Blogme MAYbe, Observations, personal, writing

Your significant other is a writer? Don´t panic! 10 rules to follow…

Elodie

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 Thursdays (yes it is already Thursday on my side of the world), the prompt is: May I tell you something about someone else...

Enter my husband aka The Chemical Engineering. He already wrote a guest post with his review of The Hunger Games and he´s back with wonderful advice 😀

Your significant other is a writer?



Don´t panic! 10 rules to follow…

First I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who commented on my last guest post. I meant to answer to everyone, but I am just a very lazy and inexperienced blogger. So please accept my apologies. Despite my bad blog etiquette my wife let me do another guest blog entry. Thank you!

Today I would like to share the ten ground rules that should not be broken when your significant other is a writer:

1. Don’t criticize the Twitter usage

Even though it might seem like Twitter is taking over all aspects of life, for some reason it seems to be an important tool for all of the writers who like to share short messages about everyday tasks and events.

2. Make sure to read new blog entries

You might not care about monthly book reviews, but you better know if he/she mentioned you in a blog post. I suggest to quickly fly over the post and look for some key words (Ctrl+F). I look for “Hubby” and “Chemical Engineer”.

3. Make educated comments about their WIP

First you needed to figure out what WIP stands for, but that is not the end of it. When reading two (very similar) versions of the same paragraph you better decide which one sounds better. Comments like “They are good” will not be accepted. A literary analysis (like back in the school days) is the least a writer would expect from their significant other.

4. Blogging takes time so just accept it

Blogging entries have to be done at a particular time. Wether it is Road Trip Wednesday or Happy Friday Posts. They are all important and have to be done at the planned time no matter what happens (yes, this article had to be writtenon a Sunday). All comments have to be addressed as well. The 24 hours in a day should be enough time for this.

5. Buying more books is essential

A writer can never have enough books after all they are “research” and will help in refine the writing style. Room for storing the books can be found anywhere even if it means double stacking the books in the book shelf. Next apartment/house will have to have a room just for books.

6. Don’t make fun of the way he/she talks to other writers

It doesn’t matter if it sounds silly and is absolutely not how grown-ups are meant to interact, this is how they tick. After all they are writers and should know much more about communication than anyone else.

7. Learn how to spell correctly

I don’t know how to spell in any of the three languages that I know. I am so happy that some programmer came out with spell check. I don’t know how I would do without it. When I write an e-mail to my wife I really don’t even run spell check. She takes my misspelling almost as an insult and does makes fun of my spelling at any opportunity that she gets (and there are many opportunities).

8. Don’t bore a writer with technical things (at least not my writer)

As a good wife, mine of course asks me about my work day. I know that if I want to keep her attention I only have about 15 seconds to explain anything technical about my work and most importantly I need to keep it simple. That is also true if we talk about anything else technology related. I guess fictional writers (maybe except science-fiction writers and again this only applies to my writer) are just more into interpersonal relationships and stories and can’t be bothered with the little things like science.

9. Try not to argue that characters in a book/film are fictional

In the mind of a writer characters become almost as alive as any other real person. There is no point in explaining that a character that died, didn’t really die, but just acted out a role. It’s like explaining a child that Bambi’s mother wasn’t shot by hunters.

10. Don’t think that your guest entries in the blog are just as good and/or funny as his/hers

This one is pretty straight forward. You are the engineer (or non-writer) and she is the writer; deal with it.

I was able to come up with these rules only because I have broken them many times. I hope you can agree with some of them. I am going to continue and break them from time to time. It is good to remember them in certain situations, like when you annoyed her and can turn to her with a smile “thanks for the mention on the blog today”, but following them all of the time would just be a bit boring and practically impossible.

Blogme MAYbe, personal

Are you a daydreamer?

Elodie

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 Wednesdays, the prompt is: May I ask something about you?

I have always daydreamed. As a child and as a teenager, I used to tell stories out loud in my kitchen, even trying out my foreign language skills or I could just get lost in my thoughts. I still do it 😀

 So tell me were you a daydreamer? What did you dream about?

Blogme MAYbe, personal

It´s all about me – From A to Z

Elodie

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, the prompt is: May I tell you something about myself? Not too long ago, I came across an Alphabet Survey on the lovely Katy Upperman´s blog which she had found on Just Everyday Me…what a perfect way to start Blogme MAYbe (on Thursday, The Chemical Engineer aka my hubby will be back on my blog – and let me tell you – with very useful advice)

It´s all about me – From A to Z

A is for age: The BIG 3-0…turning 31 this year…I´m totally wise (Hubby, stop laughing!)

 B is for breakfast today: Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal (with a sliced banana and chocolate chips), Coffee

C is for currently craving: The French Toasts my hubby made on Sunday

D is for dinner tonight: Cutlet with spaetzle and mushrooms…

E is for favorite type of exercise: I love swimming (and aqua gym) but I have not had the time to do it in a while so instead I’ll have to go for tennis (I also enjoy pilates, yoga and jogging).

F is for an irrational fear: BIG spiders. I have many fears if I’m honest and I’m working on them but let’s concentrate on spiders. While I used to have a tiny spider as a friend when I was small (I even had given it a name), I’m super duper scared of BIG hairy spiders.

G is for gross food: Not a fan of celery and of cold endive. Everything else is a go in my book.

H is for hometown: A small village an hour north from Paris.

I is for something important: My hubby, my entire family, for sure and my friends.

J is for current favorite jam: Raspberry

K is for kids: None. My husband is a big kid, does he count? 😀

L is for current location: My living room

M is for the most recent way you spent money: Books, quite a wonderful way to spend money!

N is for something you need: Internet, a hug from my hubby, a book, a laugh…I´d also love a massage!

O is for occupation: I sometimes pretend to be Super Woman…:D 

P is for pet peeve: People sneezing and coughing in public transportation without covering their mouths. I’m sorry but not a big fan of your germs and people not letting their seats for old people or pregnant ladies. Inconsiderate.

Q is for a quote: So many, so many quotes…I am going to go with this one

                                                                                                                                                       Source: etsy.com via Elodie on Pinterest

R is for random fact about you: I slid across three lanes of I-95 S (you know the interstate going towards DC) sideways on my way to school because a truck hit my car. Not fun to see all those cars coming at me. Came out of it with a BIG scare.

S is for favorite healthy snack: A banana or an apple

T is for favorite treat: Coffee at my grandmother’s with the cookies I used to eat as a child. Otherwise, dark chocolate or my sister’s chocolate cake…However, when I want to treat myself, I go to Starbucks and buy a Caramel Macchiato with a Blueberry muffin.

U is for something that makes you unique: My smile? I also lived in 3 different countries, in 13 different apartments/houses and in 7 different cities…

V is for favorite vegetable: I love veggies! Green peas, green beans, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes…

W is for today’s workout: Will do some cardio on my elliptical while watching Friends later on today and might go for a walk with the hubby this afternoon.

X is for X-rays you’ve had: Teeth, arm (broken as a child in two places), lungs, head…

Y is for yesterday’s highlight: Cuddling on the couch with my hubby

Z is for your time zone: Central European Time

The CET countries are in red

So tell me, are you participating in any blogfest this month?

What is your favorite treat? Have you started reading INSURGENT?

Happy Friday, Observations, reading, revising, writing

Happy Friday #14: Popping the question, Pelmeni and other stories…

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

I would love to know what made YOU smile this week 😀

Popped the question: Since I started this new WiP, currently very wisely called UNTITLED, I have been thinking that I probably should snag one of those wonderful Critique Partners everybody is talking about. I have great beta readers for my work PLAYING THE FIRE but who wouldn´t want someone along the way? And I thought about Jaime right away. We have the same taste in books, we both haven’t started the querying process, I really enjoy her blog (she’s funny, insightful and inspirational) and the interaction we’ve been having and I knew that she didn’t have a CP. So, after typing several drafts of an email, I finally sent one with this title:

And she said yes 😀 My hubby made fun of me but I don’t think he understands how nervous we can get when it comes to our writing! I’m so very excited to start this process (and quite lucky because what I’ve read so far makes me want to read more, more, more!)

Writing: This week, I’ve been quite productive when it comes to this new WiP. I love being in Natalja’s head even though she’s dealing with a lot and I’ve managed to write almost 1000 words per day during my commute!

Reading: I finished reading COLD KISS and let me tell you, Erin Bowman was RIGHT! Danny is quite a wonderful boy to have a crush on…he’s dead but the way Wren describes the moments spent with him are enough to have him alive in our minds. There are many times, I wanted to reach out and give Wren a big hug! Plus, Erin mentioned to me yesterday on Twitter that there will be a Sequel! Yay!

Revising: Last weekend, I finished the second round of revisions on PLAYING WITH FIRE and I have one more segment to revise before I go through an editing round.

Cooking: So, my hubby is originally from the Ukraine…his family is Russian/Ukrainian and his mom makes the best pelmeni…plus there is that book I really love taking place in Russia where food plays a big role and I had gotten the cooking book based on it for Christmas last year. So, I finally tried (again) to make pelmeni. And while it does take forever, the result was quite good! Yummy! 😀

 So tell me, what made YOU smile this week?

 

Books, Road Trip Wednesday

April Amazing Books :D

Elodie

So I´m not really sure if there will be a Road Trip Wednesday today but usually the last Wednesday of the month is all about our April reads…RTW 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.

I gushed last week  about JELLICOE ROAD and I was not even done with reading the story. Well I´m now officially done reading it and I know I will read it again sometime in the future, even though nothing will replace that first time. This has proven to me (like I needed any additional proofs) to always listen to Katy 😀 The way the stories are entwined, the way the characters (all of them) left an impression on me, the way I fell for Jonah, the way I wanted to hug Taylor…So yep. Loved it.

I have been lucky this month in terms of reading. On top of JELLICOE which as you can notice I have a crush on, I also devoured the following books and below you will find the reason why I think they deserve a spot in this post as well:

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE & A MILLION SUNS by Beth Revis: Both books are amazing. The first one sets the tone and I felt like Amy, claustrophobic. The different POVs enable us to get the feel for the ship and the life on board. I loved the details put into the book, the subplots and how things tie up together. A MILLION SUNS is as good if not even better than the first one. The way the characters develop, the human interactions, the plot…and yes I am developing yet another crush on characters (including secondary ones :D). Cannot wait for the third one.

I never thought about how important the sky was until I didn’t have one. ~ Amy

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson: This book portrays loss in such a true manner, it´s heart-wrenching and behind the gorgeous writing, there is the beauty of the characters in their rawness, in their feelings, in their grieving. Loved it.

“Dreams change, yes, that makes sense, but I didn’t know dreams could hide inside a person.

SHUT OUT by Kody Koplinger: This was a fun read and I enjoyed the different characters. The book deals with sex, it´s clear from the summary and the different ways people in high school deal with it. I loved the honesty in the dialogue. Plus. there´s Cash and who can resist this:

Because I want to see you with someone better than him. Someone who will see how lucky they are to have you.

What was your favorite book of April?

And which book on your TBR are you most looking forward to in May? (ok on top of INSURGENT :D)

Book Review, Books, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Three Favorite Secondary Characters In YA Books…

Elodie

This Top Ten Tuesday feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and I first came across it on Jaime´s blog. It´s a lot of fun and they  post the topics way in advance! This week’s topic looks at the Top Ten Favorite Characters of all times…and I am twisting it a little:

Top Three Favorite Secondary Characters In YA Books…

….from the books I read so far in 2012…

1. Raffy from JELLICOE ROAD: Honestly, all secondary characters from that book felt so primary to me. They were fully fledged and my heart beats for every single one of them. Raffy is the girlfriend who is there for you, who may call you on your bullshit but who knows you and loves you for who you are. Like Taylor, I think that those people are the kind you want around you for life.

“Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?” she asks. “We can double up in our rooms and have a barbecue every night like the Cadets.” Silently I vow to keep Raffy around for the rest of my life.”

2.  Harley from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: He is sweet and he took me by the heart with his fish. (I don’t want to spoil it so I’ll leave it at that). Beth Revis said about Harley: But the little details sometimes have the best stories. For example: Harley. Harley was supposed to be a minor character who was only in one scene that I was writing on that took place in the Hospital. One of my students had painted a koi fish, and so I made the extra character an artist. My student’s name is Charly, so I named the character Harley. From that one scene came Harley, Elder’s best friend, complete with a backstory, a dead girlfriend, and a tragic twist. And I am certainly glad that he became more than just very minor.

3. Haymitch from THE HUNGER GAMES: For me Haymitch is such a wonderfully layered character. He lowers the creeping tension when needed, he has MANY issues and he develops so well throughout the books that I have a soft spot for him. (and I think Woody Harrelson did a WONDERFUL job in portraying the Haymitch I had in my mind :D)

Here’s some advice. Stay Alive.

So at least half the victors have instructed their mentors to request you as an ally. I know it can’t be your sunny personality.

I’m with the Mockingjay

Do you have any favorite secondary characters?

personal, writing

We all deserve a pat on the back…

Elodie

Writing is fun, writing is difficult, writing is challenging, writing is amazing…

Yes, writing is all of this but sometimes we have those moments where we think:

  • “Is it good enough?”
  • “Why don´t I write more?”
  • “I´m never going to find an agent”
  • “my agent will not like this idea”
  • “I´m never going to get published”
  • “Ì´m never going to get published again”
  • “People hate my book”
  • “It sucks” “I suck” “The plot sucks”…
  • “It may be great but my query will suck”

                                                                                                                                     Source: happythings.tumblr.com via Lori on Pinterest

We´re all hard on ourselves. We´re much harder on ourselves than on others.

If one of your friends came over and told you: “I´m writing a book, I finished the first draft but I have the feeling that I can´t do it all, that I don´t spend enough time with other things. Plus, some of the subplot is just not where it´s supposed to be and my characters don´t make sense. I feel so tired.”

Your friend would reply: “You wrote a book! It´s amazing! I don´t know how you do it all.”

Yes. most people would turn to any of us, impressed by our creativity, impressed by our dedication…Not everybody but most people.

Some may even tell us we´re a tad insane to write when we have so much uncertainty about being published for us, writing is just a thing we have to do because, most of the times, it makes us happy.

However, we do need to take a moment to sit back, to realize how much we´ve accomplished and to give ourselves a pat on the back.

Feel yourself hugged!

Book Review, Books, Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #13 – Jellicoe steals my heart and other stories

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

I would love to know what made YOU smile this week 😀

Friday the thirteeners rock my world: Another of my question has been answered on their website and again, I got to listen to a wonderful reply by Sara Walsh. You should totally check it out here…And I received my copy of COLD KISS which I ordered thanks to the generosity of Erin Bowman (and due to her recommendation). Yep, they rock! and if you haven´t already, you should really add to their truth or dare…

JELLICOE ROAD: I am not done with that book but..I…am…in….love….with…it already. While many warned me that the first 100 pages could be slow, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Maybe cos´ I was prepared for super-slow-what-the-heck-is-going-on? x 100 but nope I got in the story within the first chapter…The plot is layered, the characters are layered. It´s like you read one page and you discover a new string, a new element which you didn´t see coming or which makes you understand the full meaning of what you have read a few pages earlier.

The writing is…beautiful. And Jonah is living up to the high expectations set by the lovely Katy Upperman in this post 😀

Already before reaching page 100, those sentences got me:

“We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors,” she told him once. “I was paper and she was rock so I lived and she died.” (page 30)

“Not just a name but a state of mind I never want to revisit, although I do keep him at the back of my mind for those times I get my hopes raised about something.” (page 54)

“I´m standing between these two intellectuals while the local photographer snaps away, asking us to say words like holidays and pornography” (page 91)

So yep, I´m about half way through and I missed my bedtime yesterday because I couldn´t put it down.  I suspect the same will happen tonight.

Revising: So I´m still working on the revisions for PLAYING WITH FIRE and it´s really getting somewhere which is super duper cool 😀 It´s definitely not in the final stages yet since I know certain areas still need work but it´s moving forward! My goal is to be done with it before going on honeymoon so that I can send it off to my beta readers before we leave. You know so that I can try not to obsess over their opinions or fight the urge to tweet them constantly 😀 What better way to resist than when you´re on holidays outside of the country?

Writing: I need to organize my schedule to continue working on my new WiP on top of revising. UNTITLED (do you like that title? :D) scares me. It really does. It must be what skydiving is like, jumping in the unknown but I am also very excited about it (so excited I already shared an excerpt here and re-read the comments several times while pinching myself, thank YOU!)

Tell me, what made YOU smile this week? 

Road Trip Wednesday, writing

I didn´t go to prom but I still got lucky.

Elodie

Today is Road Trip Wednesday 🙂 RTW 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: It’s almost prom season, and since we love to read and write about teenagers, we want to hear your prom stories!

Well, in France, we didn´t have proms so I cannot tell you my prom experience from High school. I promise to tell you more about High school in France soon though 😀 I dreamed about the experience though as a teenager.

I could have talked about the prom I didn´t go to while I was an au pair in the USA and my then-boyfriend (kinda – complicated story) took his ex-girlfriend with him, well you know, he promised her…but let´s face it, not the greatest memory to revisit.

I did go to a wonderful dance: The Navy Ball in Annapolis where all au pairs of the area were invited to attend. I had a beautiful dress on and had a blast shopping with my girlfriends for cheap out of season prom dresses. We got very lucky.  I also did go to a so-called prom at the university but it didn´t feel like a real prom…You know, the one I will be able to read about in your posts or in your comments 😀

Even though I didn´t go to prom, I still got lucky…well I got the lucky meme (did you like the transition :D). The lovely and talened Tracey tagged me in the Lucky Seven (really you should totally check out her excerpt here). The rules are as follow:

  • Go to page 77 of your current MS.
  • Go to line 7.
  • Copy down the next 7 lines/sentences, and post the as they’re written. No cheating.
  • Tag 7 other writers.

I wanted to share something from my new WiP, the one which doesn´t have a lot of pages yet, so I thought I´ll go to page 7 of my new WiP and share the 7 lines:

If I´m not shedding tears in front of you, please don´t cry for me. 

Cry for him and away from my gaze.

My chest tightens. My mother and I didn´t let tears out at his funeral. She didn´t hold my hand, I didn´t go into her embrace like when I was little and had a nightmare.

My mother and I had become strangers before my dad decided he didn´t want to live with us anymore. Not only he didn´t want to live with us, I remind myself. He didn´t want to live at all.

Natalja is going through quite a lot. She failed as ballerina, she lost her dad and she went back to her hometown after a stint in NYC. She has the attitude and hides away her pain…

If you want to join in and share an excerpt of your WiP, YOU are tagged! 😀

Observations, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tips For New Bloggers

Elodie

This Top Ten Tuesday feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and I first came across it on Jaime´s blog. It´s a lot of fun and they  post the topics way in advance!

This week´s topic: Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers…which I am twisting to Top Ten Tips For New Bloggers 😀

                                                                                                                                                    Source: vetsforpets.net via Vera on Pinterest

 

So, I have been blogging for less than a year. When is the status of “new blogger” over? 😀

From a newbie to another one, or from a somewhat less new blogger to another one…here are my Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers:

1. Choose what you want to blog about: This may come naturally. Right now you may be thinking: I already know what I want to blog about (e.g. books) but it may take awhile to actually get your groove. When I look back at my first posts, it seems that I thought I´d write much more about my commuting than what I do. Plus there are many ways to write about books: Do you want to only write reviews about books you really enjoyed? (this is what I do :D) or do you want to have a point system? or talk about covers, about characters, about the swoon-factor? about the plot? do you want to organize them per topics? do you want to talk about everything?

2. Choose the format: Do you want a recurring theme? Do you sometimes want to do a vlog? Do you want to link your posts to any of your other “online” persona aka Twitter, Facebook, Google +?

3. Check the platform you want to use: There are many choices out there. Personally, I like WordPress but it was more of a “lucky” moment than anything else. If you´re more peculiar about the features/style you want to have, I think it could be useful to check out which one you really prefer before spending too much time of your blog.

4. Stick to a schedule (especially at the beginning): It helps you to know what works and what doesn´t work for you and it helps for people to know that you´re a regular blogger.

5. Make sure people can “follow” you: See on my right? You can follow me by email, via google reader, via RSS feed, via WordPress…When I travel the blogosphere, it happens that I cannot find a way to easily get updated. Sure I could always copy the link and add it to my Google Reader but I don´t necessarily have the reflex or I am not on my computer but on my phone…

6. Use visuals: I always find it enticing when there is at least one picture/gif in the post.

7. Be yourself: There are blogs where you really have the feeling you get to know the person because their voice and spirit jump out of the page.

                                                                                              Source: Uploaded by user via Bernadette on Pinterest

8. Discuss, connect, make friends:  Leave comments  on other people´s blogs, try to reply to the ones you get (I for example now send an email to the person on top of the comment if they´re not on WordPress.) What I found also helped greatly along the way was connecting with bloggers/writers on Twitter. Don´t be shy! People do love to get comments on their blogs, especially ones where you also share your views, your experience…

9. Participate in blog fests, in challenges, in online book clubs: It is another way to connect and to have a blast along the way. If you´re active in forums, let people know that you created a blog…

and……another very important point:

10. Have fun with it!: You´ll get to discuss topics you love with wonderful people from all around the world, you´ll learn a lot from them and from writing your own blog and maybe make long lasting connections along the way!