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24 April. I've finished the book that's based around 2060. So now I have to get it checked by someone.

11 April. JI'm getting on with the book taking place in 2060. I need a title all the same. I had a few problems with how to keep things going. I got myself stuck! Or should I say my characters got me stuck. However, I got over that and I've even had an idea for the end! I had one in the version written in 1980 but I wanted something else and I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. And then.... dring, along came an idea.

So, let's get on with it.

7 April. Well, I've had another think, and I've decided to transfer the sections on the stories I'm busy writing as well as the unpublished stuff to the section on the books in general. After all, there's nothing to add really about those that are finished. There could be things to say about the ones on the go. So the blog will be about kicking ideas around or developing unfinished stuff. If anyone has any ideas about organising this blog, I'd be pleased to hear them.

2 April. Well, well, I have not only started the blog but created a load of sections and they contain a load of information, so you can find out stacks of stuff about what I'm busy doing.

After spending time on all that, it might be a good idea to get back to actually writing my stories!

26 March 2024. I'm starting this blog to just chat about how the books I'm writing are doing.

   However, a little trip into the past might be a good idea. On the "Genesis of my books" page, I wrote about what I'd been doing during the summer of 2023, typing up old texts that had been written with my best friend Diane, and polishing them up in view to a possible publication. However, since they are SF stories, I hesitate to do that because it isn't easy to sell them. People say they don't like SF. And yet both those I did bring out "Protocol Phenix" and "The Survivor" (only in French, the English versions are on my computer), were very much liked by those who read them. One person even said "Magnificent". Thank you.

   In fact, if you look at the very first one that won a regional manuscript prize in 2007 run by the editors GabriAndre who don't exist any more, "Petits meurtres au jardin" (published in English later on under the title "The Cevennes Murders, 1. A Garden for the Departed"), there is some SF behind the scenes, as I didn't say who Noel and his cat Marmelade were or where they came from, and when I got to the third volume that ended their story, it was obvious that there was SF there. Those books were successful. 

   People thought I wrote detective novels because of the French titles, but in fact I have no specific sort. I've done detective novels, a historical novel, a non-fiction book, a spy story, one which mixes prehistory and anticipation (is that possible, someone asked me?), all sorts. It's the tale that interests me and I don't bother to wonder what category it fits. Who cares?

   So, when I wrote with my friend Diane, we only did SF because it interested us to create worlds and societies, to explore themes, subjects that were taboo at that time - which have since become accepted aspects of society. We were ahead of our time, especially in the 1960s. We began on Erth and then journeyed far away as space interested us, after Gagarin. We had our characters journeying far and wide beyond the solar system. And our stories became more and more complex.

   The two that I brought out go back to that time. Diane died in 1994 and I had to continue by myself - after a break of 4 years. I continued to explore themes and situations, thinking of her, imagining her reading them.

   And then came 2007 and I went into the "ordinary" world - retaining something of the SF, according to the story, because the SF I like gives me freedom to think and imagine what I want.

   I don't do Fantasy, and my stories don't contain monsters, robots or strange forms of ET. I consider man to be sufficiently monstruous. I like to ask myself "What is a human being?" "When is one not a human being?" and I can guarantee that there are a load of stories to be had by answering those questions. When you look at the diversity of humans on the Earth - and that diversity is all within the same schema - and you remember that in the past some peoples were not considered to be human (!), how can one not wonder if there aren't other ways of b eing human, other capacities to be had? It is said that we only use 10% of our brain, so what use could the remaining 90% be put? In view of the physical diversity on Earth, how can there not be a place for other elements? In fact one of my solitary scribbles came up with an answer to the diversity on Earth, and stands up to scrutiny. Maybe I should continue with that story...

    So, "Protocol Phenix" is a story about spying and "The Survivor" deals with the question of identity, not forgetting a love story full of problems, too, ni suspense. The fact that it all takes place in space is almost secondary. They are stories about humans.

   And so, to come back to the present, last summer, I enjoyed myself putting a load of novels into shape. They're finished, in English too, the covers back and front are done, they're all ready for publication. And it all gave me a lot of pleasure doing that !

   So if someone wants any information about those, just say. Maybe I'll create some individual pages for them. I'll have a think about that.