Julia McDermott's Blog, page 11

Postcards from Europe, #11

Before Mademoiselle sent this postcard, we talked via Face Time Audio, as we have done several times this fall. She knew that I was going to be at the Killer Nashville writers conference during the last weekend of October, and that I was going to be on a panel there. She’s been a strong supporter of my writing and my books, but so far she’s only read one of the three I’ve written.

Guess which?

Oh, and her birthday is this Sunday, December 6, the feast day of St. Nicholas. Her middle name isn’t Nicole, but she says she loves it. Three guesses on what that is, too!

“Bonjour!

Surprise postcard from Amsterdam! Only sending you this because we stumbled upon the Basilica of St. Nicholas (aka my birthday) just a hop skip and a jump from the Red Light District, haha. Basically Amsterdam is a city full of contradictions, also foodie heaven. I hope you had a great time at the Nashville conference!

Love,

Mademoiselle

26-10-2015″

Postcards from Europe, #10

I think Mademoiselle knows this (and I’m not sure she cares), but when I visited Amsterdam in late 1979, I stayed on a boat in a canal with about 20 other “students.” It was cold and wet, but there was plenty of beer. One thing I did in the city was visit the Heineken brewery; another was seeing the place where Anne Frank and her family hid during World War II. I think Mademoiselle told me on the phone that she and her friend (the other “grandma”) did the latter.

What a cool city.

“Bonjour!

There are two ways you can do Amsterdam: Sampling cheeses and seeing the sights, or going to the Red Light District and getting high. Us grandmas chose the former. Our meals included a beer tasting and appetizers in the dark, hamburgers at a secret speakeasy, sandwiches at a former pirate radio station, and Indian food. All things aside, Amsterdam is awesome. I’m never going to be cool enough for this city, but it was fun trying.

Happy early Halloween!

Love,

Mademoiselle

26-10-2015″

Postcards from Europe, #9

A friend of mine visited Bruges, Belgium last year with her daughter; I’ve never been. Evidently, it’s quite charming, and there’s lots to see (and to eat and drink) there.

It was the first stop on Mademoiselle‘s week+ long “fall break” tour of Europe at the end of October, and she went with another jeune fille from UNC. Stay tuned for their other stops.

“Bonjour!

Things we did in Brugge*:

Boat Tour
Visited Basilica of the Holy Blood
Window shopped
Walked along canals
Climbed the Belfry

Things we ate in Bruges:

waffles!
chocolates!
mussels!
fries!
BEER!

In conclusion, Bruges is the most lovely town and Flemish sounds like Old English.

Love,

Mademoiselle

26-10-2015″ **

*spellings vary

**not sure of the date, I couldn’t make out her writing. But it was in late October.

Postcards from Europe, #8

You may notice that I’m posting the “Postcards from Europe” series frequently….That’s because, so far, I’ve received 14 cartes postales, and I don’t know how many more are on the way. I want to make sure I get them all published before I leave for France myself, soon…

Mademoiselle had planned 3 more trips to Paris (in November) when she wrote this postcard (two days before my birthday in October, haha).

This past weekend, November 20-22, she took her third trip to Paris to celebrate Thanksgiving with two American friends.* She posted a photo of their table on instagram and commented, “Frenchgiving (noun): when three Americans meet in Paris in late November.”

“Bonjour!

This is from my first trip to Paris, haha. We went to the Sacre Coeur, saw the sights, explored small neighborhoods, and had Moroccan food! I hope you have a fantastic birthday week!

Love you lots!

Mademoiselle

18-10-2015″

*Mademoiselle in front La Tour Eiffel:

Pizza and a Movie: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Corn
Ground Beef
Sliced Tomatoes

Movie:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

This isn’t the movie we planned to see on Friday night, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The pizza toppings were my choices this time, and I don’t know why the photo is so dark/shady. I tried to lighten it, but I liked it best in the original. Maybe it turned out this way because it gets dark earlier now.

Speaking of early, all the movies we were interested in seeing were showing at 7:00, so my husband arrived home from work a tad bit early so that we could make it. With it being the Friday before Thanksgiving, traffic was lighter than normal, so we actually had plenty of time. (When did people start traveling for the holiday on the Friday before, though?)

We had planned to see Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks (a friend recommended it, and we knew The Hunger Games would be out longer). But, in anticipation of seeing this movie, we watched Part 1 at home the other night. When we were in line for the tickets, with the ending of that film in my head, I asked my husband if he wanted to pass on Spies and see this instead.

He did.

It was good, and well done. Unless you don’t like that kind of thing, you’ll probably enjoy it, and I’m not a science fiction reader or fan myself. But by the time it was over, I found myself feeling thankful that the trilogy is over. I’ve read the first book only, and do plan to read the other two. I don’t know when, though, because I have a ton of books (and a wide variety of them) on my TBR (to be read) pile on my nightstand (and on goodreads.com)!

And I still want to see Bridge of Spies! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

Postcards from Europe, #7

Over a month ago, Mademoiselle traveled solo by train through Paris and up to Rouen to visit her friend, Darrin. I had asked her never to travel alone in Europe, but she is an adulte, and she made her own decision. All went well, as you can read about below.

Just so you know, “Relay” refers to Relay for Life, the organization that helps raise funds for cancer research, that Mademoiselle and Darrin are/were involved in at UNC. I met him last spring, when my husband and I traveled to Chapel Hill for the event. He’s now a UNC grad, I’m told, and is teaching English in France before doing something else. I’ve never visited Rouen (or, tried to pronounce it), but I know it’s in the north of the country, in or near Normandy. A long way from Montpellier…

But it sounds delightful.

“Bonjour from Rouen!

I went to visit my friend from Relay, Darrin, this weekend and Rouen is so fun! Besides being the hardest city to pronounce ever, we spent the whole day exploring, window shopping, going to the Musée des Beaux Arts, and finding the best places to get crêpes.

Love,

Mademoiselle

10-10-2015″

Wine with Wendy on Wednesday: numéro trois

This week, Wendy and I met for lunch at Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant in the heart of Buckhead, located  in the “Shops of Buckhead.” Just off Peachtree Road (and, for those of you who don’t live here, there is only 1 real Peachtree), the restaurant is on a corner, with the Spanx building just behind it and à côté. We sat by the window on a rainy Wednesday and caught up over a glass of wine about our recent and upcoming travels, current events, and this and that.

Les fleurs sur la table–l’une commerciale, l’autre, littéraire

Wendy had lots of fun on her recent trip to a Caribbean island, where she celebrated her birthday. She has a few European trips planned for next year, and I’m off to France in a few weeks. We are both passionné about what’s happening across the pond. And Wendy knows that Mademoiselle (my daughter) is in France right now, and was in Paris last weekend.

We also talked about my books, and I updated Wendy on where things stand with “Book 4.” (She knows the title, whose initials are AZSG.) The “full manuscript” (the entire book) is in the hands of two people in the publishing industry, and I’m waiting to hear back.

I met one of them in Nashville, and I told Wendy she said that UNDERWATER and AZSG (title to be revealed later) are upmarket fiction, rather than straight suspense, and cross over from suspense into women’s fiction.

Wendy smiled. “Isn’t that last part what I said, after I read it [AZSG]?” * (Wendy was my beta-reader this fall, and her feedback was invaluable.)  “And most readers–and people who buy books–are women,” she added.

“Right!” I said. “You did say that, and they are.”

“What is ‘upmarket’ fiction, though?”

“Basically, it’s a merger–or an intersection–of commercial and literary fiction,” I said. “It appeals primarily to women, especially book clubs, and its readers are usually well-read and educated. The stories have strong characters and plot, but are a little more thoughtful and discussion-provoking than commercial fiction.”

“Books like Gone Girl,” she said, and I nodded.

We chatted on, and I told Wendy I would let her know when I had any news about AZSG. When we said au revoir, I glanced up at the Spanx building, and was struck by the fact that the protagonist of UNDERWATER is the CEO of “SlimZ,” a fictional version of the Atlanta-based company.

Who knows? Maybe, some of my readers work there…

*I don’t know if these were our exact words, but this was the gist of it.

 

 

 

 

Postcards from Europe, #6

Mademoiselle loves to read, and she’s a much faster reader than I am. We’ve both read “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and I thought it was cool that she visited the Chateau. I’ve never been to Marseille, but I think I’ve had bouillabaisse. I know I didn’t hike The Calanques, like she did. She put the rare photo of herself there on Instagram, and she looked very contente.

“Bonjour tout le monde!

Voici le Château d’If!

This fortress is only a 10 minute ferry ride off of the coast of Marseille, and it was absolutely spectacular. This was the setting of “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas, where the main character is wrongfully imprisioned and escapes from. We spent the rest of the day exploring Marseille, got bouillabaisse for dinner, and explored The Calanques all the next day. I hope you’re having a fantastic fall and I love you so much!

Love,

Mademoiselle

28-09-2015″

Postcards from Europe, #5

NOTE: Mademoiselle was in Paris on Friday night, November 13, 2015, but was unharmed and is safe. She had planned to visit Versailles the next day with her friends, but instead the group traveled back to the south of France, and they are safe.

Up until Friday, I had received 12 postcards from her, and I will continue posting the series as planned. Vive la France!

 

This painting is L’attente (Margot) by Picasso, and is at the Musée Picasso in Barcelona.

Shortly after I received this one, I asked Mademoiselle about her trip to Barcelona, and whether she’d go back, since it’s so close–just a short train ride away. She shrugged (I imagine) and said, probably not; she has more places to see before she comes home in December. When I spent a year in Montpellier, I went to Barcelona three times. I found it fascinating and lovely. Read what she says below; it’s exactly what I and my friends did, too. I felt the same way when I got back “home” to France.

“Barcelona, Spain

Bonjour!

Just got back from our trip to Barcelona! It was beyond fun. We ate tapas, paella, and drank so much sangria. The Museo Picasso was fantastic, we walked along La Rambla, drank coffee, saw the cathedral and the Sagrada Familia, figured out how to navigate the metro, and probably walked close to 20 miles for the entire weekend. Yet, I was enormously happy to be back in France, where at least I can speak the language!

Stay tuned,

Love,

Mademoiselle

13-09-2015″

Sign up for my newsletter!

In case you didn’t get an email from me about this…

I’ve just added a new TAB where you can sign up to receive my new newsletter! 

Click on NEWSLETTER, and enter your email address to receive news and updates about promotions and sale prices for my books, sneak peeks, new release alerts, and info about my upcoming appearances!

I’ll also share title and book cover reveals, chapter excerpts,updates on what I’m working on, and the odd this-and-that…

Here’s my FIRST NEWSLETTER (the rest will be sent via an email, after you sign up):

1. On my HOME page, there’s now a PayPal button. Click on it to purchase a personalized, signed copy of ALL THE ABOVE: My son’s battle with brain cancer. I’ll ship the book to your address. 

So far, ALL THE ABOVE has received 17 Reviews on Amazon, with a 4.8 out of 5 Star average, and is steadily selling online. It would make a great holiday gift! Get a copy for yourself, too. (Send me an email if you would like a signed copy of UNDERWATER.)

2. Speak German – or know anyone who does? Starting last Thursday, Nov 12, and ending at midnight on Friday, Nov 20, you can register for a drawing to receive a free copy of UNTER WASSER as a Goodreads giveaway. 

If you aren’t on Goodreads yet, go to goodreads.com and sign up. You’ll find all my books there, and get tips and recommendations from other readers.

3. My 4th book and 3rd novel (and 2nd Suspense – I know, it’s confusing!) will be out soon. The TITLE is FOUR WORDS. Here are the initials: 

AZSG

Email me with your guess of what it stands for! The first person to answer correctly will win a free, signed copy!