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photo 2021-10-14 20:35

For all you Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans -- win and wear the ultimate answer

 

Why 42?

Forty-two is the answer to life, the universe and everything, in Douglas Adams’s masterpiece, a surreal and goofy romp through the universe.

 

Enter now!

 

Why giveaway this?

Because I think that fans of HHGTTG will also enjoy my new book, Alpha Max: An Existential Romp through an Absurd Multiverse. Now, I’m not saying Alpha Max is as funny HHGTTG, because that’s a pretty high bar.

 

However, I have some earlier reviewers compare this work to that of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and also Kurt Vonnegut. The winner will also receive a signed, first edition copy of my new book!

 

cover image of Alpha Max by Mark A. Rayner

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url 2020-12-24 11:36
What Happens when You Skip Meals?

You think you're burning calories, but you're damaging your metabolism. Watch the video to know what happens when you skip meals.

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text 2020-04-12 05:36
Different Types Of Wax Made Use Of To Make Candles

Do you wish to experience the healing influence of fragrant oils while you are at work? Do you intend Chill Out http://www.vcfed.org/forum/member.php?54685-chilloutwi08 With Oil to obtain a sniff of these naturally drawn out oils while you are dealing with a group job on your classmate's home? These are very stressful tasks when you need the alleviation of vital oils the a lot of. You may use improvised diffusers like cotton or tissue; nevertheless, their impact will just last for a brief time period. Some times it is not simple to bring it bring because it is bulky. The option to these troubles is the mobile and also mobile travel USB aroma diffuser.

It balances sebum production and also benefits oily, dry and also matured skin.Although this oil has a peaceful result on the anxious system, as well much of it can create headaches. I can attest to it when I utilized it in an oil burner a few years earlier. I lacked the typical oils in your home and just Ylang Ylang was left. After about a week of breathing in the aroma, I really felt lightheaded and had a consistent frustration. I experienced the procedure of removal as well as located that it was the only feasible option that Ylang Ylang was the reason. The headaches stopped as soon as I discontinued using the oil. Lesson discovered. Too much of something is not good. Variety is the flavor of life when it involves essential oils.

The issue with making use of paraffin as a medium in aroma diffusers candle lights is that in addition to the essential oils, you are also dispersing petro-carbons into the air which is hazardous when inhaled. The residue produced from the oil based paraffin has health hazards which are known to trigger cancer cells. They also interfere with the https://disqus.com/by/disqus_rBgxQ76MD2/ all-natural recovery power of the aroma of these essential oils.

There are blends too in aromatherapy in using important oil. If you intend to make use of the numerous kinds of necessary in an efficient mix, it is readily available and a mixture of vital sometimes functions really excellent since in this instance, you are not to go for purchasing specific essential oil. Yet, there are troubles as well as these may feature an itching or something alike for which it is important to consult a physician.

Something you should learn about aromatherapy candles is that they are NOT necessarily important oil candle lights. Many individuals think about these terms to be compatible. To be clear, crucial https://coub.com/chilloutwi08 oil candle lights are constantly aromatherapy candle lights, yet aromatherapy candles are not always necessary oil candles.

Okay. So one point we ought to find out about aromatherapy is the essential oils that we use during a session. Nevertheless, it will not be aromatherapy if we do not make use of essential oils. Experts say that there might be other sorts of oils or scents available on the market right currently but it is just necessary oils which can assisting us accomplish the result that we would wish to achieve. These have certain been studied as well as have actually been verified to be actually reliable. So it is time that we all know that we only use necessary oils when practicing ultrasonic aroma diffusers.

Handcrafted soaps are amazingly abundant as well as moisturizing. They relieve as well as soften the skin in addition to cleanse the skin without drying it out. They are constructed of sustainable, natural, botanical, and also vegetable based sources. They are gentle sufficient even for the most delicate and allergy prone skin. A lot of producers of handmade products only make use of the most effective of components such as olive oil or shea butter. They include wonderful and essential oil diffusers that are drawn out from plants to work as restorative representatives to the skin and also to make it scent great. Only the very best and most natural active ingredients are used in establishing handmade soaps to make sure benefits for you and also your body.

High quality of vital oils is a very vital function to look for when acquiring necessary oils. You buy affordable essential oils from a neighborhood supplier not knowing that it is the outcome of 3rd or fourth extract. The high quality of such a preparation will certainly be naturally much less. Necessary oils are not only purchased for the aroma and fragrance that they generate. Bulk of the individuals buy it for its therapeutic values. As the top quality of essential oils lower, so does its restorative benefits. Nonetheless, one may need to pay a really small rate for acquiring the crucial oil.

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review SPOILER ALERT! 2020-03-27 04:51
Review: Don't Look Down by Hilary Davidson
Don't Look Down - Hilary Davidson

***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer!***

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that I did not read the entire book. I read to 150 pages and I just couldn’t stomach it anymore. Reading it was painful and I just couldn’t do it. And since I am about 98% sure I know how it’s going to end, there really wasn’t much to keep me reading any further.

 

This book is just not good. It’s not a good character story nor is it a good police procedural. I am not an expert in the law or police procedure, by any means, however I have read enough books and watched enough Law & Order that I know how these types of books should work. I have a basic understanding of the law and how it works and this was not even close to being accurate. This case would get thrown into the nearest paper shredder and the detectives would be berated in open court to handle a case this way.

 

Also, consider this your ***SPOILER WARNING***

 

Three prime examples that the author has zero idea how the police actually function:

 

- The detectives go to the office of a suspect and state that they need to speak with said suspect, the fill-in receptionist advises that the suspect is not there but her office is that way so feel free to wait. Apparently this is a good enough cause for the detectives to search the suspect’s office. They do not have a warrant. They have not obtained permission unless you count the receptionist and yet they snoop through everything and decide to obtain a warrant for the suspect’s home once they find something. That is called an unlawful search and any evidence obtained in said search is automatically inadmissible in court, except in this book.

  • - They go search the suspect’s home and find her boyfriend there, they do not escort the boyfriend outside or to a specific place while they conduct the search. He just follows them around from room to room, offering an opinion on what they find and being asked leading questions about their investigation. Apparently in this book a search warrant also means that you get to search anything in the home and seize anything you feel like. That isn’t how search warrants work. Typically search warrants indicate exactly what sort of evidence you believe that you will find or that you believe is relevant to the investigation. For example, a murder weapon, belongings of the victim, etc. You don’t just get to snoop and seize things on a whim because they might pertain to your investigation. Also, one of the uniform police officers is asked to crack open a safe. Which he does, in just a few minutes. Is safe cracking a typical skill for a beat cop?
  • - When they find the suspect they are unconscious from blood loss. The suspect is taken to the hospital for treatment after being placed under arrest. The detectives then literally have a conversation of “Do you think we have to Mirandize her again? I don’t think it counts if they’re unconscious.” No, it doesn’t count. But apparently this is also a book that a suspect is taken into custody after suffering a gunshot wound that has left them unconscious from blood loss and they are expected in court the next day to be arraigned.

Also, on to another rant. This felt like a social justice rant. Every other page you have the African American detective making some observation about how awful things are for minorities in New York City and how wonderful white people have things. For example, “That’s assuming that the DA will arraign a wealthy white woman for possession of an illegal firearm, which isn’t likely.” Spare me. In case Ms. Davidson hadn’t noticed, she is white. And lecturing the reader about racial injustice. Personally, I am so white that I practically glow in the dark so I understand that I have very little perception of what minorities in this country experience on a day to day basis. I found it condescending for a white woman to be lecturing about the plight of another race. A plight that she does not understand.

 

Finally, this story is predictable. I knew how this was going to go by page fifty. All it took was one line (not a direct quote, I can’t be bothered to find it again), “If I had to pinpoint my blackmailer I would have said Lori in a second, but Lori had been dead for eighteen months.” Well there you have it folks. Two possibilities. Either Lori is not really dead and exacting revenge for some past slight. Or Lori is actually dead and someone close to her is exacting revenge for some past slight. I really don’t need to slog through 300 more painfully bad pages to find out that the ending is exactly what I think it is.

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review 2019-12-20 06:34
Greenfire by Saranne Dawson
Greenfire - Saranne Dawson

Nazleen is the ruler of the Hamloorian people. Like all Lieges, she is Cerecian: a descendant of Stakezti, a mysterious golden-haired child who had special powers (telepathy, visions of the future, the ability to wield green fire). It was Cerecians who wielded their green fire against the violent Warriors and brought peace to this land. Since then, a female Cerecian Liege has always ruled Hamloor, reluctantly choosing a mate from among the Warriors when it comes time for her to conceive an heir.

Nazleen knows that she will need to choose a mate soon. Her choice will almost certainly be Miklav, the Warrior Chief. He's a Warrior, so she'll never be able to fully trust him, but he seems to be a good man, and he's made some changes to Warrior society that she finds surprising, intriguing, and a little unsettling. However, first she must deal with news that may shift the balance of power more in Miklav's favor: there have been several sightings of aliens, some of whom might be male Cerecians. There have only ever been female Cerecians, and it's uncertain whether these possible male Cerecians are peaceful or as prone to violence as the Warriors.

Love Spell futuristic romances (which weren't necessarily "futuristic") used to be my catnip. If I found one at the library or on a used bookstore shopping trip, I wanted to read it. I figure I've probably owned this particular book for at least 15 or 20 years. I never seemed to be in the mood to read it, but I couldn't bring myself to offload it either. Love Spell nostalgia, I guess.

Sadly, this didn't turn out to be a hidden gem. I don't think I'd have liked it even if I had read it back during the height of my "futuristic romance" reading. The beginning was weighed down by overly complicated and confusing world-building. The story had potential but was generally boring. Even worse, this wasn't a romance. I don't care what the cover art and branding make it look like, it's not a romance.

It's possible to see the bones for a couple potentially decent romance novels in this book. In one, Nazleen and Miklav, two rulers who see each other as political adversaries, work together to investigate a potential threat towards their people and gradually begin to care for each other. In the other, Nazleen grew up believing that Cerecians were only ever female, while Zaktar believed that Cerecians were only ever male. After a disastrous meeting, they tried to patch things up between them for the good of their people, but also because they found themselves drawn to each other.

Two thirds of Greenfire was the first romance. This confused me, because the back of the book indicated that Nazleen and Zaktar were the book's heroine and hero. It was possible that this was somehow a stealth poly romance, but the Cerecian Sisterhood's visions of

Miklav being killed in a war

(spoiler show)

didn't seem like a good sign.

I initially figured that Zaktar would show up early on,

kill Miklav or somehow cause his death, and then spend the rest of the book trying to get Nazleen to trust him.

(spoiler show)

As pages and pages went by with little more than a single instance of telepathic contact between Nazleen and Zaktar that Nazleen thought might have been a hallucination, I became more unsure of the route this story was going to take. I also found myself thinking that this read far more like SFF with romantic aspects than an actual SFF romance. Although Nazleen and Miklav had sex, Nazleen never truly trusted Miklav and made it clear that he didn't have her heart. Miklav actually seemed more emotionally involved with Nazleen than Nazleen was with him, despite the fact that he had a long-term lover with whom he'd had a child (Hamloorians, and Warriors in particular, rarely had lifelong monogamous relationships).

I disliked Miklav's lust for political power and his controlling behavior. However, at least he had a significant on-page presence and had spent a good deal of time with Nazleen. The same couldn't be said about Zaktar. And yet. (Major spoilers from this point on. MAJOR.)

About two thirds of the way through the book, Zaktar killed Miklav. He could have held back and just stunned him, but instead he deliberately killed him - he wanted Nazleen after having briefly seen her, and he viewed Miklav as his rival. Nazleen tried to kill him in return and ended up miscarrying - yes, she was pregnant and Miklav was the father. Zaktar saved her life by carrying her into the Cerecians' sacred green fire...an act which the two later found out was an ancient Cerecian marriage ceremony. So, no matter what Nazleen did, she was unwillingly bound to someone. Nazleen spent most of the Zaktar portion of the book avoiding him, to the point where Zaktar thought he'd end up having to go back to his people alone, but once that "unwittingly married" bit came up, Nazleen's resistance magically evaporated and the two of them had sex in the sacred green fire. The end. Literally the end. The book just stopped right there.

It was bad enough that the book's supposed hero didn't really meet the heroine until the last third of the story, after he'd killed the man she'd chosen as her mate.

(spoiler show)

That ending, on top of everything else, was a slap in the face. On the plus side, now I get to offload this book and free up a little shelf space.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

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