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Paris Adieu

~ a coming of age tale by Rozsa Gaston

Paris Adieu

Tag Archives: Paris Adieu

How to Be An Unconventional Beauty

26 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by rozsagaston in Uncategorized

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beauty, Coco Chanel, Diana Vreeland, fashion, Guy Laroche, ideal of beauty, Jacqueline de Ribes, jolie laide, Ken Burns, Lisa Chaney Chaucer, Paris Adieu, Paul Smith, reinvention self invention, Rozsa Gaston author, self possession, self-esteem, style, Teddy Roosevelt, Valentino, Westchester Guardian, Wife of Bath, Yves Saint Laurent

Rozsa Gaston - Author

How to Be An Unconventional Beauty

From The Westchester Guardian, 5-28-15

Rozsa Gaston headshot.jpgBy Rozsa Gaston
Striking. Breathtaking. Someone with a certain je ne sais quoi (a certain something, literally, “I don’t know what,” in French). What does that sort of person have and does it really boil down to beauty? I say no. What it boils down to is attitude.
Let’s talk prom for a moment. Or next month’s graduation ceremonies. Perhaps you’re going away to college for the first time this fall. How are you going to carry off your own special style of being you?
Not a beauty? Neither are most of us. But why not decide right here, right now, that you are? You can practice on prom night, then you have the entire summer to dress-rehearse your new attitude about yourself before shipping off to school at the end of August. Fake it till you make it…

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“The point in life…is to find equilibrium in what is inherently unstable.”~Pierre

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by rozsagaston in Beauty and fashion, French culture, Health, modern life, Relationships, Self-discovery, Uncategorized

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aging parents, bad boys, Black is Not a Color, book club, caregiving, Chanel, eldercare, european intellectual history, Hungarian culture, Hungary, Jamie Cat Callan, Jane Stern, Meredith Schorr, my book club; book club recommendation;, Paris Adieu, Reverdy, Rimbaud, romance, Rozsa Gaston, women's fiction

The point in life…is to find equilibrium in what is inherently unstable.~Pierre Reverdy from Coco Chanel by Lisa Chaney

Who Pierre Reverdyis Pierre Reverdy? An early twentieth century French poet and influencer of others. He made Arthur Rimbaud look like a choir boy.

Reverdy was a dear friend of Gabrielle Coco Chanel. Handsome, independent, a trifle brutish, he appealed to the peasant woman buried deep inside the exquisite Chanel.

In other words, Chanel’s bad boy. Need I say more? cocochanelquote

Find out more about bad boys in my latest book Black is Not a Color, sequel to Paris Adieu. Out in audiobook, it’s the story of Ava Fodor’s struggle to care for her father while cultivating her relationship with her new French boyfriend Pierre. Not a bad boy. Black frontcoverToo good for Ava, in her mind, in fact.

Can Ava measure up? First she needs to measure up to caring for her father, who didn’t raise her as a child. Not easy.backcover

Ava is not the only grown up child of a parent who didn’t raise her. There are many men and women with such a tale out there. Coco Chanel was one. If Ava’s idol Chanel could get beyond a rough start in life, so can Ava. So can you.

Listen to Ava’s story in Black is Not a Color and take inspiration. Move out of the shadows of a less than ideal childhood and take your place in the sun. Coco Chanel is your lodestar. And Ava’s story in Black is Not a Color will help you find the hero within yourself.

Warmly,

Rozsa Gaston

Surf’s up – get playful.

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by rozsagaston in Beauty and fashion, Fitness & exercise, French culture, Health, modern life, Self-discovery

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care giving, fitness and exercise, French culture, fu, March, Nancy Moon, Paris Adieu, self-care, spring's arrival, surfing, Vitamin D, women's health, women's issues follow your bliss, women's well-being

Nancy Moon rides the waves
Nancy Moon rides the waves

Surf’s up – get playful.

March’s debut heralds spring’s arrival. Throw off those February doldrums and get playful. You.

What’s that? You spend all your time helping others so you can’t find time to play? Care giving at both ends of the generational spectrum? Tired of everything, starting with yourself?

Stop boring me to tears. Get up from your desk, get outside, and get playful. That’s an order.

Here’s a babe who knows how to do just that. Does this chick look like she’s sitting around compiling a grocery list for dinner? Don’t think so. The Moon Girl is in the moment, following her bliss. What about you?

Facing the wave
Facing the wave

By the way, Moon Girl is not twenty-five years old or under. She just looks like she is because she feels like she is. Not all the time, but at the moment these images capture.

Can’t afford to drop everything and take a trip to a surfing destination, never mind that you don’t know how to surf? That’s not an excuse.

Moon Girl glows in golden sun
Moon Girl glows in golden sun

Get out there and get some sun on your face. Today. That’s right, go out and greet Mr. Golden Sun and feel the vitamin D pour into your soul, filling every cell of your body with vitality. It’s easy, really.

The sun glows golden in the late afternoon right before it begins to descend. It’s a bit like the way the French refer to a woman of a certain age as “une femme mûre” or “a ripe woman.” The French highly admire attractive women in their golden late afternoon chapter. Many Americans do too. Connoissieurs of finely seasoned beauty can be found in many unexpected places. Find out more in Chapter Ten of Paris Adieu.

Did you see that man on the corner giving you the eye as you sauntered past? What? You didn’t notice? Next time you take a walk, saunter. Find your inner French femme. When you start to do that, the connoissieurs of this world will take note. Promise. You may even want to meet some of them. You won’t, if you’re in a rush.

Now back to your March marching orders. Go outside this afternoon and let the sun’s golden rays sink into your psyche. Later in the afternoon, coincident with that mid-afternoon energy slump, the sun’s rays are less bad for your skin than  between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. Have you got a packed day today? Don’t have a single second to yourself?

Fuggedaboutit. Make it happen, darling. Take ten minutes and instead of hitting the vending machine, go downstairs, out the door, and say hello to the world that is your stage. Connect with nature. Open your ears to hear what that bird is singing about. He’s heralding spring’s arrival. A few weeks early, granted, but he’s out there noticing all the signs, just as you should be.

Thumbs up to life
Moon Girl says thumbs up to life

Thumbs up to life, friends. If yours isn’t as glamorous as Moon Girl’s, remember — these shots capture just one golden afternoon. The rest of the time she’s running around like the rest of us, busy, attending to the needs of others, spilling her vitality right and left. But inside, she has bottomless energy to give. Because she knows she’s Moon Girl. Be a Moon Girl too. Follow your bliss. You owe it to yourself. Start today.

Playfully yours,

Rozsa

Be extraordinary.

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by rozsagaston in Fitness & exercise, Self-discovery

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Ava Gaston, book club, Club Med Punta Cana, coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, exercise, exercise and fitness, Feast for the senses, Paris Adieu, Punta Cana, romance, self-actualization, self-discovery, trapeze, women's fiction

Be extraordinary today. You owe it to yourself.

Rozsa knee hang free arms swing 2-16-13_crop

Attending trapeze school at Club Med Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic last week gave me a chance to be extraordinary. Give yourself a chance to be extraordinary too. Join me here on the adventure of the trapeze then move in your own direction and find your own moment to be extraordinary.

Let’s walk through the steps for our beginning trapeze experience. First, we climb the ladder.KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Up on the platform, we experience our first terrifying moment, especially as the platform sways in the wind. KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Immediately two cables are hooked onto either side of our tightly cinched safety belt. We have a brief second of relief followed by another moment of sheer terror when the instructors tell us to let go of the cable with our right arm, lean forward out into space and grab the trapeze.  KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAThis horrifying moment is then magnified one hundredfold by the next command. “Let go of the cable and grab the trapeze with your remaining arm.” Once you’ve accomplished this, you are committed. KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAReady?

I wasn’t either. The instructors tell you to hop off the platform the moment they say “Hep!” What nerve! Of course I did no such thing, so you can imagine my shock when they then pushed me off the platform. HELP!!!!KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Here I look lame as I basically hang on for my life. RG swings 2-16-13_cropThe next task is the most difficult of the entire exercise. At the EXACT moment the instructors yell “tuck!” you tuck your knees up to your chest and try to get your toe under the trapeze bar. RG trapeze 2-16-13_cropOnce you’ve accomplished the toehold, you’re golden. After two rounds of severe humiliation, I managed the toehold on my third attempt. What a great feeling!Rozsa trapeze2-15-13 Once the knees are hooked on, you think you have pretty much accomplished everything you need to do for the rest of your life. But just when you are feeling fabulous about yourself, the instructors yell “Hands off bar and swing!” What cheek. As if I hadn’t already done enough. After the terrifying second when you let go of the trapeze with both arms and realize you are not dead, this is your moment to look even more fabulous than the less glamorous knee hook moment. Here I am pointing my fingers in order to make my accomplishment look even more technically sophisticated.KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

This is truly the moment to take wing like a swan, so let’s review that very first image again as I soar backward and arch my back. Do you see how masterfully I’ve managed to point both index fingers? Sheer genius, no?Rozsa knee hang free arms swing 2-16-13_crop

The next incredible accomplishment is the back flip dismount. Yes. Really. The instructors yell at you to kick your legs forward, backward, then forward with force and let go of the trapeze. Again, what cheek. RG trapeze knee tuck 2-16-13_cropA formidable back flip ensues, thanks to the instructors pulling on your cables, and voila! you end up on the safety net, hopefully in a respectable standing position.KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA After you again realize you survived and are now on your feet, you dismount the safety net with a neat forward flip that looks fairly impressive.KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

On solid ground again, your body literally shakes with pride of accomplishment. Or happiness to still be alive. Not only are you alive, but you are blissfully alive. Enjoy!

Rozsa and Ava Gaston with Dominican beauty
Rozsa and Ava Gaston with Dominican beauty

Playfully yours,

Rozsa

Author

Paris Adieu

Running from Love

Follow Your Bliss and Self-Publish in 2013

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by rozsagaston in Self-publishing

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amazon, Andrew Rice, CreaeSpace, Dog Sitters, facebook, new year's resolution, Paris Adieu, Pinterest, Running from Love, Self-publishing, Time Magazine, WordPress, writer, writersonlineworkshops

Follow Your Bliss and Self-Publish in 2013

Presented by Rozsa Gaston to Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services, New York, NY, Jan. 4, 2013

Self-Publishing by Andrew Rice Time Magazine 12-10-12
Self-Publishing by Andrew Rice Time Magazine 12-10-12

Introduction

Happy new year. My goal with today’s blog post  is to make you feel like you’re fourteen years old again.  Believe it or not, we are now living in an extraordinary moment in history. For once, it’s good news, not bad.  It’s not global warming, it’s not war, it’s a revolution.

We are in the midst of a revolution in the publishing industry See Dec. 10 Time Magazine article on The 99 Cents Best Seller by Andrew Rice.

The Pleasure of the First Draft - Julian Gull

It’s a revolution that puts power in the hands of writers and sweeps away the power of publishing houses to determine whether your writing is good enough to be published. The barriers have fallen.  In 2013 you can see your work published. Online readers will decide if your work is good enough to buy, not publishing houses.

The handout I’ve given you is for you to take home and read later. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, believe what Time Magazine says about self-publishing in it’s Dec. 10, 2012 issue. Our moment is now. Let’s get started to find out how.
1. Why your life and health depend upon following your bliss
You will function more efficiently and attract more people to you if you yourself are happy. If you follow your bliss, you will be happy because you will be engaged in pursuing something that revs your engine. It’s important to go through life with your engine revving. Otherwise, you will get old and grumpy and no one will want to be around you. Don’t let that happen! Start following your bliss now and if you have no idea what or where that may be, start a blog.

Starting your own blog is FREE on wordpress.com.  If you have no writing skills whatsoever, start a pinterest account (http://www.pinterest.com) and start collecting images that please you. Pinterest is an online pinboard. It’s like a scrapbook. The act of doing this for 15-20 minutes everyday will relax you and help you better zero in on exactly what you’re all about.  It’s FREE and sooner or later you will pick up online followers with like-minded interests. You will be very happy when this starts to happen, especially if you can’t find any like-minded members of your own family.
A study was done of Minnesota nuns who had died and donated their brains for medical research. Some had Alzheimers, others had dementia, others had neither. The healthiest nuns were the ones who had a hobby completely unlike their daily jobs at the convent. For example, being an accountant and playing cello as a hobby. Or being head of the laundry by day and playing chess in one’s free time. Nuns whose hobbies most closely resembled their convent jobs were the ones most likely to have brain degeneration. In other words—mix it up to maintain your mental health. When you write, write about something entirely outside of what happens to you in your daily life.

Black is Not a Color cover mock-up 10-11-12_crop2. Why writing helps you follow your bliss
Simply put, it’s an outlet to escape from daily stress. It’s also an inlet into your inner mind, where you unlock secrets about yourself, including your own behavior and perceptions about your own life and the world around you.

3. Why you need to write as if your life depends on it
If you don’t, you will never finish a book.

4. Why you need to have a problem in order to write as if your life depends on it
You won’t have the driving force you need to niggle at you, hound, harass, and irritate you to get to your writing desk everyday. When you get there, you’ll sit down, begin, and suddenly everything bothering you in your life will disappear. TRY IT.  You will be delighted and you will become addicted to the process. I don’t mind doing social media, blogging, editing, sending out query letters, writing guest author interviews or preparing presentations like this one. But I LOVE writing books. I’m now writing the sequel to Paris Adieu and even though I’m struggling with the plot, I love the struggle. I love the entire process.

5.  Why it’s not so bad to have a problem—or two—if you’re a writer
Not only is it not so bad to have a few problems to make it as a writer—it’s necessary.  If everything was going right in your life – you have enough money, free time, good health, no one is irritating you in your own family – you might start a book, but you would never finish it. Why bother? Life’s good, so you would spend your time enjoying it instead of slaving away in front of your computer.  For those of us who can’t escape our situations – not enough money, poor health, you’re in a care giving role with no end in sight – the only way to escape your present reality is to escape into your inner world by writing.  It’s free and you don’t have to go anywhere to do it.

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY 10-20-11

 WASHINGTON — Writer Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Sea Biscuit, doesn’t write about what she knows. She writes about what she can never have in this life.

“I write about people and animals in motion,”says Hillenbrand, seated on a chair in the house she almost never leaves. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a mysterious and debilitating malady with a trivial-sounding name, has turned the 43-year-old into an unwilling recluse, a modern-day Emily Dickinson.

I agree with Laura Hillebrand’s method. Don’t write about what you know about. Write about something entirely different, using experiences you’ve had, but putting them into fictional situations. You will follow your bliss more closely if you move away from your present day reality. Adventure to a place inside where a deeper reality exists that you haven’t spent enough time getting in touch with. When you move toward that place, you will relax, become playful, and be a happier, more attractive person.

My motto is “Stay Playful.” Do I follow it all the time? No. But I’m always getting back to it. I love my motto and I like myself when I’m following my motto.Rozsa's biz card_crop

My grandmother used to say to me, “Zsa Zsa, you’re too selfish not to get your own way.” It wasn’t a nice thing to say. But I turned it around to make it an advantage, not a disadvantage. Are you selfish? Good. If you’re not selfish about taking time to follow your bliss, you’ll never find it.

Does someone in your life constantly remind you that you’re not perfect in some sort of way? Turn it around and use it to your advantage. The quality you have that makes you that way is neither negative nor positive. It’s just a quality that your Creator created you with. Use the quality to good, not bad.

Are you obsessive compulsive?  Good. You’ll finish your writing projects and be a terrific editor of your own work.

Are you a perfectionist? Good, to a point. Remember—the perfect is the enemy of the good (Voltaire). At a certain point, decide you’ve finished your book and hit the PUBLISH button on the CreateSpace platform or whatever self-publishing platform you’re using. If you can’t bear to do this, have someone in your family do it for you.  You need to finish your book and send it out into the public domain in order to be a published author. Just do it and get over yourself.

Are you selfish? Excellent. You’ll carve out writing time for yourself and let nothing and no one interfere with it. Start with carving out 30 minutes a day.

Are you angry? Wonderful. Take your anger and pour it into your writing. You’re the kind of person who can finish writing a book, because something is relentlessly driving you inside. Once you’ve finished your first book, you won’t be as angry because you’ll have a finished product outside of yourself that expresses who you are. That fact alone will dissipate your anger and motivate you to write your next book.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA6.  Fake it till you make it—what it means for you in getting started in your writing career
It means you begin by naming your project. For example, “Dog Sitters.” The title says it all. Another example is “Wedding Crashers.” “Sudden Money” is another one. Come up with a title for your project and mention it every day. Mention it to yourself in the mirror in the morning. Then when you’ve gotten going on it, start talking about it to friends. Don’t bother to talk to your family about it. Remember—a prophet gets no respect in his own land. Mention it to total strangers on the subway, in line at the supermarket, or to friends at social events. A year later, at the same event, your friends will ask, “How’s your Dog Sitters project going? Then you will be shamed into telling them something. Make sure you have something to tell them.

7. How to get started with the daily discipline of writing

Complete your projects—If your project is to write one blog post, write it from beginning to end and post it. It will take you about 30 minutes. Remember – you’re not finished until you’ve posted it. Once you’ve posted it, you’re published. If you don’t like what you wrote the next day, you can go back and edit it. Just get it out there so readers online can evaluate it.

Take a Writers Online Workshop—I’ve taken about twelve workshops over the course of four years.  Go to writersonlineworkshops and look around. Classes cost a few hundred dollars each. Every time you take a class, you get a 20% discount coupon for the next one.  Once you’ve spent the money, you’ll stay honest and do the work. If you take 12 Weeks to a First Draft, you will be forced to finish the first draft of your first book. Your instructor will critique your work, which will be valuable. Your classmates will critique your work also, which will be less valuable but still somewhat helpful. You will be on deadline and you will be strict about sticking to your deadlines (one assignment handed in every three weeks) because you paid to take the class.

  • 7 Key Skills for Great Storytelling
  • 12 Weeks to a First Draft
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  • Accelerated Fundamentals Of Fiction Writing
  • Accelerated Fundamentals Of Nonfiction Writing
  • Accelerated Getting Started In Writing
  • Advanced Memoir And Nonfiction Book Writing
  • Advanced Novel Writing Workshop
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  • Blogging 101
  • Essentials of Writing Personal Essays
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  • Fitting Writing Into Your Life
  • Focus On The Nonfiction Magazine Article
  • Focus On The Novel
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  • Focus On Writing Fiction For Children
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  • Focus On Writing The Personal Essay
  • Freelance Writing for Stay-At-Home Moms
  • Fundamentals of Fiction Writing
  • Fundamentals of Life Stories Writing
  • Fundamentals of Nonfiction Writing
  • Fundamentals of Writing For Children
  • Getting Started In Writing
  • Social Media 101
  • Successful Self-Publishing

Set deadlines and meet them—If you don’t meet them, set new ones and meet them. Don’t beat yourself up about the deadlines you failed to meet. Just get over it, make a new one and meet it. Then enjoy how good you feel. Wait until you publish that first book. You will feel wonderful about seeing your project through from beginning to end. So what if you only sell five copies to your friends? You are a published author. No one can ever take that away from you. It is entirely possible that one day down the line someone discovers your work and your book ends up influencing many people. This can only happen if you publish your work. If you don’t, it won’t.

When people call or interrupt you during your writing time, tell them you’re on deadline. They don’t need to know it’s your own self-imposed deadline. As far as they’re concerned it’s your editor’s deadline, or your publisher’s. It’s none of their business, and the sooner you convince yourself that you don’t need to explain your business to anyone else, the better.

If it’s your children getting into your writing space, train them. They will tell their friends, their teachers, etc. that you’re a writer, and as soon as your first book is in print, you will be. Until that time, remember your new motto: fake it till you make it. (Read Paris Adieu to learn more about this concept.) Your children will be very proud of you and you will be thrilled that they are talking about you in an identity other than as their mother or father. Not only will you feel supported by your own children in an identity outside of the parent role, but you will be providing a positive role model to them for their own successful adulthood.
If it’s your spouse or partner getting into your writing space, forget about training them. Just get rid of them as quickly as possible. Never complain, never explain. Benjamin Disraeli  said it and it’s a good piece of advice. (He’s a 19th century prime minister of England.) Just get done what needs to be done and get back to the writing. Your spouse will ultimately be happier that you’re happier when you get a chance to write. Your spouse will  recognize that if he or she doesn’t give you your writing space, he or she will pay for it in a disagreeable way. Don’t be nice and give way to anyone attempting to waste your time during your writing time. Be firm and professional. “I’m on deadline. May I get back to you when I’ve finished?” People around you will get it, sooner or later. If they don’t, move away from them. Their image of you is not your image of yourself, and your own image of yourself is more important. You don’t need to explain yourself to everyone. You just need to know who you are and what you are doing for yourself. It’s a very good thing to learn how to keep your own counsel while you are on your way to becoming the person you were meant to be. Remember—fake it till you make it.

8.  How to get started with the self-publishing process

Go to CreateSpace (www.createspace.com) and play around. You don’t have to spend anything to start your first writing project and complete the cover with CreateSpace’s free CoverCreator tool. You don’t even have to write a book. You can create and print out your cover, then tape it up next to your computer where you stare at it day after day until you’ve actually written the book that goes with the cover. For example, here’s the CoverCreator cover for Dog Sitters:

Book Cover Preview 10


Cover images – For Dog Sitters I used my own photo of our own dog. It was FREE.

Running from Love uses an image I found at dreamstime.com. It cost me $12.95. Paris Adieu‘s cover was designed by a book cover designer found by my agent. I don’t know how much it cost, but probably not more than a few hundred dollars. It was well worth it, but the point is you don’t have to spend a dime to find a cover through an online stock photography website such as dreamstime.com or weheartit.com.

Cost – CreateSpace’s basic publishing package to create a paperback version of your book is $398.  The additional cost to convert your book to a Kindle Edition e-book format to be sold on Amazon is $69.  It’s cheap. Even more importantly, the distribution channel through which to sell your book all over the world is available through Amazon. Ten years ago, no distribution channels were available at all to self-published authors. The landscape has changed. Authors, not publishing houses, are now in the driver’s seat of their own writing careers.

9.  How to market your work using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress

 You can set up an author page for your book on Facebook in 30 minutes. You can get a Twitter account in 15 minutes and start sending out tweets (messages of 140 strokes or less). If you don’t know what to tweet about, use a line from your book and follow it up with a link to where the book is sold on amazon.com.  I use a shortened link called a “bitly” which I got for free from bitly.com. Paris Adieu‘s link is amzn.to/MLX194.

A typical tweet for Paris Adieu reads like this: Paris Adieu—a literate look at an au pair coming of age in Paris. amzn.to/MLX194

A typical tweet for Running from Love reads like this:

Overcome relationship & running fears in 2013 with Running from Love http://amzn.to/PUiQWx #running #romance

Pinterest is a free online images pinboard (www.pinterest.com). A social media guru told me it’s VERY widely used by women who buy online books.

Make sure you have plug-ins on all your online sites. Plug-ins are the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or your book cover symbols that people can click on and go directly to your page.

 Make sure your online social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress blog) all connect to each other.

If the social media stuff seems overwhelming, don’t worry. It’s actually really easy. You find either a high school student or a social media coach to set up all four sites for you. Have them walk you through how to maintain these sites yourself on an ongoing basis. I use a member of my running club from the Bronx. She charges $47 a month and offers a free consultation to get started. Here’s her website.

http://www.sus4-media.com—Our mission

To help the little guy become the big guy online. Doubling your leads from the internet. Driving lots of traffic. Getting you seen, heard and experienced. We set the standard when it comes to Internet marketing.

Mandi Susman (@mandisusman) started Sus4Media in 2010 to help small, local businesses in her neighborhood thrive, not just survive, in this turbulent economic climate. Since signing her first client, she has grown Sus4Media to provide social media marketing, video marketing, mobile and text marketing and search engine optimization to small and medium sized businesses from coast to coast. Mandi’s first book, “Trade Secrets for Marketing Your Business Online” can be purchased through Amazon.com.

Final advice

Make it a priority to follow your bliss in 2013. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it, and when you get off track, fake it till you make it to get back on track again. You will be the most attractive person you can be to those around you when you follow your own bliss.

Remember this—Follow your bliss in 2013. Be your own party. Date yourself this year.

Yours playfully,

Rozsa Gaston

Paris Adieu headshot

Paris in Shades of Gray

10 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by rozsagaston in French culture

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book club, Christmas gift, Eiffel Tower, gift idea, Kindle book, Paris, Paris Adieu, romance, shades of gray, travel in France, travel to France

shades of gray in Paris

At this time of year, Paris shows off in shades of gray. 

From mid-November to mid-March, Paris is one long season of gray days with the occasional breakthrough of a mild blue sky. None of those brilliant blue skies of a snappy, cold January day in New York, darlings. Instead, Paris cloaks us in somber, reflective gray that drives us inside to warm cafes and cozy corners where we keep company with a good book and let our imaginations wander.

An excerpt from Paris Adieu a coming-of-age tale of Ava’s journey to self-discovery in the City of Light. Christmas stocking stuffer? Yes, darlings. The season quickly sizzles between the pages of Paris Adieu.

PAris in shades of gray

Soon cloudless, warm October days gave way to iron-gray, rainy, cold November ones. The memory of Paris’s long, drab winter the year I’d turned twenty returned to me. Paris was nowhere near as cold as New York, but its skies were unrelentingly gray during the winter season, unlike the azure-blue brilliance of certain New York days in early winter. November to March in Paris was like one long month of February in New York.

Almost every day, I walked in Père Lachaise, where Arnaud and I had frequently strolled the month before. I began to notice the regulars who frequented the area: dog-walkers, couples, and lone walkers. All of us seemed shrouded in private thoughts – the cemetery a perfect backdrop for our self-reflection.

The Seine in shades of gray
Statue over the Seine, Paris

Upon entering the main gates late one gloomy, gray Friday morning I spotted a notice affixed to the lamppost next to the entrance. A print of a painting of a sharp-faced, aristocratic looking man announced an artist’s opening exhibit at a local gallery the following day, Saturday, November fifteenth. Startled, I realized a month had already passed since Arnaud had left. Even more shocked, I realized I hadn’t thought about him very much over the past few days.

I examined the poster more closely. The man’s petulant expression was similar to the way Arnaud looked at times. Almost guiltily, I admitted to myself I didn’t like that side of him at all. It reminded me of the sharp-featured, beautiful woman in the photo in his country home. I didn’t like her either. Suddenly, it made sense to me why he’d spoken of her as his mentor. They were most likely two of a kind – all angles, questions, and sharp edges. For the first time, I gave myself permission to accept how very different Arnaud was from me. I loved learning from him. But I wasn’t like him at all. Why was I trying so hard to fit into the image of a woman he might fall in love with?

Paris in shades of gray

I continued on my way into the cemetery, where I passed the next hour deep in self-examination. À chacun son goût, to each his own taste, Arnaud had said. On my own, without him around, I was free to explore what my own tastes were.

I picked my way among the monuments and gravestones, mulling over the possibility that my own choices might differ from the man I was involved with. My thoughts were subversive. My mind tingled and raced. I was falling in love with a new person.

Myself.

As I made my way down the main boulevard toward the exit, a tall, lean-faced man walked toward me. His gait was awkward, as if he was just renting space in his own body and wasn’t quite familiar with it.

As he passed, his eyes briefly made contact with mine. They were warm, strangely reassuring. Instantly, I felt a connection. Whoever he was, he wasn’t polished, smooth, one hundred per cent self-sufficient and perfectly packaged like most Parisians appeared to be, foremost among them – Arnaud. This stranger seemed a bit out of his element, interested to reach out. He hadn’t yet arrived, I’d guess. Just like me.

I shivered, hurrying on to escape my illicit thoughts. I was crazy about Arnaud’s blue-green eyes. Why had I even noticed for a moment the warm, brown eyes of a stranger? Shaking my head to clear it from conjecture’s cobwebs, I berated myself. Yet the thought remained. Arnaud’s glance didn’t reassure me. It was exciting, electrifying – but rarely reassuring. Was that what I really wanted out of a relationship with a man?

From Paris Adieu, chptr. 14, by Rozsa Gaston. A sizzling tale to lose yourself in when the season cloaks you in shades of gray.

“Fake it till you make it.” – Ava Fodor from Paris Adieu

05 Monday Mar 2012

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addicted to, addiction, comfortable in your own skin, French attitude, French food, French men, French women, hot tub, hot tubs, journey, Paris, Paris Adieu, pastries, Rozsa Gaston, self-acceptance, self-discovery, self-esteem, Youtube Paris Adieu Hot Tub Interview

The Paris Adieu Hot Tub Interview took place on Mar. 4, 2012 in Greenwich, CT. Hats off to William Gaston, interviewer. Marvelous job, cheri!

“Paris is always a good idea.” – Audrey Hepburn

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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adventure, au pair, Audrey Hepburn, Fifty Shades, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed, Fifty Shades of Grey, Paris, Paris Adieu, Rozsa Gaston, travel

Move over Fifty Shades. Paris Adieu has arrived.  Please join me on my blog tour, Mar. 5-23, 2012.  http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/02/24/paris-adieu-virtual-book-publicity-tour-march-2012/

“Pink is the navy blue of India.” – Diana Vreeland

05 Thursday Jan 2012

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2012, Diana Vreeland, life isn't fair, new year's resolution, off Broadway musical, Paris Adieu, Pinkalicious the Musical;, Rozsa Gaston, Think Pink, Universal Studios, Victoria Kann, you get what you get and you don't get upset

Rozsa thinks pink at Universal Studios, Burbank, CA

My new year’s resolution for 2012 is to think pink. What’s yours?

To kick off my new year’s resolution, I took the family to see Pinkalicious the Musical by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann.  It’s the story of Pinkalicious, who can’t stop eating pink cupcakes, despite warnings from her parents.  Her pink indulgence lands her at the doctor’s office with Pinkititis, an affliction that turns her pink from head to toe – a dream come true for this pink enthusiast.  But when her hue goes to far, only Pinkalicious can figure out how to get out of her predicament! Now playing at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, 248 W. 60th St., next to Lincoln Center in Manhattan.http://www.pinkaliciousthemusical.com/

For me, the most important line in the play was when Pinkalicious’s mom sings to her “Life isn’t always fair.  You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” That line sang to me as I noticed my eleven year old daughter next to me, taking it in. She knows about getting what you get even when what you get isn’t fair. My job is to help her handle what she’s got like the princess she is.

Go see Pinkalicious the Musical. It’s a fun story with a serious message.  Like my coming of age tale, Paris Adieu, now out on amazon.com and barnes and noble.com.

And think about thinking pink this year. It will help you get through the moments when life seems unfair.

Hugs and kisses to all the princes and princesses out there,

Rozsa

PINKALICIOUS THE MUSICAL
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th Street

New York NY
212 579-0528

http://www.pinkaliciousthemusical.com/

She was a Vermeer sort of girl as opposed to a Toulouse-Lautrec one. – from Paris Adieu

20 Tuesday Dec 2011

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coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, Paris Adieu, Paris Adieu book trailer, susan breen, Toulouse-Lautrec, vermeer, Victoria Kann. Kathy Chattoraj, Youtube Paris Adieu

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