He would tell me I should draw, paint, or write every day. Sometimes he could even be pushy about it. My father was also a sci-fi writer, a poet, and a singer-songwriter, so he always encouraged my talents. Were your family ever skeptical of your dreams of writing? Who has been your greatest supporter? I moved again at 19, to Canada this time, then back to France, then I permanently moved back to the USA again at 28. After that, I was never quite contented with my hometown again, I had itchy feet.

I grew up in a very small world where nothing ever happened, but I left France at 17, after graduating high school, to move to the USA a first time. What are some interesting experiences you've had as a teen? I also read all the classics of children’s literature, such as Little Women, Oliver Twist. I loved vampire stories, especially the Little Vampire book series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. The book I read and re-read the most was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, by C.S. I was an avid reader as a child, so I read everything on the shelves at my local library and my school library. What books do you remember reading during your childhood? Tim and Holly/Lan Thompson embody this duality within me. This duality between my love for small, enclosed worlds, and the desire to escape to other countries to find my roots, physically or through my imagination, shapes some of the characters I create. My dreams were born in this beautiful place, but also nurtured by my father's stories about life in America and our Dutch and Cherokee ancestry. We were far from everything and surrounded only with the ocean, the forest, and breathtaking cliffs over the Channel Sea. I grew up in a very small world, but with international influence. My father was American and my mother French. I was born in a small town in Normandy on the northern coast of France. Where were you born and how has it affected you?

Mechaniek by JC Compton