Welcome to the twenty eighth installment of “You’ll Never Believe…”
For those that don’t know what these new featurettes will be about, here is the scoop! “You’ll Never Believe…” will feature the weirdest questions or encounters that authors have been asked/had. Might be about their books or random things, like meetings in a bathroom where someone asked what brand of toilet paper they normally use. Fun stuff and inside scoops that an author would not normally share.
Today’s “You’ll Never Believe…” celebrates the release of Veronica Forand’s latest book “Untrue Colors (Entangled Select Suspense)”. I loved this one. The author tells us how she’s pretty fluent in wild arm gestures… just… not so much in “french”. 😉 P.S. This new book takes place in France.
You’ll Never Believe, by Veronica Forand
Thanks for having me on your blog. I’m going to focus this “You’ll Never Believe” on my failure as a francophone. My new novel partially takes place in France, because I love Paris, the French language, and the French culture.
I learned French in high school from a man whose first language was Polish. I left high school with the complete inability to understand the language. When I went to college, I placed into advanced French class because I could read and write French. There was one major problem with that, the professors only spoke French in class. I missed so many homework assignments I ended up with a tutor (basically, a personal translator).
I fought to go to the University of Geneva my junior year. The first few months of the trip were in Paris living with a French family. Not only could I not understand what they said to me, but I’m pretty sure they had no clue what I was saying to them as well. I was below functional. In fact, my teachers told me I spoke French as though I was John Wayne.
When we moved to Geneva, I lived in the international student dorms. Most of the other students spoke English to me except one of my Tunisian roommates. We didn’t communicate for ten months, except to have huge fights using wild arm gestures. I’m pretty fluent in wild arm gestures.
I finished off the year successfully because I could read and write the language and passed all of my written exams. I did have an oral exam with a professor from Zurich. His first language was German and he looked a lot like a young James Taylor, seriously cute (but I digress). We both preferred speaking in English, and I think I aced the course because he was worse at French than I was.
I’m married now and have traveled to France with my husband and children. They love to play the “let Mom talk to the waiter in French” game. I attempt to order our meal in French, and we see how quickly the wait staff gives up on me and speaks in English. This generally occurs within a sentence or two.
On a good note, both my daughters can speak French like natives and love to correct all my mistakes. Okay, maybe that’s not such a good note.
Thanks for having me.
READY FOR THE GIVEAWAY?
One lucky commenter here will win an ebook copy of the first book in this series, Code Red!
How to enter for a chance to win it? Just leave a comment, and by 10pm EST, Friday March 20th 2015, I will randomly select ONE winner for the ebook.
The winner will be contacted and will have 48hrs to respond confirming their email address, so if you are picked, do not delay or you will lose your chance. This ebook will be sent directly to the winner by the author.
Sounds awesome! Would love to win!
Hope to win!! Sounds like a great prize..:)
Sounds great. Thanks
Me…I’d love to read this!!! <3
Thanks for the chance
fun story
Thanks for the chance
Thanks for the give away, looks good.
Sounds good- love to find new authors
Love reading these snippets about an author and the for the giveaway:)
Great giveaway!
Thanks so much for the chance!
Love give-aways!
Awesome! I would love it.
Sounds like a good book…Thx!
Thank you.
Awesome! Thanks!
Thanks Maryse
Sounds great – Thanks for the chance
Thank you! Looks great!