Category: personal

Observations, personal

Back from Maryland…

Elodie

*Waves*

The Chemical Engineer and I came back from 10 days in Maryland yesterday. As always when we go there, time flies and at the same time doesn´t move.

Maryland is one of those places we called home. We lived there for about 6/7 years and we built a life there during that time. We have people we consider family, and a lot of close friends. We have habits, places we like to go to and a lot of memories.

We´re lucky.

Yes, when leaving, I may always shed a tear. Leaving is tough, no matter if I leave France, the US or Germany. It´s never easy. But at the end of the day, we´re lucky to have so many wonderful people in our life…I can see my dear hubby rolling his eyes – but I know he feels the same. (stop rolling your eyes!)

So we had a great time…

We celebrated birthdays.

Someone turned 18.

We had issues with the P...:P
We had issues with the P…:P

Someone turned 50.

Happy 50

We met with wonderful friends.

We spent time with people we consider family.

We celebrated honorary degrees and graduations.

We cuddled with this cutie. Or I did. The Chemical Engineer won´t admit to it.

Friday

We had brunch.

Brunch

We ate a lot.

hmmm crab...
hmmm crab…

We laughed a lot.

We (I) spent a lot of time at Barnes & Noble.

Some of the books I bought...
Some of the books I bought…

We took trips down memory lane.

University of Maryland
Go Terps!

We created new memories…

Until next time.

Happy Friday, personal, writing

Happy Friday #38 – The return of Happy Friday…

Elodie

I know I know it´s been FOREVER since my last Happy Friday post. My last Happy Friday post was on January 18th. WOW! But Happy Friday is back 😀 My goal is to have one Happy Friday per month at least because let´s face it, there´s always plenty to smile about on a Friday and it´s always nice to look for the good things that happened during a week.  Looking forward to know what made you smile this week! 

Over on YA Confidential: The Teen Spies of YA Confidential critique my first page of GUILTY and I´m very very grateful for their feedback! Not only are their comments SUPER helpful, it´s simply great to have the views of my target audience 🙂  (even though it´s also super duper nerve-wracking).

Vacation: I´m on on holidays since Wednesday evening and we landed safely in Washington DC yesterday. We´re now back in our Maryland home. It´s funny how being back feels normal. We have our marks, our spots, our friends and the ones we consider as close as family. We´re looking forward to catch up and just hang out. (and going to Target, yes I confess, I am a Target addict)

Reading: I finished beta reading a wonderful YA contemporary this week (by the lovely Katy Upperman). You guys, this is another manuscript that really touched me and got me by the heart. Plus, the male main character is a mix of Etienne St Clair and Jonah Griggs…and adds his own layers to the batter making him really a great character to know. The entire cast reminded me a bit of MY LIFE NEXT DOOR. Crossing my fingers it gets picked up soon so you get to read it too!

Movies: A long plane ride overseas means I get to watch plenty of movies. And I finally got to see LES MISERABLES! I´m officially in love with that movie. I don´t know how many times I had to wipe my tears…or how many times I was simply in awe of the way the emotions really came through both the acting and the singing. Loved it! And while watching, I couldn´t stop thinking about another MS I had the honor to beta read (the Star Wars/Les Miserables mashup by Alex Brown) 🙂

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

personal

And….I´m back…<3

Elodie

First of all the winner of my HYSTERIA giveaway is: Kip!!!….and the winner of FRACTURE is Jaime 😀 Thanks so much for commenting everyone!

So..Hubby and I have been moving for the past weeks…This meant: endless boxes, the hard discovery that I have no arms´ muscles (really, my upper body strength sucks :-)), trips to Ikea, building new furniture…and absolutely no time for blogging. We were very lucky that hubby´s family came to help us out last weekend. I was sad not to go back home to France like every Easter but this had to be done.

And I missed you. I really did. You know it´s funny how you can really connect with people you´ve technically never met? I missed talking about writing and books and life and TV shows and movies and the weather and small things and big things.

We still have boxes everywhere, we don´t have yet any phone, cable or internet but we´re moved into our new place. I can walk now to the train station. You guys, WALK! No more waiting for the bus or running to catch the bus or getting aggravated because the bus is late hence I miss my train. And it´s a nice walk through the park.

I´ll save between 20 and 30 minutes each day (sometimes even a bit more). And I won´t lose any writing time! 😀 My goal for this week is to reach 34k in my new WiP.

Here are a few pictures of our moving time…

Sitting in the almost empty old apartment...
Sitting in the almost empty old apartment…
Our kitty didn´t know it yet but he was about to discover a new place
Our kitty didn´t know it yet but he was about to discover a new place
The Easter Bunny still found us!
The Easter Bunny still found us!
Dinner at our new place...:D
Dinner at our new place…:D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How have you been doing?

Happy Friday, personal, writing

Happy Friday #35: Sometimes words don´t seem to be enough…and reasons to smile.

Elodie

Writing my happy friday posts is always a way to remind myself that even if I thought the week sucked, there were still moments to make me smile. Last week, I scheduled my post and it went up before the tragedy in Connecticut.

On that day, I came home and cried my eyes out. I also teared up every time the story came on TV. Thinking about the lives lost, the little children, the teachers, the families, the community broke my heart.

Jess explained in her reading wrap-up of the week: I’ll be enjoying the holiday season, but I have a hunch the children and teachers of Sandy Hook won’t be far from my mind during any of it.

And I think that´s what´s important: remembering, keeping them in our mind and heart, and thinking of all the ways to prevent such a tragedy to happen yet again.

My dad told me once, after an event that still brings tears to my eyes. “Life goes on, we don´t think it will but it does.”   That accompanied  me for a long time. It doesn´t prevent the pain,  or the tears. It doesn´t prevent any of this, but the memories stay, and what we do with them is important. Everybody grieves in different manners, there are no right or wrong ways to do this.

And despite the overwhelming sadness I still feel for a lot of different things, including Newtown, I did smile, and laughed this week.

Life did go on.

That doesn´t mean I forget. Hug your loved one a bit closer, tell them you love them. Every moment counts.

Here´s my round-up of what made me smile this week.

Going to the Christmas Market with the hubby

Christmas Market with Hubby

Warm spicy wine, waffle, walking around the little houses…and simply spending time with my husband.

My new tree ornament

New Tree Ornament

Do you see how cute this ornament is? Well it´s not only beautiful, it´s perfect to represent my novel ONE TWO THREE. Thanks again, Jess for this wonderful gift! It´s really so thoughtful, and brings a smile to my face every single time I look at it. I´m very lucky, indeed!

Writing

I passed 5k on my new WiP! And I love my characters, and the story is unfolding in my mind quite nicely…Exciting. Plus getting back to writing is definitely fun!

A friend receiving good news!

Alex announces winning award

In case you missed it, she is one of the winners of the On-The-Verge Emerging voices award!!!! Her story is awesome…and I was lucky enough to read it. And Alex is made of wins! She´s really sweet and talented and fun. So, if you´re going to the SCBWI NY conference, and if you see her, make sure you go and congratulate her 😀 Oh, and on her blog, she reminds us of something important, take chances! I love the quote she uses from Eleanor Roosevelt  “Do one thing every day that scares you.“

A new blog to follow and enjoy…

Another of my lovely Litreactor classmate just started her blog. Come on, you know you want to check it out 😀

A wonderful blogfest organized by these amazing ladies: Katy, Tracey, Alison and Jessica

Class of 2012 Banner

It was lots of fun! Thanks again….oh and my TBR now has more than 230 books in it 😛

Now, please tell me what made you smile or laugh this week?

personal

Love is what matters…

Elodie

I could list the things my grandmother has taught me.

I could decide not to write about her passing away on this blog. After all, this blog usually speaks more about writing and reading. Plus, I´m usually very private about this type of events, the type which affects me to the point of tears. Tears that I again do not like to shed in public.

But…

I want to talk about her. I´d like you to see her through my eyes just one minute and see how wonderful of a woman she was.

My grandma was ninety, she lived through so many events, she had so many hardships, but through it all, she stayed mémé Julienne: gentle, generous, kind, and proud.

I spent a lot of time with her as a kid.

When I had music lessons on Tuesday after school, I would walk to her place to have dinner. She made the yummiest carrots for her Beef Burgundy. I ate with her and my grandpa.

When I was sick, I stayed a lot at her place. She taught me how to crochet. With her and my other grandma who taught me how to knit, I did the cutest outfit for my barbie.

When I broke my arm, and thought blood was coming out of my cast, she managed to calm me down. And still told the story 20 years later.

When I was little, she always had my favorite cookies at her place. She still did more than twenty years later. And kept the cup I wanted to turn from blue to white by drinking lots of milk.

My grandma told us stories from when she was younger. She also taught me a lot by not only being such a wonderful example but also by reminding me what was important.

She believed in me, in all her children, great-children and great-great children.

Every time I called her, she always told me to be kind to my husband, because love is what matters.

Tomorrow or next week or whenever, I´ll blog again about my book, my non-NaNoing, the stories I´ve read or how my grandma gave me inspiration but for now, I´ll just leave you with her words.

Love is what matters.

personal

Catching up…Do you remember me?

Elodie

So I don´t know if you´ve noticed but I´ve been a tad absent from my blog. Bad Elodie, bad.  I didn´t even participate in this month YA`s Book Club (organized by Tracey) because I didn´t finish THE RAVEN BOYS on time (by the way, great book!)

I´ve missed you.

Hugs.

Work has been super duper busy, even more than usual. And my weekends were spent with my manuscript, making it query-ready. It´s scary and exciting at the same time.  I sent my first queries last week, and yes, I now check my emails even more obsessively than before.

I´m getting ready for NaNo – as of tomorrow.

This weekend, my sister and her family came to visit. I enjoyed listening to my niece and nephew telling us stories, seeing my hubby and my family bond despite the different languages, discovering the awe on my nephew´s face as he took the train for the first time, laughing hard with my niece as we goofed around, drinking champagne and some delicious wine, playing Jenga and singing Karaoke, watching movies with my sister and my brother-in-law.

Basically a much needed relaxing and amazing weekend.

How have you been?

Observations, personal, SCBWI

Recap from the Book Fair, SCBWI evening and congrats to Rebecca!

Elodie

On Friday, I went to the book fair with Carolin (if you don´t know her, you should totally follow her on Twitter). The goal was to roam the Frankfurt Book Fair before our SCBWI reception.

And wow…The amount of people at the Book Fair, the atmosphere, the books everywhere: impressive…Here is a recap of my afternoon/evening in pictures:

Arriving at the fair

The Book Fair also happened outside

Look at this display of Across the Universe in German…

 

That´s where the agents hang out and work

Some facts

  • The amount of foreign publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair is amazing, ranging from Mexico, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey…the stands of the French publishers is biiiiig and I loved cruising through them. There was a lot of daydreaming going on that afternoon on where my books could end up one day.
  • Not everything around the Children/YA books is Children/YA related…I ended up with a condom which said “Save the bitch” as someone handed me a goodie and I thought it was some candy 🙂 I´m still laughing about it.
  • Being around that many books and professionals is humbling.
  • Some books only had covers. Carolin and I thought we had a scoop with the sequel of Veronica Rossi but nope, there was a cover and blank pages.

After strolling around and taking some breaks for fresh air (it was hot in there) talking about books and writing, Carolin and I headed to the SCBWI reception, where apparently I proved that my clumsiness can show up at the most random places. (Kirsten, if you´re reading this, I´ll take the sippy cup for my wine next time :-)).

There, I got to talk to fellow writers, re-connect with the people from the area of Frankfurt and meet new people. It was great. It´s really wonderful to just be around other writers/illustrators. The energy, the discussions, it´s a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

Plus, I got to see and hold an ARC of Level 2 (and didn´t even put it in my bag :D), no really Lenore´s book sounds amazing. And yes, I may have gaped while listening to her experience with publishing in a restaurant after the reception.

The ARC and a magnet (I got to keep the magnet :D)
Gaping at Lenore….

So yes, basically, it was an AMAZING afternoon and evening…

And…something else which made me VERY happy last week was to read Rebecca´s announcement about her book selling . The story sounds wonderful and Rebecca is amazing, sweet and talented.  You can read all about her and her writing here (and if you haven´t yet, maybe you can pass by to congratulate her :-))

 

Tell me, how was your week? How about your weekend?

personal, writing

Currently…

Elodie

I´m a tad late to the party but the Currently meme which have been going around in the past weeks is really nice and I´ve loved the posts from Katy Upperman, Jaime Morrow, Jessica Love,  Rebecca Behrens, Ghenet Myrthil and all others. So here´s mine!

Loving

The Fall…The pretty colors, the air becoming crisper and a bit cooler.  And writing this post next to my hubby…:-)

Reading

THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater for Tracey´s YA Book Club. I´m only a few pages in and I can already recognize the magical writing, the eerie atmosphere and the anticipation of wanting to be immersed in the world Maggie created.

Watching

After Jessica Love´s raving about the show Awkward., I caved in and bought the first season. I watched a few episodes and I´m already hooked.

Thinking about

My manuscripts, the one almost done and the one I just restarted. Wondering when I should start querying. Wondering how I should go best about it.

Anticipating

Our new cat – Peter – found at the shelter
Coming to live with us as of Monday evening.

So many things…Getting feedback on my next 2500 words by Mandy Hubbard thanks to the class I´m taking, going to the Frankfurt Book Fair next week and to the SCBWI reception organized on Friday evening, the show THE WALKING DEAD starting again soon…but right now I´m also anticipating welcoming this new addition to our family.

Wishing

For more time. The past weeks have been very busy at workMore time to write.More time to talk to my family. More time to spend with my hubby. More time to spend with my friends. More time to finally organize some things at home. More time.

Making me happy

Certain things are constant in my happiness. My husband, my family and friends. My writing. All the wonderful connections I´ve made through twitter and this blog. Knowing that ONE TWO THREE is almost ready to be sent out in the big wild world. Getting the house ready for Peter. And…and….and…knowing that this list of things making me currently happy would be way too long for a single post.

Tell me what are you anticipating with a smile this week?

personal, Photography

Back from Russia…

Elodie

After a week full of discoveries, I´m back in Germany.

During this trip to Moscow, I learned a lot, ate a lot, laughed a lot, and use my camera. A lot.

Hmm food…

 

Discovering Moscow…
Pushkin´s house

Oh, and I stood in front of the Bolshoi Theater, thinking about my manuscript and about my main character whose dream it was to dance there one day.

Bolshoi…

I´ll share some more of my pictures soon…:D Moscow is really a beautiful and interesting city!

So, tell me, how was your week?

Editing, Happy Friday, personal, revising, writing

Happy Friday #27 – Birthday, Query, Thank you and Other stories

Elodie

Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!

Birthday: Last Saturday, I turned 31… My day started out with a wonderful birthday concocted by my husband – which including French Toast, potatoes, bacon and some bubbly…YUM! During the evening, we went to a restaurant (where I enjoyed a very nice cocktail) and we went to see The Crucible at the English Theater in Frankfurt. It was just an amazing day!

Birthday Breakfast
Birthday drink

Query : So query writing has been kicking my butt in the past weeks. I´m still revising my book, but I thought it was high time to start seriously thinking about my query. After participating in Sara Megibow´s webinar, I knew it needed more work.  I´ll tell you more about my query writing process and Sara´s webinar next week but after a lot of work, I have a query that works I think and which actually sounds like my book!!! 😀

Reading and revising: This week, I started reading those two wonderful books to help me in my revising process (highly recommended by Sara) and they rock!

Great books

THANK YOU!: Thank you to everyone for the good wishes on my birthday and on our anniversary. Thank you for the lovely comments on my posts! Thank you for helping me with my query (especially thanks to Christa and Ian, who´ve really been super patient and kind with me during the process)! Thank you to my CP extraordinaire and my beta readers! Thank you for being just wonderful. All of you! This week, it felt like this:

Today, hubby and I are off to France to see my family and our newborn niece for the first time 🙂 I´m super late to reply to comments but I´ll get there, promise!

So, tell me what made you smile this week?