Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” -Saint Augustine
I am very pleased to feature Memoir Author Linda Kovic-Skow in her book tour for her memoir, French Illusions. Leaving your homeland when you are twenty-one years old and traveling to France to work as an au pair without knowing a bit of French can lead to a very intriguing story. Not only was I captivated by her story but I felt I was there with her experiencing France for myself. My book reviews are on Amazon and Goodreads.
Welcome, Linda!
KP: Can you tell us a little about your memoir?
LKS: In the summer of 1979, when I was twenty-one, I contracted to become an au pair for a wealthy French family in the Loire Valley. To secure the position, I pretended to speak the language, fully aware that my deception would be discovered once I arrived at my destination. Based on my diary, French Illusions captures my often challenging, real-life story inside and outside the Château de Montclair. The over-bearing, Madame Dubois, her accommodating husband Monsieur Dubois, and their two children are highlighted as I struggled to adapt to my new environment. Continually battling the language barrier, I signed up and attended classes at the local university in the nearby town of Tours, broadening my range of experiences. When I encountered, Adam, a handsome young student, my life with the Dubois family became more complicated, adding fuel to my internal battle for independence.
KP: What compelled you to write this story after thirty-three years?
LKS: About four years ago, after my husband and I dropped our youngest daughter off at college, I went through a sort of mid-life crisis. I missed being a mom and I wondered how I would fill the void. Sure I had my part-time bookkeeping business, but it consumed only a few hours a day and it wasn’t interesting any more. Something was missing, but what?
This prompted me to review what I like to call my “mid-life list.” This is similar to a “bucket list,” with an important twist. The idea was to refocus myself and figure out the things I wanted to do with my life in my fifties – while I could still do them. My list was short.
-Learn to play the piano
-Travel to Africa to see the elephants
-Travel to Tahiti and see the island of Bora Bora
-Travel back to France (with my family this time)
-Write a book
At the time, I didn’t own a piano and, with two daughters in college (on the east coast no less!), I couldn’t afford a trip to Africa or Tahiti. I had already traveled back to France in 2001 with my family, so that left me to examine the fifth item on my list more closely. If I did write a book, would it be fiction or non-fiction? What genre would I choose?
The answers to my questions came to me in the shower (which is where many of my ideas seem to materialize, strangely enough). I decided to hunt down my diary from my au pair adventure in France and compose a memoir. It took me three years and countless hours to write French Illusions, but now I can scratch another item off my mid-life list.
KP: Can you tell us about some of the difficulties you experienced writing your memoir?
LKS: I have to admit writing my memoir was a lot more complex than I initially imagined it would be. My diary offered a great outline, but I realized early on that I would have to change the names of people and places in my story to protect identities. This was especially true with regard to my host au pair family. Acquiring permission from them was out of the question. Totally out of the question. I mean it. Read my book and you’ll understand. Additionally, over thirty years had passed since I spoke with anyone I’d met in France. I no longer had any contact information. With this in mind, I researched common French names that might fit my characters. I tried them out and retained the ones that were a good fit.
Other decisions haunted me along the way. Where will I find elusive data on the Loire Valley, the Loire River and the town of Tours? How should I deal with the French sprinkled throughout the book? Should I italicize my inner thoughts? Oh, and I really struggled with how much detail to include in my own love scenes. This was probably the most challenging dilemma of all.
KP: Is there an excerpt you would like to share?
LKS: It’s difficult to choose one excerpt, but I’m proud of the detailed picture I paint of a French baker in Songais.
“I watched as the other woman, maybe in her eighties, kneaded a large ball of dough at a table on the other side of the display window. Her gnarled fingers pulled and rolled the dough, adding flour until it gained the right consistency. At one point, she stopped to scratch her face , leaving a smudge of flour on her cheek. As I followed Madame out the door, our eyes met, her grin transforming her face from serious to radiant.”
KP: What’s a typical weekday like for you?
LKS: I start my day about 8:30 in the morning with a generous cup of coffee. After I check emails, I attend to book business for a few hours – promotions, research, my blog or twitter. At certain times of the month, I meet with clients or perform tasks associated with my bookkeeping business. Often, in the afternoon, after lunch, I walk the dog, run errands or write. I can’t sit for long or my neck hurts, so I switch back and forth between my desk and a standing computer station. Late in the day, my husband arrives home from work and that signals a break for dinner. After a few more hours writing at the computer, I finally shut things down at around nine o’clock. Ahhh, a glass of wine usually helps me unwind.
KP: Does your book have a hidden message for readers?
LKS:Set in the beautiful Loire Valley, French Illusions, my remarkable true story, will remind readers what it was like to be young, adventurous and filled with dreams. It’s not too late to create your own memories so go out and explore the world.
Life’s for living, after all.
Thank you Linda for sharing your adventuresome,romantic and intriguing memoir writer’s journey with us.
-Purchase information for my book at Amazon: Amazon
Author’s Bio:
Linda Kovic-Skow resides in Kirkland, Washington. She earned an Associate Degree in Medical Assisting in 1978 from North Seattle Community College and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Seattle University in 1985. She has been married for 27 years and has two daughters. An enthusiastic traveler, Linda also enjoys boating, gardening and socializing with friends. French Illusions, her debut memoir, is the culmination of a three-year project.
For more information, visit http://lindakovicskow.com/. Watch the book trailer, it’s a lot of fun
How about you? Do you have a daring story to tell?
Linda will give away a free copy of her memoir to a random commenter.
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Next Week: “The Face of Alzheimer’s Dementia: A Memoir Moment”
This is a great interview! Thanks Kathleen and Linda. I love that you had to go deep into hiding names, that you used a diary as source material, that it was about that strange, awkward poorly documented part of life when we try to transition from young “adult” – grown up physically but not yet settled down, and I really love the mid-life list. That’s a wonderful idea! Bucket list was made famous by a movie of that name. Now we just need a mid-life list movie to give us a shared label for the important tasks of growing out of mid-life and on to the next adventure!! Yay!
Best wishes,
Jerry
Memory Writers Network
Thanks for your comments Jerry. I love your idea of “a mid-life list movie.. for growing out of mid-life and on the the next adventure.” Perhaps that can be part of your Memoir Revolution🙂
Thanks for your kind words, Jerry. What fun! I’m so glad my idea for the mid-life list is catching on, LOL.
Hi Linda and Kathy, great interview. French Illusions sounds like a very interesting read. I’m intrigued. The hidden message about “creating your own memories and exploring the world” resonated with me. I do agree, life is meant to be lived.
All the best,
-Andrea
Hi Andrea, I’m happy your enjoyed Linda’s interview. I know you will enjoy her adventuresome and romantic memoir. She certainly has given us lots of food for thought her about how we are living our own lives. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Hi Andrea. Thanks for your input. Let’s all plan our next adventure in life, no matter how small!
Of course Kathy knows that I will love French Illusions, Linda. I have been living my own French illusion for the past 29 years. Like you, I arrived in Paris in 1979 knowing only one word, “bonjour.” Then I fell in love at first sight with a Frenchman and have been living abroad ever since. I am looking forward to reading your memoir and think you would enjoy mine. http://pattymackz.com/wordpress/book/ Don’t let the title fool you, it is more than a sports story.
Hi Pat, Both your memoirs, HOME SWEET HARDWOOD and FRENCH ILLUSIONS, take us on a fascinating, adventuresome journey through France and your ultimate transformations. Both you and Linda had the courage to strike out on your own to follow your dreams. Though your paths were different, they both led to rich stories to share. For me , as your reader, I felt I had a tour of France and I didn’t even need a passport! I know you’ll both enjoy each other’s memoirs.
Thanks for your comments, Pat. Wow, I’m a bit envious that you’ve been living in France since 1979. You lucky girl! I checked out your website and your memoir, HOME SWEET HARDWOOD sounds intriguing. I’ll definitely check it out!
Thanks for posting this engaging interview, Kathy. So many points of interest here. I especially enjoyed being reminded of a young lady from Spain who came to live with my young family for a year and whose English was not at all what we expected. How easy it is to take for granted simply knowing the local language. And how exhausting when we don’t. I love Linda’s final message to all: LIfe is indeed, to be lived. My coffee mug reads, “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” Always a treat to get yours posts.
Hi Janet, So glad you connected with Linda’s story and message that”life is meant to be lived” We can all take a lesson from that. And thank you for sharing your story of the young lady from Spain. It is fascinating to experience other cultures. When my daughter did a college semester abroad in Granada, Spain, I visited her for a week and stayed with her host family. I didn’t know the local language but was amazed how much you can communicate without talking. Of course , I had an interpreter but at that time she was so immersed in the culture, even dreaming in Spanish,it was frustrating for her to go back and forth. I don’t know how Linda managed to take this plunge not knowing the local language but she did and therein lies her intriguing story!
Hi Janet. I enjoyed your remarks. I’ve never visited Spain, but that country is on my must see list. It’s fun that both you and Kathy have stories relating to this intriguing country.
French was my foreign language of choice in school, and I’m currently re-learning it. It’s a beautiful language. Your story sounds like it’s filled with intrigue. I look forward to reading it.
Hi Nancy, If you know and love the French language,you will love FRENCH ILLUSIONS. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Hi Nancy. Yes, my quest to learn to speak French was a central theme throughout French Illusions. I think you’ll enjoy, and perhaps relate, to parts of my journey.
Kathy, thank you for once again introducing us to a fascinating interview subject!
Linda, awesome story! I love how gutsy you were, in pretending to be fluent in French so you could secure that job, and then, in writing about it! P.S. There are piano stores now that offer rent-to-own pianos, so you might want to tackle another of your “bucket list” items next, ha!
You’re welcome, Debbie. I’m happy you enjoyed Linda’s very gutsy story and know you will enjoy her memoir. And that’s a great suggestion about the piano. It’s never too late. I (happily)took piano-playing back up a few years ago after being away from it for many years. Thanks, as always for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Debbie, your comment made me laugh out loud. Yes, one of my next items on my mid-life list will be learning to play the piano! Not quite as gutsy as pretending to speak French to secure a job!
For many happy years I was married to an Air France stewardess and we lived in Paris as both our airlines operated there. Without any intention of upsetting anyone in any way I would mention we (or more accurately she) used a store called Prisunic; due to the heat of the old piston long haul aircraft she preferred to change out of and throw away her undies after each round trip. The Prisunic lingerie line was called ……French Illusions. Wonder if in choosing the title there was a sub-concious link? Probably not as we were there in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
Hi David, Well, that’s an interesting twist. I’m looking forward to hearing Linda’s response to this. Thanks for stopping by.
David, sorry no connection, LOL! What a great story – thanks for sharing it.
Ooh la la! French Illusions. For no reason I can fathom, the title conjures up lilacs, both as blooms and scented talc. That descriptive bit about the bread kneader has me smiling along with you and Madame. Your classic adventure catches my fancy and I can’t wait to read it.
What a great point, Sharon, about how a title can conjure up enticing images. You will definitely enjoy Linda’s story of a young woman’s spirit-filled adventure, as well as her descriptive details of France. Her writing could be a sample in one of your chapters in your newly-released book, THE HEART AND CRAFT OF WRITING COMPELLING DESCRIPTION (Congratulations!) 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!
Thank you, Sharon and Kathy, for your kind words surrounding my excerpt above. As a writer, I hope that my descriptions will enable readers to experience an incredible part of the world even if they can’t visit it themselves.
I know Mme Dubois. She was the wife of my dad’s boss in Paris.
I’m not kidding, growing up outside Paris, my dad worked for a French company, and I met Monsieur and Madame Dubois several times.
Linda, don’t worry, I know it’s a common name, but the strange thing is that Mme Dubois was quite rude, especially to my Danish mother. They often had dinner functions at our house, and I remember her quite well.
Anyway, I love memoirs about France and the French, especially as I lived there for 15 years. I am returning on May 8th until 22nd, and shall visit my dad.
I love your spirit of adventure, and next time you fly to Paris, try Air Tahiti Nui, that way you can combine part of your desire to see Tahiti, with a trip to Paris.
Kathy, just read your Amazon review of Linda’s memoir and it was detailed and descriptive, as usual. Now I want to read her memoir.
Thanks for sharing your interesting “French” connections, Sonia. Air Tahiti Nui-what a creative idea for meeting a mid-life list dream! I’m happy my review of Linda’s book enticed you to read it. You won’t be disappointed!I appreciate you stopping by and sharing.
Sonia, my heartbeat accelerated and then slowed when I read your remarks. I changed the names of the family (and the town), but I’m still a little apprehensive about them finding out about the story. It’s interesting that you knew someone named Dubois that fits the same descriptions.
There are many Dubois, as you pointed out, and it was 30+ years ago, so I wouldn’t worry. Plus Mme Dubois doesn’t read English, I’m sure. I did a book signing in Paris in December, and most of my dad’s friends don’t read English. they want my memoir translated into French. Also my travel memoir takes place in Belize in 2005, and I changed names as well, however we had “sabotage” etc., so you can imagine how I feel. Keep in touch. Sonia
Sonia and Linda, I can see you two traveling all over as the dynamic duo! The thought also occurred to me that Linda’s story would be perfect your “My Gusty Story” contest, Sonia. 🙂
Linda’s story totally sounds like something I would do: tell the au pair organization that I speak French, just to get to go on the adventure … I did something similar as a choreographer who was not old enough (18) to participate in a show … Fake it until you make it.
I’m looking forward to your book, Linda. Thanks, Kathy for the fabulous interview.
Laura
Yes, Laura, I can see you doing the same adventuresome thing! I know you and Linda will enjoy each other’s memoirs! Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Laura. Yes, I think we do share some common ground! I hope you enjoy my book.
This book sounds like a wonderful story of adventure where the French culture and language can be experienced. I am trying to learn Spanish in hopes of visiting South America to meet my daughter-in-law’s family and immense myself in their lifestyle. It is reminiscent of Linda’s experience while she was in her youth. The only difference is, I am starting in my 60’s. I would love to read the book to realize what Linda learned in her maiden journey to a foreign land.
Welcome, Kathy. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. I’m happy you have been inspired by Linda’s spirit of adventure as you plan your own trip to South America. I think you will find French Illusions to be an enjoyable and informative read. Best wishes!
Wow, Kathy, it sounds like you are indeed heading for an adventure of your own. Spanish is another romantic language I would love to learn. Enjoy yourself and don’t forget your diary!
I love the interview and how Linda decided to write her book. I started my blog with a list of to dos, and I’m still working on it. Hopefully, you’ll get to go on some of the trips while you still can. That’s definitely my goal.
Congratulations on your book. It really sounds like a must read.
Hi Madeline, Thanks so much for stopping by. I’m happy you enjoyed Linda’s post and hope it will inspire you to go on those trips you are planning.:-)
Thanks for your kind words, Madeline. All the best to you on your future travels…and your to do list!
Great post Kathy. Thanks for introducing Linda and her memoir. I’m looking forward to reading French Illusions. What a fun story! Here’s to researching memories and people, then writing the story. I love traveling through books. I’ll never drop that habit. 🙂 Congrats both of you.
Hi Sue, It’s great to “see”you again. FRENCH ILLUSIONS is definitely a fun book to travel through. Thanks for stopping by.:-)
Hi Sue, I do hope you’ll read my memoir since you enjoy traveling through books so much. I included many detailed descriptions of places, customs and foods from the “Garden of France.” Hopefully, readers will be able to experience this spectacular part of the world even if they are unable to travel and see it for themselves.
Good interview, Kathy!
Thanks, Joe! I appreciate all your support here and on twitter.
Kathleen… is your husband the beautiful young Adam????? 🙂
I reckon on your experience but reverse. I am from Belgium and lived in France and Québec and now living in the English part of Canada where I had to immerse myself in an English world.
My!!! What a shock! Everything is so dramatically different.
Hope to be able to read your book soon
Dear Amyah, Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story of culture shock. I think you will enjoy Linda’s story of adjusting to a different culture. I assume you were directing the husband question to Linds. My husband is beautiful but his name is not Adam!
😀 Yes Kathy… my mistake 😀 I was asking the question to Linda.
A big hello anyway to your beautiful-non-Adam husband Kathy 🙂
No problem, Amyah. I figured as much. And I will extend you big hello to my beautiful non-Adam husband!
Hi Amyah. Oh my goodness, it sounds like you’ve been on quite an adventure of your own. Learning a foreign language along with a new culture is challenging, but also rewarding. The best of luck to you.
I enjoyed this interview about the memoir author Linda Kovic-Skow. Her life history was fascinating as well was her journey writing her memoir.
Thank you.
Hi Daron, It’s nice to see you again. Thanks so much for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoyed Linda’s intriguing story. I appreciate your comments.
Linda, your experiences as an au pair were obviously beyond exciting having arrived knowing not a word of the French language! The use of your diary to bring this memoir to publication is also one I envy. To have that history to rely on is a benefit. The diaries I kept as a girl were destroyed, and I would be having a much easier time writing my memoir if I still had them. I am intrigued by your story and anxious to read it having known several au pairs from France living in Portland, OR, my hometown. (I note you’re in Kirkland just up I-5!) Good luck with your tour and your book! Thanks for sharing your story with us today.
Kathy, thanks once again for bringing a new memoir to our attention and for lending your support during Linda’s book tour.
Hi Sherrey, You’re welcome! Though your diaries were destroyed, your memories live on. You are resurrecting them through your Letters to MaMa. It’s always nice to have you stop by and share your thoughts. I know you will enjoy Linda’s memoir.
Hi Sherrey. I’m so sorry to hear that your diaries were destroyed. I’ll admit that it would have been almost impossible for me to write my memoir without my diary. So much time had passed and I’d forgotten so many parts of my au pair experience. I wish you the best of luck on recounting your story!