Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start writing.
I am a female screenwriter and author. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, and
Very early on, I started imagining stories in my mind, I believe they were an escape for me, I’m an only child and I was quite a loner, so my characters have filled my life. They were those I wanted to share my life with…I assume I started creating the kind of beings I wanted in my life.
I needed to create stories to go on, a kind of cocoon in which I felt safe. Very early on, I made my stuffed animals and my dolls talk- I remember loving ventriloquists- and I gave different voices and personalities to all my toys. I think I was already writing daily at that time without realizing it. I used to have my classmates act out movie lines, but unfortunately I was the only aspiring artist and felt quite alone. I think my characters were sort of imaginary friends.
I started writing and creating to escape reality. My father was a film and photography enthusiast,
he tape-recorded every kind of movies he had hundreds of VHS at home. One day he showed me King Kong, the one by John Guillermin starring Jessica Lange. I was about 6 years old, the movie had a big impact on me, I remember the feeling of wonder and thrill that took hold of
me, it was true love at first sight for this movie, it was also at this time that I became aware of my love for animals because the scene at the top of the World Trade Center was the first ever scene in a movie that made me want to cry. So basically that day I discovered two of my passions, cinema and animals. And there was New York, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in the world and a great source of inspiration too.
Describe your writing process? Is there anything unique about it?
As far as I’m concerned it’s absorbing information, researching but also observing in the first place.
Then I isolate myself, totally, reality must no longer exist for my inspiration to be there,
for the muse to be with me, I draw inspiration from people I know, from personal stories, much more in my books than in my scripts, because there is not the requirement from producers or filmmakers, it’s just me my books and my readers.
I stop my phone, disconnect from my social medias and I don’t answer my door anymore! I don’t go out until a first draft is finished, it has to come out of me. To immerse myself even more in the imagination, to go deeper in it, I read about the theme I’m writing on, I watch movies in the same genre and atmosphere… I am in my story and it lives in me…There is almost nothing around me anymore. I disappear into the story and my characters, it’s a journey I need to make several times a year, because I am only happy when I create. Then there are the first corrections, the second draft, which I often do with music, in the genre of what I write, mostly dark.
I talk to my characters and they talk to me. They guide me. I don’t. I’m not in control anymore.
When the writing is finished and the book is ready for publication, the story gradually fades away, leaves me, only good memories remain, the impression of a pleasant journey, like a beautiful and brief love story.
Have you published any books or do you have a desire to do so?
I first wrote several collections of horror and fantasy short stories before moving on to novels, such as SHUDDERS, which brings together the most famous monsters in horror literature such as the wolfman, Dracula, vampires, the devil and a beautiful tribute story to the Elephant man, who was not a monster, but a victim of real monsters who were exploiting him.
I then wrote a first short novel, SIX DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS the story of a witch who literally steals Christmas by stealing Santa’s sleigh and of two orphans who track her down to free the sleigh and save Xmas. They are helped by the elves and the toys made by Santa Claus.
My most intimate books, in which I put the most of myself, are BLACK MASS, WHITE GOLD and my latest SNOW WHITE.
BLACK MASS follows Verity, a female journalist, who dreams of meeting a famous rock singer,
Lachlan Alden, for an interview. Lachlan who turns out to be a vampire will guide her in the legendary
Père La-chaise cemetery in Paris, and tell her several terrifying stories. Black mass is a story within the story … As the gates to hell open each night in the famous Parisian cemetery, the vampire storyteller tells her about those who belong in the abysses and the devil’s realm and what brought them there…
It is above all the story of a revenge and the end, the twist will surprise the readers, which I particularly like
I wrote Black Mass during the first lock down, I talk about the virus in the first pages of the book, the film projects were much less present because of the pandemic, so I turned to writing books to keep on creating, and I can’t do without this form of writing now, I find more personal than writing films.
Then came WHITE GOLD, which is undoubtedly the most personal book for me, because it talks about revenge, about a woman who lost her father and seeks justice for his death.
I lost my father several months ago, I wrote this book with him in mind, it is dedicated to him like all my recent works.
WHITE GOLD combines my love for animals with my love of writing, as it denounces the horrible ivory trade and the slaughter of these wonderful and intelligent animals that are elephants.
It is also a very strong love story between two people, who find each other despite the danger, the ordeals.
Della and Nick who are my two characters are brought together by Della’s father renowned geographer Bradley Riche who is violently murdered in the house he shared with his wife Helen for more than 20 years. Della is their only daughter she’s a zoologist in New York City, and does not buy the local police thesis that it was a botched burglary. Nicholas Farkas, an ardent animal rights activist, photographer for the National Geographic and friend of Bradley seems to hold the key to the enigma: Della soon discovers that the two men were working together to dismantle several ivory trafficking networks and that her father was about to publish an article implicating a new hub of this trade. Soon, the couple put their lives in jeopardy to protect the elephants from the massacre they face every day, continue Bradley’s work and dismantle the networks at the head of the carnage.
Della and Nicholas are helped, among others, by a group of female rangers …The Akashinga rangers…
And my last book SNOW WHITE, again a story in which I included a lot of personal elements, it’s a very dark, violent, feminist version of Grim’s tale.
I talk about incest, because I was horrified by the stories that came out recently in the press,
and the number of children who are abused really made me sick, it also speak of battered women, and rape…
Rape and abuse by a powerful man, the king, some see it as a metaphor for Harvey Weinstein and other men of power, no doubt I fed on that, because it’s been very present in the news.
There is undoubtedly a political aspect in Snow White as well, because the seven dwarfs work in a mine, exploited by the tyrannical king, the people are starving, dying slowly racketted by the men of the king, who gets rich by exploiting them, by ruining their health, by threatening them, and their family. I believe that there is far too much difference between social classes in this society, the rich and the poor, the rich exploiting the poor more and more, I think that something is going to change soon… My book is also about a woman in power, a woman who overturns all obstacles to become this queen, despite the social background she comes from. Revenge is also present, and you will see that she uses apples in a totally new way. This is the snow white you can’t read to your kids…
I recommend waiting until adolescence because of the violence of certain passages.
Do you have any favorite poets or authors?
Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Do you have a favorite book of poetry or poems?
Christine by Stephen King, Silver Bullet, Dracula, the picture of Dorian Gray, everything horror or with fantasy elements. I love biographies too.
What are you reading now?
I read a lot of Stephen King and I start reading Christmas books, at Halloween I love vampire stories. I also read a lot of articles everyday, I love to use real life stories for my creations.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Full-time job, pets, hobbies?
I love movies, so I watch movies quite often, I love the old Hammer horror movies, watching Dario Argento and DePalma again, I also watch the 3 King Kong movies at least once a month.
I also like to take care of animals and defend their cause, my cat Minuit takes a lot of my time, because she very demanding, only daughter like me, smiles) and I cook new vegetarian dishes. Maybe I will write a cookbook one day. I have a passion for photography, but with the Covid, travel has become more difficult, so I have to wait for this artistic expression, I like to discover new painters, because they particularly inspire me.
Are you working on a current project?
I actually have a new project in mind, another horror book I will start soon, and I will also work on a book with a co-author at the end of the year.
I’m also working on a thriller film with a producer friend, and I’m still working as a screenwriter for directors around the world.
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