Featured Writer: Marie-Josée Poisson
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing! It’s my great pleasure to feature poet Marie-Josée Poisson in today’s issue of Women Writing.
About the author…
Marie-Josée Poisson spent many years working as a senior communications executive for various cultural organizations. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Poisson spent three years working in an advertising agency in Dubai and then returned to Quebec to take on senior level communications roles at TV5 Monde and the École supérieure de ballet du Québec. This was followed by five years as editor-in-chief of Le Magazine de la Place des arts, the bilingual publication of Montreal’s largest venue for cultural events. Ultimately, she left her career to fulfill her dream of writing a novel—and ended up writing three of them. Passionate about history, she spent five years researching and writing the first book in her Liées par le sang series, a trilogy focused on well-known historical figures and investigations into their genealogies. The Montreal based author traveled numerous times to France, documenting her books. Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties is her first novel to be translated into English.
On a writing routine …
Having worked for years in a traditional office environment, writing 9 to 5 comes naturally to me. I prefer working in quiet surroundings, ideally in an empty house. No music, no distraction. I’m lucky; I do not suffer from “white page syndrome”. Possibly meeting tight deadlines, as communication executive in my previous career, and having written kilometers of speeches, press releases, websites, etc. helps me circumvent this. To me, it’s like hitting the play button.
But having a busy family life keeps me from writing, some days. For instance, I've given up on week-ends and evenings (and holidays). Week-ends are spent with my "tribe" and evenings are for cooking and other house stuff.
On writing spaces …
I tend to write in the same place. Because my fictions are woven on an historical canvas, I have to keep track of past real events, to make things believable. So I usually end up surrounded by books, printouts, notes. It’s easier to just shut the door to my atelier until the next time. At home, I have an office where I can leave my stuff in organized chaos. The vibe of that room is somewhat historical, with a few leatherbound books, engravings evocative of XVIIIth century France, photographs taken during my research. If I write in the country, my favourite place is at the dining table, facing the lake. Again, with peace and quiet.
On writing communities …
My novel Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties is my first to be translated into English. So I am new to the anglophone writing scene. My community is quite small: a fellow author and poet (Carolyne Van Der Meer) and my translator (Flora-Lee Bendit). I have recently joined the Quebec Writer’s Federation and intend to attend their activities and events.
“It is truly a challenge to combine everyday life with your intellectual, creative side. So I work around my family’s schedule and needs. Don’t give up: use every little moment you can grasp.”
On challenges …
Yes, it can be difficult making time and space in everyday life. All sorts of obligations come up. Errands to run, cooking to be done,(daily and for entertaining) 2 houses to look after (city and lake house), babysitting requests (planned and unplanned). C’est la vie!
On the best writing advice …
All important: know when to say when. There is always a coma to adjust, a better word to use, another detail to add. It is very difficult sometimes to let go of creative work. I would say write a full draft then take it from there. Don’t go back and forth, you’ll never finish. Delete, add, change afterwards, after you’ve completed a first version.
Also: show, don't tell.
For me instead of describing something, I will find a way for one of the characters to depict what I want to show or convey the information I wish to share.
And don't tell all; trust the reader, appeal to his/her imagination.
On the worst writing advice …
Your book is no good. It will never get published, so stop writing.
Instead: I worked on another version, submitted it again, and got published.
On advice from personal experiences …
It is truly a challenge to combine everyday life with your intellectual, creative side. So I work around my family’s schedule and needs. Don’t give up: use every little moment you can grasp.
On rekindling creativity …
Travel does it for me. Even if I don’t write when I’m away, being exposed to a different environment - new sights, new, smells, new people, new culture - makes me look at everything in a fresh way. I take copious notes, record feelings and impressions, record new words and expressions, gather material that will eventually find it’s way in my novels.
On a recent publication …
My most recent publication is Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties. It is my first novel to be translated into English, from French. Though it is a stand-alone story, it is part of a trilogy originally entitled LIÉES PAR LE SANG (literally: Blood bound). I didn’t look far from inspiration. It came from my name, my family name: Poisson which means Fish. It’s not easy to bear a surname that lends itself to teasing, to mockery. For me, it became even more of a nightmare when I learned that I shared this birth name with a famous, and infamous for some, historical figure: the Marquise de Pompadour née Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson. Sometimes, she was considered as nothing more than the mistress (even the whore) of French king Louis XV though she was much more than that; well educated and highly cultured, she sponsored artists in all trades, form theater to architecture, from painting to sculpture, to cabinetry and even fashion. So much so that the French XVIIIth century is stamped with Pompadour style. When I discovered what a major influence she had, extending even into politics and diplomacy, I decided to weave a fiction around our name. The spark was finding out that her first-born died in infancy but that there was no record of his passing: Where? When? How? I used this “hole” in official history to create my work of fiction. This book, in addition to being in part historical, is also an alternate history novel (also referred to as allohistory, althist or AH) that proposes “what-if” scenarios for the past. All this happens through my main female character who embarks on a genealogical journey in search of her first ancestor to have come to Nouvelle-France (modern day Québec). This mix of historical and modern makes for a story with momentum that challenges accepted ideas of the past. In addition, my novel asks readers to think about Madame de Pompadour as a trendsetter and PR specialist, working hard to manage her image in an unforgiving and culturally critical environment, to see her in a new light. In a nutshell: To exorcise the curse of her real surname, Montrealer Lou Ashby embarks on a genealogical investigation that takes her to Paris. What she uncovers will shatter a previously indisputable fact about one of France’s major historical figures: Madame de Pompadour. I do have ideas about another writing project. I’m still not sure as to what format it should be: Novel? Short stories? Narrative? Authors are notoriously superstitious about the nature of their projects.
Marie-Josée online spaces …
ONE MORE WEEK!
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Happy writing!
