Author Interview with Corine Gantz

August 11, 2011  by Fifi Flowers

Corine Gantz studied Contemporary Art at the Sorbonne and worked in advertising and marketing in Paris, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

She is the author of the popular blog Hidden in France where she uses her particular brand of humor to meditate on relationships, food, décor, and all things French.

She lives near Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

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Let's get to know MORE about her and her FIRST novel...

Where are you from?


I was born in Paris and have lived in the United States for the last 24 years. My home is in Los Angeles.


Tell us your latest news?


My novel, Hidden in Paris, is my big news. It’s the story of three American women running away from their lives and becoming unlikely friends in a beautiful house in the heart of Paris. It’s a fun read that tells a story of friendship, self-discovery and heartbreaks and is set in one of the romantic cities on Earth.

When and why did you begin writing?


When did I not write? If back in the days they had the ultrasound technology they have now they would have seen me tracing letters on the walls of my mother’s uterus. Okay that sounded horrible. I have always written. I don’t sing, don’t dance, don’t paint and I’m a terrible blusher, so writing ends up being the only form of self-expression that I’m truly comfortable with.


When did you first consider yourself a writer?


For years my husband introduced me as ‘his wife the writer’ and I would blush and protest that I could not possibly be a writer because no one had deemed to publish my work. If you are what you do, then I have always been a writer, but giving myself that title was my challenge, my dream and the source of a lot of angst. I thought writing a blog might make me a writer, but it only made me a blogger (no offense, bloggers rock!) I hoped that writing a book might, but that didn’t quite do the trick for me. It really wasn’t until people purchased Hidden in Paris and began sending me emails telling me how the novel entertained them or touched them (I was praying for both) that I did consider myself a writer. I’ve been a writer ever since…. It’s been three months only, so I still could chicken out!

What inspired you to write your first book?


I wanted to tell a fish out of the water story, a story about starting a new life in a foreign culture. This was inspired of course by my own experience as an expatriate. I imagined what it would be like for an American woman to move to France. But one experience was not enough. I needed several experiences, several personalities. Soon those experiences and personalities collided and I had a story.


Do you have a specific writing style?


My writing style is greatly impaired by the fact that I did not begin to speak, let alone write, in English until my mid twenties! I feel I have no choice but to write as I speak. I would say my blogging style is informal, self-depreciating, and I try not to take myself too seriously. My fiction style I hope to be lively and entertaining.

How did you come up with the title?


My characters flee to Paris and away from their own lives. But once in Paris, everything they tried to hide from themselves and each other is slowly exposed. What is also hidden and discovered in Paris is the key to a new life and a new way of inhabiting themselves. A new way to look at, friendship, a trust, at food, at body image, at age, and, of course since this is Paris, at love.


Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?


Yes, I’m so glad you are asking this question. I was interested in exploring Change. I heard a psychotherapist say that outside of trauma, change happens slowly in people, and that this change is very subtle. Well, that’s quite depressing! Who wants trauma in order to change? It’s good I did not hear this before I wrote the novel. I was interested in encounters, and how those encounters can change you in ways that you might try to resist, although change is absolutely what you need. A love affair, a friendship, or in the case of my book, even ‘frennemies” can, I believe, profoundly alter how you see yourself and the world around you. Of course I gave all my characters a nice little dose of trauma for good measure, just to be sure they would change. I can tell you from experience that expatriation is very traumatic for example.


How much of the book is realistic?


It’s important to me that the changes that occur be realistic and incremental. Dialogues have to be honest, emotions have to be real, neurosis have to be the kind the reader can identify with. Other than that, everything is invented. My friends have recognized characters in my life in the book, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, some of which I can only recognize in hindsight.


Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?


One of the characters has anorexia. I am close to someone who has suffered from it. It was important to me to tell that story from a personally experienced vantage point. I wanted to point the fingers at the people who are intolerant of the disease, as though this is something the person has chosen. I know otherwise.

What books have most influenced your life most?


I grew up reading in French and I did not discover American literature until my early thirties. I have a lot of catching up to do, so I read a lot and I am constantly delighted by it. I remember reading Nine Stories by Salinger and thinking “I want to do this!” I had never had such an epiphany reading Proust. I was also transfixed by Anais Nin’s diaries, the mix of poetry, of mystery and cold-eyed honesty about herself. In the end what appeals to me in any book is that moment when something has been said so well that it has put confused feelings of mine into words.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?


Anais Nin. Also Julia Cameron who single-handedly legitimized my obsessive journal writing, thus putting me on the path to becoming an author.

What book are you reading now?


Grinding my teeth through the Finkler Question. Still reeling from A Super Sad True Love Story.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?


I’m loving The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. This is his first book and I am livid with jealousy.

What are your current projects?


Surviving the summer! The traveling! The driving the kids to camps at odd hours! I have no time to write! … Alright, the truth is I’m terrified to open a certain file containing two hundred pages of a very messy first draft. I will go to Target twice a day for ‘forgotten’ items rather than face the dreaded file. Oh the forms procrastination takes!

Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.


The blogging community has been an unbelievable source of inspiration, support and strength. Were it not the comments and emails I receive daily on the blog I would not have dared risk self-publishing. Somehow, blogging made me realize how profoundly benevolent readers are, and that there is nothing to fear but fear itself. (Did I just make this up? It sounds awesome!)


Do you see writing as a career?


That is the dream indeed.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?


I would and I have. As readers notice typos, I swiftly correct the manuscript and hope no one else notices. I have received comments that were not pleasant to hear but that rang true. For example one of my characters has a tendency to shoot from the mouth but I did not want her to be offensive. I cleaned up her potty mouth on several occasions.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?


Tremendous boredom, a restless spirit, combined with fear of real life experience, and you got yourself a recipe.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?


Oh Gaawd! It spans four generations and five continents and it might kill me.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?


Grammar! Is it ‘surrounded with’ or ‘surrounded by’? Can someone put this issue to rest? Also I’m ‘s’ blind. It’s a medical condition (I invented) where a writer cannot spot when an s is missing or there in error. I could read a sentence a hundred times and still be blind to my mistakes.


Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?


One of the manuscripts I am working on now (or should be, see above) takes place in Utah and Italy, two places I have never seen. I would be doing myself a huge favor by switching locations to somewhere familiar, such as France. Or else, Lake Cuomo, here I come! The other manuscript takes place in parts in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. Time machine, anyone?

Who designed the covers?


My good friend Robin Pickens, who happens to be an award-winning designer. I still can’t believe she took the time to do this for me. Everyone seems to love the cover of Hidden in Paris. Me, I have to pinch myself when I see it.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?


The hardest part was when to say stop and decide the book was finished. I could have been rewriting it for the next ten years, learning something about writing with each draft.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?


I learned that as a writer you have little say about how your characters will behave. They are unruly children that won’t listen. I had all kinds of plans for them but they ended up doing as they pleased.

Do you have any advice for other writers?


I would think twice about waiting for the prince charming of publishing to kiss you awake and sweep you off your feet. You could be, like me, waiting for ten years. Since I wrote the book alone, did not participate in critique groups, didn’t show my drafts to anyone but my husband, didn’t have a mentor, did not have an editor, in a way I was exhibiting a pattern of fierce independence, so it made sense that I would end up publishing my novel without an agent, or ultimately a publisher. The self-publishing option, which suddenly materialized out of thin air just when my novel was ready, was like a dream I had never thought of wishing for. I haven’t looked back.


Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I hope you read Hidden in Paris. Or you can start by checking out the reviews, most of which are wonderful and I did not pay for a single one of them, although in all fairness one of them sounds like something my mother may have written (the title of the review: ‘weird and depressing’). I’m told my novel makes for a great summer read. It’s a quick download away and I’ve priced it at $3.99 on the Kindle and the Nook (yes, I get to decide the cost too!) and if you send me an email I can give you a $5 off coupon for the paper version which is now priced at $13.99.

Thank you for your interview Fifi. You are an artiste extraordinaire, an educated Francophile and lover of books, and you always are reaching out further and higher and making the blog world kinder and more beautiful every day.

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Merci Beaucoup to Corine Gant for agreeing to do this interview.  I have been visiting Corine for awhile now via her FABuLOUS blog Hidden in France... and I was THRILLED to find that she published a book!!!  Andddd I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the book!!!!

Oooooh and I'm THRILLED to announce that she is offering
THREE copies of her Book to GIVEAWAY...
anddddddddddd
they will come with a Fifi Flowers HANDPAINTED bookmark aussi!!!

Simply leave a comment... and For more chances to WIN... Follow our site, Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, Tell a Friend about Reading is Fashionable!!!
Deadline to enter is August 18, 2011 @ NOON California time...
Winner will be announced on GIVEAWAY page...
Please leave your email address if you do not have a link to your site!

Bonne Chance - Good Luck!

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