in order to let me get some writing in when our sons refused to nap at the same time. Wouldn't have won without him!

I also was a PiBoIdMo winner. I came up with 32 ideas for picture books. Some are better than others but it was a lot of fun to sit and think up picture book ideas. Can't wait until I have some free time that I can devote to picture books.

I guest blogged at Loraine's about previous Nano experiences. Feel free to check it out and leave a comment!

So for the rest of December, I'm going to finish Champion of Valor. If I have time there are a couple of short stories I would like to write. Prime books is publishing an anthology of urban fantasy werewolf stories. Pill Hill Press has a romantic suspense anthology. And Fangtales, the next in the Tales anthologies from Wyvern Publications, scary YA stories about vampires. So December is going to be busy, busy, busy. If I don't get to the short stories, I don't get to them, but I'm going to try. Might as well set the bar high and strive to do all I can.

How productive was your November? Did you do Nano? What was your story about? Did you win? Have you read any good books lately? What are your reading/writing goals for December?

The Hating Game

Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.
Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/hNBkJkAmazon.com: http://amzn.to/hX2ieD
No Kindle? Download a free app at Amazon for Mac, iPhone, PC, Android and more.
Coming soon in paperback.  Keep up with the latest at www.talliroland.com.
About THE HATING GAME:
When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £2000,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

Be Yourself Online

I read a blog post recently about The 10 Commandments of Social Networking for Writers. It's a great post so you should head on over and read it. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Good, you remembered to come back. Here's a cookie.

Anyhow, the article got me thinking about how easy it is to pretend that your someone you aren't online. You can 'show' the online world whatever you want. You can pretend to be younger or thinner or hide behind an avator or image. But why would you want to pretend to be someone you aren't?

It's a lot easier to just be yourself. And being real, I think, makes a person so much more relate-able. Makes a person more friendly. Makes a person someone I want to be friends with.

So keep that in mind when you tweet or are on FB. Who are you pretending to be? Or are you just being yourself? It makes a difference.

Me? I just like to be me. I hope you like me too. :)

Inspiring Mondays

Credit for picture
I think this picture has so many possibilities. The explorer - where did he come from? What is he looking for? Is he hiding from something or someone? And the house - what's inside? Is it a temple? Or is it hiding a terrible secret beneath its stone floors?

And another issue of The Medieval Chronicle is now available! Click here to read my article. Enjoy! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Credit for pictureHappy Thanksgiving all my blogging friends! I hope you enjoy lots of food and time with your loved ones.

I'm thanking for my family, who makes me happy and lifts my spirits when I'm feeling down.

I'm thankful for my friends, who love me despite my craziness.

I'm thankful that I'm able to spend my days at home, with my two adorable and precious sons.

I'm thankful that I'm a writer.

I'm thankful for the writing community, without which I surely would have pulled out all of my hair by now.

I'm thankful for my critique partners, my beta readers, my friends that I bounce ideas off of, that they aren't afraid to tell me what works and what doesn't, for helping to make my writing shine.

I'm thankful for all of you and your friendship.

What are you thankful for?