Tag: changewritenow

Happy Friday, reading, revising

Happy Friday #11 – Little things and big smiles

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

Revising: I am going through another round of revising. Every morning and every evening in the train, I take out my beloved netbook and correct a lot of my previous silliness. I´ll post more about this on Monday but I think I´ve reached a “Tada” moment in this process and that brings a BIG smile to my face.

Reading: For Tracey´s YA Book club, I´ve read WANDERLOVE last weekend and I cannot talk about it yet but it did make it to my happy friday so it should give you a hint 😀 I´m also reading Stephen King´s ON WRITING and I´m falling in love with this book. I´ll explain the reasons soon and thank you Sara for giving me the slight push to actually dive into this book. If you´ve read those books, don´t hesitate to click on those wonderful bloggies´ links to join the fun!

ChangeWriteNow: A big wave to my team and to all participating. I´m really enjoying the support. We´re scattered all around the world but encouragement is one computer screen away 😀

Pinterest: It had been awhile since I worked (well ok played) with the shiny things on Pinterest….and yesterday I let my fingers run free and  found (among many other things) this quote –

Source: etsy.com via Elodie on Pinterest

The beauty of Twitter: I´ve raved before about how much I like connecting with other writers on Twitter. Really, it´s fun! And thanks to Twitter (and Katy), I came across this video…

“Sh*t Writers say…”

So, tell me, what made YOU smile this week?

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Beta, Giveaway, Happy Friday, reading, SCBWI

Happy Friday #10 – Connecting, Reading and Yoga-ing

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!  Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

Giveaways: Today is the last day to enter my “I love reading” giveaway (more details here ). And in case you haven’t seen: Sarah is having a “Moving Giveaway“, Colin a “Birthday Giveaway” and Rebecca a “Spring Break Giveaway“…

Lunch with other SCBWI members:  On Wednesday, I had lunch with three other SCBWI members and it was great! I am very happy I got to meet them. Talking about books, the craft of writing, writing in general or just about our life experiences was fun and enlightening. I am thinking of organizing this type of small get-togethers regularly and look forward to seeing them soon again!

Beta-reading:  I started beta-reading this week  and feel very lucky for two reasons: 1) I really enjoyed the book and 2) I realized that by helping her, I’m also helping me…Reading somebody else’s draft while keeping an open mind enabled me to go back to my own draft and know where I could improve. Her strengths showed me where I could better my own writing, some questions I had hinted at some I have on my own novel.

Yoga: I started up yoga again this week. None of the complicated poses yet, I am concentrating for now on the breathing exercises and the restorative poses since I have been having some pains otherwise. It helps me get more grounded, more “in the moment”. As I mentioned before, while my imagination helps a lot when it comes to writing, it can be a little frustrating when it turns into stress or anxiety…Yoga, cardio and more exercising in general help a lot.

ChangeWriteNow: I cannot believe the first week of ChangeWriteNow has already gone by. Once more, my teammates are encouraging and I set myself more realistic goals this time. While I am super organized at work, at home…I’m a tad more…hmm…messy and hubby is very happy I’m tackling this issue one way or another 😀

Now tell me: what made YOU smile this week?

Happy Friday, reading

Happy Friday #4: Shatter Me and other stories

Elodie

Shatter Me

Goodreads summary: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.  The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

I won Shatter Me at the beginning of the year and as you can imagine, did a little happy dance. It is the first book I win and it is signed by the author (Thanks again, Beth!).  Really, it is signed and with a great reminder too!

I received the book on Tuesday and started reading on Wednesday.

And…I love it! I want to hug it and hug Tahereh Mafi (not in a weird way just in a “Thank you for writing this book” way)

At the beginning I was unsure, the writing looked a bit different  innovative and I wondered if I could get used to it. Honestly, I did not dive into the story right away.  I was intrigued. My oh my, but when I did jump into it, there was no coming back 🙂 I did get used to the visual, I enjoyed it but I especially relished the poetry falling from some of the sentences and…the relationship between Juliette & Adam is jumping out of the pages. Their story made my heart beat a bit faster. For those of you who read the book, may I just say “Shower scene”, for those of you who didn’t let’s just put it that way: it is steaaammmmy and totally makes sense for the story. It’s not one of those shower scenes in a movie where you just know it has been added so the viewers can see a little bit more skin for no apparent reason. My hubby still loves these scenes 🙂

The way Adam handles his little brother is just another factor to root for him and brings on so many more emotions in the story. Of course, Shatter Me brings much more to the table that those two relationships, it handles feeling different, feeling rejected and acceptance in a touching manner.

Some of my favourite quotes:

  • “Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles”
  • “He takes my hand. Intertwines our fingers. Offers me a smile that manages to kiss my heart.”
  • “I grin. ‘So you’re ten years old?’ He crosses his arms. Frowns. ‘I’ll be twelve in two years.’ I think I already love this kid.”

Versatile Blogger Award: Thanks again Ann Elise Monte and S.M. Boyce 🙂

ChangeWriteNow:

Doing pretty well this week – and stopped smoking on Monday, 5.30pm. Technically one of my goal was to reduce smoking not totally quit but I told myself it was time. I am 30 years old, it’s a good age to stop smoking :-). If I could talk to my 23 year old self, I would tell her “It’s not worth it, it will increase your anxiety, not decrease it…and quitting will kick your butt” I am a paradox, never smoked in France where all my friends did and started in the US. Everything is a learning experience, I am trying my best, let’s see how it unfolds.

So, tell me what made you SMILE this week?

Happy Friday, reading, writing

Happy Friday #3 – Anna and the French Kiss and other stories…

Elodie

Yay! It´s already the third edition of “Happy Friday” 🙂 Looking forward to know what made you happy this week? Did you write more than expected? Did you read something amazing? Did you help another writer/reader? Did you enjoy quality time with your loved ones? 

* I finished my first draft!: I am still super excited about this, even though I am now seriously thinking about the best way to tackle the editing process…(and the query :D)…

* Anna and the French Kiss

After diving into several YA contemporary romance novels and loving them, I thought I should dig into the ones I heard so many good reviews about and had not yet read. That is when Anna and the French Kiss comes in. And gosh I´m glad I did!

Awwwww….I had a lot of heart melting moments reading the story of Anna. The voice caught me right at the beginning, right after the first few lines…I actually stopped reading and thought “Wow, I already love the voice”. I mean, I could hear and see Anna from the get go and in just a few sentences!  The story itself wrapped me around its little finger. On top of the love story, the friendships, the first times, I could also see Paris, the streets I know and miss.

I also now read Lola and The Boy Next Door...and let´s just say I cannot wait for Isla and The Happily Ever After

* YA Book club

Tracey announced a yearlong YA Book Club 😀 and I´m quite excited to have joined. It´s starting in February and I am looking forward to discuss the books here and on the blogs of the other YA Book Clubbers 😀 And….I have the badge with the link on the sidebar if you want to take a look and maybe join as well.

* ChangeWriteNow

We´re in our 3rd week and it´s getting a tad easier to fit in the work-outs in the morning…The ladies of my team are still as supportive as ever 😀 oh if you´re not on Twitter or do not check the #ChangeWriteNow you can see a weekly wrap-up here

So tell me any happy stories this week? (anything that made you smile to  is a happy story :-))

Happy Friday, reading, writing

Happy Friday #2 – The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and other stories…

Elodie

Last week, I started the Happy Friday feature and here comes round 2…Looking forward to know what made you happy this week!

This week’s reading

* The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: Beautiful! Though this is narrated in the 3rd person, I could feel with the main characters. The anxiety of Hadley resonated in me and talked to me in personal terms so I may be a bit partial but for a book to do this, the voice has to be strong. This story is not a simple love story; it is much more than this. It shows difficult family relationships and how love can show itself in the most unexpected places.  Two of my favourite quotes from the book:

  • “And for some reason, that was even worse. in the end, it’s not the changes that will break your heart; it’s that tug of familiarity“
  • “That she’d gadly curl up on the grass for him, make a bed out of the dirt?”

* The Hunger Games trilogy: Amazing! Heart-wrenching! This trilogy will stay in my mind for a long time. It shows the human emotions in such a raw manner, it magnifies them, it blew me away.

I started Cinder yesterday and I’m looking forward to get into the story…

A nice reminder for us writers 😀

Lucky 13s view on “Tough Time Trouble” and especially this part made me smile as it is such a great reminder! (even though I still dream :-))

Most of us will not be the writer who pours out their first book ever in a few weeks, considers drool-ridden offers from 10 agents, has their book go to auction for over half a million dollars, and snags a movie deal as icing on the cake. Those writers are still human. None of these things gives them the ability to poop sunshine or pee rainbows.

A song

I revealed my first name on Wednesday in my Road Trip Wednesday post and I am overwhelmed by the comments this post received. THANK YOU 🙂 and if you wonder how to pronounce my first name…here is a little song from the 80’s


Others:

  • WIP progress: I am almost at 58k…but the moment which made me smile the most had to be writing a steamy scene while commuting and feeling my face getting flushed
  • ChangeWriteNow: I am feeling quite giddy since I did much better than last week. I am falling into a routine, making it somewhat easier and my team is just great! (thank you ladies)

What made YOU happy this week?

Have a wonderful weekend everybody 😀