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Craft Chat Chronicles
Craft Chat Chronicles
Season 2 Episode 8: How Paris, Cancer, and COVID Shaped a Memoir: Robin Allison Davis’s Journey
Ever wondered what it’s like to face a life-threatening illness in a foreign country during a global pandemic? Join us for a conversation with debut author Robin Allison Davis, who shares her deeply personal journey of living in Paris while battling cancer. Robin gives us a window into the complexities and emotional toll of navigating the French healthcare system as an American expat, and how isolation during COVID-19 shaped her poignant memoir. Her story is one of resilience, love, and the intricate dance of crafting a compelling narrative from life's hardest moments.
We unpack the nitty-gritty of writing and pitching a memoir proposal, complete with Robin’s expert tips on structuring your author bio, sample chapter, and marketing section. She opens up about the emotional hurdles of revisiting painful experiences, and offers practical strategies like journaling and therapy to help aspiring authors. Robin's insight into the extensive revision process and the nerve-wracking experience of being on submission provides a candid look into the often-surprising world of publishing.
As we wrap up, the excitement peaks with Robin's plans for a spectacular book launch party on a boat in Paris. We discuss her transition from objective journalism to the deeply personal realm of memoir writing, and she shares the thrilling story of securing her literary agent. Plus, get a sneak peek into her next big project—a horror novel! This episode is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the art of memoir writing, the challenges of the publishing journey, and the transformative power of storytelling.
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Welcome to Craft Chat Chronicles, the go-to podcast for tips on crafting best-selling fiction. Here at Craft Chat Chronicles, we bring you expert interviews, insights and tips on writing, publishing and marketing. Join the conversation and embark on a new chapter in your writing journey. For workshops, show notes and more information, visit jdmayalcom. That's jdmayalcom.
Robin Allison Davis’:In season two, episode eight of Craft Chat Chronicles, we have debut author Robin Allison Davis talking about living in Paris, her memoir about surviving cancer and Paris and just the many things that she's overcome and her publishing journey, and she talks a little bit about the process of writing proposals for your memoir. So if you're interested in learning about the process of writing a proposal for a memoir and hearing her exciting and interesting journey between living and dating in Paris and overcoming cancer while she's there, then you definitely want to tune in because season two, episode eight of Craft Chat Chronicles will be very entertaining. So let's get started.
Robin Allison Davis’:Where are you on the globe? I'm in Paris. Oh, that's exciting. What brings you to Paris? Is that where you live, or are you there for work? Yes, I've been living in Paris for eight years. I'm American. I moved here from New York, from the DC area, and, yeah, I live and work here. Do you like it? Do you love it? What's Paris like? It's way more different than I thought it was going to be, because I moved, like I said, from New York, and so I thought there were a lot of similarities with the city and not so much, not as much as I thought. So that that's been interesting and it's been quite a wild ride, which is essentially what my book is about.
Robin Allison Davis’:Tell me about your publishing journey. So I've always wanted to be an author. I've been writing since a very young age a lot of poems, a lot of short stories, a lot of started and not finished novels, and I've always been working towards something. But then, when I had my situation, my health, when I had my health complications in 2018, it was very what am I trying to say For me in 2018, when I had my health complications, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer as an expat, I thought, okay, I haven't really read anything about this, like everything I've read about moving to Paris is you move to Paris. You meet Pierre your second day, because you guys are both reaching for the same baguette. And now you're in love and you have children that call you mama. And I was just like, okay, I really don't know how to navigate this cancer journey living abroad. I don't know anything about abroad. I don't know anything about this. I don't have any family here. I'm not even fluent in the language. So when that happened, I was like you know what? I think it would be a good memoir that would be helpful for people that are maybe scared to move abroad. They can see that you can do it and bad stuff can happen and you can still make it through. And then I kind of put it to the side.
Robin Allison Davis’:Around 2020, when the pandemic happened, I was just like is this really the book that I want to do? Is this really the story I want to tell? And then, after the first lockdown that France had, I was diagnosed with breast cancer again. So at this time it wasn't just a surgery like I had last time where I had a mastectomy, it was chemo and radiation and it was all of these things during the worldwide pandemic where my family could not fly to be with me because the borders were closed, and I said, okay, okay, I think I get it now. I think this is definitely the story that I need to tell and it's never the story I thought would be my first book or my debut. But here I am. Love that.
Robin Allison Davis’:How's your health now? My health is good. I've had an all clear for about three years now. That's a blessing. That's good to hear. And have you met Pierre? Yet I have not met Pierre, but I have met someone who is very special to me. That's good to hear.
Robin Allison Davis’:What was the hardest part of the book to write? For me, the hardest part of the book to write was the, the portions that I'm still processing myself when I was writing my novels. Um, it was different because I was trying to put myself in the head space of the character and you know, do all this world building. But I mean there was no real world building in the same sense for a memoir. For me it was trying to go back and get deep into those feelings that I have. Like how did I feel when I was first diagnosed? How did I feel after my mastectomy and I lost a breast. How did I feel after all these things? And it's still. It's still difficult, it's still it still can be very emotional. For me, it's the it's honestly the lowest points of my life, and having to put myself back in those spaces and describe it and talk about it in a way that others will connect with has been the hardest part.
Robin Allison Davis’:Can you walk me through your writing process and for writing this memoir, and how did you structure your writing routines? Well, I first started off with writing a lot of different vignettes because I wasn't sure what order I wanted to put everything in. So I said, well, let me do a few vignettes. I figured, okay, I definitely will talk about my surgery, let me talk about how it was dating, even how, how it was moving to Paris before all this happened. All these different things. I didn't want to write in a linear fashion, because I find that a lot of times I get anxious about writing and the anxiety comes from what is the first line going to be? How do I start this? So I said, ok, let me just hop around, hop around and it'll all come together in the end. And in the end I sold on proposal Um and I wrote my proposal over several years I guess from 2018 to um, 2020, 2021, ish, no 2020.
Robin Allison Davis’:Cause I I I queried agents in January of 2021. So I worked on the proposal for two years and I had friends who had worked in publishing or friends who were authors who kind of helped me with the proposal structure and in the end I had my sample chapter, which I tweaked and I was really happy with. It was not the first chapter of my book and I sent that out with my proposal, and so that's how, basically, the ball got rolling for me. But it was difficult trying to figure out the exact path that I wanted to take with the book and even now, now that I'm still in this process and on revisions, it looks nothing like the proposal. The sample chapter doesn't even exist anymore. It's not even like it's different. It's completely different.
Robin Allison Davis’:What structure did you use for the proposal? For the proposal, I mostly went in chronological order, but I had a lot of thematic chapters, a lot of thematic chapters and the thematic chapters in terms of you know, advocating for yourself, dating, making you know how to make the move abroad and things like that, and in the end, once I had the entire manuscript, it just didn't work. It was a bit even. I had my sister read one of my be one of my beta readers readers and she was like I was really confused on the timeline of this and that I was like, well, okay, if you were here for all of this and you're confused on the timeline. Obviously this is not working in this fashion. So I had to kind of rework, um, the order of the book and just make it a bit more chronological, because it is difficult to follow if you don't realize that I had cancer twice and all of those different things I meant.
Robin Allison Davis’:Like the physical structure for your proposal, did you do like a pitch? And then like how many chapters did you use? For my proposal, I had an author bio, I had a sample chapter. I had a chapter outline. I had a sample chapter. I had a chapter outline, I had a marketing section, I had comp titles and I believe that that might be it. I might be leaving something out, but I that's how I queried agents and then my agent is a very editorial agent and he helped me with the proposal as well before we went on sub. And who is your agent? William Clark of William Clark and Associates. I was curious about that. I haven't really heard of too many people querying on proposal. Usually people go out on proposal when they have an agent already, so I was just a little curious. Yes, mean it's normal for memoir you query, you query agents with a proposal and then you sell on submission on proposal, which I was glad for because I didn't want to have to do all the emotional labor of finishing the book and then nobody wants it in the end. So that is true.
Robin Allison Davis’:You mentioned emotional labor. You mentioned anxiety about writing certain parts and you also mentioned that you were basically exploring some of your deepest pains. Can you walk me through how you overcame the challenges of recalling and writing about painful experiences? I did several things in terms of overcoming it and just kind of remembering it, because the thing is when you go through something traumatic, a lot of times your brain will block it out. So, thankfully, I have been a faithful journaler most of my life. So I went through my journals and I was like, oh my gosh, I forgot that this happened or oh, it's interesting. I felt this way when that happened and reading that kind of opened up more of the emotions as well as I took physical field trips, I put myself back in the same spaces. I'm still seeing all the same doctors, I go off into the same hospitals. So doing that when I'm there I make sure I just kind of open up my brain like okay, remember you were here before.
J.D. Myall:How does it?
Robin Allison Davis’:look, how does it smell, how does it, and all those things start to bring me back more into the emotions and I I mean I sometimes just jot it down in a notebook or jot it down on my phone, but it really helps put me back in that place In terms of the anxiety and the sadness of it all. I am an advocate for therapy, which I started therapy right after I was diagnosed and I was working with my therapist to make sure that while I am doing the emotional labor it's not overwhelming for me and it doesn't cause any sort of breakdown, because there is a lot of PTSD when you're diagnosed with cancer. What do you most hope that people get from your memoir? I hope that in my memoir people understand that there's a whole big world out there and I think a lot of people want to explore it and they want to get out there and they want to try to live abroad and different things like that. But they're afraid. They're afraid of what could happen and one of people's biggest fears in life in general, whether they're living at home or an expat is getting cancer and I'm hoping that my book shows that you can still take that leap. You can still do something outside of your comfort zone and the bad stuff will still happen. It still could happen, but you're going to make it through. It's not the end. You can do it, you can stick with it and everything. Well, fingers crossed, but hopefully everything works out well in the end. It's not going to be easy, but it's worth it.
Robin Allison Davis’:How many revisions do you think you guys did on this? We are still in the revision process. So, because I did sell on proposal, I'm a bit later in the process than some of our fellow debuts. So I am still just, I'm basically just starting revisions, but I the draft that I turned into my publisher was my fifth draft. Exciting, when are you, um, due to launch fall of 2025? And they didn't. I just asked because I didn't know if we had an exact like month or day or anything. I don't okay. So, yeah, at first it was going to be uh like spring or summer, but, um, it's fall, so I don't know that I'm assuming probably september, but I don't know. Have you had any talk about your covering stuff yet?
Robin Allison Davis’:Uh, they told me to think of some ideas and it's funny because I said I know what I don't like, but I don't know I like, especially when it comes to memoirs. I know you know the celebrity ones, they always have the person's picture on it. The non-celebrity ones, they really seem to vary, so I don't exactly know. I'm trying to keep like a Pinterest page of different ones that I like so I can get some sort of inspiration of what I want. I love that. And who are you?
Robin Allison Davis’:How long were you on submission? First, I was on submission for like six months and how did you cope with that anxiety of that? Oh gosh, not well, not well at all. It was just not a very. You know, my agent is amazing and he is very transparent, but the whole process in general is just not very transparent. You just don't know what people are thinking, if they've read it or if they're just taking too long to get to it or everything that's going on. So I don't know. I really just kind of threw myself into my other aspects of life, other hobbies, traveling, like social life, different things like that. I said if it's meant to be out there, it'll be out there. I love that.
Robin Allison Davis’:What were your biggest surprises so far in your publishing journey? Hmm, what are the surprises? I think I was very surprised that people seem to not. It seems like health memoirs are not that popular, which surprised me because I mean, for one Suleikha Juwad's book has done amazing. It's been like a New York Times bestseller and there's so many others like that and I'm just like, oh really. But that was something that I heard a lot from agents, where they were at times a bit hesitant, which was also very surprising to me, because Paris is always such a big pull for people. I've read books about Paris where it was just surprising to me that it was published. So I was very surprised by the fact that the fact that it had that health angle, they just really were like hands off about that. That's surprising to me too, because we all go through it. You know everybody Exactly Health issues and whatnot. If you live long enough, you're going to experience it.
Robin Allison Davis’:Exactly, You're also a journalist. Tell me a little bit about your journalism and that side of your writing. So in journalism, I am primarily a television journalist. I started well, most of my career, honestly, has been at NBC. Right now I'm a freelancer, but I've been working on long form true crime shows such as Dateline network specials. I did a lot with them, most recently working on morning show, today show type things, and I've always really loved television. Television actually is how I got into. I got my broadcast journalism degree.
Robin Allison Davis’:I was a child who loved acting and loved writing and I was just like, oh well, what about these people that are on TV with the news? I was like that seems like that's a mix of the two. So no, I was not on screen, but I decided not to do that once I was in college. But I've always really enjoyed television, watching it, learning about it, writing the scripts for it and, as a result, I find that, because I'm working news, my writing for my manuscript was a bit tight, a little too tight. I'm so used to saying, okay, you've got a minute 45 to get this script and then we'll put it on. I'm like, okay, I can write a minute 45 script, but no, I can let the piece breathe. For my book I can let it breathe. Everything doesn't have to be so tightly written. So I found that I had to keep expanding to reach my word count because I was so concerned about having things written in a tight way. Mm-hmm, Love that.
Robin Allison Davis’:How did you get started in TV and film? What do you think you did right? Because I just I was so concerned about having things written in a tight way Love that. How did you get started in TV and film? What do you think you did right that helped you break into that industry? Multiple internships I was a huge advocate of doing internships, even when my parents didn't want me to. I did them in the local station, I did them at the network stations. I did whatever I could. Even I did a summer camp. Local station, I did them at the network stations. I I did whatever I could. If it was even I did a summer camp when I was in high school for journalism, for television journalism, Two of them in fact and any sort of weekend workshops I could do, I would do it because I just knew that it is important to be good, important to be hardworking, to make your way in, but it's also important who you know which is sad but true.
Robin Allison Davis’:And the more of these type of things you do, the more people you get to know. The more professional organizations you join, like the National Association of Black Journalists, the more people you know that can help you get that foot in or can talk to someone for you or can even just mentor you. And so when I started, I did an internship at NBC News at Weekend Today actually in New York the summer after my junior year of college, worked really hard on that show. They said, okay, it's the end of your internship. If you need anything, let us know. So of course, I reached back my senior year. I said, well, hey, I'm graduating in a month or two. Is there anything? And they said, okay, well, we'll contact you. And they did, and I graduated with a job. So, yes, and it was not easy, it was definitely work your way up the ranks in a not so fun way, but I enjoyed it. It paid off and as long as you love what you're doing, then it's not so bad.
Robin Allison Davis’:And how about in writing and publishing? What do you think you did write that helped you secure your book deal and get on the path you're on now? I think it was also talking to people that genuinely wanted to help me. Because one thing I have noticed is that there can be sometimes a bit of a gatekeeper attitude in terms of publishing and some people that I felt I was friends with, that had gone through the process, didn't really want to give me any advice or help me with that. I'm like, okay, interesting. But then I had other people one of my very best friends who was incredibly helpful, like sharing her proposal with me that got her her book deal and this and that and other people that I know that worked in publishing. They told me that they would take a look and it was just having their advice and having the support and they were helping to motivate me. I think that really helped me, because sometimes I was just like you know what it just seems too hard. I'm reading on the internet here where nobody gets a book deal, where nobody gets published, where 1% of people all those crazy stats that you read about you can read that and you can get very disheartened and demoralized and I think that my circle, my group of friends, the people that I've met, they were really, really helpful to me. I love that.
Robin Allison Davis’:Do you remember your elevator pitch? Can you tell me your pitch. Oh, I don't think I had an elevator pitch. Be honest, elevated pitches make me so. They make me anxious, because I have actually witnessed someone giving an elevator pitch in the elevator to my boss and it was the most awkward thing I'd ever seen in my life. Like everyone was just. Like you could just see everyone's faces turning red out of embarrassment, like is this really happening? I don't have an elevator pitch, but I will have one before the book comes out. I'll make sure that I will perfect that, but yeah, no, I don't have one.
Robin Allison Davis’:How are you liking our debut group so far? I like it. I like it. I wish it was a bit more diversity in the types of books. It seems like I'm the only nonfiction, which is surprising because I know a lot of nonfiction authors the majority of the ones I know but it's really. I like how supportive it is and I feel like you can ask a question about anything and people. Someone will have an answer, or at least try to have an answer about it.
Robin Allison Davis’:Have you made any friends from the group so far, or is it just more of a casual conversation? It's casual conversation, but there's some people I talk to more than others. There's one person in the group that lives in France and I've talked to her. Yeah, I think she's going to be leaving France soon, but yeah, she's been living here for a PhD program and we've been chatting. And then there's someone else in the accountability groups that I chat with.
Robin Allison Davis’:Now, have you started making your own plans for launch yet? As far as, like, if you're going to do a party or what you want to do on social media or any of that good stuff, I am definitely having a party. I like having parties very much. I like to have my party on a boat. That's my plan and it will be in Paris and I've told my friends you know, if you want to fly in, you can, or it could be just the Paris people. But yeah, I would love to have some sort of branded items as a like party favor. Of course, lots of books that hopefully people can buy and I can sign, and I just want it to be a good time. Good music, like pop, some champagne, do a little dancing at the end, like just a good time, because it's been oh my God, I went through what five years of hell and then just going through the process of getting the book out. It's just it'll be time to party. You owe yourself a good time, definitely.
Robin Allison Davis’:Yes, yes, what are you working on currently? Currently, I am working on a couple of things. I'm kind of toying around with a novel, a horror novel. I'm a big horror fan. So working on something like that, um, just basically kind of starting out on it, using it to distract me from getting my edits back. But those will be back soon and then I'll be cracking down on um, my book, but right now just tinkering around with the horror novel. I'm sorry, sorry, I'm going out of order. I'm just conversational today. Yeah, it's fine. So, because I'm about to jump again. That's why I was warning you.
Robin Allison Davis’:So we talked about you getting your agent. We didn't talk about the call. Did you get a call? Did you get an email? How did that process go? My agent sent an email saying that he was very interested in, you know, meeting with me, possibly representing me. So then we did a zoom call.
Robin Allison Davis’:I was in Florida with my family because it was my father's 75th birthday. We had gone. We went to Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, we went to randomly Fort Lauderdale to celebrate my dad's birthday, um, so I took the zoom call in the lobby of the hotel and I was like, oh, this guy is like really. I was like he's really nice, he's really on top of it. Um, he only, uh, represents non-fiction. So I like that. He has a specialty. And I asked him if I could speak with one or two of his clients and he agreed and he linked me with one of them. And then of course you know you have to go back to the other agents that your work was out to. So I did that and I had two other agents tell me they were interested.
Robin Allison Davis’:I took two Zoom calls with two other agents. In the end I felt like it was not quite the best fit for me. One agent I spoke with them twice because the first meeting actually kind of made me feel a little. I just spoke with them twice and in the end I ended up going with the um, with the original agent, who saw something in me immediately love that, love that. And when you, when I'm subbed and you.
Robin Allison Davis’:So how did that go? Did you do another zoom call? Was there a phone call? How does your agent give you the news and how did you celebrate? Um, he sent me an email and then we talked on Zoom and he said, ok, we're going to have a Zoom call with them to see what they're thinking about for the book. And so we did that and I didn't really know what to ask. I was Googling, like, what do you ask on these calls? I want to make sure I wasn't missing anything. And so I did that.
Robin Allison Davis’:And the Zoom call went well. And then we didn't hear anything for a while. So I was like, oh, did it not go well? What's going on? And so my agent reached out and he was like, oh, they're still interested, but I know also at the time there was the Harper-Collins strike, so that also might've been delaying process. Um, but eventually we had yet another zoom call when we decided to okay, let's, let's go, let's go forward with the whole thing. And we had a zoom call to like welcome me to the team. And it was really great. It was really great to get to know my editor and establish a rapport. That's awesome. And what publishing house are you with? So I'm with Amistad. Is the imprint of Harper Collins? Okay, I'm familiar with Amistad, I've heard good things about them, so hopefully you'll be well taken care of and happy over there. Yes, yes, I mean so far. So far, so good. That's good to hear.
Robin Allison Davis’:How has your perspective changed on writing after tackling memoir, and was memoir something you've always written or was this a new endeavor for you? This was a new endeavor for me because, as a journalist, I've always tried to not put myself in the story. I always tried to keep you know my opinions to myself be unbiased, just not be. The story is not me, it's never me. Opinions to myself be unbiased, it's not be. The story is not me, it's never me. And now the story is me and it.
Robin Allison Davis’:You know, it's a little frightening in a way, because I just know, as someone who is a member of the media, I know that there are going to be people that hate it. They're going to be people that like it. They're going to be people that say, well, this was her fault because she did that, or people that say she should have done it this way, or I don't understand why she and those things are going to be hard to hear, but it's going to happen. I need to prepare myself for that. It makes me happy to go back to my first love of fiction, where I am not the story, but it's also a bit scary because I think they say that getting memoir published is extremely hard and the stats are low and you know, because I feel like there are more people writing fiction. So that kind of scares me and I'm trying to not let that get in my head and just let my story flow and just write the best novel that I know to write. But sometimes it gets in my head a bit Understandable, understandable.
Robin Allison Davis’:Do you have any advice for people who are tackling memoir for the first time? Do you have any advice for people who are tackling memoir for the first time? I would just say to find out as much as you can if there's an audience for your story. Find out what your angle should be if your story is unique. And I would say those are the top three things, because I've seen a lot of people that want to do a memoir on it's kind of a very commonplace situation and they're asking why are they not getting bites from agents or anything like that? So trying to make sure that you've got the right angle for your story, something that people would really want to read, and then just go deeper, which is something that I'm struggling with. When you think you've gone deep, you probably have not gone deep enough is what I'm learning. So just continue to go deeper, because the deeper you are emotionally in the memoir, the more people will relate to you and connect with the book. I love that and connect with the book. I love that.
Robin Allison Davis’:What's the best piece of writing and craft advice you have for memoir writers and writers in general? To take some time away from your piece when you finish one of your drafts. And unfortunately I did not have a lot of time away, because when you do on proposal, you have a deadline. The manuscript is due by such and such date. So I could not do the Stephen King thing of putting it away for three months and then going back to it Like sorry, stephen, I have a deadline. And then going back to it like sorry, stephen, I have a deadline. So I could not do that.
Robin Allison Davis’:But if you are especially with fiction maybe where you can do that, just spend some time away from it, because I find that the longer I spend away from it, when I come back I can really see it with fresh eyes. I can really get into the revisions. I love revisions. I hate the first draft, the writing process, but the revisions are where I thrive, so taking that time away is so useful. Take enough time where you're no longer stressed about the work. I love that. What else would you like to say that we didn't cover? Yeah, I can't think of anything.
Robin Allison Davis’:I think you covered quite a lot. Yeah, that's why I was trying to ask you a little bit about how you did the proposal, because then I was like, well, maybe the angle can be her process and then her proposal writing or something like that. You know any tips on that? Yeah, the proposal is a big part of it. It really is, and I mean I don't know if this is good advice or not, but so many people they say, for your proposal and when you query authors to have your first chapter of your book, like I said, I was moving all around with my book so it was not even the first chapter. So I would say, if you're, if you're holding off because you want to make sure it's definitely the first chapter, I think that the agents and publishing houses give some grace with that. I don't think that's something that you necessarily have to worry so much about. Like, I would say, submit the chapter that's going to get it sold.
Robin Allison Davis’:Love that, love that. I appreciate your time. I loved hearing your story. Thanks, thanks, thanks for having me. And when is your book out? Same fall, 2025. They haven't given me a date yet. I'm actually probably like right neck and neck with where you are, because my agent reached out to me just yesterday to do the cover console. She had a form, though. She sent me some questions, which actually was good because it helped prompt me to think about how.
Robin Allison Davis’:Yeah, and she had me, like linked to some covers I like and so okay, so I need to really fill up my little Pinterest page then with some covers of like. I told her I was like I know, I just don't want the whole like Lennon Doyle untamed. You know all these books have that cover now, or it's just like the, you know watercolors and like the glittering letters. I'm like that's no. I was like there's too many books like that. I love the Paris angle. I love that you were bold enough to tell your truth about a hard part of your life and I love that it's memoir. Like I said, you're the first memoir author I've had the opportunity to talk to, so hopefully, it takes off and soars and you know, I hope so, I really hope so.
Robin Allison Davis’:I mean it's just. Yeah, I feel like I'm writing a book that I haven't seen. So that was important to me, because no one talks about how you net. Everyone talks about how much they hate the american health care system and how europe does it best, but then there's no, there's no like book you can read about how someone actually did go through that and has that comparison of what, if this would have happened to me in the us, should I go back to the us? Um, like even seleka juad's book, she went back to the us when she was diagnosed with cancer, uh, while living in. So you know, it's some that's another thing people probably criticize me for in the book. She should have gone back to the US. Are they like us? You know us brown people More open to the metric, it is true, it is a Black man cross the street.
Robin Allison Davis’:When they see me to get away, they cross the other way. And cross the street when they see me to get away, they cross the other way. Yeah, no, I mean, it's not like the whole, like black love and all of that. Black couples is not really much of a thing here. It's pretty much a unicorn when you do see a black couple together. My boyfriend is white. I've dated a couple of black guys here, but they were African, as in, they were born in africa, um, so they're still, you know, down for it.
Robin Allison Davis’:But yeah, it's very much mostly interracial dating here so I heard that that men overseas and over there, specifically in paris, like black women, but I didn't hear that it was, you know, almost exclusively the interracial dating over there. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, I have some friends that have dated like mostly Black guys, but they were all um. Also they're from the Caribbean. If they're from, like um, martinique or Guadeloupe, like they're often more dating black women. But yeah, I don't have any. My black male French friends here don't. They've never dated black women, like not once, not ever in their life. That's crazy, yeah. And my black French women friends either they've never dated a black guy. They're different than over here. Yeah, yeah, very different.
Robin Allison Davis’:Now is the cost of living over there um, good, is the? What cost of living? Yeah, so I was in new york before. It's way more expensive in new york, way more um here, particularly for me, the groceries have a good price, like you can get food for fairly cheap. You get apartments, aren't? They're expensive for France, but they're not that expensive when you compare it to New York and all of that. But the salaries are extremely low. So if you are here with a French salary, then it's hard, it's difficult, but if you I was with the international, then it's hard, it's difficult. But if you, I was with the international organization for a while and they paid well, so that was fine, and then now with me freelancing, having us based clients and things like that, it makes it okay.
Robin Allison Davis’:But if it was only French salary, I would probably be struggling. Would you come back or would you take it out? I might come back. I mean, I would go to, maybe like california, because I've always loved la. So I've been thinking about that. I got my french passport, uh, about a year or two ago, so now I could just go back and forth if I want. Is the writing community in france? Is there a post-med or a large writing community over there? Are you not familiar? There's a lot of writers, but I wouldn't say there's a large writing community. I haven't noticed much of a community when it comes to writers here. Maybe I'm wrong and they've got a community I don't know about, but, um, I just know a bunch of, like you know, writers that are friends or like loosely linked writers. So I would like for that to change. But I'm closer to, like, the Atlanta area and they have a really um big writers community.
Robin Allison Davis’:Like every year they do Black Writers Weekend in Atlanta. Oh wow, there's like a literary awards on that Sunday and all kind of events all weekend and stuff. So I was curious if it was like that over there. Wow, that's nice, I wish. Maybe I need to start it. I don't know well if you ever come down here emailing. I will, I will, I will you know something like that.
Robin Allison Davis’:Yeah yeah, there is a. There's a retreat that I'm trying to go to in September. It's in France. It's Black Women, writers of Europe. Oh, I love that. Yeah, so there's like. I believe they're Black American, or they might be Black British, I'm not sure, but they're trying to, you know, cultivate that kind of community Love, that Love that I won't hope to have to sit any longer. It was nice meeting you, nice meeting you too, and have a great day, everything when it's good to go. But send me your headshot and your cover when you have it, because I'm going to yeah.
J.D. Myall:That wraps up today's craft chat chronicles with JD Mayer. Thanks for joining us. If you like the episode, please comment, subscribe and share. For show notes, writing workshops and tips, head to jdmayercom. That's jdyocom. While you're there, join JD's mailing list for updates, giveaways and more.