About

Who am I?

I have always loved writing; I think I had a diary as early as grade 2. Can’t say that anything I wrote was worth reading mind you and in fact I burnt every diary I ever possessed one day. Even the poems they included. They made me feel like the naive and gullible child I was that people could and would take advantage of.

I stopped writing in high school for a very stupid reason: I wanted to obtain my degree in sciences and most teachers believed I’d do better in a literary curriculum and I was determined to prove them wrong. I left the writing aside although I could never give up reading. In hindsight I would probably have been a better student if I had kept that creative outlet; instead I starved myself creatively. Interestingly I ended up registering in languages and translation in university and writing became part of my daily routine; essays, translation. I was a lot happier though I did not pick up writing fiction/poetry yet.

It took a visit on a Lord of the Rings website, which I decided to join, and gentle prodding by a very special person for me to revisit writing. I can only say I am forever grateful for what she did. I was not particularly consistent with it and I can only be grateful that my husband always incites me to pick up a pen or a keyboard and write. The truth is that I tried creating blogs before but I find I am jealous of some of these writings… and also terrified that people might think it’s not good or worse not well written. Now English may not be my native language but still. So this is attempt #3 at sharing some of these secret texts.

The truth is that I write because I can’t help it. I have no choice. I meet ‘my’ characters – sometimes in my dreams – and they tell me (show me) their stories and until I pen these words and images I keep seeing them, hearing them. I say ‘my characters’ but the truth is that I gave up a long time ago the concept of their being “mine”. They have lives of their own and I’m only the person writing it down. Which is why I never thought “who I am” would be important to this blog.
Yes, it’s a little crazy. But sometimes you read forewords or comments by some authors you like or admire and it turns out that so do they. Mr. Terry Goodkind wrote in the acknowledgments of one book that Kahlan and Richard allowed him to write their stories (The Sword of Truth Series). Or something along these lines: I don’t have the book right with me for the exact quote.

 

Where am I?

As part of @Blogging201, I’ve developed my online presence. Something I must admit I never thought about doing. I’m not entirely sure how regular I can be about this. But I figured that by posting it, I’m making a commitment to being visible. That was the purpose of this blog for the writing. And lo and behold, I have written a lot more regularly since I started this adventure.

So you can now find me on

• Facebook
• Tumblr
• Twitter

Scary… when you think I never wanted to be on social media in the first place. The irony.

 

Reading vs Writing

When I was in university a friend I played volleyball with said “Last year I set the ball, now I can say I’m a setter.” I find it’s so appropriate here; I don’t consider myself a writer. I do write though. But I am definitely a reader.

There are many styles out there… I am extremely eclectic. Literature is a major part of the French curriculum and I read most of the classics: Zola, Balzac, Moliere, Hugo you name it, I probably have read it although I have found a few gems since I moved away that I had never heard of before most of them introduced to me by my significant other.

I discovered fantasy at age 14 through Lord of the Rings and never really came back from it, but while you are more likely to find me with Guy Gavriel Kay’s or Sharon Shinn’s book in my hand, I have read all Agatha Christie’s novels – I grew up on them literally – and Sir A.C Doyle as well as Marion Zimmer Bradley… I was a book junkie and still am. Lately I have also read some Teen fiction although the bottom line for me is whether I enjoy the writing style. So I might use these pages to share some of what I read…

As far as writing is concerned… well I am just as eclectic, which is probably not such a good thing. I like short stories or novellas (less than 10,000 words) mostly because it is a way to control the number of words I use to tell a story. I have written some poems – mostly on LOTR themes – and am working on a novel. Not sure it will ever see the light but I am trying. Surprisingly enough – to me at least – I have an affinity to writing in English and not French though the latter is my native language. I could not tell you why although living in an English speaking city probably has something to do with it…