Category: tips

tips about a creation of a plot, characters, places and other information.

A few words from professor Will

Carmine Will is one of the characters of fiction created for Fantastic L.A.

Astronomer and lecturer, he works in parallel at the Los Angeles Observatory and collects art objects.

As you know, for several days will be visible the comet Tsuchinshan – Atlas with exceptional particularities. It was born in the Oort cloud an assembly of planets and celestial bodies, a journey counted in millions of years.

Professor Will invites all readers and you, patient Internet users to observe the sky from time to time, even if the events are not always the easiest. A little cosmic poetry.

Learn more about: Fantastic L.A.

The double

Specialist reviews in my profession are a very important contribution of knowledge but also of discoveries. Today I would like to tell you about the solaris magazine for which I have an annual subscription and which I read regularly. This journal contains a set of short texts written by several international authors. The main theme is fantasy and science fiction. I think that when a review is qualitative and monthly it is interesting. As a quantity of information, this is more easily manageable than too frequent publications. As a professional, I would like to write under contract for a specialist reviews related to my activity. The adventure seems exciting to me.

That said, one of the articles that interested me the most concerns a notion that is widely used in literature, cinema and other arts, it is the double. This double that can be an enemy or an ally and this in several other spatio-temporal dimensions. Sometimes it is an alter ego that questions us about this other self.

This literary process is not easy to implement. I advise you to test it in your story with one of the characters and to evaluate whether it is necessary, whether it brings new light to the discourse you want.

World book exchange service

On the site I approached several times different themes on the evolution of my profession. There is writing on the one hand but also the environment in which it is brought to move. A few months ago, I got a certificat following the follow-up of a course. It outlines the measures to be put in place for better accessibility of content within the specific framework of accessible books and publishing. A large set of concepts has been addressed in a general way. If you are wondering about this, the ABC consortium will provide you with more information.

Did you know that? there is a world book exchange service.

Character and description

When creating characters in my stories, I use several techniques. One of them is to create a kind of outline from several descriptive elements. I try to imagine their physique, their character traits, but I also invent a personal story for them, which may be family or other. If I want to flesh out the descriptive part, I don’t hesitate to practice by going to a public place where I can observe several people. I try to imagine that one of them is the character I want to describe. However, it is important not to stop only at what we see. We must also use the other senses. Then knowing how to appeal to emotions and our ability to see that the person in front of us probably has not had the experiences that the fictional character should live in the story.

News around accessibility of digital books

As you know, I like to inform you from time to time about digital accessibility. On the site, some notions have already been mentioned about the possibilities it could offer.

Although there are still some efforts to be made, the consortium working for accessible books has published an article demonstrating that progress has been made in the digital field.

You can read the article by clicking on this link.

Some ideas for improvement

As an author, I often ask myself questions about my job. How will it evolve? Am I taking a qualitative approach?

Of course, environmental issues arise in any field of activity. Although digital printing uses the least paper, it still consumes energy.
Authors have a far greater influence than they think on the solutions implemented in the book trade. For example, as was the case in the UK, they can put pressure on publishers to be more transparent about the origin of printed paper and the conditions of reforestation.

That said, it’s by reflecting too on the consequences of mass production in the artistic field that certain ideas for improvement are born. To limit an impact, some solutions are better suited than others. In my opinion, print-on-demand, which has been around for several years now, is a process that should be given greater consideration.

Some links :

Website about fundings for shows/a>

Lightning source

Ecoedicio catala institute

A review on open edition

E-reader and accessibility

As part of the accessibility of digital books, the reading tool is very important. It must be adapted. Currently, very few e-reader models can both read text in audio and allow correct navigation. When I talk about navigation, I mean keys allowing you to move through the text and select actions indicated in the menu.
For my part, I tried a first model that was lent to me some time ago. He read the text of my book, which is quite astonishing and which, for people whose need arises, proves very useful function text to speech. Enlarging sans serif fonts is also an essential feature for reading digital books.

Dystopia and Utopia

Currently I am working on several projects and actively preparing a professional book fair. In my journey, this led me to think about different subjects. In the field of science fiction, the literary form that we call dystopia is for many of us the opposite of utopia. And yet, utopia and dystopia have a form of complementarity. The themes they address are often very similar. For my part, I think that utopia and dystopia are interesting to explore. The two points that worry me on this subject are the dogmatism of the single thought that certain utopias would tend to present through the stories as well as the pessimism of the situations related in some of the dystopias

Thriller in the countryside

Screen of the ebook reader
Cover of the book

Recently, I read “In the factory of green thriller: ecopoetics and rurality

(Belphégor 2023) which collects several articles on the theme of crime fiction

Green.

It is not a novel, it is more of a study on the theme of the environment and the

detective novel.

If I’m talking to you about it today it’s because rurality is a concept which is still

associated with a certain form of cliché.

Not all the time fortunately.

Personally, I think this doesn’t make sense.

Reading this book gave me some thoughts that I share.

today with you in the hope that they will accompany you in your path.

In the green thriller, several subjects are addressed, notably the concept of

guilty space that I mentioned previously.

Several texts analyze how environmental issues fit into the narrative of a

detective novel and what are the specificities rural setting in a thriller.

A large place is given to American literature through the notion of

nature writing. However, a portrait of Western literature and particular aspect

of the Ukrainian detective novel is drawn up which is very interesting.

© 2026 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).