Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Paris Travel Tips: Ten Things to Know About the French

 

 

Paris is different from American cities.

It has its own rhythms, codes and expectations.

While tolerance for the idiosyncrasies of tourists is high in the City of Light, an acquaintance with Paris living can make your trip to France easier and more fun.

 

Here are ten tips for getting the most out of your trip to Paris:

1) Restaurants tend to serve meals at fixed times: noon to 2:30 pm for lunch and 7 or later until 11pm or so to sit down for dinner. Strict hours often mean better – and more genuinely French – food. Also, fixed price lunch menus – especially in business areas – can be a real treat: fast, good, reasonably priced.

2) People don’t eat and drink so much on the street in Paris. The take-out coffee with the beaker lid is practically unknown. Instead, Parisians enjoy their coffee (express, noisette, crème – not latte) sitting down in cafés, or (less fun) gathered around a coin operated automatic coffee machine at work or in the university.

3) Open air food markets are a wonderful place to buy fresh produce. The best are on fixed days in neighborhoods where locals shop – not right next to major monuments. French market sellers tend not to cheat their regular customers (of which you are not one). Even regular customers quietly check their change.

4) The French have a few basic rules of politeness that everyone agrees on and that make life better for all. Say “Bonjour, Madame” (or “Bonjour, Monsieur”) when you enter a shop or before you ask people for something. Part with a happy “Bonne Journée” or “Au revoir.” And be as attentive to saying “s’il vous plaît” (please) and “Merci” (Thank you) as you would be at home.

5) The French also share a collective faith in strange superstitions that they themselves do not really know the origins of. For example, it is bad and crude and terrible to cut lettuce with a knife. And: at the table, hands must be visible at all times (in some households hidden hands are worse than elbows on the table).

6) As a foreigner you are not obligated to act on these beliefs, but it is better if you know what they are and do your best to fit in.

7) Doggy bags are not “done” in Paris.

8) This said, even things that are not “done” are not really impossible as long as one knows that the request is unusual and you go about it in a sufficiently polite and good-humored manner. At a favorite restaurant, I recently asked to take home some of the excellent food that we had ordered too much of and did not want to waste (which would have been a tragedy). The restauranteer kindly wrapped the leftovers up for us, for which we were very grateful , especially since we know it is not “done”.

9) The biggest mistake some travelers make is to assume that what they’re used to is the way things work in the world - which is so silly that I wouldn’t even mention it except that I see it all the time.

10) French people, including Parisians, appreciate politeness, kindness and a sense of humor as much as anyone else.

Who is writing François Hollande's tweets?

 

François Hollande's twitter account

 Social media rules!

At least that's what politicians have heard. Including French ones. 

So François Hollande, president of France, has a twitter account. 

434,078 followers, hanging on every tweet.

How cool is that?

The challenge is: what to say? 

 

   François Hollande's tweets: a sampler.

 

"L’État sera toujours au rendez-vous de la capitale. Je n'ai qu'une chose à exiger : que Paris soit toujours Paris !" - May 15, 2012 (215 RT)

 

"La République ne laissera aucun de ses enfants de côté mais elle ne permettra à aucun de dériver." - May 15, 2012 (303 RT)

 "La République sera à tous les Français" - May 15, 2012 

"L'enjeu de ce quinquennat qui s'ouvre est la jeunesse."- May 15, 2012 

 "Le beau doit appartenir à tous. Le beau n'est pas un privilège."- May 15, 2012 

"Cher Bertrand Delanoë, j'ai saisi votre émotion."- May 15, 2012 

"Je réitère aujourd'hui mon engagement de recruter 60.000 personnels de l'éducation sur la durée de mon mandat."- May 15, 2012 

  "Je veux servir une grande cause : le rassemblement. L'espoir doit en être le fil conducteur. Vive la République, vive la France !"- May 15, 2012 

"La justice sera le seul critère sur lequel chaque décision sera prise au nom de la République."- May 15, 2012 

"Il est temps de remettre la production avant la spéculation. L'emploi durable avant le profit immédiat." - May 15, 2012 

===

Hey wait a minute! This looks like a speech! Hmmm.

Looks like FH's ghost tweeter had lots of inspiration on May 15, then, after one last tweet, dropped off the face of the twitterverse three days later never to be heard from again. (This was before his girlfriend's meantweet about his ex-wife).

Nearly a half million twitternauts haven't heard from their Pres in THREE MONTHS!

Hey Social Media mavens out there: any advice for our tweet-tied French president?

***

For fans of French politics here are the twitter handles for some of your favorite pols:

@RoyalSegolene

@valtrier

@FrancoisFillon

@montebourg

@CecileDuflot

@MartineAubry

 

 

 

 

Innovative French publisher of English language writers. Un gringo à Sierra Madre. Interview

Writers on Writers

 Richard Grant, author of God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, talks with Dominique Godrèche, French journalist and anthropologist, about the drug-based "golden triangle" of the American Southwest. 

Richard Grant

A French version is available from the acclaimed French indie publisher 13E Note Editions* under the title  Un Gringo dans la Sierra Madre.

Richard Grant's book, American Nomads and Bull riders (Grove Press, 2003) won the 2004 Thomas Cook Travel Literature Award.

 ***

Dominique  Godrèche:  Why did you decide to write a book on the Sierra Madre ?

Richard Grant: Living in South Arizona, hearing these stories about the Sierra Madre, a lawless place, big and unexplored, where “it is too dangerous to go”, a “forbidden zone”, where people still live in caves…it had a mythological aspect !  I was amazed by the existence of such a territory: so I read a few books,  and decided to go, out of curiosity, to know what it was like.

  How does the term  “golden triangle” apply to this area ?

It is used  as a reference to the  golden triangle in Asia, and designates the area where Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Durango come together.

You describe it as “so close from the border”, (about thirty kilometers), but so different, an “outlaw zone” ?

Yes, the wild west sitting in America’s back door: standing on the us side of the border,  the mountains are right there… But you drive down to the other side of the border, and the geography becomes  extraordinary, so rugged: no paved roads…An extreme environment! I could not imagine the existence of such a  place in the 21st century ! 

 Is it the geography,  that makes the area so special ? It seems like an acculturated area, neither Mexican, or Mexican American: “another country” ?

Yes, as its culture is determined by its topography. Those huge canyons…One after the other, where the police has a hard time getting over. This part of Mexico near Douglas, Arizona, begins in Sonora, and Chihuahua, and goes down into Durango, Sinaloa, Aguas Calientes…And yes, the Sierra Madre is its own place  !

 What is local economy  based on ?

 The main economy is drug; and then cattle ranching. And the money goes into gold guns. People do not believe in the future: future will steal your money, because life is short ! …

 So, how is that area controlled  ?

 The army is present, but some of them are corrupted, paid by the drug dealers, and sell drug.  While another part of the army fights it.  And the police is corrupted too. So behind a façade of law, but if you scratch a bit, you see it is inexistent: lots of intrigues, different layers of corruption... The  main  economy remains the drug.

 Are there schools ?

No, as they cannot get teachers to come up there: they are not able to house them, and it is so far from any where…They only  have television schools.

 What was your main interest, regarding that story about the Sierra Madre  ?

I am interested by zones with no government control, and its role in the drug trade; and that area is one of the biggest in the world ! Living on the border, we know that  a lot of the drug is grown in the Sierra Madre: 50 billion worth of drug coming through this border!

 Is this  drug traffic still important, growing ?

It goes on: with more death…50 000 killings in the north of Mexico when I was there!  This incredible violence in the mountains, is now spreading all over Mexico, where there are more killings then in Afghanistan! Especially in Ciudad Juarez, and Tijuana.

 You mention that the Tarahumaras tribes of the Sierra Madre are getting involved in the drug traffic? 

Yes, the youngest do; the Tarahumaras wanted to be left alone. But it is difficult: people cut down the trees to plant drug, and the tarahumaras get in conflict with them, as they are losing their land. So they either work for the narcos, or grow their own drug.

 Who visits the Sierra Madre, apart from the tourists, in Copper Canyon ?

Not very many people, really: it is very difficult to travel there, because of the geography. Also, strangers are not welcome, and have never been; even before the drug. They are like hillbillies up there: living in small clans, suspicious of outsiders,  closed. It is their  cultural attitude.

 You have been able to travel in the sierra Madre because of your conexions and “protections”: is that the only way to move around safely in that area, by knowing  its social texture ?

Yes, it is the only way,  except for Copper canyon, where it is possible for anyone to  travel safely. Otherwise, you need someone to recommend you, and make sure that the people know you are not part of the drug enforcement agency (Dea): that is how I managed to travel.

 So, as isolated as it is, people know each other all over Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora…? 

Yes; I stayed there for three months, and found out that everything depended on whom I was with:  if they trust that person, they are hospitable. Though it does not always continue, because of the high consummation of  cocaine and alcohol: everything can swing, all of a  sudden !

 What relations do Mexico and the United States have in regard  to drug trafficking  ?

The traffic  represents an industry of $50 billion a year, on which  Mexico depends. Before President Calderon, there was a tacit understanding between the Mexican government and the cartels, allowing the business to continue. But Calderon fighting the cartels, provoked an increase of violence. Meanwhile, the drug -marihuana, cocaine,  heroine… is still getting in the  usa in same quantity, and cheaper. The bulk of it is marihuana.

 You describe rituals, observance of traditions..Is there a  strong religiosity ? A specific culture of the area, with the “corridos”, (narco songs) a certain type of  fashion, look etc …?

Yes, there is a very rich tradition of shamanic rituals, mixed with Catholicism, and folk beliefs: mythical creatures, hidden treasures… And Saint Jesus Malverde, a Sinaloa bandit,  the patron protector of the narcos, is very revered. The Narcos dress with ostrich boots,  carry fetichised ak47 guns …And play their “Narcocorridos”…

 What is their relation to the United States: any North American influence?

They supply the market; a lot of them have relatives in the usa, as there has been such a huge migration of Mexicans there. Economic relationships are powerful. But there is no north American influence as such. And apart from Copper canyon, no Americans go to the sierra Madre. Tourists are protected by the narcos: nobody wants them troubled. It is good business! So this slice, with the  railway line,  in the middle of the mountain, remains safe. From los Mochis, to Chihuahua City; and Creel, the tourists town.

 Is  the drug money reinvested in the infrastructure of  the area ? 

No; the money will go on  status symbols, such as pick up trucks, that they lift, as a display.  But also because there are no roads. They also spend  it on huge parties, with a lot of alcohol, flying in musicians… There are no cities, aside from the little town of Creel. Only villages, and ranches.

 Is there a narcos exodus to the usa ?

Narcos bank their money in the usa; “big” ones have their children in good schools there. The important untold story, about the drug trade, is the banking, and the money laundering of Mexican money in the United States: in Tucson, el Paso, you see those huge expensive banks! the money laundering by American banks is a huge aspect of the trade organized by cartel bosses, up to billion dollars…

  Will you go back to the Sierra Madre ?

Only to Copper Canyon! Not where they tried  to kill me !  As  I mention in the last part of my book…

 You think you live in an age of connectedness… But this place is so different, so far away…Even from the rest of Mexico: it is really another country! 

 

***********************************************

 

Richard Grant is a British writer and journalist, author of Crazy River, God’s Middle Finger,  American Nomads, and a contributor to the Telegraph magazine, the Sunday Times, and many other publications.  Born in Malaysia, he lived in Kuwait and London, studying history at the University College, and later chose to settle in Tucson, Arizona; he currently resides in New York. His book, American Nomads and Bull riders (Grove Press, 2003) won the 2004 Thomas Cook Travel Literature Award.

 

Dominique Godrèche is a French anthropologist, writer, free lance journalist, author of Santana, and contributor to various medias in France, and Europe. Born in Paris, she studied in India, Mexico, and New Mexico, where she specialized in Native American and Hispanic cultures, attending anthropology and psychology  at the University of Paris, and at Ehess. (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales de Paris). She is a laureate of the Prix de la Villa Medicis Hors les Murs en littérature 1933, for her essay on Native American story telling, and the Prix spécial de la Fondation pour l’Enfance de Paris, for her research on Native American and Hispanic acculturation and youth in the American Southwest.  

*13e Note Éditions, publishes a remarkable selection of American counter-culture writers, including : Dan Fante,  William Burroughs Jr, Sam Shepard, Charles Bukowski, Barry Gifford,  Nelson Algren, Mark SaFranko, Barry Graham, Ruffin… Says director Eric Vieljeux: 

“Je tiens à découvrir  des auteurs atypiques, parfois même non publiés dans leur propre pays...Ils n’ont d’autre échappatoire que celui d’écrire : ce sont eux qui  présentent une nouvelle facette littéraire, un autre visage de l’Amérique ».

 

Janet Hulstrand founder of Writing from the Heart, talks with journalist Pamela Leavy

Writers on Writers

 

Janet Hulstrand, educator, author, and founder of Writing from the Heart offered in Essoyes, France talks with journalist Pamela Leavy on teaching, coaching and the writer's craft

 

     Janet Hulstrand recently worked and lived in Paris in her role as director of study abroad programs for Hunter and Queens College in New York-(CUNY), The City University of New York. Hulstrand, a contributor to Bonjour Paris is fluent in French and Spanish, serves as a consultant and adjunct professor at Queens and is author of the National Association of International Educators best-selling booklet” What Parents Need to Know About Education Abroad.”

 She returns to France for her “Writing from the Heart” week-long retreats in Essoyes, heart of champagne country.  While in Paris, she talked with Paris Writers News about teaching, coaching, and her craft.

***

Pamela Leavy: You advise writers to establish a twitter site. Why?

Janet Hulstrand: Twitter is one of the most powerful promotional tools I have seen and it is free, Twitter messages are like word games,  limited to 140 characters that are informative and worth saying. Twitter can direct others to Facebook, your Blog, all your links. You can create your own Twitter world and make friends that way with one Twitter message or multiple Twitters a day.

PL: Tell me about “Writing from the Heart” before we talk about your recent college teaching experience in Paris.

JH: Writing from the Heart offers a journey into the heart of France and into your own heart. The next session of Writing from the Heart in Essoyes will be held October 23-29, 2012. Participants find the time, courage and inspiration to write about what’s most important to them. The group relaxes in the same beautiful setting that nourished the creative genius of Pierre Auguste and Jean Renoir, among other artists.  In a charming family-run hotel with a beautiful setting and excellent cuisine, writers work on their own writing or begin to write for the first time in a non-judgmental, supportive, small-group workshop. I believe that the best writing is born of both wisdom and courage. Wisdom comes from life experience. The courage to express what we truly believe and have learned through our life experience is the source of the best writing there can be. Writing from the heart is a bold act. It is not for the faint of heart.

I would like to share this with readers because I think this quote goes to the heart of why writing from the heart is such a good and important thing. The quote is by James Baldwin, one of my favorite writers “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was the books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”  

JH: When you write from the heart, you fear that what you share may be scorned, mocked, or misunderstood. Or that what you have to say may be incorrect or inconsequential, that it may offend or expose you to ridicule. But what you find instead nearly always is that it connects you to humanity in a way that precious few other things do. When you write honestly from the heart, you find that your writing almost inevitably touches other people and creates a common chord of understanding. It also frees you up to experience your own life in a deeper, richer way than you were able to do before. And it can be a never-ending process of learning, growing, and discovering not only yourself but the world and the people around you.

 PL:Did you teach writing to your college students this summer? 

JH: In Paris my literature students were introduced to traveling and living and studying abroad,  to literature classics and to Paris history, I encouraged them to sit in cafes, to  carry a journal for notes and to  document the photos they took (a good tip for writers too so you can go back, find, and use your photos), and  to read the Paris history about street names and metro signs. I also invited James A. Emanuel, the American Poet who has lived here since 1984, l to speak to the class.

PL What are some of the books you use in Writing from the Heart  sessions?

JH: I use Julia Cameron’s “The Right to Write,”described as a refreshing reminder that writing can be satisfying.I also use Brenda Ueland’s “If You Want to Write.”

Ueland published two books during her life. The first was If You Want to Write: a Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, first published in 1938. She put forth the idea that “we are all talented, original and have something important to say.”

PL: Please tell me about your Winged Words editorial service.

JH:  I have worked on  books by individual writers including Caroline Kennedy, such an intelligent and gracious lady, and other clients have included Artisan Publishing, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Lawrence Jordan Literary Agency among others.

PL: What personal writing work do you have in progress?

JH:  Stay tuned. I am currently writing a literary memoir titled A Long Way from Iowa.

 

Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, and teacher based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her essays and articles have been published in the Christian Science Monitor, International Educator, Guide to Retirement Living, Smithsonian.com,and many other publications. She studied essay writing with Anatole Broyard and literature with Philip Roth, and has taught writing and literature at Hunter and Queens Colleges of the City University of New York. Her first book, Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home, was reviewed in the national press and widely praised: she and her coauthor now blog on this topic at Downsizing the Home: Lessons Learned. She is a frequent contributor to Bonjour Paris and writes essays on travel and literature for her blog, Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road. 

 The next session of Writing from the Heart in Essoyes will be held October 23-29, 2012. Enrollment limited to 10. APPLICATION DEADLINE August 15, 2012. For additional information and application forms, contact[email protected]   Cost: 1295 Euros (to be paid in equivalent dollars at the current rate of exchange) includes tuition, six nights in the hotel, breakfast and dinner.   

 

 

Also:  Sun 5 Aug. 19h00  DRINKING CHAMPAGNE AND THE CHAMPAGNE REGION THIS SUMMER. Writer Janet Hustrand. Patricia's Paris Expats Soirees Dinners. To reserve [email protected] 

 

Stephen Clarke on French history, Paris bookshops and Paul West's debt to DSK

Stephen Clarke will be signing his latest book September 25 at WH Smith in Paris!

 

For Paris writers, Stephen Clarke needs no introduction. The author of the bestselling “Merde” series (A Year in the Merde, Merde Actually, Merde Happens, etc), he is the icon of success for self-published authors and a witty presence on the Paris literary scene. I contacted him after admiring the striking presentation of God Save Ze Président on amazon.fr.

Transcripts of a conversation with Stephen Clarke, over coffee, opposite the Paris Opera.

 Laurel Zuckerman:The Amazon Kindle ebook promotion for God Save Ze Président was remarkable. Who does your ebooks? They are much better distributed than most in France.

Stephen Clarke: The French eBook promotion was done by my agent Susanna Lea. A company named Versilio in Susanna Lea’s office makes French eBooks. There’s a battle over royalties with publishers on eBooks.

 

What are your experiences with French publishers as opposed to American or British publishers?

Susanna Lea, when she sells to UK publishers, sells all rights separately.

A Thousand Years Of Annoying The French was the number one best seller in the UK. But for America there’s a problem: for seven hundred years, Americans aren’t even in the book! The US doesn’t have a paperback, just an eBook. In the US, they sell the Canadian and British paperbacks. US publishers only wanted to do hardback.

 Are you on social media?

 No I don’t really do social media. No Facebook.  I tweet a little, only if I see something funny, I follow comedian, who come out every ten days with a good joke, not the “This is what I’m doing right now”. I don’t tweet about what I’m writing, just funny things I see.

 Do you get distracted by the internet?

 I’m not distracted by the Internet. I use it a lot when writing a novel, for research. For example, I wanted to say that an event was the biggest "what if" since ... and I found something great to fill the gap.

 What was it?

 You have to read the book.

 I don’t see how social media will help. I want to earn my living by writing books. I want people to read my books. I don’t want them to know what my favorite pasta sauce is. I’m not trying to be their friend. I believe a lot in relationships between authors and readers. I like doing readings and answering questions. And when someone writes to me, I always reply.

Susanna Lea has slogs for her authors.
 

What’s a “slog”?

A Susanna Lea Blog!

 Who are your favorite French authors?

 Camus, novels that take you somewhere. Living and experiencing vividly what’s going on. The French are not very good at the kind of novel where style disappears and narrative and characters take over like in L’Etranger. Also, Jean Giono’s great novel Regain.

 And your favorite living English language authors?

 William Boyd and Robert Harris. Incredibly well researched novels Enigma, Imperius and Pompei.

 The Village Voice has announced that it will close and the Red Wheelbarrow is for sale.  Your thoughts?

 It’s sad when little English bookshops go. When I first started out with A Year In The Merde, I delivered books by hand to the Abbey Bookshop, Shakespeare’s, Brentano’s, WH Smith, and Red Wheelbarrow. Once I took ten books over to the Red Wheelbarrow on a Saturday morning. Just after lunch, Penelope rang me up “Can you bring me more? Someone bought one, read it, came back and bought all the rest for his friends.”

Abbey Books was the first place anywhere to buy or sell A Year in the Merde. I was going around Paris with 200 copies. Finally went in the Abbey Bookshop. Bryan said “It looks fun!” He turned to a client, held out the book and said “Would you buy this book?” The client said yes so Brian took copies. 

 I wrote the book as Paul West, a character who’s much younger than I am. At my first reading ever at Abbey Books, I pretended to be him. I told them “I lied about my age but everything else is true.”

 

 Do you have any ideas on how to save bookstores?

 Maybe a walk-in eBook download? People can browse paper copies then buy the eBook at the store. Or a policy of lots of readings, diversify, have coffee, browse and buy.

 Have you been pirated?

Not yet, touch wood.

 If you were a young author just starting out today, what would you do?

 I’d self-publish an eBook probably. When I did it, the reason I did it was that it had been turned downed by agents and publishers. I just wanted to get it out there. I’d still try to get a book out and sell it from door to door!

 What are you working on now?

 My new novel is coming out in September. To promote it, the publisher wants 5-10,000 words to sell as a 99 cent eBook. It’s called The Merde Factor. It’s the latest installment of Paul West in Paris. But now it’s the credit crunch, chambre de bonne, mad neighbors, trying to get a job, going to work with French functionaries.

 You’re not going to make fun of French functionaries are you? That would be terrible!

Yes.

I wanted to explore a character who gets sexually harassed by someone powerful. This was really a problem- until DSK.

Before DSK, she would get fired and humiliated, anything else was not credible. DSK helped make the plot credible. The climate has changed if someone important does that now. He (DSK) actually helped me out! (note: Stephen wrote article about DSK in the New York Times)

 ***

Bestselling humorist Stephen Clarke has been published in (last count) twenty countries. His books are widely available in bookstores around the world and, of course, on Amazon and other online retailers. For more on Stephen Clarke, visit his website here. 

Graphic designer Lydia D'moch on creating an original book cover

Lydia D’moch, winner of the Best Paris Stories book cover design competition, is a California-based graphic designer. She specialized in book design for the adult and children’s trade markets as well as general publication and editorial design. Having worked in-house for several major publishers, she has been freelancing since 2009. We had the good fortune to discover this talented designer during the cover contest for Best Paris Stories. Her lovely design won the contest and has received so many compliments - for both paperback and ebook - that we wanted to learn more about her process.  Interview

 

How did you get into book design?

I graduated from Scripps College, which has a rich humanities curriculum and a great art program. I anticipated an illustration career, but I also like to write, so I was rather unfocused as to what I wanted to do when I got out into the world. I was 24 and showing my illustration portfolio in San Francisco when an art director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich casually mentioned a job opening for a junior book designer—and voilà, a twenty-five year publishing career was born. It was a perfect match since it combined so many of my interests and things I loved doing.

Can you tell us something about the book design process?

Book design involves organizing and designing content while understanding the specific technical requirements of good bookmaking. The design should support and enhance—but not overshadow—the author’s words and images. I think it helps to have a strong editorial sensibility in addition to solid design skills; I greatly enjoy working with editors and authors, as well as the whole process of transitioning a work from its manuscript stage. I’m always aware that my job is to create a visual identity that brings a book to life.

How did you come across the contest and decide to enter?

I found the call-for-entries while browsing Paris-related websites, only a few weeks before the deadline. A couple of ideas suggested themselves to me immediately, which doesn’t always happen—but of course, what better subject than literary Paris to run wild with creatively? I ultimately submitted two different ideas. It was great to design a cover for the pure pleasure of it, about a place that I love, without the usual pressures that accompany the cover development process, and I think that was very freeing—not to mention fun!

 

 How did you come up with the idea for the cover?

 I had a very clear concept from the start. The vintage photo was the catalyst—something that seemed perfect for this anthology. My husband’s a photographer who shares my interest in collecting old photos and ephemera. He purchased the original Kodachrome transparency years ago at a garage sale—it was a real gem among a cache of ordinary tourist slides that looked to be from around 1965. It depicts a still-postwar Paris on a wintry morning, and its mood and period details pull you in, suggesting stories to be told. I felt it was important to include all the authors’ names on the cover, but overprinting them was a problem, hence the blue and red bands. Although the contest objective was the front cover design, I completed the full cover so that I could fully integrate the components across the back and spine. And I was also asked to design a variation of the cover for the Amazon Kindle singles.

 

Any technical obstacles you overcame?

 The original transparency was in remarkable condition considering its age, but it was quite dark, and heavy on the blue. I wanted to enhance the lovely monochromatic palette. After digitizing it, we did a great deal of color and contrast work on it, and added a warming filter to bring out the spectrum of grays in the wet pavement and cobblestones a bit more. I also did some Photoshop work to remove a couple of distracting color details that would have affected type readability.

 What is your personal connection to Paris?

 I’ve been to Paris numerous times, with my most recent visit in 2007. As a designer, Paris is of course a huge source of inspiration, but I’ve been drawn to it since childhood. Maybe the seed was planted by the French nuns that taught me in grade school. Later, when my family lived in Spain for several years, my older sister graduated from the American College in Paris (now AUP), and her experiences living and studying there really seized my imagination. I first visited when I turned 21—just the place for a memorable coming-of-age. Every visit is different, but I always return home exhausted, exhilarated, and ready to go back immediately.

 

About Lydia D’moch

Lydia D’moch’s design awards include Bookbuilders West Book Show, the AIGA 50 Covers/50 Books Competition of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the New York Book Show. In addition, two books she recently designed are finalists in the upcoming Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards, as well as the IBPA [Independent Book Publishers Association] Benjamin Franklin Awards.  She also designed a children's book (Smoky Night) which won the Caldecott Medal, the highest honor given by the American Library Association (ALA) for children's book illustration (the illustrator was David Diaz).

http://www.coroflot.com/ldmoch  

http://www.creativehotlist.com/profile/ldmoch/portfolio/group1

 

 

Fiction workshops July - August at La Porte Peinte Centre Pour les Arts in Noyers sur Serein

August 6 -10, 2012 American writer Ann Tachi Slater will be in France this August teaching a fiction workshop focusing on the short story, in Noyers sur Serein. The cost is 750 €

For more information, please see  A Few Well-Chosen Words: Writing Flash Fiction, Ann Tashi Slater

 ***

This personal recommendation just in from Paris writer/teacher Jeffrey Greene! 

Dear Writers & Friends,

Here's a wonderful opportunity!  See below.

Jon Lee Anderson is one of the very best and most intrepid journalists I know.  Anyone who gets The New Yorker will see his work.  His book on Che Guevera is iconic.  For anyone interested in important journalism, here is an amazing, rare opportunity to work with the master.  There are only a few spots left.

Ann Tashi Slater, lovely writer and teacher, is providing a special workshop on the "flash fiction."  It's something I've been working with and it fascinates me.  This is going to an excellent course.  

La Porte Peinte is a beautiful art center, gallery, and residency in gorgeous village in north Burgundy, not far from Paris.  I was there recently and love Michelle.  The center is starting its writing workshops with to very special writers.  

Please pass this information on to anyone whom it might benefit.

Thank you, Jeff

THERE ARE STILL SOME PLACES LEFT! SEE WWW.LAPORTEPEINTE.COM FOR HOW TO APPLY. LIMITED FINANCIAL AID AVAILABLE.

WRITING WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES AT LA PORTE PEINTE CENTRE POUR LES ARTS IN BURGUNDY, FRANCE

30 July – 3 August
Capturing the Story
Jon Lee Anderson
What do Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have in common? What was Saddam Hussein afraid of? What lies in the heart of a dictator? What does a dictator keep on his nightstand? Does a terrorist feel guilt? How does one tell the story of a war? Every good story begins by asking the right questions. In  bearing witness, do you offer a forensic examination of what fills your senses or do you just recount the plain truth of what you see, hear and smell? These are some of the issues we will address in this intensive masterclass. Whether you write on war, travel, or in some other genre, long-form journalism relies on knowing how to perceive a moment and convey its truth in an honest and deliberate way, just as a photographer does in a snapshot. We’ll look at how to locate the telling detail and how to construct a story structure, dissecting some of my own pieces to see how they are built, discerning the details selected and the structural decisions taken to reach the final form. During the workshop you will be asked to go out, locate a single moment, and report it, situating it in space and time and conveying its significance. In addition to the group work, in the course of the five days each participant will have a private session with me. You should come away from the week with new tools at your command, a strengthened sense of your aims and abilities, increased confidence in your ability to tell a story, and a sense of shared purpose and enduring friendship with your fellow participants. Fee: 750 €.

Jon Lee Anderson is an investigative journalist who writes for The New Yorker.  He has also written forThe New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, El País, Harper’s and Time. His books include Guerrillas: Journeys In the Insurgent World, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan, The Fall of Baghdad, and the recent El dictador, los demonios y otras crónicas, a collection of articles on Latin American and Spanish politics. 

 

6-10 August
A Few Well-Chosen Words: Writing Flash Fiction
Ann Tashi Slater
This five-day workshop focuses on the short story, with special attention paid to flash fiction, or stories about 300-1000 words long. How to tell a complete, compelling story in so few words? In addition to reading short shorts by well-known authors, we will experiment with different techniques and approaches through a range of writing exercises. Participants may bring a story with them for critique and revision; we will also make use of prompts inspired by the village of Noyers sur Serein, with the aim of producing a finished flash by the end of the workshop. The group will meet in the mornings, with the afternoons free for writing. Each writer will also be offered one private session with the tutor. Participants should come away from this intensive week with renewed inspiration and some freshly honed writing skills. Fee: 750 €

Ann Tashi Slater’s work has appeared in Shenandoah, Gulf Coast, and Painted Bride Quarterly, as well as in the YA anthologies American Dragons and Tomo. Her translation of a novella by Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas was published in Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories. She is Tibetan American, was born in Spain, grew up in California, and has lived and worked in France, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Bali, India, and Tibet. A resident of Tokyo, she teaches American literature at a Japanese university.  www.anntashislater.com

AUP Summer Writing Events 7/3, 7/10, 7/17 Paris

Just this in from Jeffrey Greene of the American University in Paris:

Summer Creative Writing Institute.

All events will be 6 p.m. Grand  Salon, 31 avenue Bosquet, 75007.

The first event with creative writing is tomorrow at 6 p.m. with  Darcey Steinke, our remarkable fiction writing professor who just  arrived.  Poet Cyrus Cassels follows on July 10, a reading and  discussion with poet and translator Ellen Hinsey.  Fiona Sze Lorrain  joins us on July 17 to read from her work and discuss editing,  translating, and much more.

 

Tuesday July 3, 2012 Fiction Reading by Darcey Steinke

Author of the memoir Easter Everywhere (Bloomsbury 2007, New York Times Notable) and the novels, Milk (Bloomsbury 2005), Jesus Saves (Grove/Atlantic, 1997), Suicide Blonde (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992), and Up Through the Water (Doubleday, 1989, New York Times Notable). With Rick Moody, she edited Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited (Little, Brown 1997). Her books have been translated into ten languages. Her novel MILK was translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Nonfiction has appeared, among other places, in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Review, Vogue, Spin Magazine, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Guardian (London). Her web-story "Blindspot" was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, and has taught most recently at Columbia School of the Arts and Barnard.

 

Tuesday July 10, 2012 Poetry Reading by Cyrus Cassells

Cyrus Cassells was born in Dover, Delaware. He grew up in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, California. He is the author of four acclaimed books of poetry: The Mud Actor, Beautiful Signor, More Than Peace and Cypresses, Soul Make a Path through Shouting, for which he was nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His fifth book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, will be released in April 2012 from Copper Canyon Press. Among his many honors are a Lannan Literary Award, a Lambda Literary, the William Carlos Williams Award, two NEA grants, and a 1995 Pushcart Prize. He is a Professor of English and teaches for the MFA writing program at Texas State University-San Marcos.

 

Tuesday July 17, 2012 Reading and Discussion of Translation and Publishing with Fiona Sze Lorrain

Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in English, French, and Chinese. Her book of poetry, Water the Moon received an Honorable Mention in the 2011 Eric Hoffer Book Award. With Nobel Prize-winner Gao Xingjian, she co-authored Silhouette/Shadow. Besides her numerous translations of contemporary French, Chinese, and American poets, Sze-Lorrain is one of the founding editors of Cerise Press, and she serves as an editor at Vif éditions. She is also a highly accomplished zheng concert performer.

 

Light refreshments will be served

Events will be held in the Grand Salon, at 31 Avenue Bosquet, 75007 Paris 

 

Corneliu Mitrache, playwright, on the controversial sequel to Waiting for Godot, soon in Paris and Avignon

An interview with Corneliu Mitrache, playwright and novelist, whose controversial sequel to Waiting for Godot will be performed in Paris and Avignon in June and July 2012

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Corneliu, you’re an English-language Romanian-born author living in Paris. How did that came about?

I seem to change countries every twenty years. I grew up in Romania during communism. My first dream was to fly planes. After a thorough medical examination, I was admitted to the only aviation school in the country, which trained pilots for both military and civil aviation. Even though I was fond of flying, I quit aviation two years later, then escaped Ceausescu’s oppressive regime by swimming across the Danube. A year later, I immigrated to America. After getting my private pilot license in a community college with a flight program, I went to Western Washington University, from which I graduated with a BA in theater. With three plays in my suitcase, I moved to New York. If you can make it in New York, the song goes…

Did the song work for you?

Kind of. In New York I met some talented thespians, and they chose to stage the play I least expected to be produced: Waiting for Godex (original title, Godex Has Come). In writing this play I had no intention of measuring my dramatic chops against Beckett's. Back then I was high on Nietzsche, and Godex was my funny philosophical homage to Nietzsche’s misunderstood “eternal recurrence.”

How was the play received?

Like an UFO crash-landing in mid-Manhattan. The Village Voice sent its “investigation team” and determined that Godex was a “post-modernist manifesto.”

Two years later Godex landed at The Attic Theatre in Los Angeles. The LA Weekly hailed it as “thought provoking and funny as hell.” Los Angeles Times also dropped by: “[Waiting for Godex] marks what may become a healthy wave of Beckettian revisionism.” Some time after, Godex was welcomed in my university town north of Seattle. We were interviewed by the local radio station. Years passed, and I take the blame for not sending Godex out for future productions or publication.

When did you move to Paris?

January, 2000. In addition to the plays, my laptop contained a first novel, Crossing the Styx, based on my Romanian past. While in Paris, a Russian belle married to a French aristocrat inspired me to write A Marquise of our Time. I sent the English manuscript to Denöel/Gallimard, and they accepted it. Alas, a new literary director had just come on board, and my sexy marquise thriving in the sin-city of Paris didn’t turn him on. A couple of writers in the reading committee fought on my behalf, but to no avail. While this publishing drama was going on, I revised my first novel and sent it to the reluctant chief editor. He called me the next day. So Crossing the Danube was published in 2005 instead of A Marquise of our Time. The novel caught the attention of the press, blogs and online magazines. Le Monde was supposed to publish a favorable review, but they canceled its publication when they found out that I didn’t belong to the group of Romanian writers participating at Les Belles Etrangères, an annual literary event. That particular year Romania happened to be the guest of honor. In 2007 I made a theatrical adaptation of my published novel, which ran for three months in a small Parisian theatre called ARTicle.

What happened to A Marquise of our Time?

I tried to get it published in the States, but all I got from literary agents were nice rejections. The curious reader can find it on Kindle or in hard copy on Amazon.

Have you written other novels since?

From Death Row with Love, a modern rendition of Oedipus complex told from Jocasta’s point of view. Also on Amazon. Let’s get back to Waiting for Godex.

Who is producing it this summer?

The company is called Insieme Carpe Diem headed by Giovanni Savoia. Giovanni has directed dozens of plays from classical to avant-garde, including Waiting for Godot. He’s also an accomplished actor and teacher.

If I’m not mistaken Godex already played in Paris.

Exactly. It had its European premiere at Théâtre de l’Orme, where it ran for two months. How was it received? Much better than UFO. Evelyne Tran, who blogs for lemonde.fr, gave us a review which surpassed our expectations. ( http://theatreauvent.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/11/ )

When and where will Godex be playing at Avignon?

From July 7th to 28th, 2012 at Théâtre de l’Esperluette, a centrally located theatre near Place des Carmes.

But those with no Avignon in their upcoming travel plans can see Waiting for Godex at Théâtre de Belville from June 23rd to 26th. Four shows only.

Any plays on the back burner for future productions?

When the dust settles (or not) on Godex, I look forward to the world premiere of Flush Game, a funny absurdist play about two deities in charge of the Reincarnation Department. The reincarnated characters are Henry Miller and his wife, June. It is the favorite play of Mary Duncan, the author of Henry Miller Is under my Bed, who runs the Paris Writers’ Group.

 

WAITING FOR GODEX (in French) Directed by Giovanni Savoia and assisted by Renato Ribeiro. With Sandra Everro, Renato Ribeiro, Stephan Ropert, Giovanni Savoia and Floriane Vincent. Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 at 3 pm. Sunday 24th to Tuesday 26th, 2012 at 9 pm. Theatre de Belleville, 94 rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75011 PARIS. Metro: Goncourt or Belville.   

Réservations :   01 48 06 72 34   ou par BilletReduc  

http://enattendantgodex.blogspot.fr

 

 

Bande Annonce En attendant Godex au Théâtre de Belleville

 

FLASH: Paris Writers' Workshop Events June 25 -28

Join the Paris Writers' Workshop for a dynamic program of afternoon panels and lectures from June 25–28—from tools of the trade, to getting published, to the new world of self-publishing and e-books to blogs and social media to the role of the literary agent.

Here's the schedule of events.

All events below are 15 euros, except the long session on Tuesday, which is 50 euros.

Monday, June 25:

Tools of the Trade with Christopher Tilghman, Samantha Chang, Kathleen Spivack, and Kate McMullan

How to Structure a Good Story with Jami Bernard

Tuesday, June 26:

Secrets of Getting Published with Jami Bernard

Wednesday, June 27:

The Takeover via Self Publishing and E-Books with Stephen Clarke, Mary Duncan, Gretel Furner, and Timothy Smith

The Wide World of Nonfiction with Alec Lobrano, Mimi Schwartz, and Thirza Vallois

Thursday, June 28

How to Use Blogs and Social Media with Sion Dayson, Terrance Gelenter, Adrian Leeds, and Aja Monet

The Role of the Agent with Lorella Belli, Kimberley Cameron, Louise Greenberg, and Paul Schmidtberger

For more information, please go to pariswritersworkshop.org.

To register, please go to: http://www.wice-paris.org/pariswritersworkshop