Chronicles, Stories & Books by a French-American Writer
LES DOIGTS DANS LE NEZ
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Literally: fingers in the nose
Best equivalent: hands down
When something is very easy to do, the French often say: les doigts dans le nez, implying that it’s so simple you have time to put your fingers in your nose while accomplishing the task. Here in the States, we are a little less graphic 🙂
See you tomorrow for the letter O, part of the A to Z challenge!
Welcome to the A to Z Challenge!
Four words for the letter R
* Four French words with similar spelling, except for one, in French and English, but different meanings whether it’s used in France or the USA
ROBE
The French word “robe” designates a woman’s dress, but also the apparel of the clergy or the black cloak worn by lawyers and judges. It is also used to describe the color of wine and to designate the coat of some animals, particularly horses and cattle. But a robe in French is never a dressing gown or a bathrobe.
Aux Etats Unis le mot robe désigne aussi le vêtement porté par le clergé et les juges. Mais une robe est aussi un peignoir et un peignoir de bain se dira “bathrobe.”
RENDEZ-VOUS/RENDEZVOUS
Celui ci est un clin d’oeil à mes premières semaines aux USA et aussi parce qu’un blogueur français l’a évoqué au début de ce challenge.
Rendez-vous est en effet l’un de ces petits mots de la vie quotidienne qui m’a mis dans des situations amusantes, voire embarrassantes, dans mes premiers temps en Californie, quand j’ai appelé par exemple le pédiatre et le gynéco pour leur demander un rendez-vous. J’ai aussi pris rendez-vous avec le coiffeur et quelques mamans que je venais de rencontrer pour nous retrouver au terrain de jeux. Sans commentaire.
Aux Etats Unis on dit “appointment” pour tous rendez-vous professionnels.
Rendezvous s’utilise pour un rendez-vous amoureux et s’écrit sans trait d’union.
One small word that put me in funny and even embarrassing situations in my early days in California when I called my baby’s pediatrician and my OB to book a rendezvous. I also called a hairstylist and a couple of moms I had just met for a rendezvous as well. No comment.
I had an excuse: in France rendez-vous means appointment, regardless of the type of rendez-vous.
In French rendez-vous is hyphenated.
RÉSUMÉ
Le mot résumé désigne un curriculum vitae pour les américains.
In French, résumé means summary. French speakers would use instead curriculum vitæ, or its abbreviation, C.V.
RISQUÉ
Risqué aux Etats Unis se traduit par “osé” en français.
In French, the meaning of risqué is “risky,” with no sexual connotation. Otherwise the French would use “osé” (daring). “Osé” is not used for people themselves, only for things (such as pictures, movies…) or attitudes.
Do you know of a French or English word starting with the letter R that has a different meaning whether it’s used in France or the USA?
Connaissez-vous un mot français ou anglais commençant par la lettre R qui a un sens différent selon qu’il soit utilisé en France ou aux Etats Unis?
See you tomorrow with the letter S
En l’honneur de l’anniversaire de Martin Luther King Junior (né le 15 janvier 1929), les écoles, les services postaux, les banques, et bureaux du gouvernement fédéral sont fermés aujourd’hui lundi aux Etats Unis. Ce jour devint une fête fédérale par une loi signée en 1983 par le président Ronald Reagan, mais ce n’est que depuis 2000 que les cinquante états des USA le célèbrent unanimement.
Un certain nombre de business privés sont également fermés. Le cœur d’une entreprise américaine balance entre deux jours fériés : Martin Luther King’s Day ou Presidents’ Day, le 16 février cette année.
On dit que les républicains préfèrent Presidents’ Day et que les démocrates penchent pour Martin Luther King’s Day. Dans le doute je suis les écoles et fête les deux.
Presidents’ Day, comme son nom l’indique, célèbre les présidents américains dans leur ensemble, même si techniquement ce sont Lincoln et Washington, qui sont fêtés, nés respectivement le 12 et le 22 février.
Quant à Martin Luther King Jr., lorsque je suis passée à Memphis en 2012, j’ai eu la possibilité de voir le lieu exact où il a été assassiné le 4 avril 1968.
Mon blog était peu lu à cette époque. En fait, il est possible que personne n’ait lu ces billets écrit en français ici et in English là.
Mes nombreuses années en Californie m’ont davantage familiarisée avec le mouvement des droits civils des noirs américains, dont Martin Luther King Jr. était le leader, qu’avec la ségrégation raciale du sud des Etats Unis. Les deux sont cependant indissociables.
Si vous voulez que vos enfants découvrent les racines de ce mouvement sans passer par un livre d’histoire, je vous recommande One Crazy Summer, un roman à la fois drôle, honnête et très sensible, écrit par Rita Williams-Garcia et publié en 2010.
A travers Delphine et ses petites sœurs, dont elle s’occupe du haut de ses onze ans comme une vraie maman, maintenant que la leur a décidé de quitter Brooklyn pour Oakland de façon à vivre à fond le style de vie californien des années 60, l’auteure nous fait découvrir les évènements les plus marquants et transformateurs de l’histoire récente des USA. Excès et espoir se poussent constamment du coude à travers une série de personnages extrêmement bien campés. Delphine et ses soeurs vivent la montée des droits civils au plein coeur d’Oakland, des moments extraordinaires mais aussi banals qui font l’enfance, et aussi un rapprochement inattendu avec leur maman.
Un thème sérieux avec une sérieuse dose d’humour, des personnages et situations réalistes et émouvants. Franchement excellent.
Le site web de Rita Williams-Garcia est aussi une bonne source d’information sur son parcours de femme noire écrivaine aux USA.
Malgré le succès de ce livre aux USA, je n’ai pas trouvé de traduction française. Si quelqu’un la connaît, faites-le moi savoir.
Si vous voulez remonter quelques années plus haut dans l’histoire, lisez le grand classique de Christopher Paul Curtis The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, publié en 1995 et étudié très souvent dans les écoles américaines (c’est ainsi que je l’ai découvert au début des années 2000). Le roman est traduit en français sous le titre Voyage à Birmingham.
La famille extravagante de Kenny (10 ans) quitte Flint, Michigan pour visiter sa grand-mère à Birmingham, Alabama. Ce voyage du nord au sud du pays sera comme un aucun autre et transformera non seulement Kenny et sa famille mais encore les Etats Unis.
Un livre incontournable dans lequel on apprend tant de choses, non seulement sur l’un des évènements les plus sombres de l’histoire des Etats Unis et sur la discrimination raciale, mais aussi ce que tous les humains ont tendance à faire : assumer sans savoir. Les états américains, les villes, le climat, les accents, tout est l’occasion de décaper les stéréotypes.
Tout comme One Crazy Summer, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 est un roman plein d’humour, très drôle malgré son sérieux, avec une palette de personnages inoubliables, sur un sujet difficile qui divise encore trop souvent les américains.
La mémoire de Martin Luther King est présente aux Etats Unis à travers les avenues, les boulevards, les rues, les parcs, les squares, et bien sûr les écoles qui portent son nom.
Souvent seulement ces/ses initiales: MLK.
The Holiday Season is about giving and receiving. What a nice gift I got today! Kimberly sent it from Italy where she lives with her family. Thank you, Kimberly. To all, Happy Holiday Season.
I’m thrilled to have Evelyne Holingue, a talented French author living and working in California, back on my web site.
Some time back, I had an author interview with Evelyne about her first YA novel, Trapped in Paris. See my post here.
I’m especially pleased to invite Evelyne back to announce her new, cross-cultural YA novel set in 1970s France – Chronicles from Chateau Moines. I love the sound of this book. I will be getting it for my french-studying son, but it will really be a ruse to read it for myself.
Evelyne, thanks so much for joining me today.
Can you give us a brief book blurb?
September 1970: Scott’s mother has recently died and his father gets the crazy idea to move his family from California to Normandy. Now Scott has to learn to live without his mom while adjusting to France. In his…
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Just a few thoughts about November and my various NaNoWriMo experiences.
Elizabeth, who blogs at Breaking the Circle has opened her home to a series of interviews about favorite children’s books. She kindly invited me over and I gladly accepted.
If you have a little bit of time, stop by Elizabeth’s blog to read what others have to say about their favorite children’s books.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for having me over. It was a real pleasure.
The next installment of Favorite Children’s Books is hosted by Evelyne Holingue, a published author who grew up in France and raised her children in America. Like Aunty Uta, Evelyne’s multicultural experience lends an interesting perspective to this topic.
Tell us about yourself, Evelyne!
I had never been to the USA when the young man I met in Paris told me that he would love to live there one day. Unlike me he had been there many times, visiting both coasts extensively. Honestly, I didn’t really think about his American dreams until one night, shortly after we got married, he told me that we should go. I remember excitement and anxiety stirring inside me, working at the making of a totally foreign stew.
Retrospectively, I’m glad I agreed. Saying no to the dreams of the man I love would have been hard. Now that we have been living in the…
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In my new middle grade novel Chronicles From Château Moines Scott has moved from Santa Monica, California, to Château Moines, Normandy.
He has lost his mom, doesn’t speak fluent French, and doesn’t know anyone in town. His guitar, a gift from his beloved mom, is gathering dust in his new room, above an empty store.
When he plays the record Feelin’ Groovy, he admits not feeling groovy at all.
Unlike Scott, I feel groovy today.
Marcia has posted an interview about little me on her blog Bookin’ It.
Eight-year old Stacey, Scott’s sister, would say that it is far out.
Thank you so much, Marcia, for having me over.
If you stop by my blog, pay a visit to Marcia’s.
Among many other great things, her first novel Wake-Robin Ridge made the Amazon Top 100 Best Sellers list in Fiction/Ghosts category. Bravo, Marcia!
This afternoon, I also visited the middle school kids I met last week. This time we played a word game that I had prepared for them and we wrote around some prompts that I linked to my new novel’s topics.
And they taught me to play Apples to Apples, a fun word game I didn’t know.
Again, you always learn something when you spend time with new people.
Just Groovy!
Chronicles From Château Moines, my middle grade novel, is now Released!
Check here what Publishers Weekly wrote about my novel.
Chronicles From Château Moines is entirely a work of fiction, but the cultural, social, and historical backgrounds of the early 1970s in France and the USA inspired the writing.
The story starts on September 14, 1970.
This is back to school day in Château Moines, a small French town.
Sylvie isn’t too happy. Her maman has said no to the pair of Levi’s and other American clothes Sylvie dreams to wear for her first day in seventh grade.
Her best friend Annie on the other side is over excited: A new boy has just moved to town. And he is American.
A Few Words About Chronicles From Château Moines:
Although Sylvie is immediately drawn to Scott, looking so exotic with his American accent and perfectly faded Levi’s, she cannot say a word to him. Later that day, she can’t even write any good lyrics in her secret notebook either.
Sylvie has the feeling that this first day of school marks the beginning of a lot of unpleasant firsts.
If only she knew how Scott is feeling!
His mom has recently died and his father has moved his family from California to Normandy. Now Scott has to learn to live without his mom while adjusting to France.
On this first day of school he’s as displaced as can be. In his seventh grade class there is only Ibrahim who comes from another country. At home his eight-year old sister Stacey misses their mom very much, so Scott tries to be a good big brother, but this is hard.
Scott doesn’t even want to play his guitar anymore. Why does his father think that life will be better so far from home? This move is crazy.
While Scott and Sylvie struggle with their daily lives, the world around them is also in turmoil.
Chronicles From Château Moines is set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War protest era and social and cultural changes in France.
Told in alternating first-person chapters, from the perspectives of Scott and Sylvie, the novel is a story about loss and friendship, music and peace, and also about secrets.
A Few Thoughts on my Mind:
When my first novel Trapped in Paris was released, I wrote this blog post.
What I wrote is still on my mind but I want to add this:
Over the last two years I have been writing almost every day. Short stories in French, two novel-length manuscripts in English… Enough material to keep me busy for a while!
I also wrote many blog posts. Keeping up with my bilingual blog is teaching me discipline and patience. I have no doubt that I have been able to revise, edit, and seek professional help to move Chronicles From Château Moines from manuscript to publication, because of my blog.
A blog exists through its readers. I cannot tell you how much your interest in my writing, your support and encouragement through your ‘like(s)’ and comments matter to me. You play a crucial role in my writing journey.
To Each of You: Thank You.
P.S. Check out Chronicles From Château Moines HERE where you can purchase either the paperback or eBook version. You can also order Chronicles From Château Moines from your favorite bookshop.
Libraries have been my home away from home since a very long time.
In one aisle of this castle used to be the library where I spent so much time in middle and high school. In my new novel Chronicles From Château Moines a library and its librarian play a significant role.
Yesterday afternoon, I spent a few hours with a delightful group of middle school students in a beautiful library. The kids were curious, funny, lively, and kind toward each other. A dream.
The librarian had set a table in the sunny yard. She had bought cookies and filled water pitchers. It was a perfect fall day.
The kids’ laughter and after school conversations reached me inside while I was checking my power point presentation. Excitement and a little bit of apprehension churned inside me. It’s not bad, I’ve found out, to be a little nervous before speaking in public. This unsettling combo forces me to concentrate.
If you ever met me in person you would quickly understand that I need an additional introduction to any presentation I do. I wear my French accent like a tattoo. I mean permanent, of course.
So, before questions flood the room, I always use a few slides about France, my native Normandy, and Paris where I lived before moving to the US.
Kids, unlike many adults, have no issue with accents. As long as I agree to translate for them a variety of words and expressions – the sillier, the better – we are in business. Yesterday was no different.
After complying with their request and even agreeing to say anything in French, I went back to my slide show. Hands popped up as I spoke about writing in another language and about my published stories and novels.
I had prepared five copies of my first novel Trapped in Paris and highlighted short passages to illustrate my presentation. Having children or teens read excerpts of your book is a good idea as long as the group isn’t too large and you get some volunteers. Yesterday I was lucky, everyone wanted to read.
When I visit a library I always end on a slide with a quote from Dr. Seuss:
“Be Awesome, Be a Book Nut.”
Before I know it, I’m finished and always a little sad that it is over. Fortunately, there are questions and comments. And the nicest part is compliments. Kids are like that. They thank you for the chance you gave them to meet you. Really, I thank them for the opportunity.
What I like most when I have guests for dinner is when they linger and that conversations go on and on…
The same is true when I get to meet young readers.
This is when I’m finished that the real fun part starts. I can talk with them, ask them what kind of stories they like, who their favorite authors are, how they pick a book in a bookstore or a library.
You want to know too, right?
This bunch of mostly sixth and seventh grade girls favored fantasy, mystery, action, and graphic novels. They like real life stories too.
Some of their favorite authors are Rick Riordan, Veronica Roth, James Dasher, Gayle Forman.
Pretty impressive list, I know. They also told me that they pick a book based on its title, cover, and back cover, regardless of the author’s popularity. If these elements trigger their interest they will read the first pages and get the book or … not. The fact that they aren’t only into big names is encouraging. The fact that their choice is made so quickly is not that different from the way adults pick one book versus another one.
They all wanted my book. Sweet. The library copy of Trapped in Paris had been checked out and I hadn’t brought enough copies with me.
“Can you come back next week?” a girl asked.
How do you say no to a pair of big brown eyes? The librarian smiled and nodded. Yes!!!
By 4:30 p.m. some kids were picked up. Some decided to go get a book upstairs. I stayed behind with a group of four girls and we continued our conversation. About books, of course.
That’s what they said:
On my way out, under very nice thank yous and mercis, goodbyes and au revoirs, one of the youngest called me.
“There’s that book I just read,” she said. “I loved it and I think you’ll love it too. It’s called Drita My Homegirl. Maybe you can check it out?”
I went to the kids’ floor and got the book. It’s author Jenny Lombard’s first novel.
Like these kids, I always read the back cover of a book before buying it or checking it out.
“…a story that presents in alternating first-person chapters the evolution of an unlikely and difficult friendship – that of a African-American girl from the neighborhood and the unwelcome new kid in class: a girl from Kosovo who speaks no English.”
I smiled to myself. The sixth grader had noticed that Chronicles From Château Moines is also told from Scott and Sylvie’s perspectives. She had also compared the two plots. Scott moves from the US to France and has to adjust to a foreign country, while Sylvie has to accept that this new boy is changing life the way she knew it. The sixth grader had also understood my own challenges when I moved from France to the US.
She’s right, I thought. It’s definitely a book for me.
I always knew that I learn more during a library visit than anywhere else.
P.S. Chronicles From Château Moines will be released very soon. Stay with me!
Le petit frère. The little brother. Le bébé. The baby.
Mon fils sera toujours cela pour ses sœurs et ses parents.
Alors qu’il vient de vivre sa première semaine à l’université je sais qu’il n’est pas seulement le petit dernier derrière trois grandes sœurs.
Il est le dernier à quitter la maison familiale pour vivre sa vie d’adulte. Son départ est une porte qui se ferme sur les chapitres paisibles de l’enfance et ceux plus turbulents de l’adolescence.
Le départ de mon fils pour l’université en ce début d’automne marque aussi l’automne de ma vie.
Cette saison, ma préférée de toutes, rassemble cette année les essences d’un parfum évoquant la pluie, avec la mélancolie mais aussi l’espoir qui l’accompagnent.
Comme les écureuils qui se préparent pendant l’automne, cachant avec soin les glands qui leur seront si précieux pendant l’hiver, je fais le plein des moments de bonheur de ce dernier été alors que j’étais encore une maman à plein temps.
Au milieu des souvenirs familiaux de déjeuners en plein air, de ballades sur la plage, de livres lus et relus, de promenades en canoë, de diners aux chandelles, me reviennent aussi des instants fugitifs, vécus avec des gens de passage.
L’homme conduit un énorme pick-up et traine une tout aussi grande remorque. A la station service il bloque l’accès aux pompes. Sans un mot, mais avec précision, il guide mon mari qui parvient à glisser notre véhicule vers la pompe du milieu. Un hochement de tête conclut le deal. Quand nous partons il n’a pas encore fini de faire le plein et lève la main en signe d’adieu.
Nous sommes à Natchitoches. Etablie par Louis Juchereau en 1714, c’est la ville la ville la plus ancienne de Louisiane.
« Pour votre frigo, » me dit le chef du restaurant chinois en me glissant une carte de visite magnétique. « Et revenez vite, » ajoute-t-il avec un sourire immense.
Nous sommes à Tyler, dans une petite ville à l’est du Texas.
«C’est mon sapin d’automne, » me dit le propriétaire du petit restaurant mexicain.
Dans l’entrée se tient en effet un sapin artificiel décoré de guirlandes orange, de boules en forme de citrouilles et de petits épouvantails.
« Je change les décorations pour chaque saison et les grandes fêtes, » ajoute-t-il avec un sourire. « Et les petites entre deux. »
« C’est sympa, » lui dis-je.
« Je le fais pour les gens, » dit-il. « Tout le monde aime ça. »
Nous sommes à Santa Rosa, au Nouveau Mexique.
Tous ces moments ordinaires qui ne font que passer sont pourtant restés dans ma mémoire. Au milieu du tumulte généré par les news, de tout ce que l’on dit et écrit de négatif sur le comportement des autres, je trouve ces rencontres à peine ébauchées porteuses d’espoir.
Pendant les trois mois d’été j’ai aussi pris beaucoup de photos. Je remarque en les triant de nombreuses petites allées qui symbolisent pour moi les possibilités pleines d’espoir qui s’ouvrent en ce début automne.
Au bout de ma petite allée personnelle, il y a l’arrivée prochaine de Chronicles From Château Moines, mon roman pour enfants.
J’espère que vous m’accompagnerez sur le chemin de sa sortie.
En attendant, où que vous soyez, je vous souhaite un très bel automne.
Evelyne Holingue 