Paperback of MY GRAPE VILLAGE - sneak peek!

This feels disloyal but I have to admit it - I vastly prefer reading a paperback or hardcover book to a digital book. Kindles and Ipads are very practical when traveling, or in bed when your grumpy husband doesn't understand why you need to stay up so late because you are deeply engrossed in a story (!), but I look at a screen all day when working. The tactile experience of shifting to an actual book for me is pure pleasure.

Since publishing the Kindle version of MY GRAPE VILLAGE - you can also download the Kindle app for free on your Ipad and read it on there - if I can figure it out, anybody can! - two days ago, I have had many people ask when the paperback is due out.  Rebecca, my graphic designer, Paul, my formatter, and me are working very hard and the estimate is about October 15th.

Rebecca sent me this mock-up of the paperback cover yesterday and I got so excited I thought I'd share it with you. What do you think? I'd love to know.

The first review of MY GRAPE VILLAGE was posted last night (from a very speedy reader as the book does clock in at over 110,000 words). As always, reviews are HUGELY appreciated and make a massive difference for us authors. I am tres, tres curious to find out what you lovely people think of my story. This is the nerve-wracking part of putting my writing out there to share with the world. That, at least, never changes!

Here it is:

"5.0 out of 5 stars Just As Captivated With This Sequel October 8, 2014

By ina

Format:Kindle Edition

I loved Laura's first book "My Grape Escape" and found that I was just as captivated with this sequel. Like the first book, it is a lovely and entertaining read by an author who has a detailed eye for cultural differences and a gift for sharing it in her writing. You get drawn into the characters in their new situations and roles. Burgundy becomes your next travel destination. I read it in one sitting. Being relatively new to digital books, I found myself checking and hoping that I wasn't reaching the end soon. (The sign of a great book for me.)"

MY GRAPE VILLAGE is now available!

After eleven months of writing, coffee, rewriting, coffee, editing, coffee, more rewriting, more coffee, and still more endless editing MY GRAPE VILLAGE is available this morning on Kindle. The paperback will be out in the next two weeks.

Behold the blurb!

Five years after “My Grape Escape,” Laura and Franck are back in Burgundy to tackle their newest project, a derelict 16th century winemaker’s cottage located behind Franck’s family home. Not only is this a daunting rebuild from the ground up, Laura and Franck now have two preschoolers adjusting to the foreign customs of a French school. 

Navigating the different rules for raising children and managing a family in a small French village prove every bit as challenging for Laura as learning to drive a stick shift through narrow streets, or arguing with the Architect of French Monuments over permissible paint colors (spoiler alert: any color as long as it’s gray). Come along on this evocative and honest journey where love, coupled with good French food and local wine, pave the way to la belle vie.

I cannot wait to hear your feeback and I hope you have as much fun reading MY GRAPE VILLAGE as I had writing it. As always, I am forever grateful for your ongoing love and support (and your reviews on Amazon or Goodreads). Please shout out the joyous news to the rooftops (or, better yet, share it on social media) that book #2 in The Grape Series and the sequel to the Bestselling MY GRAPE ESCAPE has arrived.

I'm off to eat a square of chocolate to celebrate! Merci mes amis. Bisous to you all. xo

My Grape Escape Pilgrimage

 

This is so fun! Friends of friends read My Grape Escape recently and were inspired to make a pilgrimage to Magny-les-Villers and La Maison des Deux Clochers. Even better, they blogged about it! Read all about their adventures in Burgundy here. I love that they took our advice and lunched at our favorite local routier "L'Auberge du Guidon" in nearby Comblanchien and familiarized themselves not only with French truckers (and their moustaches) but huge communal bottles of wine and gargantuan "help yourself" cheese platters.

During their stay in Magny they ventured out to the epic Monday morning market in Louhans and blogged about it  (scene of our memorable day with Rene when we ended up going home with a freshly butchered poulet de bresse and a pile of dirt cheap Emile Henry kitchenware). That was when Rene reminded me to "never confuse what is urgent with what is truly important."

I hope you enjoy these two blog posts as much as I did. I wonder what trips My Grape Village will insipre?

The Grape Harvest at Domaine Buffet in Volnay

Check out these amazing photos of the 2014 Burgundy Grape Harvest...

As I write this post, the grape harvest is happening all over Burgundy. My amazing friend Charlotte (who is also Clementine's godmother) is busy at work at the family Domaine in Volnay (Domaine Buffet) that is now managed by her husband Marc-Olivier. I hadn't met Charlotte yet in My Grape Escape - she was busy in Paris meeting her now winemaking husband.

Charlotte is a major character in the upcoming My Grape Village (although I had to change her name to "Marie" as having two Charlottes - her and my eldest daughter - was just too confusing for this here writer). We had several hilarious email exchanges where we competed to find the most hideous name for her - my favorite being "Fredigonde" I believe - but for the moment I have been calling her "Marie" in the manuscript as her friendship and that of my other French bestie Isabelle was truly one of the miracles of my years in France.

I will keep posting photos of the Grape Harvest at Domaine Buffet for the next few days...a huge merci to Jacqueline Hogue, another member of my beloved Buffet clan, for taking these phenomenal photos.

The vineyard above supplied the grapes in the first and last photos. These vines are Le clos de la Rougeotte, and the ancient and gnarled cherry tree to the right there is what gives this appellation of Volnay 1er cru such a unique cherry flavour. 

The fact that every section of vineyards in Burgundy creates unique tasting wine based on a myriad of such oddities is what makes Burgundy such hallowed grown for wine lovers.

According to Charlotte B. (or Marie, as you will be getting to know her, or Fredigonde if we decide to go that direction) the 2014 grapes are beautiful and luscious with very little rot. The only shame is that the yield will be low due to the disastrous hail storm when Franck was in France. Rest assured, there may not be a lot to go around but the wine that is going to be made from these grapes above is going to be delectable indeed.

Grape Harvest has begun!

The grape harvest in Burgundy has begun! Sue Boxell from "Burgundy on a Plate" wine tours sent this photo yesterday.  I'm currently finishing up one of my LAST round of edits for "My Grape Village" which will be published next month. I'm at that stage where I feel as one writer friend put it, as though somebody has locked me in a dark closet and is forcing me to smoke every single page of my manuscript without a break! The same day that Sue sent this photo I was editing this scene of Charlotte and Camille taking part in the harvest shortly after our move back to Burgundy. I thought you might enjoy the excerpt!

***

Hand in hand, with the girls skipping in front of us, casting up the ochre vineyard dust, we made our way over to the harvesters. They were a motley crew, dressed in filthy clothes, with T-shirts or shorts tied around their heads to protect them from sunstroke. I knew that some of them were probably doctors and lawyers or other well-heeled friends of the winemaker who came and did the harvest every year, picking side by side with backpacking teenagers and unemployed youth. Harvesting was the great equalizer and they would all be complaining about the heat of the beating sun and sore backs from kneeling down in the dirt all day long.

Unlabeled bottles of wine were being passed up and down the rows. Charlotte and Camille stood at the head of the row, wide-eyed and tiaras askew.  

“Do you want to try to harvest some grapes?” A man with an impressive girth and a pink t-shirt wrapped around his head came over and kneeled down beside the girls. He held out his wickedly sharp shears.

“Go ahead,” I said, while Franck began chatting with another bare-chested man wearing a fraying straw hat. Franck and he seemed to vaguely know each other. I watched as the pink T-shirt man took Camille and Charlotte half way down the row and showed them how to separate the grape bunches from one another and where to cut the grapes off the vine. They cut off several bunches each until the man’s bucket was full.  

He kept up a constant stream of chatter and the girls occasionally nodded yes or no and Charlotte even squeaked out an occasional oui. When he asked them if they were from Savigny the girls shook their heads and Charlotte whispered “Non. Nous sommes Canadiennes.”

“Canada!” he exclaimed, then stood up and shouted out to his fellow harvesters “We have little girls here that have come all the way from Canada to help us with the harvest. Everybody say bonjour to les petites canadiennes!”

Everyone shouted bonjour and Charlotte and Camille were immediately swept into the team of harvesters. My girls snipped off grapes, helped haul buckets to the tractor and then, when that was full, they were invited to ride on the tractor that was festooned with grape vines back to the village. 

Franck and I followed behind on foot through the vineyards.

“Did you know that guy you were talking too?” I asked.

“Vaguely. Turns out he’s a distant cousin, maybe second or third cousin. We couldn’t really figure it out.” This happened often since we arrived in Burgundy. Sometimes I wondered whether Franck wasn’t related in one way or another to most of the people here.

The tractor wove through the narrow streets and into the cuverie at a local winemaker’s family Domaine where the grapes were dumped out on the sorting table. We were all given a glass of freshly pressed grape juice to sip, although our new friend used imaginative miming to explain to the girls that they had to be careful not to drink too much or else they would get an explosive case of diarrhea.

About two hours later we all wandered out of the massive cuverie, Camille and Charlotte both wearing crowns of grape leaves and vines laid over their tiaras. They were smiling from ear to ear. 

CRUSHES - Philosophy of Preschoolers - Volume 2

I just wrote down this recent conversation between Clem and Anna for Volume 2 of Philosophy of Preschoolers. It just gives you a little glimpse at the nuggets of wisom contained inside! ***

Clem: "I still have a crush on Riley you know Anna."

Anna: "Why are you telling me that Clem?"

Clem: "It's important. I realized that maybe after the summer you didn't realize that I still had a crush on Riley after all this time, but I do. Cousins need to tell each other important stuff."

Anna: "You're right. I'm having a princess party for my fifth birthday. I'm going to have a princess cake and princess crowns and-"

Clem: "Why are you telling me this Anna?"

Anna: "Because it's important."

Clem: "But not important like a crush."

Anna: (mutinously) "It is. Princess parties are so important...anyway, what does it mean to have a crush?"

Clem: "It means I still love Riley."

Anna: "Why is it called a crush then? Why don't you just say that you love him?"

Clem: "Well...it's called a crush because when you really love someone you want to...you know...crush them on the ground or against a fence."

Anna: "That would hurt them."

Clem: "You have to crush them otherwise they might escape. They need to be trapped."

Anna: "Oh. That makes sense."

Clem: "You don't want the boy you love to escape, you see, but they always try to escape and run away. That's what's so hard about crushes."

Anna: "I'm glad I don't have a crush."

Clem: "It's not easy."

"My Grape Village" Publication Update

Dearest amis. With my publication of my ebook Philosophy of Preschoolers a couple of days ago, I didn't want you to think I had been neglecting the sequel to My Grape Escape entitled My Grape Village. Pas du tout! 

Philosophy of Preschoolers has been hugely fun to put together during those weeks when I was waiting for one or another of the rounds of edits from My Grape Village to come back to me. Here is a great review that was posted today on Amazon.com that does a much better job of summing up this hard-to-describe chef d'oeuvre of the preschool brain than I can:

"I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started reading The Philosophy of Preschoolers, but what it turned out to be was a complete delight. Clem is a wildly imaginative five year old trying to make sense of the world, and Anna is her smart as a whip, practical three year old cousin. Mom chimes in occasionally, but basically it's a brilliant My Dinner with Andre, courtesy of Clem and Anna. I laughed aloud multiple times, once or twice wiping tears of laughter, too. Highly recommended!"

I just received the My Grape Village mansucript back from my beta-readers and am racing through this second to last round of edits. Lastly, I will need to do the copy edits but that generally goes quite fast. So if all goes well (fingers & toes crossed) My Grape Village should be available for purchase as both an ebook and a paperback at the beginning of October.

It is also turning out rather larger than My Grape Escape. My Grape Village is clocking in at about 110,000 words whereas My Grape Escape was around 75,000. So, LOTS of new adventures in Burgundy contained between its covers!

I am teaching a workshop on self-publishing at the fantabulous Surrey International Writers' Conference at the end of October (in the company of Herself aka Diana Gabaldon *gasp*) as well as doing a Keynote speech on giving youself permission to be a writer (before it's too late) on the Sunday morning. I am determined to have My Grape Village all ready and published by then.

In the meantime this means you are still eligible to win a free week at La Maison de la Vieille Vigne if you go to my website www.laurabradbury.com and sign up for my mailing list before then. Tout le monde on my mailing list will be eligible for the draw.

Bonne chance, keep in touch, and rest assured I am constantly writing, editing, and publishing new things for my readers - truly the loveliest and most supportive people in l'univers.  I think you all deserve a big french bisous. *smack*

Philosophy of Preschoolers Published!

Philosophy of Preschoolers has arrived! If YOU need a break (and...come on...it's September, who doesn't?) from being grown-up treat yourself to the "Philosophy of Preschoolers" ebook - 50 of the most hilarious conversations with and between Clem, Anna, and co.. Insight, humour, boogers, contemplation of important questions such as whether Celine Dion farts or not...it's all here for the modest sum of $2.99 US (or $3.25 on Amazon.ca). Just click here to buy. 

I just published it yesterday afternoon and already this happened...

As well as this...

So thank you SO MUCH. If you can write a review you will earn the eternal gratitude of me, Clem, and Anna! Reviews really count on Amazon and makes them show our chef d'oeuvre to a huge amount of prospective readers.

I Get Knocked Down...

I just heard this song on the radio and blasted it full volume. It is a great motto for writers, meditators, yogis, people dealing with chronic or acute diseases, or just anyone who is engaged in this crazy human adventure we call life.  

That's notre village!

The lovely Cindy Costello - a former guest and now friend just sent us this great photo of Villers-la-Faye in the late Fall. Makes me feel homesick for my other home en France!

Trouvez Ton Petit Bonheur du Jour

"Finding your little joy in each day" or "Trouvez ton petit bonheur du jour" is a way of life that is cultivated by many French people, some very dear to my heart. It is a philosophy that has helped me and continues to help me navigate the many challenges of life. It is also one of the main themes of "My Grape Village" which I should be finishing up TODAY!!!  

"My Grape Escape" available as The Kindle Daily Deal on Amazon.co.uk

As of an hour ago My Grape Escape is available as The Kindle Daily Deal on Amazon.co.uk from midnight to midnight UK time on July 9th, 2014 (that's starting now!). Only 99 Shillings!

I Left Mon Coeur in Burgundy

Favorite Memories of Camille in France

As of this morning "My Grape Escape" has 94 reviews on Amazon.com. More reviews = more potential readers seeing my book. Merci BEAUCOUP! To thank you here is an excerpt from "My Grape Village" that recounts the moment when we knew Camille would be just fine at preschool in France despite the fact that for the first three months she did not utter a single word in either English or French.

***

Franck and I spent the entire afternoon on the cliffs of Bouilland, descending to real life just in time to have a strong black espresso under the tilleuls of the village café before going to pick up the girls from school. It was strange how there could be moments that were idyllic in the midst of the chaos and confusion of creating a new life here in France. When we had imagined only the ideal images before we moved here we were seeing just a sliver of the whole picture.

When we got to Saint Coeur, Franck went to Charlotte’s classroom while I made my way to Camille’s, dreading to see my traumatized little raven-haired girl.

I caught sight of Camille. She sat at the end of a row of children on a bench by the door of the classroom. Pensive, she clutched her bag of school slippers to take home for the weekend. My heart contracted with guilt. I heard Franck and Charlotte arrive behind me.

Camille’s teacher was helping a crying child do up her zipper and had her back turned. A blond headed boy who didn’t have a coveted spot on the bench squeezed himself between Camille and the next child on the bench. I gasped as the usurper, with a strategically placed elbow, shoved my daughter off the bench and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Before I could surge forward past the crowd of parents to pick Camille up off the floor, she sprung up and dusted off her denim jumper. She narrowed her hazel eyes with a look of calculated vengeance at the boy.  

She inserted herself beside him again so that he was teetering off the end of the bench.

The little boy began to whine to the teacher that Camille was pushing him. Camille took a cursory glance at her maitresse to ensure that she was still preoccupied with the crying child’s zipper dilemma. Safe in this knowledge, Camille pivoted herself slightly, raised one leg and gave the winging boy such a decisive kick in his ribs that he went airborne. 

By the time the maitresse turned to discover the why the little boy was sprawled, sniveling, on the floor Camille was sitting with her knees together and her hands folded in her lap - the perfect angel. 

I felt Franck’s hand on my shoulder. “I think Camille is going to be just fine,” he said.

Scheduling Issues

Clem has been harrassing me to buy her a pair of roller skates since her friend Madeleine R. got some for her Birthday. Her favorite place to heckle me is when we are both trapped in the minivan. Clem: "So Mom, can we go shopping for rollerskates?"

Me (frazzled, trying not to get in a car accident): "No."

Clem: "So when then Mom. After?"

Me: "Sure. After."

Clem: "After what?"

Me: "Just...after."

Clem: "This afternoon?"

Me: "No. Not this afternoon."

Clem: "But Moooooooooooooooom. I neeeeeeeeed rollerskates. We need to go buy them noooooooooow."

Me (fingering person who just cut me off): "We are NOT going to get roller skates Clem and you need to stop bugging me about it."

Clem: "But I need to know when. It's important."

Me: "Why do you need to know when? What have you got going on?"

Clem (exasperated): "Mom! I have to organize my schedule too, you know."

Me: "You do?"

Clem: "Of course I do! I also need enough time to consult with my stuffies."

Fancy Feet

We are at the beach with a friend who has a daughter Clem's age. She is doing a strange jig. Friend's father to his daughter: "You are doing your fancy feet thing again. Do you need me to take you to the bathroom?"

Daughter looks down at her feet which seem to be moving of their own accord: "Yes."

They leave, and Clem gets thoughtful for a minute or two.

Clem: "Do you know what I am thinking?"

Me: "What are you thinking Clem?"

Clem: "Feet are the first thing to get fancy when you need to go to the bathroom, but when  you really need to go your bum gets a bit fancy too."

Fairy Wings

Clem, about to go outside to the trampoline, notices it's raining and shuts the door instead.

Clem: "I can't go outside now. It's raining."

Me: "It's just spitting. I don't think you'll get too wet."

Clem: "I can't go outside in the rain. It wrecks my fairy wings."

Me (noticing she is wearing no fairy wings that I can see): "Oh."

Clem: "Rain is very bad for my fairy wings."

Me: "Are your fairy wings invisible?"

Clem: "Most of the time, except when I'm with my other fairy friends."

Me: "Who are your other fairy friends?"

Clem: "That's a secret only us fairies know."

A Year in Burgundy - A Film About Wine

Last night Franck and I watched the lovely film A Year in Burgundy: A Film About Wine .

Needless to say, it made me beyond nostalgic for the days when I could enjoy all of the incredible wines of Burgundy with utter abandon. Besides that though, I felt the film really got inside the idea that a good winemaker is an artist and that a truly fine wine is one of the greatest pieces of art a human can create (with some significant help from Mother Nature, of course).

Both Franck and I found that the images of the region could have been more visually stunning - Burgundy is so gorgeous a region that that would not have been difficult. Still, this film delves into a handful of fascinating and distinct winemaking families that give the viewer a feel for the sense of history and tradition of winemaking in Burgundy.

My hands-down favorite winemaker featured was Lalou Bize-Leroy (with such a great name, how could she not be downright formidable?) - an incredible Burgundian dame who speaks about wine and winemaking with a poetry all her own. Having been lucky enough to taste her wines while I lived in Burgundy, in my mind she is an artist on par with Georgia O'Keefe or Virginia Woolfe.

I have an 80% finished paranormal romance sitting on my computer that features a young (male, and handsome to boot) Burgundian winemaker. This film made me impatient to finish that book as soon as I am done "My Grape Village." I cannot think of a more fascinating or romantic fictional character than a French winemaker, but maybe that's just me.

This film goes a little way in explaining, I feel, why Burgundy is such an extraordinarily special place. It also helps you understand why, in the words of Franck's great Oncle Georges, "La vie est trop courte. Boit que du bon." (translation: Life is too short. Drink only fine wine). That was wise advice indeed.

She Let Go

 

After the past few days of feeling tortured by trying to control the uncontrollable and understand the un-understandable, I finally pleaded with the universe for some help this morning. Minutes later, I checked my email and read this poem that a thoughtful friend had sent me entitled "She Let Go" by Rev. Safire Rose / E. Holmes Rev.

***

She let go.

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear.

She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.

Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.

She didn’t read a book on how to let go.

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.

She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort.

There was no struggle.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face.

A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…

The Happy Bully

Clem at dinner last night with our family and my parents...

Clem: "We have a big bully at our school. His name is Caleb. Everybody is scared of him, even the big kids. He's the biggest bully in the world."

My Mom: "What does he do?"

Clem: "He hits people and stuff. He's SO mean."

My Mom: "You know Clem, we should feel sorry for him."

Clem: "Feel sorry for him? Why?"

My Mom: "He's probably very unhappy inside. He's probably a bully because he's unhappy."

Clem thinks about this for a moment, then shakes her head.

Clem: "Nope. He's happy, all right. Mean, but happy."