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25 October. Been trying to convert the two volumes in French of the "Petits meurtres" (Cévennes Murders) into a format used by Amazon, in order to print out a few copies to be able to sell the three books in a bunch at the book fair in Aubenas at the beginning of December. One of the members of the Circle has become expert at doing that. It was complicated. Had to change all the sizes and margins and then I had to compose the whole cover, because she didn't have the time, and that was really complicated. And what do I find? The sizes don't match. So, what do I conclude, then? That she gave me the wrong information.  Have to admit that I had to go back to her several times to understand exactly what she meant by things. Even looked them up on the internet. So I'm feeling a bit frustrated, as I'd wanted them with me because there are going to be tables for people dealing the "the strange". Great, thought I when I read that, I'll be able to line up the SF. But no, it's just for non-fiction. Excuse me while I swear a bit. However, I thought afterwards that I could place myself near those tables and have a sign saying something like "from non-fiction to fiction" because some of my books do contain "the strange", the Petits Meurtres for a start. They fit the theme perfectly. So that was why I started all that. Especially as this system is said to be rapid. Ha ha, on all counts, it would seem. I wish I could work out how to convert them into e-books. No success there either in spite of using a special software specific for that. Dear me....

Anyway, I must forget all about that and get back to the book on the WW2.

4 September. Oh dear, here I am concentrating on one of my SF stories that I'd finished, the one with the wheel. I'm filling it out a bit and correcting some mistakes. I must admit that I rather like this story, I find it satisfying. I keep getting stuck with the one about WW2, so that's why I went back to this one.

19 August. Last night I participated in the last of the evening fairs we'd done in Joyeuse during the summer. There were four of us, so no competition as we all do completely different things. Even the weather was cooler (I found the breeze coming into the room rather chilly even!) so people could wander around without melting. However, the number of people who came to the castle wasn't as great as it could have been and they were only interested in the caricatures. Some talked to us for a while, making us think they were interested and were going to buy a book, but they left with empty hands. A colleague writer, Martine, said she thought we should have been in a room by ourselves and not among the exhibits as the people were only interested in the caricatures. Mind you, they may not even have come into the room at all to see us in that case. Nothing's guaranteed. So I suppose the conclusion of this test will be quite negative. What will we do next year, I wonder.

12 August. Well, yesterday I was at a crafts market in a little village called Lamelouze, up in the hills, surrounded by chestnet trees and accessible by roads that a similar to those around me. The market was laid out on the terraces that made up the village green, so to speak. There were 5 authors, three of whom were from the Ardèche authors circle ! All women. Unfortunately for us, we were placed all together on one of the terraces, instead of being in amongst the other stands. This means that people who weren't interested in books didn't bother to come and look and others maybe didn't notice us. If we'd been amongst the others, everybody would have seen us and even those who aren't interested in books might have seen something they could buy as a present. We discussed this with the organisers for future markets. So all in all, we didn't do much business. I sold 3 books all the same. One in English on the wooden bombs to an Englishman who had a house in the area. This was through Françoise Barry, who called me over to translate what she was trying to say about one of her books. So I took advantage of that and drew the man over to my stand and hop! a sale. Then I sold my two SF books to the same person, a lady who was into everything to do with UFOs and civilisations out in space. She'd heard of the Burle triangle and of the Nazka mummies, so I gave her the names of PAC and Marilyne Helck and the Circle so she could have a look. Another lady was very interested in the visits to Jalès and wanted to know when I'd be doing them, so I told her. Strangely, she didn't buy the book ! 

It was very hot, it got a bit unbearable in the afternoon, in spite of the shade of the trees. Françoise had come the same route as me, so I followed her back and lost her in La Grand Combe. That town was a surprise when I came to it in the morning after having gone through some dreadfully uninspiring villages along the way, that were probably the result of the industrial past of the region. It's got a mine you can visit as well as a museum for old tools. Interesting. The church is monstrously huge. Anyway, Françoise turned left at a roundabout instead of right and we decided to turn round, which I did, and I waited for her, but she never appeared - wonder where she went! - so I returned to the roundabout and there was the road we should have taken. Fagged out when I got home. 

29 July. Well, I'm worn out after yesterday. It's so hot. 27° in my veranda this morning at 8. Yesterday I was at a book fair in Le Pompidou, a little village way up in the Vallée Française in the Lozère, that holds one every year. Takes two hours to get there, but I did car sharing from Alès. Well, it has been better. There's usually quite a crowd, but this time is was rather empty - except for us, who were a crowd. Too many. We keep saying it, but we can't get it through to the various organisers that it's not a good idea to have too many authors. They seem to think that a lot of authors means a successful fair, but to us, a successful fair is when we sell our books, so if we don't, then it's a failure, whatever the number of authors. Why can't they understand that? Especially those who spend a packet of money organising them. This time we had to pay for the midday meal. I usually don't participate, but this time I did and I had a good time chatting and laughing with the people on my table. As for the meal, it's been better. The main dish was good, but was spoiled by the fact that we'd had too many appetisers that had taken away our appetites. So in the end I thought "bof". A musical trio accompanied us and they were very good. New toilets had been installed in the village, and the light went off after a short while. You had to wave your arms around to get them to light up again. I found the idea of setting a time for the wee quite amusing. However, someone before me had obviously missed the seat in the dark and hadn't washed it, in spite of the very detailed instructions on the door telling you how to clean the toilet. 

21 July. Well, first evening for the evening book fairs the Cercle is organising in July and August in Joyeuse, at the same time as the summer evening market the town has. There were only going to be a few of us. Nine of us were there last night. We were inside the castle as the weather was uncertain. It certainly started off well, loads of people came up to the castle and had a chat with us - and bought books, at least as far as I was concerned. Good start! And then down came the rain, and if it didn't wash the spider away it certainly washed the public away. From that moment on hardly anyone came. What a pity. Anyway, I met a binational couple. She was Scottish and he was French and he spoke English with a Scottish accent, and you really couldn't tell he was French, though there was something about his way of speaking. He said that of my way of speaking. Their son wasn't quite bilingual, but I know all about that and how difficult it is. However, they didn't have cash on them to buy anything, but they took a card and will have a look at the site. Same thing for a lady from La Martinique. Now I must look into the price for sending books there. Can I have the same price for books edited in France that there is for sending to countries in Europe and even the UK? As she said, La Martinique is part of France. 

Lovely rainbow in the sky after the rain.

10 July. Good signing session yesterday evening at the bookshop down in Les Vans. It was during the evening market that is held every Tuesday during July and August, and usually it isn't really the best time, because the tourists aren't that much interested. Silly really, because those who read English could take back with them a book by a local author about the place they stayed in. An unusual souvenir, in fact. However, it was pretty good last night. Quite a few holiday makers stopped and so did local people I know, and sales were pretty good. The new book and Jalès sold the most. I chatted to quite a few people. Good rock and roll music going on down in the square. Feet and pencil tapping rhythm!

6 July. Gosh, what a business at the post office! The English French teacher (!) and I have been corresponding now, which is interesting and very pleasant. She ordered 2 books and I sent them off. Well, thanks to Brexit, it takes an age to fill in the customs details and without the help of another customer I would probably have given up like I did a year or so back one Christmas. The paper document has completely disappeared, although there was a thing I filled in to Germany last Christmas and they are still in the EU, can someone explain the difference to me? Anyway, as I haven't got a smartphone the girl at the counter had to give me hers and I was making such a mess of it that another customer took it and filled it in. It took him an age too, and then the thing didn't work, just kept going round and round, talk about efficiency, and so the girl redid it all on her big screen and that also took an age. I think I monopolised the place for at least half an hour. When I think it would have taken only 5 minutes to fill in the paper form!!! However, at last it was done and off went the parcel - well a rigid envelope really. Ye gods...!

26 June. The new book "Le cousin français" will be arriving here next week. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a French teacher in England who had given one of my short stories to her adult group to study. They enjoyed it. I've put her comment on the "commentaires" page. She wrote in French, I replied in a mixture. The group has got the book through my sister's sister-in-law who is part of the group.

So here I am boning up on the background for the story that takes place in WW2. Amongst other activities, of course. I would like to get it really going during the "summer" when everything shuts down here - except for my activities at the Jalès commandery. I've put commas round the summer as we aren't seeing much of it at the moment - and this is the south of France !

6 June. I've been on the French blog since then, but not on the English page. 

So a little run down. The "lesson" on Facebook was a real disappointment. The bloke said straight off that FB was old fashioned and nobody used it anymore. Well, I have to say I get lots of notifications from people who do use it. So he wasn't bothered to give me any instructions at all. He went on about the social media on smartphones, which is useless to me as I haven't got one - well, not then, but a friend has since given me an old one and I have to get hold of the cable to recharge it and go down and see the expert (Jonathan) in town who deals with all that sort of material. The instructor also disapproved of that idea too, and anything else I put on the table to talk about. Not a very good instructor, only interested in his stuff. So I still want to know exactly to work this FB. The instructor went on about creating groups on the smartphone stuff, and in the end I said, but that's exactly the same as what I already do, which is to send out a mail to all my contacts when I have a new book, so I'd have to spend a lot of time creating these groups on the other media. I really don't see the point. And after all, my coordinates for my site are on every mail I send out, which means that anybody who gets a mail from me can go on my site and see what I'm doing. And I send mails to a lot of people that are just contacts. So what's the difference?

Anyway, apart from that, I've sent off my latest book "Le Cousin français" to the printers. The English version is finished too and needs to be read through for the English, which, according to my sister who has read the beginning, is very much squatted by my French. Yes, well, a bit normal after 54 years living here! There's a difference in my English now and what I wrote in English in the 1980s when I wrote first directly in English, with Diane. Now I write first in French and then translate back. 

So now I'd better get on with the book based on WW2.

22 May. Well, I've tried putting some books into e-book form. It would be a good idea to be able to sell them like that, especially as some of the earlier ones are now out of print and I haven't got any more in stock here. I downloaded a system called Calibre that allows you to read books and also to convert texts. It has different formats for the different machines and so I did two, one for kindles and one for another system and sent them to my sister to see if she could read them. But she couldn't open them. Hm. I also found that I could read them on my laptop but not on my tower, which doesn't have the Calibre. So that means you have to download that software. Not very convenient. It's most frustrating.

I'm going to have a lesson on how to use Facebook tomorrow. Well, yes, I just don't know how to use it. After that, with a bit of luck, I'll be able to put my writing stuff on that. I don't want to talk about anything else. It's supposed to be good publicity for one's books. We're supposed to use the social media, says everyone. Hm.....

17 May. The book's finished and the French version has been checked. I've changed the picture for that version, but I may keep this one for the English version. I'm now waiting for my ISBN number and then I can bring it tout.

Have to see about the English version.

Now I'm back to doing something about the book that takes place during WW2.

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.