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Happy Friday :)

Elodie

Happy Friday

Gooooooood morning! At least on my side of the world 🙂 I’ve been up since a bit before 5 a.m. and I’ve been quite productive so definitely happy about this. I am on a strict deadline for my next book and I need to make it happen!

Here are a few things that made me smile this week.

  • The little things like this one…

  • Or this one…

  • Publishing A Summer Like No Other in Spanish!

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Amazon: http://smarturl.it/UVCN
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1081970562
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/un-verano-como-ninguno
Nook: http://bit.ly/1SK3R1I

  • Joining the American Association of Teachers of German again and thinking up ways to become a better teacher. I’m very excited about this.
  • Designing the cover of Always Second Best in Portuguese (available soon) 🙂

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And so so much more! 🙂 Tell me what made you smile this week?

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Books, Happy Friday, reading, SCBWI

Happy Friday #12: A magical number and other stories…

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

100 blog followers: WOW! 😀 Thank YOU all so much for following my blog, your comments and your support. You, ladies and gentlemen, are WONDERFUL! I’d like to throw a proper party, you know one where we can chit chat about books, YA lit crushes, Stephen King’s ON WRITING  around a glas of red wine but I’m already really thankful for the fact that we can share those moments in the virtual world!

A little something something:  I’ve received a small package  from the Society of Children´s Book Writers and Illustrators. And before continuing, please tell me I´m not the only one who just thought about this movie/scene when reading (or in my case writing) the word “package”.


GIFSoup (Legally Blonde, Bend and Snap)

I´m really the only one? ok then 😀 moving on….I joined SCBWI last month and already had a fantastic lunch with other writers in the area and yesterday, I received my official membership card and some other goodies.

I am so excited about being part of this and I promise myself that I will go to the next SCBWI conference in NYC – anybody already thinking about it for 2013?

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: I finished this book this week and luckily I could dive right away into A MILLION SUNS because I just could not wait to know more about Elder and Amy. I love the story, the concept and I can´t believe I´m saying this but the way Beth Revis can make me feel claustrophobic as if I was on the ship with them is incredible!

Blog comments: I am trying a new way to respond to comments on my blog – by replying directly to the email notification I receive when somebody adds their thoughts to one of my posts and I add the email of that person if he/she doesn´t have a wordpress blog since if she/he does have one, he/she gets a little notification when coming onto wordpress.com. If you´ve been receiving these emails from me, hope it´s ok 😀 I just enjoy being able to answer and knowing the person actually can see what I wrote back to them

A to Z challenge: I am not doing it this round but can I just say I am loving the fact that a lot of you are? Lots of great posts to read!

Rock the drop: I haven´t done it either…but I really think it’s an AMAZING way to spread “book love” and your stories are very funny/inspiring! YA Confidential will feature some of them on Saturday… Can’t wait to see the pictures 😀

So tell me, what made YOU smile this week?

Observations

It’s a small world after all….

Elodie

WordPress started to show statistics of visitors per country…and I am so happy to see how many people from so many different areas of the world stumble upon my blog.

Some of them undeniably came across my posts thanks to their searches…Here are some terms which bring wanderers to my site…

The “popular” ones

  • Happy Friday: yep people love looking for everything related to Happy Friday (usually as of Wednesday) – Happy Friday smile, Happy Friday pic, Happy Friday images, Have a happy Friday. The ones which personally turns my lips upwards is Happy Friday hubby, Happy Friday sunshine and smile, it’s Friday.
  • Books: I hope people can find interesting posts by googling this term
  • Santa Claus: including Santa Claus in trouble, Santa coming late
  • Mike Delfino: I agree I mean he´s quite good looking

The writing-related ones

  • Writer, inspiration, imagination: related searches including writer’s imagination and the tripe I of writers. I’m sorry I don’t have the magical recipe for it but I know it’s important!
  • Aspiring young authors: And since I am an aspiring young author of young adult novels, this fits 😀 (30 is still young, right?)
  • Beauty of words: Words are indeed beautiful!
  • write, my super powers are: This one really made me smile 😀 We all have super powers when it comes to our writing.

The reading-related ones

  • Anna and The French Kiss: I must talk a lot about this book on my blog cos’ people also search for Anna & The French Kiss query, Anna & The French Kiss rights sold (while I don’t think I actually wrote about this before…)
  • Hunger Games, The Scorpio Races and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: Yep those are great books too!
  • Funny books on commuting: Hmm sorry I don’t know any!
  • Is Shatter Me worth reading: I would say yes! I really loved it but I know not everybody did. I think it’s definitely worth giving it a try and see where the magic of words can take you…
  • Did you cry during the fault in our stars: I did.

These also make me smile, wonder or ponder….

  • Valentine’s Day: Essay about Valentine´s Day, Valentine’s Day French Toast (hope somebody made his/her special someone some yummy French toast on that day)
  • never asked myself the big questions: I do on a regular basis though…
  • tada goodbye: 😀
  • what are a lifetime of memories: Such a thought-pondering moment…
  • french toast kiss: Yes if your special someone made you French Toast you should kiss them…
  • “don’t take it personally” “it’s not you it’s me”: This search could make me smile or sad…depending on the mood of the person looking
  • guy looking at the moon and wolf looking at the moon: Hope they enjoyed my moon picture!
  • magic words for daughter: This search made me go awwwwwwwww cos I can picture a mom or a dad wanting to write a special card/letter/email for their daughter and looking for inspiration cos’ they’re afraid to get them wrong. The special words are: “I am proud of you” and “I love you” combined with “always”.

And there are even some with my name 😀 (maybe it’s an agent looking for me!)

  • Elodie writer
  • Elodie falling into you
  • Elodie poetry

And while I am very thankful to see how so so many countries of the world are represented, I am secretely hoping that one of my visitors from the Ukraine (or the US or Germany) is that guy right there…(if you don’t know the Klitchko brothers in particular Wladimir Klitchko, just click on his picture for more info).

(Disclaimer: My hubby is fully aware of my fan-girling attitude towards this gentleman :D)

Tell me, are there any search terms which really made you smile or wonder?

or do you wish one of your unknown blog visitors to be someone specific?

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?

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

Happy Friday #9 – Smiles, books and boxing…

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday! Oh, if you have not entered my “I love reading” GIVEAWAY, you still can :-), just click here for more info. Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

Happy dance for Kerri: Kerri has an agent! 😀 Her post is inspirational and encouraging and a wonderful reminder of why perseverance is important. Thanks Kerri for being such a great example!

Books, books, and more books: You may be already aware that I am limited on how many books (hardcopies or paperbacks) that I can buy a month. Since I have my kindle and since I commute, it´s more efficient to actually get e-books. However, I sometimes crave for the feeling of holding a book in my hand. Since I also read a lot (again thanks to my commute), I sometimes re-read books at night. I stopped smoking more than 6 weeks ago and saved money that way. I decided I could reward myself. My monthly reward: I got to buy myself the paper version of my favorite books which I read in January and February. They look so pretty 😀

My new project…: I am excited about my new project. In-between editing PLAYING WITH FIRE, I started working more seriously on a YA contemporary romance novel and it´s going quite well.

Reading: I read two very good books this past week: Trafficked by Kim Purcell and Getting over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald.  I´ll post more about them soon 😀

Awesome weekend with the hubby: Hubby and I went to see Klitschko vs Mormeck last week. Yep. Boxing. It was amazing!

So tell me: what made YOU smile this week?

Editing, Giveaway, Happy Friday, reading, revising

Happy Friday #8: Giveaway, Books and Thanks!

Elodie

Yay it’s Friday…and it’s Happy Friday 😀

My fingers have been itching to type this post but I had to stay longer at work so it´s a bit later than usual…Ready? Here are some of the reasons why I smiled this week…

My “I love reading giveaway”: This giveaway is to celebrate my love of reading with all of you. There will be one winner (but I probably will repeat this in a few months) You can win 2 books (up to a total of $30): one for you and one for a teenager or a child or a baby you want to share your love of books with. If you’re a teenager, that’s one for you and one for a friend or somebody younger than you. The giveaway is international (open to all countries that The Book Depository ships to). Just fill out the entry form by Friday March 16th.

Revising: Two weeks ago, I sent my first chapter to Tarah…I was anxious to receive her feedback. How would I react to the possible criticism towards the words I put on paper? What did she think about it? Was it awful? Was it good? and wow, I never thought I would be so happy to see her many comments on this chapter. Tarah: again THANK YOU! She not only took the time to read it but she gave a lot of thoughts to it. She edited some and pointed out where it could actually get “tighter”. I am very grateful because I just have the feeling, that thanks to her, my story is moving forward. It´s getting better. I´m excited to dive into the story again!

Reading: I started reading Incarnate at the beginning of the week. I was not sure what to expect…but I was in for a treat. I had plenty of time while waiting at the French consulate to finally change my papers (got married in August and only getting around to it but that´s another story). I will probably do a full review soon but let me just say that Jodi managed to make me miss my piano even more. I also really enjoyed the world-building, the development and the romance. Right now, I am thoroughly enjoying Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour (thanks Jaime for pointing this book out to me some time ago :D)

So tell me what made YOU smile this week?

Happy Friday

Happy Friday #7 – A smile is worth a thousand words…

Elodie

Yay it’s Friday…and it’s Happy Friday 😀 Hope you had a wonderful week!

* Valentine’s Day: February 14th put a big grin on my face. Your comments brightened my day and….hubby got me those beautiful flowers. Yes, my hubby is wonderful and patient and funny and charming and so smart! I am thankful.

* Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign: Thank you Rachael for this opportunity. It’s fun hopping around 😀

* ChangeWriteNow: You know this wonderful opportunity where you set yourself goals and have the great support system of your team and others. Many of you commented that you would have liked to join. Cory, Sarah & Gina are preparing round 2. It’s really fun! Don’t hesitate to sign up here!

* Revising: I am almost half-way through the first round of revising. Nobody has read it through yet but soon enough it will be ready to be sent out to my wonderful beta-readers 😀

*Anna and The French Kiss: I re-read that book this week. I was in need of a lift-me-up novel and I knew it would definitely make me smile to fall in love again with Anna & Etienne. It did. Thank you Stephanie Perkins!

So tell me what made you smile this week?

(oh and be prepared for a loooong post this weekend…I have been tagged by several wonderful bloggers which means I have a lot of questions to answer 😀 Should be fun!)

Happy Friday

Happy Friday #6 – Mishmash and a big THANK YOU (yes you there reading this :D)

Elodie

Yay it’s Friday…and it’s Happy Friday 😀

Did you know that people start to look for “Happy Friday” as of Wednesday? They sometimes land here, on my blog, where I pour my soul and heart :D, I hope they enjoy what they see…I think last Friday, I got 40 hits just “search related”…Everybody deserves a happy Friday…

I’ve been feeling down this week, with a cough that just thought we should be best friends and did not understand why I tried to push it away…Feeling better now and finally induldged in coffee (how I missed thou).

Here is my Happy Friday mishmash.

* Reading: I did not revise this week but did a looot of reading. For the genius-Tracey-‘s-idea-YA-book-Club, I read The Fault in Our Stars and my fingers itch to share my feelings but I’ll wait until the end of February :D. Thanks to NetGalley, I also read Welcome Caller, this is Chloe and Goddess, Interrupted. They were fun reads and a proper review will come in the next weeks. After finishing Bittersweet , I craved cupcakes and diving into The Future of Us made me miss the 90’s :D. By the way, if you have any YA romance contemporary recommendations, don’t hesitate to throw them my way…

* Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign: Yay! I joined Rachael’s fourth Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign. I saw the linkie on a couple of blogs before and it just sounds like a wonderful opportunity. The writing community is really supportive and fun to hang out with (even if it is only on the interwebs)

* The people behind the writing community aka you: Blog hopping this week (being for YA Highway‘s the Road Trip Wednesday or my regular blog reading), I could not help but notice again how insightful, thoughtful, funny and inspiring you guys are. Thank you for making me think, smile and for sharing a part of yourself. I really feel like I’m starting to know some of you and I really wish we could go for coffee/tea/movies (The Hunger Games, anyone?). Talking about smiling. thank you also for your support, wit and laughs on Twitter 😀

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

Happy Friday, reading, revising

Happy Friday #5: Reading, Revising and Rollers…

Elodie

It’s already the 5th week of “Happy Friday”.  Yay!

Ok I have to admit there will be no rollers in this post…I was just looking for another word starting with the letter “R” 😀

* Happy for Christa: I started following Christa a few weeks ago and I am happy I did  ( I found another Center Stage fan). In case you have not seen Christa´s news, she announced on Wednesday her book deal with SimonPulse. The story of Ani and Ben  is not the kind that will make your heart flutter with happiness, actually it might tear up and break but it seems to be powerful, gut-wrenching. It’s a story which needed to be sent to the world.

* Revising: Chapter 4 and I had a date. We fought. We made up.

* Reading: I am in the middle of a Daughter of Smoke and Bone and wow, Laini Taylor has a magical way with words. I love all the references of men with moustache (for some reasons, this reminds me of one of the short stories from Gogol)

I did a little happy dance yesterday as I joined NetGalley to receive ARCs on my Kindle (thanks to Tarah who posted about currently reading Goddess Interrupted) As you may have guessed from my January books post, I have a lot of time to read…so that will be great to get my fingertips on some not-yet-released-look-at-me-I’m-so-cool-books… And I already got approved for some. (more on them soon…ta ta ta da *that was me building up suspense*)

* On InstaLove by Jaimee: If you have not yet seen Jaimee’s post on InstaLove, go ahead, I’ll wait here.

waits, waits, waits.

Cool, you’re back 🙂 While I do enjoy Valentine’s Day a tad more than Jaimee apparently, I wholeheartedly agree with her take on InstaLove. My heart beats a bit faster when I can see the sparks between people as they first lay eyes on each other call it InstaYummfactor) and then the fireworks when they first interact with one another (call it InstaConnection). I do need the connection though, the laughing or the long discussions. I need something. If there are no explanations or if the love is just based on the looks or does not seem reciprocated (the guy is a jerk, stalker, ignores her completely…) then it can become more of an InstaObsession. While the story can still work if the main character conveys this to the reader (and not just the I am so happy, we’re in love), it needs to develop.

* Honeymoon: And because I just talked about love, I am happy to report that hubby and I have finally booked our flights for our honeymoon (we got married in August). We’re going to the US for 3 weeks. Road Trip. Mustang. Leaving the work Blackberry at home. We’re going to visit dear friends in many States  and spend some time in a Bed and Breakfast in Cape Cod…and I will get to roam the streets of Manchester-By-The-Sea (that is where my WIP takes place…I talked about it in my Dreaming of a Writing Retreat post)…

I wish you all a wonderful week-end and I am looking forward to know what made YOU smile this week 🙂