Annenberg Beach House Artist in Residence

Good morning Santa Monica Writer in Residence Community,

I am thrilled to have been chosen as a Writer in Residence at the Annenberg Community Beach House.

Along with spending time working in my office in the historical Marion Davies Guest House I can enjoy this very special time––winter at the beach.

We had our first event on Saturday the 25th of January––a Literary Reading in which I invited four California-based authors to read their work. The commonality of each reading was that their stories all took place in California, and specifically Los Angeles.

I am fascinated with Place and the effect it has on individuals––this love of a Sense of Place is carried into my literary taste and my own writing.

The characters in fiction and non-fiction that are the most compelling are always the ones who are affected by their surroundings. The air they breathe, the time of day, the season, the smells, what their eyes see and the sounds they hear will impact the way they walk, talk; it will impact their actions, their wants and desires.

A Sense of Place is 90% of how I start my writing; in other words, the seed of the beginning is more often than not anchored in Place. And I mean, specifically, anchored in Place; meaning it is not a general statement like: he walked on the beach. But specific details of the place conveyed through the senses which will bring the reader into the world of the story or chapter.

This particular California coastline intrigues me and brings to light an array of memories from my childhood when I visited America and this coastline for the first time, coming from Paris, France––my native country.
Through the eyes of a child; a young Parisian girl, in 1978, the California coast was a magical, limitless landscape and with its beauty, also, came poignant and surreal scenes one would notice if she spent a lot of time on the beach, as the characters in the novel I am working on here during my residency, do.