Originally from Brittany, Anne loves the rain, the wind, rough characters, modesty of feelings. She started writing late. The desire to write was there but so was the procrastination. Anne has really devoted herself to writing since she retired. She worked with passion and a lot of involvement in a Rehabilitation Institute for children and adolescents, an unfortunately little-known world of violence, where shattered childhoods coexist. This professional past had a great importance in his life. Anne lives in the countryside. She has a grown-up daughter who lives in Sydney.

Originally from Brittany, Anne loves the rain, the wind, rough characters, modesty of feelings. She started writing late. The desire to write was there but so was the procrastination. Anne has really devoted herself to writing since she retired. She worked with passion and a lot of involvement in a Rehabilitation Institute for children and adolescents, an unfortunately little-known world of violence, where shattered childhoods coexist. This professional past had a great importance in his life. Anne lives in the countryside. She has a grown-up daughter who lives in Sydney.

YOU PRESENT ON THE PLATFORM A COLLECTION OF NEWS WITH A MAGNIFICENT TITLE, EVIL SOMETIMES A ROSE , CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT IT

Yes, I too find this title magnificent. THANKS ! Sometimes in a surprising and completely unexpected way we can see a flower growing between two paving stones, on a stone wall or against a rock face. This is quite similar to the image I have of humanity. My short stories tell the hidden behind the scenes of the human soul with its hardness and its propensity to dominate the weakest. But in this harsh world that I look at without indulgence, there is sometimes exceptionally a love without expectation of return, an extraordinary courage, or simply an authentic kindness. It's the flower. »

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE NEWS

At the beginning for convenience, for doubt about my competence, for a taste for challenge and to have a deadline to meet because I am operational in an emergency. Short story competitions fit that. I had a few honorable places and that encouraged me. In fact now I love the short story because its short format allows you to fine-tune the text. For the obsessive that I am, it's great. Unfortunately, we find few short stories on the shelves of bookstores. The commonly held idea is that there is no readership for news. On the contrary, I think that there are no readers because there is not much news. »

WHEN DID YOU START WRITING

I started writing seriously when I retired. I hate this word. I will therefore say when I ceased my professional activity. But I started thinking about writing when I was in my twenties. Before, as a kid, I wanted to be a schoolteacher, a seamstress, a nurse, not a writer.

How and why did this idea of ​​becoming a writer appear at that time? I do not know. I love reading, passionately reading, always. I always have a book in progress and I have a preference for huge books with no end in sight. When I near the end of a novel it's a sadness and I plan for the next book. I definitely don't want to go a day without a book. When I go out in the car to run an errand, I take my book. You never know if I had a breakdown?

So one day, the idea of ​​writing a novel infiltrated my brain. But I'm just thinking about it. I said to my mother: “One day I will write a book. » I said this sentence as a promise to my mother and myself. But I still had good reasons to procrastinate. A youth that I lived to the fullest and a professional life that I lived to the fullest. Twenty years passed. My mother disappeared and I had written almost nothing. It became a regret, a pebble in my shoe that bothered me more and more. I was forty years old.

Unfortunately, I found myself making more excuses, justified or not. My very demanding professional life and an even more demanding marriage. After the birth of my daughter, I became interested in children's literature. I wrote and drew little things but nothing really came to fruition and it all went in the drawers. Twenty more years passed!

Today I stopped my professional life, I ended my marriage and my daughter is a big girl. I no longer have any pretext for evasion. In fact, it was probably supposed to be that way. A second life. It's awesome. I write several hours a day. Writing has become essential to me. A necessity and a happiness. »

DO YOU HAVE ANY WRITING RITUALS

Yes, but without having planned them. First I think a lot about my story. During many days. I am lucky to live in a landscape of water and marshes that inspires me. When I go out to run along the canal the thoughts arrive, undermine my sporting desires but take me towards new ideas. So I walk, I think, I construct pieces of history. Before writing the first word I need to know roughly where I am going and what the punchline of my story will be. Then I write my story as quickly as possible from the first to the last word, like a sketch but around a tutor. Then I start everything from the beginning and I work and rework my text. With each reading I adjust, I modify, I improve but overall I keep the framework envisaged at the start. »

DO YOU HAVE A TRICK WHEN YOU STUCK ON A BLANK PAGE

When I open my computer I know roughly what I am going to write because I write in thought first. Ready-made sentences arrive mentally when I'm walking or driving my car. So as not to forget them I tried the dictaphone. Say mental words in vocal words. But this doesn't work at all. Thoughts flow much faster than words. By recording myself I lose all the fluidity, beauty and spontaneity of the original sentences. It's a great shame. It would be great to be able to record thought, at the speed of thought. If someone invented a recording implant, I would buy it right away.

In front of my screen I try to remember these sentences and these parts of paragraphs which came to my mind, using the few key words written on pieces of paper, and I work. When I get stuck, I stop.

WITH OR WITHOUT A PSEUDONYM

“I always told myself that I would not use a pseudonym. I assert myself, I am authentic, I am not afraid to give my opinions etc… Recently, I have realized that it is not that simple. This preconceived idea no longer holds. But my thoughts on this subject are not complete and I would like to know what non-beginner authors think about it. Can you freely write a work of fiction?

Those close to us, but also everyone else, formerly known or known from afar, necessarily make connections with reality, with a sometimes shared experience, with situations, with characters. Isn't the nickname the artifice to avoid hurting some people and the armor to avoid suffering reprisals from others?

Does it allow you to write everything that you are forbidden to say in a family circle, in a dinner with friends, in a work meeting? Can it open the door to the secret gardens? Is this a sham? Or is it pure freedom and ultimately one's true self? Writing is a luxury when you can write what cannot be said. Perhaps the real question is “Can we write absolutely everything?”

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

“I have just finished a manuscript which is a testimony of life. Then I'm going to resume a novel in the psychological thriller genre that I started two years ago. I can't wait because I prefer fiction. I love telling stories and I love living with my characters. »

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE PUBLISHER WHO PUBLISHES YOU

“If I'm lucky enough to be published, I hope I like him or her! I also hope that this will be reciprocal. I imagine the author/publisher relationship as one made of mutual understanding, exchanges, and trust. It's important to be on the same page.