…I married my best friend…
Thanks to him, I most probably will never struggle to make a male character in my books swoon-worthy 🙂
And yesterday, we celebrated!
Between our anniversary and my birthday, I had a wonderful weekend!
How was yours?
I simply cannot wait until my Happy Friday post to share some of my weekend smiles…
First there was this:
Then this:
But especially there was this:
Yay! I was one of the lucky three winners of the query contest of Taryn (Queroine extraordinaire as I now like to call her or as she puts on her blog: writer, reader, lit agency intern, and freelance editor). Her comments as I mentioned on Friday were spot on. The winners get to send her 10 pages for her to give feedback on.
I sent those pages to her on Saturday morning and have already had two dreams about her answer to them…Yes I may be a tad nervous.
AND! (yes there is an AND :D) I also edited/revised my novel this weekend based on Jaime aka Amazing CP’s suggestions and comments. I added several scenes and changed the ending a little bit. I am currently reading it on my Kindle and I think, I really think that it will soon be ready for beta-readers!!!
So tell me, how was your weekend?
Before I start on the perks, the entries for Christa´s Band Camp story contest are up and I´m one of them 😀 It seems a tad unreal I have to admit. You can check all entries here and please vote for your favorite ones.
Now our regular posting shall continue.
Not too long ago, hubby wrote about several rules one should keep in mind when living with a writer (or dating one). This made me think about the perks that one has when his/her significant other happens to be a writer.
There are some 😀
Source: yellowheartart.com via Shelley W on Pinterest
1. Time. If you want to play on TV or hang out with your buddies alone or spend quality time with the children, you should know that a writer will not hold you back. He/she will either spend this time with you on the couch with her/his laptop on the laps. This can even count as time together. Or, if your writer prefers to write in silence, they may disappear for a while. Just know they will always be back.
2. You won’t get bored. No really. A writer lives with imaginary people in their minds. When they read or write, they might start talking about those people like they’re real. Plus with all that imagination running through their veins, they’re bound to have some quirks.
3. You will become famous. By famous, I mean your writer will probably mention you regularly on Twitter, his/her blog because, well, you can be the source of funny or cute stories. And later on, when your writer gets published, you do have a very high probability to be featured in his/her book (maybe it will even be dedicated to you, cool, no?)
4. Easy to please. Maybe not always. But you can always say “Happy Birthday” or “I´m sorry” with a book. You can even spy on his/her goodreads TBR list or you can read their blog posts to know which books they absolutely have to read. Yes there might be hundreds. You may pick randomly and still make your writer smile.
Source: livraire.tumblr.com via June on Pinterest
5. They appreciate you. They know it´s not always easy to live with a writer. Ok here it´s maybe a hidden message to my hubby 😀 But I do, really, appreciate everything my hubby does which makes my writing easier: a) he doesn´t make fun of me- except when I start tearing up about fictional characters, b) he understands I need the time to write, to connect with other writers, to blog, c) he encourages me, d) he pushes me when I need it but e) hugs me when I need it too. 😀 and f) he listens to me rambling about my drafts, while trying to give me ideas.
What other perks would you add to this list? 😀 Which ones do you agree with?
Source: guidetomenhattan.com via Rachel on Pinterest
When one thinks about artists in the spotlight, very rarely will the word “writer” come up. And sure, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and others do not grace the pages of US Weekly or People Magazine every week. TV channels may not discuss their latest book at length like they may do with the latest performance of whatever actor…but writers like any other artists put their souls out there.
Reviews.
They´re everywhere.
You cannot entirely hide from them.
They come from within, from our wonderful critique partners, our great beta-readers. Then, from agents, possible editors and then from the readers themselves.
After reading this post by Shannon (if you haven´t read it, you definitely take a look :D, I´ll wait) and a comment by Christa on my post from last week, it hit me both as a writer and as a reader: Not everyone will like my work. Not everyone likes the books I could not put down. Of course we know it but there is a moment where it seems to become more real.
And then, I remembered that old saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”…readers bring their own baggage, past and taste to the books they read just like writers laugh or cry words on paper.
Getting published is really putting yourself out there, in the big big, sometimes scary world. There is no “Dealing with reviews for dummies”.
I checked one of my favorite books on Goodreads.com, The Ripening Seed by Colette and it has quite a bit of bad reviews. At the beginning I got a bit distracted thinking how is it possible? Can´t people see the art? The beauty of her words? The cynical look at the bourgeoisie world while still going through the motions of growing up? There are also great reviews of this story but usually the eye has a tendency to focus on the negative. But all the negative reviews of the world will not take away the feeling of awe I had while reading my mother´s copy of this book as a teenager or the flutters in my heart as I reread it years later. What should matter to me the most is how I felt about something.
As writers, we owe it to ourselves to go the extra-step, the scary step in our writing (like I mentioned in my Monday post last week) but then we´re standing out there naked. And let´s face it, being naked in front of possibly millions of people reading your words is SCARY.
So, I think we also need to protect ourselves once our words are out there. We need to have a safe place we can go to and need to know that yes we may be awkward in dealing with all this but what is important is that at the end of the day, we remember that we had the courage to go in the big scary world, that some did love our words and that, sometimes as a reader and as a writer, it is ok to just do that:
….as long as we walk with our heads high the next day and continue to be happy with our tastes as readers and proud of our words as writers.
Oh and if I ever get published and start freaking out, can someone remind me of this post? 😀
Looking forward to reading your thoughts on this!
Food. I love it. All types of food. Really. And Chemical Engineer feels the same way. So on our road trip/honeymoon, we knew there would be lots of eating and lots of different type of food (homemade by our dear friends, fast food on the road and restaurants in the towns we stayed at…).
And…we were not disappointed 😀
My favorite fast food restaurant was WAFFLE HOUSE.
I miss it here in Germany, really, their Texas Melt is just too yummy 😀
When it comes to restaurants, well while we loved all restaurants we went to, Delmenico´s in NYC stood out. This steakhouse had everything: a NYC history (it´s considered a “classic”), an interesting atmosphere (including some people celebrating a birthday, students, a basketball player and Wall Street bankers), a funny waiter and great great great food!
So tell me, what is your favorite food while on the road?
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.
This Week’s Topic: In preparation for our Bookmobile discussion of Kody Keplinger’s A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE, how did you spend/how will you spend the summer after graduation?
In France, we don´t really have a graduation: no ceremony at school, no wearing a cap and gown, no big prom celebrating the end of the year. What we do have are those really hard exams called Baccalauréat. During the last two years of High School, depending on your major, you have to take national exams on many. many, many subjects. I went to pick up my results with my dad…I still remember searching my name in the pass section. I was there and with honors (yay!).
The month of July after my High School graduation was spent working where my dad worked, filing a lot and in August, I think I went on holidays with my parents there (it´s in the Pyrenees, close to Spain and we used to go every winter and every summer) :
And then I went to spend some time at my sister´s (also in the South but close to St-Tropez)
Some very random memories from this particular summer:
So tell me, what was your very first job?
This month (well until my honeymoon :D), I will be participating in Blogme MAYbe. This wonderful idea is the brainchild of SaraMcClung and is a weekly blog format with an easy schedule to follow. For more information and join the fun (you can at any time!), simply click on the banner created by the super-duper-talented Tracey…and today is May I tell you something about me?
On Wednesday, hubby aka The Chemical Engineer and I are going on a three-weeks honeymoon (we got married in August). We are flying into NYC, renting one of those babies (well if the renting company actually does have one):
We´re going to visit dear friends of ours and spend quality time together…we´re also going to discover new places along the road, we’re going to create new memories…We will be travelling from NYC – Maryland – Texas – Detroit – Cape Cod – NYC…
He doesn´t believe I will not be blogging while on the road but I most probably won´t (I may pop up on Twitter from times to times though but pshhhh…)..so:
See you soon! A bientôt! Bis Bald!
Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday! and it works well with the BlogMe MAYbe prompt for Fridays: May I share something funny? I am very much looking forward to know what made you laugh or smile this week.
A lot of things made me laugh this week, lines from books I do not want to spoil for you, my hubby (but I doubt he’d like me to share his silliness…) My Tweet feed also cracked me up this week because let’s face it those people are awesome! Here are just three from the past two days…
Reading: I read some wonderful books this week and just finished IN HONOR by Jessi Kirby. This book….Honor, Rusty, 
Finn, the road, the stars, the sea…Sad, funny, emotional, adorable, hopeful…If you do not have it on your TBR yet and you enjoy YA contemporary that may kick you in the gut but help to put back the pieces, then you definitely should add it. I added MOONGLASS to mine after reading this novel to dive again into Jessi’s writing.
Writing & Revising: I had to tackle some revisions concerning the part of my story which takes place in 16th century France. I am not 100% done but it’s getting there. When it comes to my YA contemporary romance, I am making slow but steady progress (I have reached 6000 words this week :D) and I’m loving it…Talking about loving, reading Jaime’s work totally rocks…If you do not have a CP yet, really go grab one!
Yummy food: You know how much I love food, really, food is good! 😀 Well this week I got spoiled in that area. Not only did my hubby take me to a very nice restaurant last Saturday, he also cooked one of my favorite dishes on Monday. Yes, he is wonderful!
Honeymoon update: I am very excited because not only are we going to go see EVITA in NYC, we also got some tickets to see THE DAILY SHOW! Yay!
Wow, that’s a long Happy Friday post but before I ask you my usual Friday question, I’d like to share something else which made me smile and that is The Kindness Project, you should totally check it out 😀
Now, please tell me what made you smile or laugh this week?
….but sometimes we don´t know any better….I am more precisely talking about height.
This month (well until my honeymoon :D), I will be participating in Blogme MAYbe. This wonderful idea is the brainchild of SaraMcClung and is a weekly blog format with an easy schedule to follow. For more information and join the fun (you can at any time!), simply click on the banner created by the super-duper-talented Tracey. On Tuesdays, I am happy to tell you a bit about me…
Sweet memory from Junior High
There was this guy in Junior High who was very popular within our grade. He was funny and nice and cute. We were very good friends and laughed a lot. He pretty much “dated” two of my best friends before “rediscovering” me. Nobody said the guy was a total winner. Plus, like a lot of teenagers/people (maybe even dogs?), self-esteem issues are part of the deal with me. My best friend broke up with him because he tried on a new hairdo (remember Zach from Saved By the Bell?). So anyways…
He did the cutest thing when he tried to woo me over: he rode his bike all the way from where he lived to where I lived just to say “hi” and chat for a few minutes. He lived about 5 kilometers away (about 3 miles).
Well it didn´t happen.
Because I got super scared. Because see, he was short and I was tall. I had a nightmare where my giant hand was 5 times as big as his and that everybody would look at us and laugh. Self-conscious a little? He wasn´t but I was terrified.
So nope, nothing happened. I think I had one of my friends tell him…He moved on quite fast.
No matter what the end of that story was though, this memory always makes me smile because even if there were hardships in the romantic department afterwards (and it wasn´t an easy ride), I still had a guy coming all the way on his bike just to see me 😀
So tell me, have you ever let the fear of embarrassment prevent you from doing things?
Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday! and it works well with the BlogMe MAYbe prompt for Fridays: May I share something funny?
I would love to know what made YOU smile this week 😀
Lost in translation or A little story to make you laugh (at my expense): About two weeks ago, hubby and I stood at the counter of a car rental place. My French papers do not all have my married name yet on them but I had booked the car under it. So when the very nice lady asks me about it, I tried to explain the situation. However, when I wanted to tell her: “Oh this is my maiden name”, I suddenly translated literary from French to German “Nom de jeune fille” which in English could be translated as “Young girl” and in German as “Jungfrau”….Well a “Jungfrau” is a virgin. So yep I totally told that lady: “This is my virgin name”. My hubby shook his head in disbelief and acted pretty much like when his Russian mother says something wrong in German. I was embarrassed but laughed it off.
Now onto things which made me smile this week:
Reading: INSURGENT…is the only word I will put there so not to spoil anything. It didn’t disappoint and I loved it.
Writing: I incorporated Jaime‘s suggestions in my first two chapters and tried to work on what she mentioned this morning. A critique partner really does make a difference 😀
Blogging: The response to my hubby’s post made me really happy and the fact that he took the time to write it. He does want to let you know though that he breaks all these rules on a very regular basis
Honeymoon preparations: We are going to spend one night at the Niagara Falls on our way from Detroit to Cape Cod! 😀 We’re so excited about this! and we bought a new camera…Can’t believe that we’re flying away in less than 2 weeks!!!
So tell me what made YOU smile this week?
Elodie Nowodazkij 