Thursday, July 30, 2026

Les Conteurs des Ming - traduit du roman anglais The Ming Storytellers


La traduction française de mon premier roman, Les Conteurs des Ming, paraîtra en avril 2027. J'ai trop hâte et j'espère de tout cœur que ce livre trouvera des lecteurs.


Nous sommes au XVe siècle.
À l’aube de la dynastie des Ming, trois femmes que tout semble séparer vont voir leurs destins se croiser.
De leur rencontre naîtra une histoire.
Une concubine impériale.
Une voyageuse persane.
Une mystérieuse conteuse.
Trois femmes.
Un même destin.
Une seule histoire.
BEIJING. La cité impériale bruisse de secrets, de passions et d’intrigues. Derrière les murs du palais, nul ne sait à qui accorder sa confiance.
Orpheline recueillie autrefois au palais, Min Li n’a jamais eu qu’un désir : plaire. Jusqu’à conquérir, qui sait, les faveurs de l’empereur Zhu Di lui-même.
Mais devenue puissante concubine, elle découvre derrière les portes closes de la Cité impériale un secret terrifiant.
Poussée au désespoir, elle se tourne vers son amant, l’amiral Zheng He, et lui demande son aide. Un geste qui semble n’être qu’un appel au secours, mais qui va déclencher une chaîne d’événements et faire vaciller les fondations du palais.
Le destin de Min Li est scellé.
Pourtant, l’ennemi qu’elle redoute n’est pas celui qu’elle croit…
De Nanjing à Beijing, des palais impériaux aux villages montagneux du Yunnan, Les Conteurs des Ming nous entraîne dans la Chine du XVe siècle, au cœur d’un monde où les secrets se murmurent derrière les paravents, où les alliances se nouent dans l’ombre et où le pouvoir voyage au rythme des navires de l’empire.
Au-delà des mers, des bazars animés de l’Inde méridionale aux rivages luxuriants de Zanzibar, d’autres destins se dessinent, tandis qu’une mystérieuse conteuse détient peut-être la clé d’un destin.
Dans l’empire des Ming, nul secret ne demeure enfoui très longtemps.
Et les yeux comme les oreilles de l’empereur sont partout.
---
Récit d’un Extrême-Orient foisonnant de mystères et de secrets, Les Conteurs des Ming se déroule aux premiers temps de la dynastie Ming, à l'heure où le Royaume du Milieu est libérée du règne des Mongols.
Le roman plonge au cœur des intrigues politiques et personnelles de la maison impériale des Zhu. À la veille du grand incendie qui ravagera le palais de Beijing et alors que la sixième expédition de la flotte des Ming s'apprête à prendre la mer, une concubine impériale est emportée par les forces sombres de l’obsession et de la vengeance.
Les Conteurs des Ming est une invitation au voyage pour les amoureux de l’Histoire et pour tous ceux qui croient que les mondes, même les plus éloignés, peuvent se rejoindre.


Couverture pour la version numérique 
du livre Les Conteurs des Ming




Sunday, November 9, 2025

The Fortune Teller of Nice - a historical mystery


This is what I am working on at the moment. It will be published in december 2027.

What a joy to bring to life a city that has had its past numerous times erased by France. I do pride myself on writing historical mysteries that speak of the least spoken.  

The book can be added now to your shelves via Goodreads

See you in 2027!


Nice, 1854. The coastal city, governed by Turin, gleams under a pale winter sun. It promises respite for the weary and a leisurely playground for the wealthy who sojourn from all over Europe. But beneath its blue skies and its welcoming hotels, Nizza as it is known, conceals a darker heart.

When detective Maurice Leroux arrives in Nice for the winter, hoping to seduce witty English actress, Madeleine Armstrong, he expects languid days strolling along the promenade by the sea and evenings at the opera. Immersed in a city with a strong Italian heritage, all he has to do is surpass his rival, the young, smooth-talking, Carlo Rocco. Instead, the glitter turns to nightmare when a guest at the lavish Hotel Victoria is brutally murdered.

Among the hotel’s exotic residents are Countess Sofya Smyrnova, a Russian noble who once escaped the flames of Moscow in 1812; Baroness Alexandra Ivanova, a gossip-inclined Russian widow; Antoine Grasset, a French journalist with too many secrets; and Professor Milton Hayward, a linguist whose scholarship conceals a tragic obsession. When death claims them one by one, Maurice is drawn into a grim mystery that stretches from Nice’s stately establishments to the hidden warrens of its underworld, all the way to the candlelit salon of famed fortune teller, Madame Zora.

To unmask the web of deception, Maurice must navigate Nizza’s labyrinth of depravity, its debauched parties, its seedy port, and human markets, and even seek counsel from Giuseppe Garibaldi, the city’s native hero. But as the truth unravels, he discovers that all the victims shared a bond forged long before their arrival… a bond written in fire and betrayal.

A sumptuous, atmospheric mystery where vice, ghosts from the past, and vengeance converge bringing to life long-forgotten Nizza.


Monday, August 11, 2025

The Game of Life

 


Excel in the game of life

Game of keys, clean ebony notes, young prodigy, acclaim

Game of pawns, of bishops and queens, chess genius, strategy

Game of dance, lithe spins, nimble star, artful muse

There are many ways.

 

Shine in the game of life

Gift of words, hidden meanings, ideas, storyteller, philosopher

Gift of numbers,

Those you own, in comfort, in luxury - the zeros, the glittering estates, the dividends

Those you probe, play with, in ecstasy - the curves, the charts, the rates…the vision. The vision!

Those that own you, the friends, the contracts, the fame…family, those you serve in joy, 

In sweat

There are many ways.

 

Or else the game of life, the game of life in depth,

Gift of seeing

Gift of hearing

Gift of healing,

By touch, by knife, by poetry, by divine intuition.

Or by love.

Be in love with the game.

There are many ways.

 

And yes, the game of life in laughter,

Gift of humour,

Through courage, through wisdom, through hope

Stoic and fearless is this game.

There are many ways.

 

Oh, the game of life in beauty,

Gift of sensitivity,

By light, by color, by song, by imagination.

Moved by the magic.

One with the game.

There are many ways.

 

A game of life in the unrelenting,

Gift of battle,

Gift of winning,

By race, by wit, by grit, by force, by endless striving.

Driven, often revengeful, this game of life.

There are many ways.

 

The game of life that longs to live,

Gift of quiet endurance,

By health, by joy, by resilience, by curiosity

Endless learning and discovery.

Endless shifting.

There are many ways.

 

But of all the ways, of all the ways…

One way remains...


Fail the game of life.

Fail and feel, all there exists to feel.

Fail and rise, slow rise, astound, surprise.

Fail and learn, be open, grow wise.

Fail, and then fail again, transcend the game of life.

Fail and accept to fail.

Fail and let go of the game.

Fall,

Fall low so you might fly above the game of life.

Such is the game.


Sunday, June 1, 2025

Calista - latest news on movie magic

 

My Victorian horror mystery, Calista, is now a movie !! 

Not quite. 😉 It has been optioned but that is a nebulous future considering that these film projects take decades to take off. Only the most enduring will play at that game. I’ve indeed seen options renewed yearly over a span of a decade while directors change and nothing gets up. Sigh.

For now I am creating art for the novel because it deserves it. ♥️ Plus it’s fun for those who love visuals.

I love this early scene where French detective Maurice Leroux steps out of the carriage that has brought him to Alexandra Hall. The thing with employing Sora for imagery is that you end up blending your historical fiction writing with both art direction and an entirely different cinematographic language. It is intensive but well worth it. It took me three hours to get this picture just right. I love being able to share my world, and give a more vivid glimpse into a gothic story that I hold dear.

This next image is straight from the first chapter of the novel. In which we find, a terrified Vera Nightingale attempting to get some shuteye while reminiscing on the last years, not least, of knowing her brother's strange Greek wife, Calista. Dearest Calista is a village girl from Corfu and to Vera she will always be a peasant, despite her regal appearance in the portrait. The night in Alexandra Hall promises quite a few surprises for Vera. And what is it with those silver spoons on the staircase? Well, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

Next up we have this kitchen scene depicting Maurice Leroux as a child...

I admit, I was itching to feed this idea into Sora. It is Maurice Leroux's dream sequence. Here we find a childhood memory back in Paris, growing up in the post-terror. Save that the terror is domestic...

As with all dreams, the imagery here departs from the gothic and enters surrealism. 

Thérèse Leroux wears her French cockade well, don't you think? In the novel, she even threatens Maurice with the guillotine.  


Well that is all from me. Short and sweet!

Calista is available in Kindle, paperback and audiobook format from all Amazon territories. It can be purchased almost anywhere online. Alternatively, readers can borrow it from the National Library of Australia and from the BnF in Paris.





Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Book Launch: The Signare of Gorée

Yay! My new novel, The Signare of Gorée, was finally published on 9 September. For having been born in Senegal, it is a rare delight to be able to say that I have written a mystery set in my birth country.

I am celebrating my book's launch over four weeks with a fantastic blog tour hosted by the excellent Coffee Pot Book Club. They promote high quality historical fiction and I am honored that Cathie Dunn would accept to host The Signare of Gorée.

This post will update weekly with links to the various blog tour stops as they happen. You can find the same links on the official blog tour page


Over the tour, I will be sharing: what inspired me to write this historical mystery; the historical background of the powerful women called, signares - who they were and the unique culture they created; the tragic story of Senegal's last warrior queen; the dark and beautiful highlights of my historical research; and the occult practices I witnessed in my childhood and that have seeped into the novel. 

There will be many excerpts and I will try not to bore you with my answers to interview questions!
 
I hope you will visit to learn more about this unique story and the fascinating country where it is set! 


September 12th



October 3rd
Ruins & Reading (Review)



The Signare of Gorée will soon be available on expanded distribution booksellers worldwide.