Enice Toussaint | Writing Pain Into Strength | Author Conversations with Chris Dabbs

Welcome to author conversations with Chris Stabs. In this podcast, Broadcast Journalist Chris Stabs sits down with writers to explore the ideas behind their books. Each episode features a thoughtful long form conversation with authors from a wide range of fields, from memoirs, novelists, and historians to scientists and researchers, discussing their work. The research behind their books and the questions that shaped their writing. In this short trailer, you'll hear a moment from Chris's conversation with NS2SAR author of her non-fiction memoir tales of a multifaceted life, a series of four volumes, supported with her two kids, Max Kasmir, and Natasha Kasmir.

Follow the podcast to hear the full interview and many more conversations with writers about their books and ideas. Author conversations with Chris Stabs is a podcast exploring the ideas behind books. Each episode features a long form conversation with an author about their work, research and the questions that shaped their writing. Watch the full video interviews on YouTube and follow the podcast for future conversations on iHeartRadio hosted by Chris Stabs, Broadcast Journalist, and podcast consultant.

Yeah, we're doing great. Fantastic, okay. So you're all going to be on the on the recall. Yeah, because she speaks a little English, but more of you know she do speak French, this is the first language, our first language, okay? So we got to translate for her. It is okay for you. Now I wondered how you managed to do the the two, right? So the the French versions and the English versions as well, but now I know. Yes. So that's cool. Okay, great. Hello and welcome to author conversations with Chris Stabs.

Today's guest is a niece to say a Haitian born author now based in Canada who's powerful four volume memoir series Tales of the Multifaceted Life explores identity, resilience, womanhood, faith, motherhood and survival who deeply personal storytelling. Her books draw on lived experience across continents and cultures, offering an honest reflection on overcoming hardship while holding on to dignity, hope and personal truth. Now in this conversation today we'll talk about the emotional journey behind the memoirs, the realities of revisiting the past, the influence of migration and culture on storytelling, and what she hopes readers around the world will take away from her work.

In East Borgiau, giving me and welcome to the program. Hello. Hello. Hello, Sarah. I'm author and author N.Stoucet. She published my Katharine de Mollie and in femme par mit en dot. C'est ma mémoire. She said she's Ernestoucet and she published four series of Tales of the Multifaceted Life and this is a memoir. Absolutely. So I need to ask you, Ernest, it's lovely to meet you. Oh, and you guys, you should introduce yourselves as well for the main broadcast. Okay, me is Natasha Kazimir. You know, I'm the daughter.

I am Max Kazimir. I'm the son and this is obviously my sister. My younger sister. So we're five years apart. Yeah. Well, that's very nice. We're about in Canada, are you guys? Montreal, Quebec. So, yeah, that's my old town as well. So, yeah, great. I grew up in the center of the Stanley Street or Rue Stanley and Sherbrook. That's right. Yeah, Westside. Yeah, right downtown. A long time ago. Yeah, we're in the biggest more, Osmo area. Nice. Nice. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Anyway, let's talk about that another time.

Yeah, for sure. So, anyway, I still bleak. What inspired you to finally put your life story into book form? And why did this feel like, well, the right moment to share it all publicly? I'm not the one. I just posted a day in October. I saw that my life was marked by not many times. So, I felt the need to share my life story to inspire people to be a person. It was just that I wanted to let this message and that little one. She said she wanted to do, you know, leave a memoir so people can read and be inspired from the old story.

And at the same time, she wanted to leave a legacy for kids and the grandkids. Yeah, that's important, isn't it? You know, to pass down the family history. Yeah, exactly. So, that's the, that's the, I understand. Okay. So, what sort of message or emotional takeaway do you guys all mostly hope that readers can carry with them after finishing all of the books in the series? And feel free to give a long answer. It's not a problem. No, it's not a problem. You can, you can, you know, go around the questions for sure.

Yeah, so, so really, what was the thing? Yeah, what message or emotional sort of message? Do you hope that readers will carry away with them after finishing the series? I want, I want the readers to understand that they always have the strength to develop and to continue their lives. What she's saying basically is that she wants the readers to read the book, to understand and find the strength within what she's saying about the story and inspire people to never give up. And I always think positively even though things sometimes are really hard or sometimes it seems like there's no light on the end of tunnel, but with the strength that she's trying to, like, to, to convey that message that with the strength, the inner strength that you could conquer almost anything if you want.

Yeah, that great message, right? And put that through into your life and things, I know I get it, I get it. So, I mean, it must have been quite emotionally difficult to look back and write about painful or deeply personal parts of your past while you were writing these memoirs and these. How did you do, how did you deal with with that sort of memory? Oh, yes, it's a very emotional way to make the culture, to give it to me, it did touch up maybe magic, but I'm false. So what she wanted to say, it was really difficult for her, but the strength she got to bring all her story together, give her more strength and, you know, to be able to write and become the woman she, she's now the last, the the last 20 years after writing our story and to be with us is, you know, till at or 81 years old is a blessing.

Absolutely, 81, we don't look at, do you? Honestly, sitting there like that. You look like the queen, I have to say, it's fantastic. So you've lived, really, really. Okay, so you've lived across different countries and cultures. I mean, how have those global experiences, right? Shaped your identity and who you are, and I guess the voice that you were writing with? Because it's, you know, there's a lot to take in, isn't it? Does this feel yes, international, but for me, the adaptation, the resistance, the oh, she might be such a moan.

What she basically saying, all her life experience throughout what she wrote about her life, shaped her to become someone who's very resilient, way comes to changes. She brings through different places like New York, she was in 80, she went to New York, went back to 80, came to Canada, so the experience of the different cultures, the different languages, brought her a lot, a lot, a lot. And so that's what helps her also with the book when she comes to reading and finding inspiration with all the different experience when it comes to cultures, differences, and language, differences, and also weight of thoughts, like, falls from different cultures.

It's perfect. And of course, being in Quebec is a great place to be, you know, for French speakers, right? For French speakers, the mutual cultures. Yeah, yeah. And the mental, the mental, the mentalities. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so let's have a think about the readers, okay, who find the books. So for someone who discovers your work for the very first time, I mean, why should they actually pick up the book or buy the book or open the Kindle or whatever and read tales of a multifaceted life? And I take it, they can buy the books online at Amazon and all that sort of stuff.

The four of my house is a story of a spirit that can touch people a lot. books are available on Amazon. I want to confirm where you can get books but at first, the book is a real story and the struggle of all those years. What she learned from it, she went from that. Now we can find the books in Amazon and all the books are worldwide. And if it doesn't make a change, it could inspire them to become better people. It's not made up, it's not made up, it's changed names and things like that. You're going to have the opportunity to leave because she really described all the countries she been through.

She gave so much detail, not just her own story but how the beauty of the people, the food, all the little details make all together make the book really unique. The story is really unique. The details is incredible. She wanted to show you guys the books. This is the number one here. She has the number three. She has the number three. She has the number three. The breakdown of her life to bring herself to North America is really interesting. She explained the story of her 80s where a lot of people from 80s needed to leave the country because of a lot of challenges in the 60s and 70s.

She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. She has the same story as the 80s. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. The first volume has been published.

The first volume has been published. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. She has the same story as the 80s. She was lucky to have a very respect woman. She was lucky to have a very respect woman. She was lucky to have a very respect woman. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you.

I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you. I am very glad to speak to you.

I am very glad to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you. I started to speak to you.

I started to speak to you. Thank you so much. Thanks for watching everyone. Thank you so much. I understand. I understand. Thank you.