Question 1

1. Why do you write?

Accepted Answer

No single answer would satisfy me here.

Very early on, I discovered that I loved entertaining people through jokes. I remember telling one to an adult who did not laugh. After a pause, he said, “This is good, but it is not a joke. You make it too long. That’s a story.” He was right.

I was also obsessed with knowledge from a young age. I wanted to learn constantly, and as a result I often had something to say. The problem was that I was not good at speaking. Microphones terrified me. Cameras were worse. I could have failed a lie detector while telling the truth simply because my heart rate and body temperature would have spiked the moment a microphone appeared in front of me.

Writing, however, came easily. Reading had given me an instinct for shaping sentences, and on the page no one could interrupt me. Over time, writing became an instrument: first a form of catharsis, then a way of expressing ideas through entertainment.

Question 2

2. When did writing become more than an idea?

Accepted Answer

A friend who knew I was beginning to take writing more seriously gave me a beautiful notebook. Its leather cover looks like an old world map and bore the title Plans for World Domination. The title made me smile—without my taking it literally—and before long the blank pages were filling with story ideas, characters, and scenarios. There is enough material in that notebook to last me several lifetimes.

Then I discovered the NYC Midnight writing challenges. I am deeply competitive, and those contests became a catalyst. They pushed me into a routine and, through the judges’ feedback, gave me the confidence to see writing as more than a hobby. My pen became sharper. The work became more disciplined. The ambition became real.

Question 3

3. What did reading first awaken in you?

Accepted Answer

Growing up in a poor and troubled environment, my earliest important reads—Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe—offered me a powerful form of escape.

Then something else took hold. Curiosity deepened. Imagination unlocked. I became fascinated not only by stories, but by language itself: its rhythm, its force, and the way it can carry whole worlds.

Question 4

4. What kinds of stories are you drawn to tell?

Accepted Answer

I am drawn to stories that entertain while provoking. Stories shaped by moral ambiguity. Stories that cast light on injustice, unsettle the frameworks readers may take for granted, and sometimes teach them a few surprising things along the way.

What I hope for is a double effect: first, that the story grips you so completely that you cannot leave it before the end; then, once it is over, that it leaves an aftershock strong enough to delay your return to the ordinary.

Question 5

5. What part of the writing life challenges you most?

Accepted Answer

The fact that I have yet to find an agenda with thirty-hour days is a real obstacle.

More seriously, I am happy in my professional life, and I welcome the obligations that come with a full life. But writing is not something I intend to keep in the margins. I am working to align the stars so that it can claim the place I mean for it to have.

Question 6

6. What are you building now?

Accepted Answer

A book of historical short fiction is on the way. Through several genres and across a span of centuries, readers will encounter vivid worlds, strong sensory textures, and little-known historical facts woven into fiction.

After that, I will turn to my first novel featuring investigative journalist Jonathan Lighthouse. In time, I also intend to publish a couple of non-fiction books. I will leave those in partial shadow for now.

Meet the Author

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Most people fear the grey because it blurs judgment. I return to it because that is where people become real.

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Institutions protect themselves through distance. Stories collapse that distance until indifference becomes harder to sustain.

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Author Q&A

Interview with Michel Courval