Third book published for local teacher
It only took Champlain Regional College teacher François Desharnais a “little less than a year” to write and publish his third book.
In the Flames, the second novel in his Vigilance trilogy, is set to come out this Sunday, June 18.
Desharnais, who goes under the pen name François Day, said that inspiration has never been an issue for him.
“I’ve been writing all my life,” said the professor. His first book, Movements in the Ether, was published at age 37.
The book is a small collection of short stories which, according to Desharnais, was a kind of a test run, as he was unprepared at the time to invest in a long story.
“I always have ideas in my mind. When I put my ideas on paper, they no longer crowd my mind and I can move on to new things. It’s a very liberating experience for me to write.”
Desharnais followed Movements in the Ether with The Vigilance trilogy, which started with The Sisters’ Journey.
For the Vigilance series, the author credited his master’s degree in comparative Canadian literature. His thesis, Death as Intercultural and Spiritual Encounter in Lee Maracle’s Ravensong and Brian Moore’s Black Robe, which he worked on for many years at l’université de Sherbrooke, is the backbone of the novels.
“I don’t expect anyone will ever read my master’s,” explained Desharnais. “It’s dense, and only academically interesting.” However, the author continued, the ideas found in the thesis were something worth sharing. “I decided to use
the mental work invested in the thesis and present those theories as stories.”
Thus was born the start of his trilogy, but Desharnais said that the work had “a split origin”.
“This first chapter of In the Flames came to me in a dream.” The rest, he said, just flowed from there.
In the Flames was so quick to write thanks to the relaxed nature of the professor’s summers. With school being done for the semester, he admitted that he had some time to spare. Desharnais described his novel as being “a story about cultures coming into contact”. It is a fantasy novel, which he said is his favorite genre, as it allows him to incorporate ideas such as magic and spirits.
“It’s about cultures coming together, sometimes clashing, but trying to understand one another and work together,” he summarized.
With the support of l’association des Auteurs de l’estrie, Desharnais will launch his new book at a brunch on Sunday morning at La Maison Bleue du Parc du Domaine-howard. Fans of his work can come meet him there.
“There will be many more to come,” confides Desharnais, who is simply happy to have his writing available for people to enjoy.