Quick summary: I had different plans for this episode, and then I ended up in a Belgian ER at 6:45am with hives and a lip that decided to swell. So… new plan. This one’s three days in the life of this self-published author: writing and revising, taxes, and the ER. (I’m fine. Bobbie Voltaire was very concerned for approximately four seconds, then remembered it was second-breakfast o’clock.)
Writing: Revising # My Christmas Wish List and making sure Plato is in all the scenes he needs to be in. If you’re new here, Plato was our beagle (2015–2025), and writing him in (pillow-humping, stubbornness, the nickname Poopie) helped me get back into the story in July last year. He’s earning his place in every scene now. 🙂
BOOKS
# My Christmas Wish-List — new pre-order date, July 31st, 2026 (the book, and I, will be better for the extra time). Pre-order.
I almost didn’t write this… not the entire post. The next sentence. But I feel like it’s important. For me. To write it. To share.
Because I didn’t realize how much grief permeates so much. So many moments. The happy ones and the hard ones and all the ones-in-between.
I don’t cry every day anymore like I did for weeks – but the grief is still there. I think I’ll always miss my dad. And I think he’ll always be with me. And in a way I’m lucky.
Okay clears throat. Now… let’s do this.
Watching
Off-Campus Season 1 – loved it!
watching the first season of Euphoria (we’re on episode three and that’s intense);
watching the second season of Running Point (we laugh :-))
Listening (audiobook, song, podcast)
started listening to the audiobook of Yesteryear (can’t stop listening)
Been listening to this song every morning – Sincère by Woody (:-))
Steel Magnolias meets Schitt’s Creek in this emotional, laugh-through-the-tears women’s fiction novel about sisters, grief, second chances, and the family that knows how to push every button.
At fifty, Hope Hall has done everything right. She earned a PhD, built a career, and held her marriage together with determination and stubborn denial.
When her life publicly unravels, Hope returns to her hometown in Texas, and the loud, loving, opinionated family who never quite understood her. Surrounded by her four sisters, who make everything bigger, messier, and usually a public spectacle, she expects the chaos, the old grudges, and small-town rivalries that always seem to involve toilet paper and bail money.
What she doesn’t expect is June—her wild, fearless sister, who has spent a decade giving cancer the middle finger. But you can only run from the devil for so long, and what’s coming for June may be the thing Hope’s family can’t survive.
Told with sharp humor, messy love, and the kind of honesty that sneaks up and wrecks you, The Summer That Changed Us is a deeply moving, laugh-through-the-tears story about sisters, second chances, and what it really means to show up when it matters most.
Perfect for readers who love emotional women’s fiction, small-town family dramas, and unforgettable Southern characters.
*This book contains themes of terminal illness, grief, and the death of a sibling.
This One is About Amazon Blocking One of my e-books – one that had been up for ten years. In today’s episode, I share how many returns that book got over years, the sales number, the reviews, what I decided to do. I also talk about moving a pre-order, and a little bit about craft – thinking about how to improve my books.
I’ve been hard at work behind-the scenes on several projects this week. Yesterday was cover day as I worked on several ones. And I also continued revising # My Christmas Wish List and I started revising A New Year’s Eve Like No Other.
I have also put up Cancer Is Not My Brand for pre-order…
If your favorite e-retailer isn’t there yet, make sure to check again later as I’m adding pre-order links to more stores 🙂
# A Christmas Wish List by Elodie Now
# My Christmas Wish List by Elodie Now
A kid calling me Dad. My sister’s best friend crashing in to help like this is a romcom. (And yeah, pinning said sister’s best friend to the nearest wall would absolutely get me on the naughty list.) This Christmas is a disaster waiting to happen.
One minute I’m a Grinch divorce lawyer avoiding Christmas like it’s a contested prenup clause, the next, there’s a twelve-year-old girl on my doorstep claiming I’m her dad. With her cat annoying my beagle, and an annotated list of holiday movies I’m apparently contractually obligated to watch. And then? My little sister’s best friend moves in to help.
The former wedding planner. She looks like every bad decision I’ve always wanted to make, and nearly did that night after that Christmas party. Now she’s in my house, wearing flannel, baking things, and filing motions to trim trees like we’re not one snowstorm away from me forgetting every objection I’ve ever raised.
# Ma Liste de Noël (n’inclut pas l’amour) par Elodie Now
# Ma Liste de Noël (n’inclut pas l’amour) par Elodie Now
Une gosse qui m’appelle Papa. La meilleure amie de ma sœur qui débarque à la rescousse — on se croirait dans une comédie romantique. (Et ouais, plaquer ladite amie contre le mur le plus proche me vaudrait direct le Père Fouettard aux trousses.) Ce Noël court à la catastrophe.
Welcome to the inside of my brain. Cancer Is Not My Brand is not a how-to guide on publishing, branding, or writing. But hopefully, it will make you feel seen. (Also, yes, it’s a book *I* needed to write).
This is pretty much what was happening in my head when I got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma back in October 2017. How that affected my writing at the time of diagnosis. How I lost my words at the start of treatment. Before finding them again. Differently.
And how cancer (even in remission, and in so many different ways) keeps shaping my creativity. Despite me really not wanting cancer to be my brand.
If you’re writing through something hard, or not writing through it, maybe this makes you feel a little less alone.
Welcome to the first book in my F***-It series on writing, self-publishing and marketing.
Hi, it’s me, the author of this blog, it’s me… My last post? Let’s just say it’s been a while. So, I thought I’d share with you a bit of a recap of what I’ve been working on, sharing, updating.
Also Plato The Dog says hi…
NEW AUDIOBOOKS ON YOUTUBE….Also I now have 219 subscribers (are you one of them? Super subtle hint to ask you if you already subscribe…)
LA PEUR DANS LE SANG est dispo en livre audio sur Spotify, Apple, B&N, Kobo,Google Play et plus encore et est aussi maintenant sur YouTube
UN ETE PAS COMME LES AUTRES lu par Maya Belgnaoui est dispo gratuitement en livre audio sur Spotify, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Google Play, Amazon, Audible et plus encore et est aussi maintenant sur YouTube
RECORDING AN AUDIOBOOK IN FRENCH (follow along on YouTube)
And yep I’m recording LA PEUR DANS LES YEUX in French…
REVISING NICE GUYS DON’T KISS LIKE THAT AT CHRISTMAS…And updating my progress on Patreon (yep, I have a FREEPatreon)
You can read several chapters already… including this one on my FREE Patreon
Certain chapters take me longer than others, especially in the revision process… and this one feels like it needs to balance the emotions with the humor. It is a romcom. It is Adam and Eve. It is SO MUCH. (….)
Chapter 15. XXX-ADAM
She’s still wrapped around me, breath shaky against my neck, and I don’t say anything yet. Just let her feel it. Let myself feel it. Our damp skin, the messy sheets around us, the air that smells like her, like me, like us.
Eve had cancer… and is living a romcom. Fuck it, why not?
When I was revising, there was a moment that didn’t feel right. Why did Eve ghost Adam? After everything they’d shared—after the way he made her feel—why wouldn’t she show up in Pittsburgh? Why did she feel like this couldn’t work?
I needed to really understand this to give them their second chance.
I started listening to Abbie Emmons’ Make Your Story Matter, and one question she mentioned authors should ask themselves is "Why does your story matter?" And that immediately got stuck in my head in a loop. In this Dear Raccoon Author Diary episode, I’m talking about writing and why and working through things, lots of things—what I want readers to feel, what I sometimes work through myself within the pages, and how all of that fits alongside the very practical business side of being an indie author.How I want to both look at my numbers without losing my "why". I talk about Genevieve and Theodore and revising "A New Year's Eve Like No Other", about grief and Margie Lawson's deep EDITS technique, duets versus standalones both in terms of craft and revenue, read-through and audiobook and translations costs and oh, Amazon deciding to mess-up with permafree books, including mine.Basically, it's a very Raccoon Author mix of craft, feelings (lots of them) and numbers.And underneath it all, I keep coming back to that question: Why does this matter to me, and hopefully, to the readers?Abbie Emmons — Make Your Story Matterhttps://benbellabooks.com/shop/make-your-story-matter/🦝 Join me on Patreon — Raccoon Author tier:https://www.patreon.com/c/elodieswritingnookPreorder Cancer Is Not My Brand https://books2read.com/cancerisnotmybrand/Margie Lawson:https://www.margielawson.com/And I’d love to hear from you: Why does your story matter? Elodie AT Elodienow.comHappy writing. And happy, happy reading. ❤️
Very excited about this pacing class by Ines Johnson…
I’ve backed this Kickstaster by Ines about pacing and more and I’m very much looking forward to it. While you can no longer back the project, Ines has a website with more information…I’ve taken her Writing Dirty class and I definitely think about it when I craft, um, certain scenes.
Celebrating Katy’s latest release which is a B&N Monthly Pick
I *am* planning to go to B&N next week to see this beauty in person… But I’m so so excited for Katy and her Lia and Beck and Isaiah to find their ways into your heart. EVERYTHING I PROMISED YOU…
In addition, I’ve been reading (the last one was House Of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen, which I could not put down), and watching XO, Kitty during my lunch break (because it makes me smile, not every episode, but still…) and making sure to stay informed (without spending hours scrolling, though, let’s be honest, I still scroll… but still).
There’s so much happening right now, impacting so many people. I’m about to call one of my representatives about how the NIH funding cuts could affect research on Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Past studies have shown that a significant portion of research funding for certain clinical trials comes from the NIH, and since Hodgkin’s is rare and not exactly the most profitable, these cuts could be devastating—especially for patients in smaller hospitals, not just the big ones. If you’d like to get informed about direct and indirect cuts, here are some articles:
And maybe you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up. Well, many reasons, but not to be dramatic, but I’m alive thanks to research. This is one of the topics I’ll bring up with my representatives when I talk to them.
Because writing is a creative process, and let me tell you, it’s much easier to write when I feel like I’ve done something. And, yes I’m going to keep wanting to bring joy and happiness and so much more through my books.
Thank you for reading <3
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