Ex-pat

Maybe if I had moved here in my 20’s instead of my 40’s I would have been fluent in French and have integrated in local live. This isn’t the first time I’ve immigrated to a different country. I moved to Scotland from my native Holland when I was in my early 20’s. Being young, single and scared of nothing I picked up the local habits and customs easily; after a few years I felt more British than Dutch. Is it the fact that I’m older, married and less courageous now that I’m not integrating that easily or is it that French culture is just less accessible than Anglo-Saxon culture? 

Even here in France where they put in a lot of effort to retain their language and culture, for instance by limiting the amount of non-French language songs that can be played on the radio, you see more and more that Anglo-Saxon culture is taking over. The latest series from the USA are as eagerly watched here as elsewhere in Europe. More and more English is sneaking into the language, often its use is bemusing. For instance a Macdonald Big Mac meal deal is described as Best of big Mac. (Which bits are they leaving out? Is it just the pickle and the burger?)

In the book Cameron is making fun of English George as he hasn’t fully adapted to French life and he is certainly not an unusual example of an expat in the south of France and although I have put in a lot of effort in, I am resigning myself to the fact that I’m more like George than I’d like to admit. I have caught myself moaning about the quality of tea. The same brand of English tea just taste different here. Even with the right tea bags it is a rubbish cuppa as the water is so hard. I have to decalcify my kettle every two weeks. Yes I’m doing very badly at being French, considering how riled up I get about the quality of a cup of tea.

Half arsed

I decided to make some changes in my life as doing things half-arsed is never a good thing. Firstly there was the book promotion. After receiving an email from Amazon-KDP about their new feature to reduce your book for a limited time. I thought great idea, let's put that into place in the 20min I have before I have to catch the 8.10 to Monaco. Pleased with my new plan I posted the usual link to Amazon.co.uk everywhere. Now on my day off I read the offer more closely and I can only do this offer to Amazon.com or Amazon.uk.co, but not both. Already having set it up I decided to repost all the info with the correct link. And feel free to reblog this:

My book at the reduced price from the 8th till the 14th is only available on Amazon.com at $0.99. You can find it via the following correct link:
http://www.amazon.com/Language-blood-Angela-lockwood-ebook/dp/B00EMEN1P6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383640942&sr=8-1&keywords=angela+lockwood

I've also decided to quit my job as I'm not really enjoying it and frankly I'm more tired after my day off than before it. Often walking around like a Zombie uttering barely comprehensible french phrases. I've re-negotiated my contract down to the end of the year and I'm looking forwards to devoting myself fully to writing and promoting. One of the reasons we moved to France was to get a better quality of life, to enjoy the sun and all the other fine things the south of France has to offer. Working 40 hours with a hefty commute and no thanks certainly doesn't fit with that philosophy!

$0.99

KDP select has added this new feature where you can reduce the price of your book for a set time, while still keeping your percentage of royalties. I decided to give it a try and will be reducing the price of my book to $0.99 from the 8^th until the 14^th of November. So if you haven’t bought the book yet, now is the time to do it. If you have bought the book and liked it; please share it on your blog or Facebook page and tell your friends. I have been told by many people that they thought it was very funny. I’m hoping a reduced price will result in some reviews too.

I’m very new at the publishing game and at the moment I’m experimenting with different promotions. It’s exiting as I have no idea how this will go, but I’m looking forwards to seeing some data at the end of the promotion. Here is the link to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Language-in-the-blood-ebook/dp/B00EMEN1P6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377328658&sr=1-1&keywords=angela+lockwood

Happy reading……

Catch 22

Last week I got my first royalty cheque, not very large but very exiting none the less. Like many writers you have this dream of releasing this first book and then royalties just roll in. They don’t, there is just too much choice out there for your book to get noticed without some serious promotion and networking.

Here then is the catch 22, to write I need a steady income and inspiration. My job in Monaco provides me with both. But what do you do with money if you don’t get the time to pursue your dream and frankly enjoy life. Should I be foolish and just leave my job to concentrate on writing and promoting without ever making it big, but have a whale of a time doing it until the pennies run out? Or should I just keep getting on that 8.10 train and be a responsible adult. When I took this job it ticked all the right boxes on paper, but 2 1/2 months in it is turning out to be a nightmare. I know what Cameron would do; he would have management for dinner and run off with the day’s takings and stock! 

Watch this space.....

Winter

It’s not quite winter yet but summer is definitely over. Most of the big boats have left planet money for warmer climes and I had to dig out my socks and coat. One of the reasons we moved to the Côte d’Azur from Scotland is its superb climate. In summer the temperature doesn’t often rise above 30°C and in winter you can still get T-shirt weather. 2 years ago we celebrated Christmas on the balcony and on my rare day off, I still look forwards to having a swim in the Mediterranean. (Albeit with a wetsuit) 

Normally I would recommend coming to the Côte d’Azur in winter; there are fewer tourists and as there is less custom to go round, shopkeepers and restaurant staff are friendlier than during the busy summer season. Unfortunately, this winter Planet money has transformed itself into a building site. Train traffic is going to be disrupted for the next 6 months. (I know essential work which is going to bring much needed improvements and I shouldn’t grumble!) But also the beautiful terraces of fountains in front of the casino are being pulled up behind some high fences.

 Planet money is tiny and space is at a premium here in Monaco. To make more money, you need space to build and the only way now is to go up or down. Under the fountains are already about 7 floors of car park and going down is not an option, so to build a row of luxury shops they are digging up the fountains. Hopefully they will put the fountains back on top and the end result will be equally beautiful, but I have my doubts and I fear that some of Monaco’s charm will be lost in the pursuit of money.

One of the fountains before they got dug up:

 

Etiquette part 2

What is perceived to be rude in one culture is not a big issue in another. One year I worked in the lost luggage department of Nice airport. There were two things that would annoy my French colleagues more than anything else. A passenger would come to the desk obviously distressed and worried that their luggage hadn’t appeared on the belt. ‘My luggage didn’t arrive’ the mostly northern European would start, losing them all goodwill with my colleague. After saying ‘Bonjour monsieur’ demonstrative my colleague would curtly take their details while muttering under their breath ‘it doesn’t hurt to be polite.’  It doesn’t bother me so much, we northern Europeans like to get to the point quickly, but if you want to get good friendly service here in France you have to start with a bonjour.

The other thing that got my colleagues riled up was the comment after some waiting on luggage, whether we were on strike. After about 5 occasions that started to annoy me too. Mostly those remarks resulted in us closing the desk and going for a quick coffee, rather than suffer the snide remarks. The Passenger meanwhile thought we might be going behind the scenes to speed up the delivery of luggage. I knew the baggage handlers would probably have 2 arrivals at the same time and would get to it once the other plane was unloaded and there was nothing else we could do.

This leads me to finish with bizarre things people forget to take of the belt or get delivered by mistake. It is beyond me why you would forget to uplift your lawnmower or riffle. I don’t think the customer who ordered eight boxes of meat from the USA would have been very happy that his boxes got put with the passenger’s baggage on the belt instead of going to freight and their refrigeration unit. It spend the whole morning in the hot baggage hall before some customs and security could be found to take it to freight. I would just advise all passengers on airlines to label their luggage and please avoid putting perishables in your suitcase.