As part of the accessibility of digital books, the reading tool is very important. It must be adapted. Currently, very few e-reader models can both read text in audio and allow correct navigation. When I talk about navigation, I mean keys allowing you to move through the text and select actions indicated in the menu.
For my part, I tried a first model that was lent to me some time ago. He read the text of my book, which is quite astonishing and which, for people whose need arises, proves very useful function text to speech. Enlarging sans serif fonts is also an essential feature for reading digital books.
Dystopia and Utopia
Currently I am working on several projects and actively preparing a professional book fair. In my journey, this led me to think about different subjects. In the field of science fiction, the literary form that we call dystopia is for many of us the opposite of utopia. And yet, utopia and dystopia have a form of complementarity. The themes they address are often very similar. For my part, I think that utopia and dystopia are interesting to explore. The two points that worry me on this subject are the dogmatism of the single thought that certain utopias would tend to present through the stories as well as the pessimism of the situations related in some of the dystopias
Music and inspirations
I really like Music, it accompanies me in professional life as well as in private life.
If I publish this post today it is also to talk about the importance I attach to listening to all styles of music, multicultural enrichment and meetings during festivals and concerts whatever they may be large or small sizes.
This weekend, I listened to the group Cuerteto Tafi as part of the Aspres spring festival. An event that I particularly like and for which I would like to post a link today so that you can discover a list of artists with open sounds and horizons.
“They can cut off all the flowers, they won’t stop spring.” an inspired quote from Pablo Neruda pronounced by the band during the concert
List of links to find out more:
Thriller in the countryside
Recently, I read “In the factory of green thriller: ecopoetics and rurality
(Belphégor 2023) which collects several articles on the theme of crime fiction
Green.
It is not a novel, it is more of a study on the theme of the environment and the
detective novel.
If I’m talking to you about it today it’s because rurality is a concept which is still
associated with a certain form of cliché.
Not all the time fortunately.
Personally, I think this doesn’t make sense.
Reading this book gave me some thoughts that I share.
today with you in the hope that they will accompany you in your path.
In the green thriller, several subjects are addressed, notably the concept of
guilty space that I mentioned previously.
Several texts analyze how environmental issues fit into the narrative of a
detective novel and what are the specificities rural setting in a thriller.
A large place is given to American literature through the notion of
nature writing. However, a portrait of Western literature and particular aspect
of the Ukrainian detective novel is drawn up which is very interesting.
Sant Jordi book fair 2024
I will be present this saturday 27th of april for the Sant Jordi in Torreilles (France).
You could meet me in the morning till 11 hours. to discover my books.
This event would happen with le cercle des auteurs catalans during les floralies chemin de Juhègues. Free admission.
GPS coordinnates to come :
Latitude 42.762618
Longitude 2.986588
Collective of authors in catalan area
I am pleased to announce that this week I joined the circle of Catalan authors. A professional approach that I consider very important for discussing the arts and our profession. A possibility for you too, dear readers, to come and meet us in places favorable to the sharing of ideas.
Meeting around large print publishing
The meeting around the edition in large print took place online on Thursday, March 28, 2024 on the website of Occitanie book and reading. It is part of the reading for all. This event brought together several professionals around a theme related to the accessibility of the book.
I participated in this meeting which seem interesting for the artists here is a little report on this subject. The interventions of several participants including a visual disability awareness association and a specialized publishing house.
One of the most important information for reading adapted books concerns the font used, its size and the fact that it is necessarily without serif. The text needs to be formatted (paragraph, leading, etc.) too. A font has been developed following several studies, firefly is available on this website.
Republishing books and updating
As part of the reissue of my books in digital format, I updated the trailer for Fantastic L.A. because the cover of the book changed on the version published in 2023. I use the open shot software on Linux, it seems to me that It is also available on other platforms.
I acquired the video files and composed the music. Then, repair the track by track assembly.
Rendez-vous on my books page
Through History and Literature
From March 8 to 22, 2024, events around women’s rights week took place in libraries and other cultural places in my area.
At the start of the week, I listened to extracts from several books by women authors during an evening hosted by a feminist reading club. During these discussions, several specific points were shed light on. After the club’s intervention, I added a comment on the vision of witches through History and Literature.
Later in the week, I attended a conference on the role of women during antiquity and in particular as philosopher.
Among the books proposed, I opted to read the novel the daughters of Egalie written by Gerd Branterberg.
In another setting, I read also rock’n roll witch from Pleasant Gehman who I worked on documentation about Fantastic L.A.
Currently, I am devoting myself to several artistic projects, however taking the time to discover and discuss current themes enriches my thoughts.
The choice of characters
On this International Women’s Day, I reaffirm my support for all women. It’s a long fight for equality and although the progress is real, certain measures plunge it back into a certain form of archaism. Violence and discrimination have no place. And that for no one.
Writing, like any artistic form, reflects a part of the society that surrounds it and the impulse that an author gives in her story is a trace left.
For my part, the choice of characters was made in several ways. On the one hand, as I thought there were few female detectives in literature, I tried to create personalities along those lines. On the other hand, I made sure to maintain a certain logic to avoid falling into clichés.
Here are two excerpts from my fiction.
Beginning of the extract from Fantastic L.A. dialogue between the detective and one of the protagonists:
– Legend or not, what’s certain is that in the museum, there’s an indefinable presence that seems to protect what’s there.
– How do you know this?
– Gladys had mentioned it. All the employees knew that Fantastic L.A. had been set up in a building where a hold-up had been committed. Since the unsolved murder of one of the victims, unexplained events have been recurring.
– Have you seen or heard of a vampire kit acquired by the museum?
End of extract
Beginning of extract from Duel à Albi dialogue between the cinephile and a visitor:
The visitor stared at her intensely with a keen, deep gaze. Lydia in turn stared at him from head to toe, as if to make sure she wasn’t mistaken. She could detect no difference. It was indeed Gary Cooper, a Hollywood star of her childhood who had mysteriously crossed space-time to Albi.
End of extract