Marie-Pierre Nadal, the literary big gap
Marie-Pierre Nadal is passionate about words, who writes from the heart.
A photographer with a career enriched by training in psychology, her usual register is rather that of thrillers and thrillers, in which she depicts always atypical and endearing characters, grappling with complex feelings.
Dofi the pink dolphin , illustrated by Marie Occhi , is a story that is both funny and touching, which talks about difference. This is his first children's album.
Sketch portrait
How do you like to introduce yourself?
I don't present myself as a writer, but rather as a lover of phrases. I remain natural, with my own words, a bit like I write, ultimately, from the heart.
What is your initial training?
Very far from writing, I touched on everything before writing my first chapter. In fact, I've been through several drafts, tossed and redone, over and over again.
After a CAP in Art photography, I tried the license in biology, then I turned to psychology and finally criminology for which I am certified.
Which reader are you?
Haha, passionate! I can read a 300 page book in one day (including the night). On the other hand, I am incapable of reading a work for which I have no interest. I NEVER force myself!
Portrait of a writer
How long have you been writing?
I've been imagining since I was five years old, and I've been writing since 2007, when I started out as a journalist. Photographer at first, before my chief editor gave me the opportunity and the chance to write my first article.
I really started writing in 2015.
What made you want to write?
I'll be blunt, a cancer. I'm not the type to let myself down, I was able to bear the disease by describing it, day after day, in a blog. One of my readers asked me when the book was coming out.
It was that day that I realized that I could help, make people smile or cry, by writing. It was therapy for me and for others.
How long have you been publishing?
If we count the newspapers, since 2007 and 2016 for the works in their own right.
What made you want to publish?
Honestly ? To be recognized. Attention, not the desire for fortune, that is a utopia, a sweet dream inaccessible. But deep down, I rely on recognition, popularity more than money. And then, I like to share my laughter and my fears and receive the praise, but above all the constructive criticism that keeps you going.
What genre do you like to write the most?
Unquestionably, the thriller, incidentally the thriller. But I must admit that the children's stories, in which I take my first steps, tickle my neurons and draw a smile between my ears! An unexpected pleasure, a psychological relaxation.
In your job as a writer, what brings you the most?
The serenity after an anger appeased by writing, the joy of creating, of giving birth to characters to which one attaches. It's a real therapy, a trigger for feelings, not to mention, of course, the magical encounters that life brings you as a gift. What does writing give me? Happiness !
Portrait of Polyconteuse
Is Dofi your first children's book?
Ah, DOFI! My little dolphin. Yes, exactly, he is the first. After two thrillers, it's refreshing!
Why did you write this story? What do you mean through it?
My dolphin is pink . Its color is not really common to its species (although there really are some, in the Amazon to be precise, but they do not roam the oceans at all). Dofi is different. And by its difference, it encounters the “social” difficulties that humans can experience for the same reasons.
I am different, like him. My autism brought me and still today, some relational “difficulties”.
I simply wanted to show that you can be different and fit into the crowd. And as I often say: to be different is to be normal.
Was this book difficult to write compared to your other work?
Oh la la yes! I'm not used to concentrating what I want to convey. I am very "talkative", I like to spread out in well-argued words and sentences.
Writing for the little ones means changing your way of seeing things, changing your discourse.
The one in my novels is very… raw, including slang as expressions depending on the protagonist who is speaking.
Children's stories demand discipline and restraint, that goes without saying.
It was, it is, a very complicated exercise as far as I am concerned, and I must thank my editor who knows how to reframe me!
Did you enjoy writing this kind of book?
I like challenges when they can move me forward. Yes, I loved it. I discovered a new world, like my Dofi by the way, which turned towards the horizon and plunged into the unknown, without hesitation.
What was your reaction when you discovered the work of the illustrator ?
In a cartoon thumbnail, I would have opened my eyes wide, and my mouth with it!
I fell in love with this baby dolphin and the characters around it. Besides, I take this opportunity to thank her, she was able to illustrate the story as I imagined it. The telepathy worked!
Interview by Clément Gambade
Marie-Pierre Nadal is the author at Scitep of Dofi the pink dolphin , in the collection " Les Petits polycontes "