Book festival of Paris 2022

On Friday, I went to the Book Festival by train. This event allowed me to discover new authors who came especially from India. I acquire knowledge about myths influences. I attended two conferences, one of them was on Indian literature and the other on the emergence of children’s books.
Then, during a literary café organized by various organizations, I learned about the evolution of the market through a survey of formats (print, digital and audio). Then, I made contact with a few publishing houses, bought 2 books as well as the quarterly magazine Alibi (thriller). A busy professional day.

Links :

Paris Book Festival

Alibi Review

On the road of a new book

On the night of April 10, I dreamed of the heroine of my future fiction. I had been working for several days looking for ideas and documenting myself on several subjects. I felt like my notes were deep and correct but I couldn’t visualize my main character.

Then, during a dream, she appeared, playing one of the scenes from my book as if she were participating in the writing. She showed me something I hadn’t thought of. We then discussed his suggestion without having to introduce each other. It was the first time I experienced this and I feel relieved knowing that we are definitely on the right path.

Historical fiction : searching information

When you have an idea about a subject that requires accurate historical information, it’s not always easy to know where to search. Here are some tips that I learned. They could be useful to you. The documents come from several types and are not all in the same place.

People houses:

Letters, intimate correspondence. Testimonials from the era or descendants (stories passed down within the family or heard)

Archives: (national archives etc.)

Medical reports

Minutes

Birth certificates

Period newspapers

Theses: (specialized websites, universities etc.)

History student theses

Books :

Current authors who have written on or around the same topic

Local fund:

Public Library

Alias or not ?

When you began to write to publish, this question comes to you. What are the reasons for using an alias? I think, they are of two kinds. The first is to preserve your anonymity, the other one to create a second identity.
There are situations where authors feel a danger by publishing under their real name. Let’s take the case of the denunciation of illegal or violent acts through a book, thus providing testimony as a victim (illicit activities within a company, by example).
In a different case, opting for a pen name is also the possibility of publishing texts in a new style. Some authors do this with the aim of testing a new audience. For my part, I wrote a first short story under a pseudonym. I didn’t want to reveal my name when posting at that time. Then I realized that I felt it was important for me Several years later, I replaced the pseudonym (used for my novel) with one of my surnames.

Beta readers

Here is some news.

On December 30, I finish to write the first draft of my new fiction. It took me 1 year to make it. To begin, I chose an idea that I liked then I made historical researches of which I did not keep many elements. But, they contributed to nourish my inspiration to build an intrigue. When the first draft was finished, I asked some beta readers for their opinion. Which took me a week or two. It is important to give them enough time to read and to send their answers to the questions I asked. When this step was completed, I read the feedback carefully and took all constructive criticism into consideration. Which obviously required that I correct my first draft. Among the notes, some were too intrusive or didn’t go to the same direction than I wish for the book and I didn’t retained them. In a few days, I will send my book to several publishing companies. I would be lying to you if I told you that I do not feel a certain apprehension. But that’s a part of this project.

Happy new year

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Dear readers and professionnal partners,

I wish you all a Happy new year 2022.

Spies…

Last weekend I went to an exhibit and documentary movie about spies. What could be more exciting for an author than to go on search of disturbing historical facts?

The exhibition featured photographs of unusual objects that had belonged to secret agents and it was fascinating. Some of them were known from the people, others not. Not to be famous was certainly one of their quality at that time to preserve them.

The end of the exhibition ended with a set of 8 portraits of famous and incredible female spies.

The documentary film was titled “The Spies Who Came From Hollywood”. He recounted the important role played by a large number of artists during the Second World War.

References :

Exhibition: Secret Wars .

Documentary: the spies who came from Hollywood

To follow your modifications

At the moment, I am correcting the first draft of my new book. Of course, I could have sent it to an editor and waited for a feedback. But before doing it, I preferred to reread, adding some details, making improvements.

The reason why I’m talking to you about this project today, is because I realized that there is a function on libre office, the text processor. This one allows you to track your version changes. You can go back or go to the next changes. Keeping a list of all your changes is always interesting.

Having said that, in writing this article I though back to a sentence I heard on the radio recently. It was about the necessary function of forgetting. Don’t we tend to want to save and classify everything before we’ve even lived these moments ? why ?
From a historical point of view, it is obvious that retaining the testimony and any other document from the past is important. However, not accepting that it is impossible to keep everything intact seems problematic to me. There will certainly be traces of some of the events of our existence, but not of every moment, as an individual, I have not considered spending too much of my time listing them. It makes me feel like I’m not living fully.

Reading club

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October 29, I have been to the reading club of the public library in the town where I live. This one proposed news about books and I was curious about it.

The number of participants was huge and a lot of women were in the audience.

The session was moderated by four civil servants working for the library. Each one presented their readings and commented.

The list was long with different kind of books biographies, thrillers, thrillers, science fiction etc.

This exchange with the public fascinated me. Each agent presented a book in a unique way and I realised how much a reading was subjective.

For my part, I have enjoyed meeting people and discovering other authors in that way.

© 2025 Céline Valette – Tous droits de reproduction, d’adaptation et de traduction réservés pour tous pays sans le consentement de l’Auteur (titre, modèle, illustrations, photos...etc).