Tag: contest

Happy Friday, writing

Happy Friday #31 – Cupid´s Literary Connection BSD, the journey and YOU <3

Elodie


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

One of my words for 2013 is “appreciate”  and looking back at what happened this week, I want to sit back and truly appreciate the journey. You all made me feel so happy and cheered on and simply just wonderful about my writing and my dreams!

At the beginning of the week, I talked about contests and entering Cupid’s Literary Connection Blind Speed Dating Contest and….I made it into the agents’ round! I’m so grateful also to those organizing these contests because it must eat up so much of their time!

Getting the words “you’re in” on my entry  in itself is AMAZING and definitely made me grin so much my face hurt! But…the journey to get there, both the writing of ONE TWO THREE and the input it received over the months by some truly wonderful people and the journey into the contest are things I need to sit back and appreciate. I know it’s not the end of the journey, it’s actually still the beginning…And maybe no agents will fall in love enough with this story to offer rep. But…I WILL enjoy the journey, I WILL pause and smile and think how lucky I am to have you all in my corner…(including my dear husband who gets used of waking up to me checking my emails, turning to him and saying “OMG, I can’t believe!)

Writing this post is making me smile …Anyways….let me tell you a story in Twitter format.

Before the contest

CLCBSD The before story

While I was sleeping

CLCBSD - the sleeping story

And when I woke up

CLCBSD

And then…. 

CLCBSD After

(I probably missed some but know that all of your messages, comments and tweets really touched me!)

And Kip even wrote a blog post about it…. 

Thank you! Thank you so much for your encouraging words and your support and simply for understanding what it means to have this crazy dream!

Something else that made me smile is seeing Rebecca’s book “When Audrey met Alice” on Goodreads.com…it sounds amazing and I’m so happy for her!!!!

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

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personal, Query, writing

Happy Dance Monday

Elodie

I simply cannot wait until my Happy Friday post to share some of my weekend smiles…

First there was this:

Evening with friends – bringing them some French wine 😀

Then this:

A little bit of sport. Hubby and I are not that good but we have fun!

 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?

Books, reading, writing

Happy Friday #23 – The End, Zombies and other stories…

Elodie

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

Don´t forget you can enter my giveaway for a SIGNED copy of MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by Huntley Fitzpatrick (see interview with Huntley and details here)

Writing: So. Something insane happened. I wrote “THE END” to my second WiP. It still seems so unreal to know that I actually managed to write 2 books! Okay I still have a lot to do for both of them but right now I am just relishing the moment 😀

Reading: I loved PUSHING THE LIMITS by (and reviewed it here…) I started SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY by Susan Dennard and wow! No really, WOW! Oh and I am participating in the Something Strange and Deadly Outbreak Contest (Erin has the details 😀) and sent this picture to the lovely ladies who are organizing it. Disclaimer: I was just coming back to work after a long day at work and the train was late but you can see the Rhine in the background…

Query: I received GREAT feedback from the folks over at YALITCHAT.org on my query and then decided to enter Taryn´s contest especially after reading all of her helpful #querycrits tweets. Ladies and gentlemen, Taryn´s suggestions and comments were spot on. She helped my query to become ready to be sent. I know. I can barely think about breathing. Now I just have to polish my manuscript.

I am so thankful for Jaime for all her ideas/comments/suggestions on my chapters because I also have the feeling that thanks to her, my WiP will be much much much stronger/better!!!!  (full post on how Jaime has helped me later, promise!) Oh and I am thinking of using Taryn as a beat-reader as part of her Teen Eyes Editorial services…

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

 

Happy Friday, writing, YA Book Club

A late happy Friday :D because well it´s really Saturday…

Elodie

It´s actually Saturday so technically I am a tad late but really, if you come to think of it, yesterday´s post was also a happy one 😀 (review of The Fault in Our Stars for the YA Book Club).

I would love to know what made YOU smile last week…

Writing: My flash fiction “Look, don´t touch” made it to the second round of the Campaign Challenge..Thanks again Gina for letting me know! I am so excited and I did a little *happy dance*, especially as I am thinking about expanding it to a full draft at some point. Colin kindly pointed out to the writing contest of Janet Reid to win a copy of Insurgent. I wrote a little something something, now let´s wait and see 😀 There´s still some time and I have read some amazing entries!

Blogging: The YA Book Club is a lot of fun and I´m very happy I have joined. And…did you notice the new layout of my blog? I have tabs now! And I even have a real picture of me (actually two! because the one in my About Me is different)…

SCBWI: I took another big step and joined SCBWI! I am trying to organize a monthly lunch in my area to meet with writers and discuss our craft 😀

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

personal, reading, writing

2012 – Goals, resolutions…and shooting for the stars

Elodie

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you, your family and loved ones. Wishing you happiness, love, success, health and wonderful moments to come in 2012…

I rolled into 2012 with hubby and his family, champagne, good food and lots of laughs…and as I checked my emails in the early hours, I saw that I won a contest! Yay 🙂 I am going to receive a copy (autographed copy!!!) of Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi! Thank you so much Beth!!!! It has been on my TBR pile and I´m so excited about this…

I like the fresh start feeling of a New Year, not the “everything-is-erased-and-I-am-a-new-person” but “I-learned-a-lot-from-you-2011-and-I-am-ready-for-some-changes-in-2012″…On top of learning from the past, one should also never forget to reach for the stars and to dream. So here are my 2012 goals and resolutions!

Writing-related

  • Finish the first draft of my WIP
  • Edit it and make it ready for submission
  • Query said-WIP and find wonderful agent who had desired my manuscript without knowing it, who falls helplessly in love with it and helps me to take it to yet another level…Wonderful agent then sells it to great publishing house and I become part of the class of 2014.
  • Start working on my second novel
  • Establish regular contact with the wonderful people I might swap manuscripts with in the future 🙂 (yes Tarah, Heather and Hannah, I´m talking about you…:-))

Reading-related

  • I am not setting myself a goal of books to read per year because I know I have my commuting time which allows me to read, a lot.
  • However, I will make better use of Goodreads.com and will write more reviews about the books I read (on there and on here).

Other

I joined the Change, Write, Now challenge. It´s not really about the competition, it´s more about the support we will give each other in reaching our goals. I will update you from times to times on how this is going for me 🙂 Part of these resolutions concern:

  • Stepping away from the computer and my cell phone…from times to times…
  • Spend more quality time with hubby (he also says to be nicer to him but it´s wishful thinking cos I´m already super lovely  :-))
  • Become more organized so that I can give myself the gift of time
  • Cut down on some bad habits and pick up some good ones (including working out more often)

In 2012, I will also continue to update my blog regularly and I look forward to “seeing” you on the blogosphere or on Twitter 🙂 because you are awesome! Cheers to you!

Did you set yourself some goals for 2012?