Creator Spotlight - Séverine Vidal

This month we talked to Séverine Vidal, author of The Coat, about a few of her favorite things.

What is your favorite dish?
This is a difficult question for the gourmet that I am! It’s impossible to choose! I love my husband’s celery and blue cheese soup, aligot, hummus with candied lemons, risotto with morels . . . 

How many favorite dishes can I have?

What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved Michka and Rosa My Turtle, two mythical books published by Père Castor. I knew them by heart, I did the voices, I slept with them hidden under my pillow.

Is there a word that you particularly like?
As with food, I’m a word gourmet! So I won’t choose just one . . .  I like the words framboise (raspberry), juillet (July), mimosa, and neige (snow) for their consonance and for what they represent. And then I like old-fashioned words like foutaise (hogwash), navrant (disheartening), and conciliabule (confabulation). Also, the words ouste (out you go) and atlas, simply because they sound good!

And of course, the word AUTRICE, the feminine form of the word author in French. It’s a very old word, several centuries old, which I would like to see prevail more and more.

What do you like most about being an author?
The solitude. The fact that I have the incredible opportunity to work from home. At my own pace. The encounters. The madness. And that very special moment when the characters come to life and decide for us what happens next in their story. 

Once again, I don’t know how to limit myself.

Do you have a favorite animal?
That I know! Dogs! They fascinate me, move me, and make me laugh. I have two. The first is Elvis, a six-year-old border collie. We are inseparable; I almost never leave him. And Cosmo, a three-month-old puppy that we adopted at the end of December. Cosmo is a mix of Labrador and golden retriever and makes us completely crazy. Dogs are the best.

Follow Séverine on Instagram @severine_vidal to see photos of Séverine, her family, her books and her adorable pets!