The arrival of Coco

I honestly never intended to do a new series of books, but then again, I never imagined for a second I would write a series of ten books about one character, but somehow I did. Hugo Duchamp came into my life like a force of nature. The catalysis for Hugo was my friend Joy Edwards (herself a brilliant poet, biographer and storyteller) who encouraged me to come out of my writing slumber. Then it was down to my favourite singer Julien Doré and my husband Dan to kick start the whole process. ‘Un Homme Qui Attend’ was written with very little fuss or fanfare. There was no plotting, or character bios (that came later when I realised I ought to up my game!) and from start to finish, the book was completed in a matter of weeks. 

Writing ten books also came out of nowhere. Or rather, it came out of a whole lot of (nice) nagging e.g. ‘when’s the next damn book coming out?’ which forced me into it. But it wasn’t a hardship. Hugo wasn’t (isn’t) difficult to write and I love him dearly. I don’t base characters on people I know, but my darling oldest friend Dawn once said something which I came to understand to be true because after all, she knew me better than anyone. Hugo and Ben were me, they were just different sides of my cancer/gemini personality. I won’t talk of Dawn’s influence on my work, I still really can’t. However, I will say this, along with Dan, she was my greatest champion. She loved the books with a passion and I only really kept going because I was frightened of the repercussions from her if I didn’t! 

And then came Coco. A bit character in Hugo book 8 (La Famille Lacroix) who burst into Hugo’s office, emptying her oversized Chanel bag on his desk, emptying the contents, which included the hair of a dead dog (these things all came from me - don’t ever look inside my bag, or else you’ll see where that particular idea came from…) and I knew by the end of that book that she was coming back. Les Mauvais Garçons is probably my favourite Hugo book for many reasons, but certainly one of them is because it acts as a ‘pilot’ for Coco’s own books. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what happened. After ten books from Hugo, I needed a change. And I certainly got one. 

Next time, I’ll talk more about ‘Sept Jours’ and how it came to be, and why I knew it had to be different to the Hugo books, and yet quite the same. 

Sending you all love, and wishing you good health and happiness in crazy times. 

GXX