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The origin story

The many projects that I undertook over more than 20 years now - whether it be in languages, arts, or translation - have an underlying thread, and prove one certainty: I'm a storyteller. It became clear one day, around a conference table during a Ph.D. seminar where I was asked to present my curriculum. All I had ever done professionally and academically revolved around some form of orality. I saw the proverbial lightbulb. Sharing stories, mine or others, is what I do.

I started my acting career when I was ten. Improvising on television. Then I transitioned to the theatre. I even moved to LA when I was 20 to study acting and try to get it all. What a jungle it is over there! One of the main reasons I decided to study translation was to have a good side career. Acting was still my main love. It did not reciprocate with the same intensity. I moved on behind the scenes, this time to act as a subtitler for a TV station. But my desire to tell my own stories was growing. And I wanted to give a sense, some form of purpose to my grandmother's diagnosis. Alzheimer's. Her story needed to be told. Intertwine with mine.

So I did my master's in French Literature. And I got to recall, in a rather oral way but on paper, her memory through the prism of the illness. La césure. Caesura. I showed on paper how her memory was fading, how she spoke. The silences, too. I am very proud of this accomplishment.

The desire to write was within me, but I couldn't find the right idea, inspiration, or muse. Until I heard about a book soon to be published on the possible self-translation activity of Jack Kerouac within his body of work. He was of French-Canadian descent, spoke French Canadian at home, and now, there were passages in French Canadian of books later published in English. The academic bug bit me again: I was going to do a whole Ph.D. on this very topic. This put me On the Road to learning, growing, and traveling.

Upon opening the newly published book in French Canadian, La vie est d'hommage, I started to read as usual: in my head. It made no sense. At all. The French-Canadien language was and largely is still oral. It needed to be read out loud. Hence the orality thread, the storytelling as a writing actress, if you will.

I have been reading, writing, traveling, and growing ever since. I've lived in Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, London, Barcelona, and Lisbon. Conferences took me to Paris, Ottawa, Toronto, Vaasa, Manchester, Leeds, Rimouski, Hong Kong.

I started a personal blog when I moved to London, to keep track of my growth. Not as a place to vent, but as a safe space where the lessons learned were collected. This platform grew over time to showcase my various creative endeavors, sell my services, inspire, and help people to follow their own paths.

What am I currently working on? I'm developing three tv series, writing a collection of short stories, working as a freelance translator and editor, and ready to tackle any new challenge.