I’m always wondering about expatriates; don’t you miss the country where you were born and grew up?
I did more than just grow up in France. I spent many years of my adult life in Paris and yet was always fascinated by America so, when my career took me to New York, I knew I would never go back. I’m a citizen now and even though I miss my friends and look forward to my annual visits to France, I love New York and America too much to consider moving back.
Where do you find the ideas for your novels?
I wish I knew. If I did, I would go back to the source. Talking to writers/friends, it seems that some ideas stem from the need to rid the writer of a burden such as a powerful life experience, others from questions that one keeps wondering about such as “Is there something after death?” – This is how Bayou Cruel came about – or from a story one reads in the paper or overhears at a bar. There’s really no recipe for creativity, I’m just really grateful for any good idea.
As a writer do you have a routine?
I’m not a morning person – that was a problem while in the French army! Afternoon is my time at the keyboard. What I’ve learned over the years is to keep at it and write even when I feel I’m hitting a wall with my story. Ultimately, the time spent is never wasted, even when I end up trashing the previous day’s work. There’s always something of value that eventually finds its way back into the narrative.
Do you read a lot?
Yes. I enjoy novels – Franzen, McEwan and many more – biographies and mysteries – I’m a big Elmore Leonard fan. I don’t read much French literature because of the environment I live in and I feel bad about that.
Do you think in French or English?
Sorry, I cannot answer this one anymore than I know the language of my dreams. I could be writing in French and a line of dialogue will come in English or vice-versa.
Do you experience writer’s block?
To me it’s rather like hitting a wall. Even when I find the writing easy and the characters or the plot show me the way, I know the time will come when it all comes to a dead stop and I won’t know how to make the transition between what I just described and where I want to take the story. I used to panic when it happened, but I don’t anymore because I know that the solution will reveal itself eventually. It might take days and this is not a pleasant time. It goes with the territory, I guess.
How do you react to reviews?
I’ve been fortunate so far, but let’s be honest, we all want to be appreciated and any form of rejection hurts. A novel or screenplay is the result of months of hard work dedicated to a story. To read or hear that that it has all been a waste of time has to be painful. I’m not sure I believe those who say otherwise.
How do you research?
I try to gather as much information as possible in order to immerse myself in the environment where my characters live and interact. Only a fraction of it eventually finds itself on the printed page, but time spent on research is never wasted, it is essential to make it all ring true. Having decided that the main protagonist of Bayou Cruel was a restaurateur, I turned to a friend of mine, the owner of Taillevent, the Paris 3 star-restaurant. Not only did he welcome me in his kitchen, he also called Danny Meyer who allowed me to spend 2 days in his New York famed Union Square Café. I came out understanding my main character better and was able to describe his motivations, frustrations and ambitions in a way that Google, the researcher’s best friend, would not have made possible.