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Six reasons why I’m smiling today

Hi 🙂 It’s been quite a long time since I roamed the internet…I’ve missed you blogging and Twitter and Facebook world.

I used to have Happy Friday posts, where I should share the highlights of my week. But I couldn’t wait until Friday, so here are six reasons why I’m smiling today. (I should add that having the time to do laundry actually also makes me happy, my wonderful husband has been taking care of everything while I was revising/editing)

1. I sent my novel to my copy editor yesterday.


2. I wrote the acknowledgements of ONE TWO THREE

Acknowledgements

3. More than 800 people entered the giveaway for my book on Goodreads

Goodreads Book Giveaway

One, Two, Three... by Elodie Nowodazkij

One, Two, Three…

by Elodie Nowodazkij

Giveaway ends June 09, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

4. These gifs on Goodreads of someone who’s excited about my book

5. Being asked to do interviews by bloggers I admire and bloggers I don’t even know. THANK YOU!

6. Sharing this beautiful sneak peek – you guys want to read Jen’s book because it’s AWESOME! (it comes out on May 20th) If you click on the teaser it will get you to Goodreads 🙂

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What made you smile today?

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Some updates…and a reminder to dig deeper. Always.

I’m talking about writing and about life. My last revision before my copy edit is really digging deeper about my story and my characters. It’s difficult and sometimes painful…and I’m about to put Natalya through something even more traumatic but…crossing my fingers that come June the people reading my story will “feel” with her.

Digging deeper is also about knowing people. About seeing beyond the surface and about connections. On Wednesday my great-aunt passed away, and with her it almost is like the end of an era. See, my great-aunt lived a long life. For the past 4 years though, she couldn’t speak due to a stroke, but she still managed to somehow communicate and stayed herself: she didn’t like being bothered, she was elegant and wanted to be elegant, she smiled when seeing my father or my husband, and hearing stories.

The relationship we had with her wasn’t always the deepest and it could be complicated at times, but I always found her interesting. And then, almost a decade ago, she helped me.  I was not feeling well, heart palpitations and a bit faint, and she kept her cool, she stayed with me (my sister was also with us and calming me) and she made sure I stayed calm. When the doctor came, they mentioned right away that it was probably a panic attack due to too much caffeine (and at that time too many cigarettes), the heat and stress.

Through this, I have the feeling that I got a bit closer to her and then, I dug deeper. Yes, she could be a snob, yes she also could say hurtful things without sometimes realizing it, but she was so much more than this. She always baked what we liked when weI came over,  she did little things like this with a smile, she invited us and talked about so many interesting things, she herself always tried to learn, she was relentless and funny, and she was her. She was a character.

And when visiting her we also always had the link with the past in a way. With our past.

None of that is gone with her, it’s part of us.

Walking back from a meeting in Paris yesterday, I thought about her…she lived there for a while, and she always talked fondly about the city. For a moment, I looked around me, and felt at peace.

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This is still hard, but I know that I’m happy I dug deeper when I had the chance.

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Only 24 hours left to help sponsor a survivor testimonial writing workshop…

Christa is an amazing woman who helps others, who just doesn´t say she will do something but also transform her words into actions.

If you tell her, she will probably reply that there are  people out there who are more amazing than her

I won´t debate amazing-ness, I think amazing is amazing 🙂

Christa makes a difference. Let us help her make that difference by contributing to fund a testimonial writing workshop for survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and sexual trafficking..

Click this link to find out more:  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-stories-we-tell

Or you can also read Christa´s own words about it (I copied her past blog post below)

My IndieGoGo Campaign and the awkwardness of asking for money

As most of you know, the plan for my book Fault Line was always to donate 50% of the proceeds from it back to the Voices & Faces Project survivor testimonial writing workshop. Last year, my advance helped to fund a Chicago workshop. But this project and this work means so much to me, I wanted to do more. So two friends and I came up with the idea of doing a crowd funding campaign (via IndieGoGo) to sponsor a rape survivor workshop in New York City.

Okay, it’s one thing to donate your money to something you believe in, but it is TOTALLY different to ask people you care about for money. I mean TOTALLY different. It’s awkward and makes me itch a little bit. I imagine it makes the person I ask it from itch a little bit too. What if they can’t do it right now? What if they already have a cause they support and don’t want to split themselves in two? What if they just don’t have extra cashon hand? What if they’re tired of hearing about rape victims from me? What if they are just overall experiencing compassion fatigue?

Here’s the positive: as of day 5 of the campaign, we’ve raised $1100. This is amazing. I mean SO amazing that I cry every time I see that number. And I cry at every email about new donations (because that $1100 came from the hearts of many, many people). There’s been so much online support and love and RTing this campaign on Twitter, and mentioning it on FB and Tumblr. You have NO idea what it means that so many of you are spreading the word about this.

Here’s the hard stuff: we have a ways to go. And I don’t know rich people. We’re writers, most of our spare money is spent on books or conferences. And I’m grateful that we have 40 days left of this campaign, and I’m grateful that I have two friends doing it with me so I don’t have to raise this huge number by myself. But…$13,900 in 40 days, and it still makes me itchy to ask for money.

I talked to a friend about how hard it was and she said that maybe I needed to remember what I loved about the workshop and talk about that. And maybe then instead of stressing about the awkwardness of asking so much, I could be in a place where I could put 100% of my energy into just appreciating how much love people have shown for this project.

So here’s what I loved about the workshop:
It was two days of reading and writing with a very eclectic tribe of people who all came from different places and who all had one commonality: they were survivors of violence. And in those two days, I learned more about the strength of the human spirit and the bottomless well of compassion than I ever had in my life. I walked out of the door at the end of the workshop knowing that something had changed in me, something had changed in all of us. And it wasn’t just that we knew we weren’t alone, it was more that I knew this was the way to start slowly building an army to take on the seemingly insurmountable task of dismantling rape culture. Being in that room with these incredibly strong people who had not only survived violence but had committed to doing everything they could to stop its perpetuation was like seeing the start of a revolution.

And if you’d like to spread the word about this campaign or if you’d like to help fund it, you can do so here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-stories-we-tell

I’m so incredibly grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you for listening, reading, caring.

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Writer Appreciation Pledge…

As I was sitting in the train this morning, getting lost into a book, I suddenly thought about the writer who spent hours putting those words on paper, who may have doubted herself in the process, who may have overcome a lot of hurdles, querying angst and fear on how her book would be received.

I thought about how much I want readers to get lost in my books one day and how I hope my stories will make their commute or whatever else a bit easier if only for a few hours.

And then I wondered why I don’t send a thank you email to the authors of the books I love. Sure, I’ve done it once or twice but not on a regular basis.

As an author, would I want to hear what positive impact my books had? how it entertained people to the point that they missed their metro stop or simply enjoyed forgetting the time?

I think I would.

So…I decided to start a Writer Appreciation Pledge:

I, Elodie, will write an email to the authors of stories I love, even if it’s just to say ‘thank you’.

Who’s with me? I don’t have a button yet and there will be no big commitment or blog hop or anything. I simply would love to spread the word. Because after all who hasn’t already close a book and thought ‘wow’! 🙂

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*waves* I´m over on Alex´s blog today (and gave my first interview :D)

I´m still here.

Still sorry about not blogging as much these days but I´m spending as much time as I can with my manuscript and work has been very very busy!….But see those puppy eyes – those are exactly the same kind of puppy eyes I´m making right now!

By Deskana at en.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons
I did answer some interview questions though! My FIRST BLOG INTERVIEW!!!!!!

It´s over on Alex´s blog…Alex is one of the wonderful and talented writers I met via Mandy´s class…

Hope you´re all doing well!  Can´t wait to catch up!

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Say hello to the main characters of ONE TWO THREE..

I have been thinking about my characters a lot. They’re off to my awesome beta readers (–> more on this later, I promise) and it’s like having them going on holidays, wondering how they’re doing.

Then, I read those posts in the recent weeks which highlight the need for the main characters to be fully layered, somewhat unique and “true” to themselves. As writers and readers, we know this but I thought their posts to be quite to the point in reminding us why it’s important. You should go ahead and read them 😀

  • August Characters: Intro by Vickie Motter (Agent with Andrea Hurst Literary Management).
  • Your Thing by Taryn Albright (writer, reader, lit agency intern, and freelance editor)

And then, I turned back to my WiP ONE TWO THREE and wondered how I would answer Vickie’s question: “What makes this character unique? Why will a reader fall in love with him/her?” And the answer was actually easy. I didn’t have to think much because I know them. Inside and out.

Let me introduce you to Natalja, Antonio, Beverley and James.

grace in winter 2
Uploaded by Ekabhishek (Wikicommons)

Natalja used to know how to fly. Not anymore. Not since her injury destroyed her ballet career. She loves the piano, Chopin. She does enjoy a bit of sangria from times to times and has issues hugging people. Personal contact, so not her thing. She has some personal issues she doesn’t like to talk about. She can become the music when she dances even if she cannot do much ballet any longer. Her knee hurts when it’s about to rain and she thought of making a career out of this. She can eat a lot of pelmeni but she also enjoys enchiladas. She misses New York, the buzz of people. Oh and her favourite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast. Because of the dance scene. And the books.

Antonio loves his family. He is short tempered and doesn’t take any crap. He is very helpful, kind and protective. He enjoys cracking jokes and he loves the feel of the wind when he runs. He sometimes likes tequila a bit too much and his little sister has him wrapped around her little finger. His favourite Disney movie – he only admitted to it because of Karina, his little sister – is Sleeping Beauty. Because the guy gets to fight a dragon and wins the girl.

Beverley is Student President. She’s nice and funny and talks to her car to make sure it stays alive. She has a bubbly personality but she can also be very quiet and listen. She thinks she’s too tall to wear any heels no matter what Natalja tells her. She wears her heart on her sleeve. She loves to organize things and to be right. She is always responsible but doesn’t mind breaking the rules from times to times. She’s the best friend one can ask for.

James is tall. No really, he’s taller than Beverley. He is calm and collected unless you cross one of his friends, then you’re in trouble. You can lean on him if you have any issues and he will tell you things as they are. No sugar coating from that guy. James and Antonio are quite funny when they hang together, they’ve been friends only a few years but it seems like they’ve known each other forever. It could be their experience on the soccer field or the fact that both are non-judgemental and just down-to-earth guys.

So, tell me what is the first thing that comes in your mind when you think about your main characters?

or about a character you recently read about?

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Happy Friday #18 – First week back from holidays :D

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

This was my first week at work after more than 3 weeks away, after our wonderful honeymoon and while I was happy to be back and to see my colleagues, I am tired 😀

Looking back at the past 7 days, quite a lot made me smile, so here is a little recap:

Reading: I almost read all the books which were on my Spring Reading List (I´ll do a recap soon). This week, I read two wonderful stories: IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT (both by Gayle Forman).  The way they were written inspired me to work even harder on my WiP. I read the second one in the train and yep, trying to fight the tears. Again. If you haven’t read them, you should!

                                       

Writing: On Monday, I reread my YA Contemporary romance WiP and I surprised by myself: I really like it 😀 but then I froze: where is the story going? That’s when I decided that I needed to get my creativity going before sitting my butt in the train and powering through on it. Enters Christa and her fantastic idea to compile flash fiction with the theme “This one time at band camp”  stories. And I wrote it in two days. And I loved it. But then I froze again: what if I got everything wrong (grammar, feelings…) and I turned to Jaime for help. Have I said before that Jaime is amazing? And that if you get a CP like her you’re one lucky writer? 😀 So yep, I am ready to send it off to Christa…

Jogging: I decided to take up jogging again. I need a way to burn stress…I started this week and while I can’t run that far yet, the feeling after I was done was one of calmness and happiness…All those happy hormones, you know 😀 Plus I get to jog by the Rhine so it’s pretty cool (and with my hubby if he’s patient enough to let me run with him)

Last but not least…the view from the train as I was coming back from work yesterday. I was tired, the train was late which made me a bit cranky (I know if hubby is reading this, he is rolling his eyes: yes, I was only a bit cranky :D) but as always, looking outside of the train window while  getting closer to where I live, made me smile and feel more serene (for a little while at least :D)

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

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Happy holidays! :-)

Happy holidays to all, to you, your loved ones, your friends, your pet…

Warning: this post may contain even more smilies than usual

Tomorrow, hubby and I are heading to France where the traditional Christmas eve will take place with my entire family. Yay! 🙂

It means: hours at the table (hubby had to get used to this :-)) with several courses (yummy), a lot of laughing and talking (and translating) and the traditional gifts around midnight. I cannot wait to see everybody! (*smiles*). It is also our first holiday season as husband and wife 🙂

I will be back on my regular schedule as of January 4th and in the meantime, will schedule a post for the week of the 27th of December as I am participating in the The Class of 2011: YA Superlatives Blogfest.

We don´t have this type of tradition in France so I´m quite excited to do this for some of the great YA books I read this year 🙂

Again: a wonderful holiday season whatever you may be celebrating or not celebrating, hope these days bring a smile to your face and that they give you wonderful memories to cherish!

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Dirty Dancing…and a margarita (or two)

Sunday will be my random post day where my posts will not be related to my writing nor to my commuting…

I started last week by a little poll on where did you think I was from…and while some thought I was from Canada or from Germany, I am actually French (but I do currently live in Germany). I spent about 7 years in the US and I called Maryland home during that time (but that´s another story).

I love the movie Dirty Dancing, I must have watched it at least 99 times and I love margaritas (on the rocks with salt). Oh and I love my husband. Well this week-end, I had the luck to go see the musical of Dirty Dancing, drink some margaritas and spent time with my wonderful husband…(if he reads this: thanks again baboo).

The musical was great, the added subplots were funny/interesting…

I just had one of those magical times, where the eyes shine a little brighter and where my smile just would not stop 🙂

Hope your week-end is going well too – what are YOU doing?

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Week 44 – A little about me…and a poll

This blog is now over a month old…(Hmm I should have made some birthday scones for it).

Thank you to everybody who is reading, commenting, passing by…You all make my day 🙂

I realized though that in the past month, I did not say much about myself (well except the fact that I commute, that I write and that I am a junkie for books) so here is a little tiny bit about who I am:

  •  I am 30 years old
  •  I am happily married to the love of my life and my best friend
  • I have wonderful friends and family
  • I like all sorts of foods (from fast foods to gourmet restaurants) and I do try my hand at cooking
  • I try to work out (here note the emphasizis on try) When I do, I like running, swimming and ballet.
  • I am a big movie and tv fan
  • I love karaoke (it does not mean I am good at it though)
  • I enjoy poker nights with friends (I am much better at poker than at karaoke)
  • My drinks of choice: margarita on the rocks with salt or a glass of red wine
  • I miss playing the piano and volleyball
  • One of my hobbies: photography
  • Little things make me happy (which I consider a gift) even though I am naturally anxious.
  • I speak 3 languages fluently (I can understand another one and have basics in Russian)

And now a little poll – let´s see if you can guess where I am from. You can comment to let me know how you found out and to tell me more about yourself 🙂