The author François Gravel, who taught for more than 30 years at Cégep Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, published, on October 9 under the banner La courte scale, the sixteenth book that he wrote with his author friends Johanne Mercier, Alain M. Bergeron and Martine Latulippe. Their collective creations are signed François-Martine Bergeron-Mercier, and their newborn, L’affaires Buddy Bussières, is no exception.
Dotted with illustrations by Mathilde Filippi, the novel takes place in a school. Oscar, the skeleton from the science room, is missing. The deputy director of the establishment, a big fan of detective novels, tries to solve the mystery, but tracking down the culprits turns out to be more complex than she thought.
To achieve this plot, the creative process began in the same way as the 15 previous projects: improvisation. “It’s a perpetual ferment of ideas. It looks a lot like directed improvisation at first. It’s going in all directions. This gives us a first draft in which we then try to keep only the best. We try to surprise others, and we often have fun setting traps,” explains François Gravel.
Genesis
This collaboration between eight hands and four brains began in Calgary, more than 10 years ago, during a children’s literature festival to which the four were invited. However, this festival never took place!
“We then spent three days together, talking about this and that, but especially children’s literature. When we returned to Quebec, we continued to write each other emails, until one of us – I don’t remember which one – had the idea of writing an eight-handed novel, by putting each of us in the shoes of a character. It became The gang of fourpublished by Foulire in 2015″, summarizes the author, about the origin of François-Martine Bergeron-Mercier, the name of the group which was found after numerous unsuccessful attempts.
After the completion of the first novel, the four friends had only one desire, that of doing it again. “We loved the experience so much that we wrote four more books before embarking on another series of adventures, The camp cliquewhich features younger characters. After this series which has ten titles, we were not yet satisfied,” adds François Gravel about the desire to start a new chapter with The Budy Bussieres affair.
Distance and trust
As Alain M. Bergeron lives in Victoriaville, Martine Latulippe in Ange-Gardien, Johanne Mercier in Quebec and François Gravel in Montreal, the exchange of ideas and the creative process inevitably had to be done remotely.
“Our projects would never have been possible without the Internet! We often write a dozen emails to each other a day! There are now so many exchanges between us that in the end, we no longer know who wrote what,” remarks François Gravel.
Fortunately, there is a sense of trust within the team, which allows differences of opinion or ideas to be better addressed. “We have a lot of fun writing and our humor is often complementary. It is obviously not always easy, but it is done with the greatest respect and by discussing as frankly as possible,” admits the one who already confirms that another book by François-Martine Bergeron-Mercier is on the way.
