And I can’t believe it. I know I’m not done, done. But…this round was a tough one and I feel like I’ve grown so much as a writer while I was going through it!
Reading: I read the updated manuscript of my CP, the wonderful Jaime, and again I’m blown away by her talent! (Jaime. You. Rock.) I just started BUTTER and this book is breaking my part.
This invitation – I am very much looking forward to going to the book fair in Frankfurt and now, I even get to mingle with fellow SCBWIers 🙂
The view from our apartment before heading to work…Isn’t it prettYy?
The view from our apartment
So, tell me what made you smile this week?
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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!
Top Ten Bookish People I’d love to Meet
1. Writer friends:
My CP extraordinaire Jaime: someone I’m so happy and grateful to call a friend, way beyond our writing and reading experience
my wonderful and lovely beta readers: Jessica, Sara, Kip and Heather– I am so THANKFUL for them and their kindness!
Katy: our hubbies could totally hit it off too I think – and we could talk about YA contemporary, Disney movies, The Walking Dead…while playing scrabble or having a drink 😛
Christa: we need to have a drink –or several – and discuss tears, Center Stage, life and just goof off
Jessica L.: we’d talk about our high school experience that sound really similar, Jennifer Echols, Paris, plus I’d get to meet her dog 😀
But as I was typing this – again incomplete – list, I couldn’t help but grin widely. I’m so happy for all the connections I’ve made!
Some French authors I’d love to chat with!
2. Voltaire: I want to discuss with him philosophy, the way he lived, his aspirations…What he would think about our time.
3. Albert Camus: There are several books of his I wish I could discuss, including the Letters to a German Friend.
4. Victor Hugo: Les Misérables, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, Notre Dame de Paris…I read some of his works before I could totally understand them. No, really, as a child, Notre Dame de Paris is a bit complicated…But as a teenager some of his work has made me think. So. Much.
5. Molière: His life, his relationships with other writers, his work…Can you imagine everything I could learn from him?
Because their stories are always told and retold
6. Charles Perrault and the Brother Grimms: I want to know all about how they gathered their stories, about some of the background…about their life…
One author I studied. A. Lot.
7. Christa Wolf: She passed away recently. But I want to ask her ALL the questions. About her work. Her life. Her take on new historicism and the feminism theories. And then I’d send her my Master Thesis and ask her what she thought about it. (I wrote it on her interpretation of Medea)
And some of my favourite YA authors (This list would be WAY longer than 10 in its own right, but I kept it to 3…)
8. Stephanie Perkins: I’d love to discuss how to write the best kisses, and romantic tension. Plus she sounds very nice on Twitter!
9. Judy Blume: I’d love to have dinner with her. And thank her. A wonderful author, and she sounds like a lovely and strong woman.
10. Melina Marchetta: To tell her how much her book JELLICOE ROAD is still on my mind. Months after reading it. And that she created in Jonah one of the best Love Interest. Ever.
Again, this list was TOUGH!!! 😀
After we’re done chatting about books and life, we could go for a walk 😀
So, tell me, which Bookish people would you like to meet?
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Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
I am on business trip until this evening and tomorrow, we´re off to Russia…So I will see you next week! 😀
Revising: I´m getting there, really, slowly but surely, I am getting there! And my story is so much better now than where it started. Again, CP extraordinaire and great beta readers, THANK YOU!!!! Oh and my query is ready (crazy!) and here Ian and Christa, you totally amazed me for helping me so much!
Reading: This week, I read IF I LIE and PERFECT CHEMISTRY! 😀 and wow, wow, wow, both books brought out a LOT of emotions! More on them later 😀
Time with my family: Last weekend I went to France and this was a much needed reunion! Spending time with my parents, my sisters, my aunts, grandmother, niece and nephew was wonderful! Sometimes, living far from home isn´t easy and going back is always a treat! Plus I got to meet my second niece 😀
My newborn niece 😀
So, tell me what made you smile this week?
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Summary provided by Goodreads.com: It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad.
Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually wantto live.
But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
First Disclaimer: I´ve read my first Courtney Summers´ book last month: CRACKED UP TO BE, and I was amazed by her way of writing, of showing pain and hope.
Second Disclaimer: I love zombies. I love zombie movies, zombie shows (“The Walking Dead” anyone?)…And I love them because they dig into the human emotions, they put them in perspective with the zombies who seem to have lost theirs and they usually show the interactions between a small group of people, their dynamics into dramatic moments.
The Walking Dead Gif – really you should watch it…
So, yep, you can imagine the expectations I had starting to read this novel. They were high! And I wasn´t disappointed. This book not only have an end-of-the-world type of setting, it also has characters with different pasts, different expectations, different desires, different ways of dealing with what hit them. And the zombies are scary. Plus they´re fast!
Sloane is such a tortured character and her pain rages through the pages, gripping and sad. All the characters are very well developed and I got to really know them. So well, I didn´t want their story to end. Even though, you know there are zombies out there.
In the darkness and horror that Courtney Summers shows us, Rhys stole my heart. I don’t want to reveal too much of the story but let me just say that Rhys makes this book, well, steamy and sexy and he made my heart melt. The entire book is full of emotions, full of raw, hard-to-cope-with, tough emotions. It’s real and Rhys is real with his flaws, with his strength and with his weaknesses.
Both as a reader and a writer, one thing which amazed me is how Courtney Summers is able to inject a little dark humor and hope into the pages, moments which defuse the tension, just a little, but which are much needed.
Here are some quotes to give you a glimpse of what I´m talking about:
“Waiting around to be saved is like waiting to die and I have done more of both than anyone else in the room.”
“This must be what Dorothy felt like, I think. Maybe. If Dorothy was six scared teenagers and Oz was hell.”
“I’m aware of my hand sliding down his lap and then nothingness and then the gentle sensation of his index finger pressing into my open palm and then his hand is at my face, running his fingers across my skin and I’m so awake.”
“(…) and I haven’t once imagined a death that was out of my control since this started”
So, tell me, have you read this book? What did you think about it?
And if you didn´t, do you enjoy watching zombie movies?
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Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
Birthday: Last Saturday, I turned 31… My day started out with a wonderful birthday concocted by my husband – which including French Toast, potatoes, bacon and some bubbly…YUM! During the evening, we went to a restaurant (where I enjoyed a very nice cocktail) and we went to see The Crucible at the English Theater in Frankfurt. It was just an amazing day!
Birthday BreakfastBirthday drink
Query : So query writing has been kicking my butt in the past weeks. I´m still revising my book, but I thought it was high time to start seriously thinking about my query. After participating in Sara Megibow´s webinar, I knew it needed more work. I´ll tell you more about my query writing process and Sara´s webinar next week but after a lot of work, I have a query that works I think and which actually sounds like my book!!! 😀
Reading and revising: This week, I started reading those two wonderful books to help me in my revising process (highly recommended by Sara) and they rock!
Great books
THANK YOU!: Thank you to everyone for the good wishes on my birthday and on our anniversary. Thank you for the lovely comments on my posts! Thank you for helping me with my query (especially thanks to Christa and Ian, who´ve really been super patient and kind with me during the process)! Thank you to my CP extraordinaire and my beta readers! Thank you for being just wonderful. All of you! This week, it felt like this:
Today, hubby and I are off to France to see my family and our newborn niece for the first time 🙂 I´m super late to reply to comments but I´ll get there, promise!
So, tell me what made you smile this week?
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And I got to ask questions in the chat, which totally humbled me, and I simply loved it. Loved all of it. All those advice, the passion, all the talent, really amazing, those wonderful people giving their time!!! And congrats to everyone who got feedback by the Ninja Agents!
Webinar by Sara Megibow “Ten Queries In Ten Tweets”: I signed up for this webinar and I am super excited. Yes, I will have to get up in the middle of the night to attend (technically I could also just watch the video later but I want to be there :P) I’m very much looking forward to absorb and discuss.
Revision: This week has been full of revisions. I received feedback from Taryn on my first ten pages (thanks to the fact I was one of the 3 winners of her query contest) and wow, she really is amazing. I think my chapter one is ready and powerful. My CP and beta readers also have so much patience with me as I’ve reworked that chapter SO. MANY.TIMES. But I think thanks to them it was all worth it because the stakes are clearer, and the reader can really connect with Natalja from the beginning now. I’ve also been working on formatting, on strengthening some sentences, diversifying their lengths and all. And it truly feels like something amazing is happening as I do this, it’s like all strings are pulling together to make my novel better. And I’m falling in love with it all over again.
Reading: I read two books of Jennifer Echols (inspired by the fact that Jessica Love was gushing about her) this week and I’m now an official fan 😀
And I’m looking forward to the weekend…It’s a pretty special one for many reasons, celebrating my birthday tomorrow and on Sunday, an early celebration of our anniversary 🙂
I’m just lucky!
So, tell me what made you smile this week?
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Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
Revising – Stephanie Perkins and my novel? : So my book is now with beta readers and I started receiving feedback. I am amazed by how my book is transforming in front of my eyes into something SO good. I mean it´s my book and I may be bias and all since I wrote it. But first, Jaime´s critique helped me shape it into a better book and now beta readers let me know what´s working and what´s not working for them. This forces me to really look at my story as a reader before digging into more revisions. I am loving it and you know what one of my beta, aka Kip, said when she sent me back my complete manuscript full of notes? She compared the romance in my novel to the ones in Stephanie Perkins´ books. So yep, I´m still smiling about that. I don´t think I can say thank you enough to my critique partner and beta readers! You ladies ROCK! (and hubby, you´re pretty amazing yourself :P)
Rewriting: I am rewriting my first manuscript. The main plot is still the same but…the subplots are different AND I actually know my characters! PLAYING WITH FIRE will be so much better after this rewrite and I am having a blast with it!
Reading: I read THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers this week and wow, wow, wow, wow. I promise there will be more words to describe what I thought about that book when I discuss it for Tracey´s YA book club (by the way, you should totally join, it´s fun!). I also enjoyed BELLES by Jen Calonita! And now cannot wait for the sequel to come out 😀 I also love the fact that I actually heard Jen talking about the process of this book, the way she did some research and how excited she sounded. It somehow makes this book even more special 😀
Random: Running on Thursday made me feel like I had wings. Okay, not before the run, as my husband did have to push me to go and not necessarily during as I was fighting through it but after, loved the feeling!
So, tell me what made you smile this week?
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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: Best Book of July
I have read some wonderful books this July so I will not be choosing the best one, rather I´ll be telling you about one which really took me by surprise.
PUSHING THE LIMITS by Katie McGarry : This one was also very good, it had different types of characters. I explained why I enjoyed it here (hint: layered characters, siblings and hot romance)
CRACKED UP TO BE by Courtney Summers: Wow! This book is the first one I read from Courtney Summers and definitely not the last. It´s very raw but also very true and I connected with the main character who wanted to be perfect. All the time. And then doesn´t know how to deal when it collapses. Really really good.
THE ONE THAT I WANT by Jennifer Echols: I picked up this one based on Jessica’s Bookanista Review and I don’t regret it one bit! Really, to get the full picture, you should read Jessica’s review 😀 Like her, I agree that the book actually makes us understand the dysfunctional relationship which sometimes can happen between friends and thus, give a reasoning behind some of the main character’s actions. Plus the swoon-factor is major!
So as you can see, I was on a contemporary kick, probably since I was finishing up my novel, I was trying to immerse myself in the same genre.
Okay, thanks for coming back! So, why did I love it?
I have never read Steampunk before and it has some elements of it…Very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The writing. Really, you can feel like you´re with Eleanor in the streets of Philly looking for her brother. You can feel the corset and you can laugh and open wide eyes when Eleanor discover more than what she bargained for.
Eleanor. Talk about a girl with character! And she just appears very human, like you could hand her an umbrella through the pages of the book and tell her “aim for the knees”. Disclaimer: I usually do not talk to my books. Or only rarely
Daniel. Oh Daniel. So annoying and so charming. Loved Daniel!
The story. It has action, it has feelings, it has romance…it has friendships and it has that little something something which creates magic in a book!
I am SO looking forward to the sequel!!! (and it is going to be set in Paris….)
So, tell me, what book pleasantly surprised you recently?
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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?
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Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
Elodie Nowodazkij 