Author's journal

I’ll update this page every few months, so you know what I’m working on right now.

29 December 2020

We're on the verge of the new year, and I haven't updated this page in a while. As I started a new full-time job mid-September, it slowed down my book work a little. I had to get acquainted with a few things, learn other things, so it took time. But I'm now on holidays, which means I can work on the release of The Londoners full-time for like two weeks. I'm so happy to get back to it. At the time I'm writing this, I'm organising the preorder campaign, as well as writing and scheduling the newsletters for my subscribers. There's still a lot to do before the big cover reveal and release date reveal though. Hope you're as excited as I am!

26 September 2020

This month was THE month of all the firsts. It's the first time I hired a copyeditor, the first time I formatted a paperback and... the first time I ordered a proof copy of my book. Because yes, I am about to hold my book baby in my hands for the first time in a couple of weeks, the time it's printed and shipped by KDP. I'm so excited by all this new things, so excited to see what I've been working on in a paperback format. I can't wait for you to discover The Londoners. You'll just have to wait a little bit longer, but the wait is almost over, I promise.

12 August 2020

Guess what? My self-edits on The Londoners are done o/ It's not done yet though, it still have to go through a copyeditor. Then it will be completed :)

7 July 2020

The cover design by Asya Blue is done :) I'm really happy how it turned out, and I hope you'll like it when I'll show it to you. I've got a release date for The Londoners and I'm fully working on the last edits (thought I heard that already...). When the edits are done, I'll pass it on to my beta readers and hire a proofreader. Hopefully, the manuscript will turn into a book by the end of the summer. But there will still be a way to go before the release ;)

23 May 2020

I'm collaborating with Asya Blue on the book cover design. We had our first meeting last Tuesday, and I'm super excited to discover the first drafts of the cover.

27 April 2020

It's been almost one month and a half that Belgium is on lockdown. They're thinking about opening the shops again next week, but I'm not really sure that's a good idea. On the author's side, I've started a Youtube channel on which I'm posting vlogs on what I'm working on. I believe that it's friendlier if you actually see and hear me. I've only posted 2-3 videos so far, so let's see if I'm keeping the pace up.

An update on my nonfiction project, The Londoners:

• I found an excellent editor, Victoria Goldman. She's doing a great job looking for all the mistakes and incoherences in the book. Can't wait to work on V4 of the manuscript.
• I've also started researching how I want the book cover to look like. The next step would be to contact designers for quotes.

And a smaller update on my fiction project, Once Upon A Sky: It's been over a year since I've actually worked on this novel. So I'm reading through it, taking notes on what have been the main actions until now. Then I'll outline the second half of the story and write it.

15 March 2020

This era is really weird. I had thought 2020 would be better than 2019. Yet, here we are: in lockdown because of a virus. Whoever you are: stay safe. We're all in this together.

22 February 2020

The second draft of my nonfiction project has been completed! Auto-celebration

Two beta readers read it and gave me amazing feedback. Still have a couple of things to do on the manuscript but I might consider sending it to literary agents… Let’s see what I decide to do after the rework, but sounds exciting!

18 November 2019

More than a month since my last entry. I can’t say I’ve worked a lot on the book, I have been worrying about my Grandpa. Sadly, he passed a couple of days ago…

My grandparents had been married for more than 60 years. They had always looked after each other. When you spend a long time with someone, it’s really hard to let go of that person. He joined his beloved at last, letting us grieve over two persons instead of one.

It’s going to be hard the next couple of weeks but I’ll come back soon.

3 October 2019

I just came back from Amsterdam, where I have spent 4 days with my husband while still working my day job. The week before, I had taken a complete week off so I could work on the nonfiction project. And that’s exactly what I did: I have (re)written a lot. Hopefully, this will be finished by the end of this month and I’ll be able to move to the next step.

1 September 2019

I have taken some time for myself in August. After my Grandma passed away, my Grandpa stayed a couple of weeks at the hospital. Grieving made him weak and in need of his family. I’ve visited him as much as I could during the past month.

In a way, I’m glad we came back to live in Belgium. It gives me the time to take care of my loved ones.

That’s not the only thing I’ve done in August though. We went to Rochefort for a weekend, where we visited the Caves of Han. And I’ve been to YALC, where I spent some days at my friend John‘s.

Anyway, that’s my longest entry so far on this page. Just a last word on my writing: I have started rewriting my non-fiction project and have read the introduction to a couple of people. So far, it had a positive response. Now I need to finish more chapters, and to finish the book!

20 July 2019

The first draft of my non-fiction project is done! I’m so happy I’ve achieved it. This is a big baby of 60 pages, full of memories. The next step? Editing the existing content, restructuring a little bit and adding even more tips for a successful expatriation.

12 July 2019

I finally finished the ebook formatting, even though that was truly a pain with Scrivener 3. I think next time I have a book ready, I’ll just ask somebody else to do it. And I’m glad to announce that Finding Maxwell is now available on Kobo, thanks to Draft2Digital. Will certainly be available on other online retailers soon, and I’m super excited about it!

6 July 2019

I’m working on the first draft of my non-fiction book, which is all about my four-year expatriation in the UK. I’m nearly there and I can’t wait to turn on my editing hat.

On another topic, I’m reformatting Finding Maxwell to add it on different online book retailers, using Draft2Digital and Smashwords (if I ever know how that one works).