Hidden In France

April in Paris.

Once in Paris, I braved the unkind elements and never stopped for a minute.  I took tons of pictures, walked perhaps 6 hours a day, only stopping at every other boulangerie for chouquettes, and to do research at various museums and libraries for the historical parts of my novel. 

Beside being wet and cold, my main peeve with my time in Paris was to continuously look for bathrooms. It's an OCD thing. If I begin to think I might need to go it turns obsessional.

The only places to go to the bathroom in Paris are the cafes. But when you go the bathroom in a cafe you end up drinking something, and an hour later you have to repeat the process: obsess. pee. drink. repeat.

That first day I stopped to pee at Parisian cafes so many times I believe in hindsight that I was doing the human equivalent of marking my territory.

The following days I bypassed the problem entirely by avoiding tea and only drinking espresso (less liquids.) So I pretty much spent a week running on espresso and chouquettes. I had tons on manic energy, it was great!

I believe I decoded the whole French Women Don't Get Fat thing.  It's really a simple alchemy: walk 6 hours a day+ freeze your butt off + drink espresso + eat chouquettes + pee = look fit and skinny and show fangs like a true Parisienne. 

* about those pictures:  The rain does have its advantages. No harsh lights and contrasts, and no tourists.

These pictures were taken around my beloved Eiffel Tower.  This was Day Two. I started at Métro Passy. Bought chouquettes (twice) in my old neighborhood. Then I walked toward Trocadéro and down to the gardens that surrounds the Eiffel Tower. The marroniers were in full bloom, it felt like such a gift to be in Paris at the peak of blooming season for wisteria, clematis AND Horse Chestunut trees. When I got to the tower, it was grey and pouring rain, and then, suddenly, as though she was recognizing me and brightening at the sight of me, her old friend, the clouds parted, blue sky peaked through and the sun shone brightly (though not for long).

I was so thankful and happy to be there. So happy to be taking my time. I walked all around the Eiffel tower at my pace. No husband eager to run to the next thing.  No kid tired of walking. I was in heaven.

Launching my French Cookbook (part deux)

This has been quite the week-end let me tell yah.

I was launching my French cookbook. (This is a cookbook on French cooking I wrote and photographed to accompany my novel Hidden in Paris.) I wanted to launch the cookbook before I leave for Paris on Friday. Get it out of the way so I could move on to the next scary thing.

So, with cold sweat drenching my neck, I finally hit the ‘publish!’ button (once the book is on Amazon, you can’t really un-launch it) determined to spend every minute of the week-end promoting the book.

And then Pow! Murphy’s law being what it is, we get visitors for the week end, thus shifting my focus away from promoting the book to shopping, cooking, eating, cleaning and family drama.

So bla bla bla here it is: tadah! The Hidden in Paris cookbook.

But the funny thing is, the book didn’t seem to need me. I kept excusing myself and rushing to the computer to stare, astonished, as the numbers grew. This is 3 days later and the book has been downloaded over 4000 times! Now of course it was a free promo, but still, that’s a whole lot of kindles with my cookbook in ‘em :))

Now the free period has ended and the book is priced at 99 cents (at least for now).  As I type this my French cookbook is #2 in French cookbooks after Julia Child’s 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', that behemoth of cookbook. It will not stay at this level for long, so I took a screen shot.  It’s the cookbook author’s equivalent to the teenage girl getting her photo taken standing next to Justin Bieber. 

 

Julia!!!! I love you!

What helped the book, I think, were two reviews that floored me by mysterious ladies who have written hundreds of cookbook reviews. 

I looked at all their reviews and gulped. Those ladies pass every new cookbook through the grinder, and let me tell you, they are merciless.

Let it be reminded here that I know very little about cookbook writing.  I improvised one on a whim, thought it would be great fun and easy.  Was terribly wrong on both counts. I worked very hard on my little French cookbook, and tried my hardest to make it as perfect as I knew how, yet If I had anticipated that such reviewers existed I would never have dared publish a cookbook and put myself on equal footing with real chefs. This is a case study in ‘ignorance is bliss.’

And yet I got very lucky:  One reviewer called the cookbook ‘lovely’ and the other ‘gorgeous and yummy.’ You can readt he reviews here. They gave it respectively four and five stars!... but mostly their expertise gave my cookbooks much needed street cred. Thank you ladies! 

Now the book has been launched. The relatives have left.  My solo trip to Paris is upon me. Last night I dreamed that I stood on a bridge.  In the shallow water below where dozens of whales, big and small. And suddenly the whales started making huge, wet, flips out of the water and jumping over the bridge I was on. I had to duck as the massive beasts passed inches above my head.

Sigmund? Are you there Sigmund?

 

A trip to Paris, and amazement

How about this for willpower?  No post in over a month?

This has been an amazingly productive and creative period. 

- My cookbook is done and soon available for download (i will keep you posted and if you have not done so yet, go to the left hand column and sign up for your free copy)

- I've completed 60% of a non fiction book and 70% of my next novel. Amazing.

-I've mustered the courage (well, not courage, really. I have my friends Lenora and Robin to thank for my so called courage) to go to Paris.  Better yet, I'm, amazingly, going solo for the first time since I left France over 25 years ago (flying there and back when my father passed away does not count) .

This going to Paris thing is not a vacation.  I'm going to do important research for my book.  I mean, my next novel is set in Paris and here I am, unable to accurately describe the taste and consistency of a Religieuse au chocolat, a baba au rhum or a chouquette?

I don't want to lose all credibility with my readers. ha. 

I also want to point out that I am able to finance that trip thanks to the sales of my novel, Hidden in Paris. And that is the most amazing thing of all.

How to look at simple things and realize they are beautiful

Nadia, the amazing talent behind the blog La Porte Rouge is speaking about Hidden in Paris today in a fun interview in the doubtful case you're not sick of hearing me talk about my novel yet. Oh and by the way, Hidden in Paris is a novel set in Paris.  No shit! you say... but I needed to write this sentence to improve my google searches.  Full disclosure, haha. 

But this gives me a great chance to talk about Nadia.

No need to tell you how I became mesmerized by all things Nadia.  All I need is to show you her pictures.

Okay, I'm in chatty mood, so let me illustrate the pictures (all stolen from her blog) by telling you a few words about her.

And if you ever doubt that friendships can be started on the internet, you can see that we go way back.  I think it all started with this post.

Nadia has been a source of inspiration to me not only because of her stunning artistic eye but because of her poetic spirit and the rawness of her emotions.  And because she make everything, even the simplest things so beautiful that she forces me to reexamine how I look at simple things. After I read her blog I am always reminded to look closer, not to rush by, to appreciate light, and texture, and color.

We've all gotten pretty good at rushing.  But another thing we have become exceedlingly good at is protecting ourselves from the world, either by not caring too much or by developing a think skin.

Nadia has not developed a thick skin.  

I find that marvelous. Of course I am not in her skin so who is to say if this is a blessing or a curse, but the way I see it, as we manage to numb ourselves from the painful things in life, we also end up numbing ourselves from its joys.

You don't get to be selective about self-numbing.

The last two mosaics are pictures taken when Nadia was part of a food styling trip in the Dordogne region of France with the famous Aran of Canelle et Vanille.  I have NEVER lusted more for a trip to France than I did about that one, which you can read about here, here , and here

So what do you think?  Should we make ourselves less or more vulnerable? And what do we have to lose or gain by being vulnerable?

A giveaway! and ten million nematodes

The week-end was a whilwind, guests in town, cooking and taking pictures for the cookbook, a hot giveaway and ten million nematodes in my backyard.  First the cool stuff, then the disgusting stuff.

Cool: Okay people! A giveaway of Hidden in Paris is in progress on Bookin' with Bingo, as well as a fun interview.  Thank you so much Karen! When I checked this morning there were about 130 entries but you can enter more than once, so this might be achance to win a free copy of the book (the paper version, none of that e-stuff no siree..)

Uncool: We have a bad flea problem--YES, STILL!--, which means that I have a flea problem because those raskals love me as much as they love the dog, or even more.  I am bitten to death.  As I type this I have both feet on my desk and belive me when I say it's not a very comfortable writing position.  I resorted to moving about the house parkour style, by hopping from one piece of furniture to another.

We are trying to solve this crisis without poison. We, here, means my husband who ignores my pleas for DDT or setting the house on fire and instead ordered 10 MILLION nematodes online.

Nematodes, as I have learned, are beneficial (we hope) larvas that kill fleas in the garden by... wait for it, this is exciting: entering the fleas' butt hole and proliferating once inside.  

I was on pins and needles awaiting what I imagined to be a dumptruck, or at least a huge bag filled with crawling white larvas the size of twikies.  Instead the ten million little fellows came inside a tiny envelope and in the form of a dog biscuit.  Even after they were diluted in water they looked like nothing at all.  

This was quite the anticlimatic nematode experience.

The next few days will tell us if the nematodes make a dent. 

If the flea nematodes do not help we're going to need marriage counseling. Or else I'm tempted to buy ten million husband nematodes and watch what happens next.

Free Cookbook

Hello ladies, I am working very hard at finishing up the Hidden in Paris cookbook, and I decided that you should be the first ones to receive it.  AND I MEAN FOR FREE! Just for you my readers and readers of the novel I will send you the e-book as soon as it's ready at no charge before I make it available for everyone else.  Just a little gift to say thank you.

Just look in the margin to the right: I created a nifty little button where you can enter your email and first name and get notified. You will also be signing up for my (very rare) newsletter but can unsubscribe at any time.

xoxo  

corine

 

 

Everything FREEE!!!!

This must be Christmas in September.  Yesterday I was telling you about the Paris trip giveaway (it's not too late).  And today come two new wonderful giveaways.  

These days it's a miracle if we get to pay for anything at all.

Drumroll number one: Kit Colson, the interior designer who blogs at Chic Provence had all kinds of lovely things to say about my novel Hidden in Paris and is hosting a giveaway of authographed copies of the book.  So run there to enter, for yourself or for your grouchy boss or mother in law in the hope that a fun novel set in Paris might bring a smile to their disapproving faces. 

Since I won't enter that giveaway myself, which would be really pathetic and would make no sense considering my walls are lined with copies of Hidden in Paris. Drum roll number two:

DRESSES!!!!

I rarely, ever get excited about clothes. My husband says it's because I look all wrong in them and that I should take it all off at all time. But these dresses I LOVE.  Sabrina over at Barefoot in the Orchard  is hosting a giveaway for a smoking hot red dress by Shabby Apple.  I did not know this designer but one after the other, each dress is absolutely perfect in its own way. And reasonable too, most of them in the $50 to $80 range.  And I love that they're arranged by themes.  

My favorite Shabby Apple dresses are the ones with a french flair of course. In the oh la la collection I present you:

L'Artiste :

 

 

and la tour Eiffel:

Aren't those French dresses arorable? The model looks so thrilled something is even squirting out of her you know what. I wonder if that dress would have the same effect on me?

Okay ladies, get busy and enter those giveaways. 

 

What me crazy? ...well yes.

This might be one of those long rambling posts so I'll decorate it with pretty images that are entirely unrelated but SO inspiring. These are pictures borrowed from the incredible blog BabyRamen and are, I believe, pictures at the blogger's home. Her decor style weaves japanese and norwegian influence with a touch of retro/kitch and I love her style. She also has an online store full of goodies here.

Those of you who are patient readers of my whining, please proceed to read. All others can just look at the pretty pictures.

The last two weeks have been trying.  So trying that there will be no period in the sentence that follows just to give you a small taste of my breathlessness and high anxiety.

It started with my son going off to college, which should have been enough emotionally, (if you can't stand the lack of periods and you're Jewish you can punctuate what follows with loud DAYENUS!) and went south from there with a broken toe (from stepping on a lizard and freaking out and jamming my foot into a door as hard as humanely possible), to getting a nasty urinary track infection, to going to the doctor only to be told that I had neither, to spending the week-end in agony without medication, to finding out on Monday that I, in fact did have a UTI ! (next time I'll trust my flaming/raging bladder, not the lab results), to taking an antibiotic that turned me into a bitchy, loony and super emotional version of myself who could not sleep at night AT ALL but compensated during the day by getting SO much done, including but not limited to: teaching myself how to use Adobe Illustrator, being on Facebook 12 hours straight, purging my closet of clothes I hated but many more that I cherished and that are now gone, avoidable fights with friends and loved ones, losing the sense of taste which resulted in a loss of 4 lbs in 5 days. 

that was it ...in a nutshell.

Other things were good, great even, but also contributed to a sense of looming change and inability to cope. For example my son is thriving without me. Shit, that wasn't part of the plan.  I wanted this of course, but now he might never come back.  I'm exaggerating of course... but really, I'm not :(

Also and mostly my novel Hidden in Paris (oh, yes, link, link! ) is doing well. Really well. Better than I thought it would after just four months.  (And remember, no agent, no publisher and not a cent in advertising were wasted in the publication of this baby :)  But now I have began counting on it, worrying that I have a good thing going and not wanting it to be taken away. Never happy you say?  I just say Xanax you and I should meet soon.

And it's also good that all my small miseries of the last two weeks made it possible for me not to think of my son being away at college for nearly ten minutes at a time (and only bringing him up in every other sentences.)

Always looking for the silver lining.

Now the drugs and ailments are out of my system and I'm bracing myself for more changes.  My little guy is starting school (at long last Halleluya!) and I will start exercising every day (starting real slow with yoga and walking.) I have set up a computer without access to the internet in an empty room (my son's...sigh) and hope to increase my writing by physically moving away from distractions. I also plan to limit my checking of emails to twice a day because those yank me out of concentration.

I would love to hear how you personally improved productivity/focus/concentration or ability to resist distraction. Any trick will help because I am shooting for a deadline of October 1st (that's right, one month!) to finish my Hidden in Paris cookbook (a cookbook with all the recipes in the novel, with accompanying photos.) which I plan to sell very cheaply on Amazon, mostly as a way to help promote the novel. 

Voila my friends, I hope you enjoyed the pictures, if not the blabla.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! (sorry... trace residues of the medication in my system) 

 

A delicious painting of Parisian women

...Wearing glamorous black hats as we parisiennes are known to do :)  This is a painting by our friend Fifi Flowers who is hosting a giveaway of Hidden in Paris.  You can enter to win a copy of the novel on her website here.

Here is the cover of Hidden in Paris

 

and here are a few Parisiennes as seen by Fifi

Isn't it lovely?

For those who don't know yet, Hidden in Paris is a novel set in Paris, and where three American women badly in need of starting over move in together in a beautiful hotel Pariticulier.

Of course you and I know that you can't run away from your life.  Life kinda wants to stick with you, life won't let you run away from it that easily. 

You can enter to win one of three copies of the novel on Fifi's blog.

Hidden in Paris interview and giveaway

I've been Fifi-ed!  Sure Mao, Madonna and Mickael Jackson have been immortalized by Andy Warhold, but they haven't been Fifi-ed.  

Fifi Flowers, the artist and bloger is posting an interview of yours truly and is hosting a giveaway of Hidden in Paris on her new book blog  Reading is Fashionable.  The 3 winners of a signed paperback of Hidden in Paris will also receive a Hidden in Paris original bookmark painted by Fifi.  Seriously glamorous.

Leave your comment on Reading and Fashionable for a very good chance of winning.  Last time I hosted a giveaway on goodreads there were 2000 requests, but this will be a much more intimate affair. (If you already have a copy you can keep the signed one for yourself or give it to a friend.)

This is the bookmark that make me feel that Madonna has nothing on me.  

Here is an exerpt of the interview: . 

"When and why did you begin writing?

When did I not write? If back in the days they had the ultrasound technology they have now they would have seen me tracing letters on the walls of my mother’s uterus. Okay that sounded horrible. I have always written. I don’t sing, don’t dance, don’t paint and I’m a terrible blusher, so writing ends up being the only form of self-expression that I’m truly comfortable with.


When did you first consider yourself a writer?

For years my husband introduced me as ‘his wife the writer’ and I would blush and protest that I could not possibly be a writer because no one had deemed to publish my work. If you are what you do, then I have always been a writer, but giving myself that title was my challenge, my dream and the source of a lot of angst. I thought writing a blog might make me a writer, but it only made me a blogger (no offense, bloggers rock!) I hoped that writing a book might, but that didn’t quite do the trick for me. It really wasn’t until people purchased Hidden in Paris and began sending me emails telling me how the novel entertained them or touched them (I was praying for both) that I did consider myself a writer. I’ve been a writer ever since…. It’s been three months only, so I still could chicken out!"

You can read the rest here on Reading is Fashionable.

If you're dying to be fifi-ed (she does wonderful portraits of pets too) check out Fifi Flowers' artist website. I Love her Paris 2012 Calendar

xoxox

Vermont, Nadia, my book and I

I said I had so much to tell you, then told you nothing because I was writing. Always a good thing, to be writing rather than blogging.  Blogging impairs productivity in much the same way crack does.

I wanted to tell you that my son (he's only 18) has been backpacking through Europe with 3 childhood friends. In the last 20 days they saw Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Venice, now they're in the South of France, next Barcelona.  And here is the extraordinary thing:  I'm sleeping perfectly soundly. I thought I would experience fear, but instead all I'm experiencing is vague envy.  What do you know...!

I wanted to tell you that I visited my sister and that her baby daughter is a dream, the most beautiful little girl you will ever see. I miss my sister and her children now that she moved near Boston, and this is not something I will get over. I deep void I cannot fill.

I wanted to tell you that my mother stayed with us for a week and that we were both on our best behavior. I had fretted so much in fear of her visit after two difficult years when we barely communicated. But things were fine. 

I wanted to tell you that I met Nadia of La Porte Rouge in her new house, which used to be our house. 

When you only know a person through her writing and photography and have never met her, there is a point when you wonder if you have not invented this person, like a fictional character in one of your novels.  There is a moment of adjustment, then huge relief.  Yes, you can do this, speak to her, and she is real, and good news, you are real too.  You do not want to disappoint: Am I too old, too stooopid, too fat, too uninteresting... Then you hear that the person was worried about disappointing too and you think that's really silly.  Now you are facing this person and all throughout you know you’re supposed to take her off the pedestal where you have placed her without her consent, but then you find yourself unable to, because she is that cool. 

The pictures are of the house where Nadia lives.  Nadia wrote a post about meeting me, with a pretty nice picture of me seen throgh Nadia's lense. And then Aran, of Canelle et Vanille wrote a post about meeting Nadia and now I feel practically like a celebrity by osmosis.  I tell myself that the house you are seeing is connecting the three of us. If six degrees of separation can include a house.

Here are Huevos Rancheros Nadia made and that were super scrumptious and dazzling to look at.  I just wish I knew how to take pictures of food, pictures that aren't fuzzy and where you can actually recognize the ingredients.

Voila.  I also wanted to tell you about my 5 days in New York and eating, eating, eating and more than ever wanting to move to Manhattan and never look back. 

When I have a chance, I want to tell you all the good things happening to my novel Hidden in Paris, the great reviews, the great emails, the guest posts and interviews, and how it is slowly going up, up, up the Amazon ranking and gaining a lot of traction as a fun summer read thanks to all of you who are spreading the word, and especially thanks to a few incredibly kind bloggers I really want to honor in a post just about them.

An interview en Français

If you speak French, (or if you don't but are in the mood to get eye blisters staring at foreign words strung together in an unknown language)  there is an interview of me on the website  Expat Forever today. I was asked about my writing process, why I chose to write Hidden in Paris in English, why a novel set in Paris, but mostly what it was like for me to leave France behind and start my life anew in the United States at age 23.  Expat Forever is an excellent site, which, among other things, collects testimonies of French speaking people who now live abroad.  I think, how pertinent to my novel where the characters do just that. Expat Forever tries to facilitate this thorny transition and recommends books on the expatriate life for example, as well as other websites  expatriate can turn to for guidance. When I was 23, there was no internet. NO INTERNET people! I wish I had had that kind of help, especially the testimonies of people who had gone through this, because it was hard (If you want to know how hard you can read the article.)

 

Slough

I'm actually very proud of the double entendre of my post title today.

Stealing just a few minutes to post these pix from the new Rice Denmark catalogue.  

It's a triathlon kind of feel here, i cannot even begin to explain.... Okay, fine I'll explain.  Last week my mom was in town so I put all work aside to spend time with her (Sears, Khols, Mervins and Kmart here we came!  Apparently this is where very chic French women of a certain age and girth prefer to shop.)

The day she arrived I unsuspectingly and naively, (before picking her up at the airport) scheduled a small procedure involving precancerous cells and cryotherapy of a part of my anatomy I rather not discuss in polite company (too late, heh). They told me it would not be painful (sorry but it was) and they certainly did not warn me about the ensuing sloughing that would last for weeks afterwards.  If you haven't heard of the treat that is sloughing, girlfriends, trust me when I say some google searches are better left postponed indefinitely. 

Only had one little bit of an escape running to Belette Rouge's totally fab housewarming party.  I got no work done whatsoever, although I found the time to peek maniacally at reviews of Hidden in Paris on Amazon which are lovely enough to make me want to do summersaults if I only knew how, with one very grumpy one that came out of left field, as though the woman had read an entirely different book or something. Please check it out and tell me what you think if you have a minute.

My son is graduating from High school this week, we're both going to an orientation to USC next week, then he's off backpacking through europe for a month, something like ten cities (i'm not super comfortable about that as you can imagine.  Have I mentioned i still make his bed, by choice) and then we're off to the East Coast, Boston, Vermont, New York for a while.

You overachievers out there listening please tell me how successful multitasking is done? All i seem to do is run around crazed (and go to the bathroom to... slough.)  I need to promote my book.  That's priority number 1, 2 and 3 and I'm not doing it at all.

One giveaway ends and another one begins

Chez Loulou announced the winners of the Hidden in Paris giveaways on her blog. Congratulations to Ashley of Summer in the Garden, Guilia of Bricolage and Aiden of Conjugating Irregular Verbs.  

I think it's kinda surreal that the winners of my novel could all be a characters in the novel: Like my main character, Ashley is devoted to food and gardening , like my main character, Aiden is an American mom bravely making a life in France, and like my main character, Giulia is a passionate, smart woman with a wry sense of humor. 

Okay, so they won and others didn't but no matter because another giveaway has just started this morning (I was waiting for the polls to close over at Chez Loulou to announce it)

The giveaway is taking place at My Love Affair with Books. and is going on until June 17th.  But you have to be in the U.S. or Canada.  Just leave your email address.  You don't have to be a member. Okay, go win this!  

Talking of romance outside Valentines Day

It doesn't matter if you're 7 or 77, it doesn't matter if you're in love or not, in a relationship or not, you root for romance, don't you? And it doesn't even matter if it is your own love story.

I'm curious to know if this happens to any of you, but to read about romance, listen to love songs, watch movies about love actually does something to my physical heart. I can personally feel a flutter in my chest.  I think it releases some kind of good-feeling hormone (note the highly scientific explanation.)  

It was when I was writing Hidden in Paris that I began to pay attention to this physical phenomenon.  I cried when I wrote something sad, and laughed when( I thought) it was funny (seriously you'd be glad not to be in that room as I type, I'm a one woman show, I even talk to myself and call myself names) and when love came on, there it was, that tightening of the chest. Is it weird?  Is it unique of me?

It's interesting how the puzzle of life is constructed and how wonderful it is when two pieces of that puzzle land in your hand and you're able to recognize that they belong together.  Which is exactly what happened when I played matchmaker between a friend of my husband and Katy Allgeyer, who was a friend of a friend at time.  I'm proud to say I saw love there before either of them even knew the other one existed.  Love in fiction is good but love in real life is even better.

Katy has a really fun interview (--of me AGAIN?! :(( --No, but really read it it's great...) posted on her blog today, and some links to her 'matchmade' love story. Check it out. In the next few days I will write a new post about that Kathy does in life, which is very inspiring, you'll see.

Quick, quick, a giveaway.

You can run over to Angie Muresan's wonderful, thoughtful blog for another chance to win a copy of Hidden in Paris.  Going on today until midnight only!

What I've been missing

Here is what I've been missing for the last twenty days as I sat at my desk trying to spread the word about my book: Lo and behold, I practically missed the month of May!  

Today I emerged, puffy-eyed, groggy, and my rear-end molded to an unappealing desk chair-like shape, to see this:

The flowers in front are "Echium fastuosum" or Pride of Madeira, but I call them Proud of my Derièra. (a private joke between me and myself, you really don't have to laugh.)

Once you have lived in an area where Bougainvillea grows like weed it's hard to turn back.

3 waterlilies blooming at once is my record.

My idea in Provence since I can't have the real thing.

Oh, and if you've read this far then you might still have the patience to read some really great reviews for Hidden in Paris.

 

 

Another giveaway for Hidden in Paris

It's a bit of a whirlwind around here as i'm only one girl, two hands and ten fingers (or more like 8 fingers in my case because my pinkies and ring fingers are typing impaired somehow, and basically useless to my writing carreer) to respond to all my emails, write interviews and articles, mail books, and keep up with all the amazing, generous, overwhelming love I'm getting around the blogosphere for my novel.  

To think that Hidden in Paris came out less than two weeks ago!  It seems like a lifetime ago, really. I remember the old days (two weeks ago) when I was terrified that people might actually read my book. What if they didn't like it?  What if I sucked?  What if I was the worst author in the universe? (oh great, this is going to look very good on google searches.)  

Now my self esteem has reached unprecedented heights and I think I only suck a little, and that I was mostly the most insecure writer in the Universe. Although I hear i'm in good company.  

The reviews have been wonderful and people are buying my book.  No, really.  They are spending money.  Actual, hard-earned moulah to buy my book.  I still cannot believe it. 

Right now I want to take a break and be thankful and bellow my undying appreciation to the following bloggers:

Robin Pickens my book designer extraordinaire.

Colorful Senses, where you can discover how to crochet a chair among other rare feats.

The Displaced Nation, who help people become whole wide world citizens.

Happy Simple who helps people heal and do Amazing Things.

Passages Paradis, who loves France, L.A., travel and food so much she might as well be my twin.

Designers Block, for wildly creative  and stylish ways to rethink furniture.

LoveDreamLive for a sustainable way to imagine life.

Chick Lit Club, where chick lit lovers Unite.

Une Petite Folie for lovers of miniature houses and real size travel.

And today, Chez Loulou France, where there a giveaway of Hidden in Paris going on as we speak.

Thank you all!.  I'm really happy right now!!!!

(this too shall pass...)  do you have any idea how long it took to color that thingy above.  Never doing that again.

 

 

I'm in Paradis!

Because of an  interview on Passage Paradis  where I get to talk about myself a lot. I also talk about a hypothetical unlimited decorating budget, and what I'd do with it.  Fun, fun , fun!

If you're not familiar with Passage Paradis you might want to read this post.  It's the website of a woman I'm secretely jealous of (okay, now it's out) because she travels everywhere in the world.  And she comes back with the most jaw dropping images. Soon she will sell her original prints in a shop and lately she has been doing gorgeous print giveaways such as this one:

I want this print.  And I want it BAD.

Hidden in Paris is a a novel set in Paris but filled with American characters. I'm often asked why I write in English instead of French, and if living in the U.S. made a difference in my choices.  Here is a bit of our discussion:

 

Do you think you would have been a writer if you'd stayed in France?

Okay, I think I will have to be harsh on my compatriots here. The answer is "No Way Jose", and for several reasons:

One - I would have felt societal pressure to have a career and would not have taken the time to stay at home to raise my kids. French women do not feel complete if they stay at home, as if this would prove that society can go on without them, or that they are not worthwhile women. Being French I struggled to put my career in Advertising and Marketing on hold to raise my kids. But something great came out of it: It turns out motherhood is as lovely as it can be thankless. I started writing fiction out of absolute housewife boredom. I’m almost not kidding. My second son took 2-hour naps during which I felt trapped and house bound, so I wrote during his naps. One nap at a time and in ten months I had a first draft.

Two - The French language is intimidating and extremely complex. I found freedom in writing in a language that wasn’t mine and through the use of which there was no pretending to be literary, I just told stories in simple ways and focused on the characters. Had I tried to write in French I would have censored myself every step of the way and compared myself to Proust and Flaubert. Writing in English is a challenge in the sense that I can’t trust it to be 100 % grammatically correct (I aim for 92%.)

Three - Americans definitely have a ‘you can do anything you set your mind to’ mindset whereas I find the French much more circumspect. I’m convinced I would have been surrounded with people ready to knock some sense into me, remind me of the realities of a writer’s life and given me a 1000 reasons why I should not even try to write.

Please click here to read the whole interview.

 

And the giveaway winners are...

I hope you were not holding your breath.  I totally forgot about this -- ahem.  Is this an 'acte manqué' or what?  

I asked my 12 year old (as he was running to play his new L.A. Noire video game and had not a minute to spare) to give me 3 numbers from 1 to 48 (that's all the requests I received.) and here are the winners of the Hidden in Paris giveaway:

Shannon!!!! (not a blogger)

Lynne!!!!

Linda!!!!

Congratulations girlfriends!  I'm sending the book over as soon as I get your addresses.

Something tells me Hidden in Paris is a great novel to curl-up with.

 

You can do this!

I'm starting to like this thing of talking about myself! Tomorrow I will be speaking about Hidden in Paris 'live' on Displaced Nation, a website that focuses on issues of expatriates in a global world.  

But today, please hop on over to  Happy Simple for an interview about my novel and the writing process. Barb is passionate about solutions to braving fears.  She's also a Reiki practicionner with a long history of helping people heal.  In the interview I speak about not paying attention to roadblocks as you go on your creative journey.  Everything will conspire to make you stop and doubt yourself. Barb and I try hard not to pay attention.  And by the way, I am a huge believer in those written reminders not to get discouraged. You need a lot of those to balance out the negativity and self negativity of every day life, and here is a fabulous one you can post near your creative space, working space or on your refrigerator door. You can get it here.

The interview is here

High on Paris

I am spinning and loving it. Of course I do not mean spinning on those torture devices called stationary bikes.  In fact the only exercise I'm getting lately is to my fingers as I type and to my jaw as I munch on snacks. I mean my mind is spinning, I'm fully engaged intellectually and emotionally promoting my novel Hidden in Paris (in case you were hiding under a rock, on planet Mars.) I've received tons of emails and comments of encouragement, and I'm starting to get reviews and they are all GOOD! (thank you mom). Many bloggers have accepted to trade advertisement buttons with me, which is also GOOD and you'll start seeing them in the margin.  

I was particularly touched by a certain blogger, who who went out of her way for me, so let me tell you what she does.  The blog is called Une Petite Folie and the author of the blog, Linda Carswell lives in Tasmania but travels A LOT and I'm astounded at the beauty of her photography. But forget telling you. Let me show you.

There other thing that she is passionate about are miniatures, so if you're into the mini lifestyle you really should bookmark her site because it's shock full of the most delicate miniature house she is creating, as well as  mini rooms, mini furnitures, mini objects and even mini food.

On an embarrassing note:  The first edition of the novel has typos in it.  I knew it but I did not know where to find them.  Now I do... ahem.  Sorry guys, I'm fixing this.  If you get a copy of Hidden in Paris riddled with as many as twenty typos you can feel special because you know you are in possession of a first edition, (in case i become famous or something--doubtful, but hey, looking for a silver lining to this.) I know some will crucify me for this but what can they do to my sense of shame that I haven't done to myself already :(

How to what? How to crochet a... chair?

You know me by now.  You know that for me to post the following images have nothing to do with the fact that Ljiljana of Colorful Senses promoted my new novel Hidden in Paris on her blog. (note the repeating of the title just in case the googlebots are watching) No, it has everything to do with this CHAIR.  When I saw it I just about fell off mine. When others would have simply used paint, Ljiljana (how to pronounce please?) crochet every inch of her chair.

Her crochet pillows and other goodies are available on Big Cartel, and if the day is grey where you live just hop on over to her Flikr and of course on her blog where you can hear all about this amazing crochet chair.

Hidden in Paris, the novel!

All right girlfriends, this is IT!  The moment you have (not) been waiting for and where this blog turns to shameless self promotion... but it's just that... my novel Hidden in Paris is OUT!!!!!!!  

Notice:  the novel is Hidden in Paris. the blog is Hidden in France.  Yeah I know. I only mean to confuse everyone.

Hidden in Paris is a really fun read where three American women running away from their lives move in together in the hope of starting over in a beautiful house in the heart of Paris.

Of course their pasts and old selves aren’t so easy to overlook, and all three are so different that life together, even in Paris, ends up presenting many unforeseen challenges.  French men not being the least of them.

Hidden in Paris is a contemporary women’s novel with drama, laughter, strolls through Paris, French food, romance and, you now me I could not help it, a house in shamble to decorate :)

The book is already on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and CreateSpace and as an ebook for the kindle, the nook and ibook. I have to rub my eyes every time I see this:

YeeeeHahhh!  Doesn' it look scrumptuous? The book cover was designed by good friend Robin Pickens

THE GIVEAWAY!

If you send an email or leave a comment below you can win one of three authographed Hidden in Paris paperbacks. I will draw the name next week.

There is also a book giveway going on until May 5th on Goodreads

I wish I could offer each and one of you a copy because I sure could use your support, and I especially could use your reviews on Amazon (the book has no review yet) if this novel will stand a chance to ever be read by anyone. So what I’m doing is a promotion on the kindle for $2.99, and although the paperback is $13.99 If you email me I will give you a discount code for $5 off.

In the next few days I will tell you all about Hidden in Paris, how it came about, how it is getting published, my fears, my hopes, and how you blogettes had a whole lot to do with it.

If you are interested in trading advertising buttons, in creating a free book giveaway on your blog, interviews, Q&As or anything your readers might like I'm totally up for it. I need to promote this baby with no budget. If you have any ideas about this please email me.

Oh, and i even have an author's website now, where you can find among other things a first chapter to read and a not so flattering picture of meself. 

I hope this wasn't too much self promotion not because ha-hem... it is only the beginning of it, what other choice do i have.  Oh, and don't forget to comment or email to win a free book and/or to enter the Goodreads giveway here.