An Interview with LetitiaFT
Fascinating insights from an American Hubber in France
You describe yourself as a California native who has spent most of her life in Paris. What initially brought you to the city, and what made you stay?
A Frenchman, what else? I walked into an “international” college potluck in San Diego and immediately spied a mysterious young man holding a six-pack of Kronenberg (French beer). He was wearing shoes and socks. This was Southern California and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a college student wear real shoes, with real socks. I was impressed. He told me he was doing an experimental film at the Wild Animal Park so I squealed “I want to be a zoologist” to which he replied “Oh la la!” I was hooked. And determined that if he didn’t ask for my phone number, I’d persuade him to give me French lessons. The French lessons weren’t necessary…
Your original field of study is in natural science and you have written several nature books, two of which focus entirely on apes. Are there any particularly important messages you're trying to send with these books (e.g. are there major misconceptions you would like to correct or causes you would like readers to support)?
Primates, and more particularly the apes, are our closest relatives. Theoretically this doesn’t give them more “intrinsic” value than an earthworm—each is a piece of the puzzle of life which when removed takes others down with it—but from our anthropocentric perspective it certainly seems that way. With apes as ambassadors, we can reach a broader human population and save a wider range of species in the wild, because to save such a popular species we must first protect its habitat. When we do that, we save the other species that live within it, and indirectly without. That includes our own species. I give to the
Park Ranger Widow Fund in wartorn DRC run by the legitimate, dedicated Gorilla Doctors.
In my 2009 book “Gorillas, the Gentle Giants”, which if I may boast was selected as the partner book for UNESCO’s Year of the Gorilla, I conclude the introduction as follows: “Gorillas are both a keystone species on which the forest depends to renew itself and a flagship species on which our hearts depend, for we too are social apes and the plight of our close cousins cannot leave us indifferent. Even the silverback [adult male gorilla] slows the pace of his foraging group to allow the weaker members to keep up.” This is the message I’d like to get across: we need to follow the example of the silverback.
In addition to being a nature writer and published author, you work as a professional translator. How did you get started with translation?
It started when I was studying lemur behavior at the now defunct Paris zoo. As the only native English-speaking naturalist around, I was asked by the Natural History Museum to translate materials for a conference on wetlands. Then I was contacted by the French World Wildlife Fund to adapt a speech for Prince Philip on the Loire Valley (daunting) and from there word spread. Soon I was swamped. From time to time I manage to break free of translating and do something else, but it always seems to creep back and take over. Not that I’m complaining. My jobs and clients are amazing and I’ve developed two new specialties, art and screenplays. I’ve even done a bit of dialogue-doctoring as a result.
How does HubPages fit in to your life as a professional writer and translator?
A while back I quit a job of five years with an international relations firm to work on another book, this time about a quixotic birder during the French Revolution, a true story with a plot so outrageous I can hardly believe it myself. I’m obsessed with it. My other books were commissioned. I adore plunging into the latest scientific literature, throwing it into a hat and pulling it back out in a way that speaks to the general reader. When somebody asks me to, I can do it in a snap. However I soon discovered that a pet narrative project with no deadline is a recipe for writer’s block. When I happened across HubPages it struck me as the perfect venue to shake out my wrists and loosen up on other topics, get the creative juices flowing again, maybe even let my girly side show through, without ever losing sight of readers. So far that has proved to be the case.
You submitted a sizable collection of drop dead gorgeous Hubs in the Cookbook Contest, and your recipes are incredibly intriguing. Have you always been a passionate cook? Where did you gain your amazing culinary abilities?
Wow. Thanks. I’ve always loved to cook, and of course French culture is food culture par excellence, though in my opinion if France continues to take its supremacy for granted it will lose it. There is amazing food coming out of kitchens around the world, which we certainly got a feel for on HubPages during the Cookbook Contest. As for intriguing, let’s say I don’t cope well with the “referential” Parisian mindset, so I do dishes that no one can judge against anything they’ve tried before! That said, I am cautiously venturing onto terrain that is more, not less, traditional. My mother-in-law’s Almond Financier cake recipe is definitely a classic. I think what I like best are classics with a twist. And easy. I like easy.
Your Hubs are filled with beautiful original images, and your photography is stellar. What tips can you offer to Hubbers who would like to improve their skills?
I’m no photographer—F-stops make my head spin—but I did work as a photo editor for a nature and a travel magazine out of Paris a few years ago and I do use original photos. I think the two keys for amateurs like me are never publish a photo that’s totally blurry and as far as possible shoot in natural daylight. If the photos still turn out dark, there are ways to improve them after the fact. I wrote a Hub called
Food Photo Flops addressing this and similar issues. I recommend reading Claudia Tello’s Hub called
Nature Photography & Photography Tips. She offers great tips for every level of photographer that can be applied to all sorts of subjects.
Do you have any particular goals on HubPages? What sorts of Hubs can we expect from you in the future?
I look forward to writing more on travel, food, and decorating, the latter being my most successful Hubs to date. I even have some D.I.Y.s in the works. And then of course I never tire of writing about animals. I’ll always be a fact-checker, but I enjoy writing for HubPages without the constraints of the commissioned work I do. Free Style.
I also hope that when I get a few more Hubs under my belt I’ll be able to tell which aspect of my writing strikes a chord with readers. I’m discovering just how different writing for traditional publishing and for the web are, but who knows, maybe some of my HubPages readers will one day read
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