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-Can you please tell us about you? Where do you live and how is your daily life?
I live in a small French village near Geneva, and write both fiction and non fiction.
- When did you start writing? How often do you write? We want to learn all about your writing life!
I wrote stories from a very early age and always knew I wanted to be a writer, but also knew I needed to experience life before I wrote about it. After two years in the military, four as a student and flight attendant, one as a translator and five as a diplomat, I started writing and publishing my work.
My non-fiction topics range from politics through Past Lives to Olympic Fencing, and the fiction is short stories - and most recently two novels titled Recognitions and Premonitions. Both novels are published by Roundfire Books - Recognitions was out in 2016 and Premonitions will be out in June 2019.
I am now working on the third novel in this same trilogy, with the themes of past lives and the possibly pre-determined role of people we meet!
- How did you feel when you learned that you are on the Highly Recommended List of The London Independent Story Prize? How does it feel to have your work recognized?
It feels great, of course. However, in the writing life there are many ups and downs, and if you are passionate about your writing and not only doing it for recognition, you’ll keep writing no matter what.
- What's the best thing and the hardest thing about writing a Flash-Fiction?
When writing longer fiction, or even non fiction, the canvas is larger and you can paint a picture with more details. In flash fiction - which is actually a new form for me - you need to be more focused, and able to tell your story in fewer words... this is both the best and the hardest thing about writing it!
- Can you please give us a few tips about writing a 300-word flash-fiction story?
The best tip I can give is: know what you want to say and find an unusual way of saying it. I am still experimenting with this form myself - and each piece of flash-fiction I write is very different to the others. Experiment and dare to try different forms, until you find what works for you.
- What's the best thing about writing competitions?
I love entering competitions because it does give me an incentive to finish work by a specific deadline, and to experiment with different genres of writing. Communication with other writers and reading their work is always great, and if some form of recognition comes, too, then that’s an absolute bonus.
-Lastly, do you recommend the writers to give it a go on flash fiction story and LISP?
I do! This is one of my very first attempts at writing flash-fiction and I am so thrilled it is getting some recognition. This motivates me to explore this genre further and I definitely recommend giving it a go. You never know what you’re able to create, until you try!
