Fantasy
Man
by
Jean-Michel Desire
Genre:
Fantasy
The
world nations are suddenly faced with terrorism in an unprecedented
simultaneous attack worldwide. An urgent secret meeting is held with
religious and political authorities of all nations to discuss the
ensuing message from a ghostly character by the name of Fantasy Man,
who not only claims full responsibility, but challenges all with a
precise ultimatum. General Timothy Powell is assigned to the
leadership of the taskforce with mission to find and stop Fantasy
Man, but this assignment could not come at a worse time for the
General who faces some very personal and delicate problems.
A
British archeologist sets up an elaborate scheme to select a group of
civilians to accompany him through a paranormal adventure never
before attempted, an adventure that he has nicknamed ‘The war to
end all wars’. Fascinated at the prospects of this paranormal
adventure, the civilians will soon find themselves in a web of deceit
while truly embarking in the unknown world of the supernatural. By
the time the hidden agenda of the archeologist is understood, deepest
and darkest secrets will have been revealed and only friendship and
love will provide a slim chance for the civilians to come out alive.
But who has deceived who?
A
mastermind engineer disillusioned with the lethargy and inertia of
the corporate world seizes an unexpected opportunity to start his own
business, an entertainment outfit unlike any other. How could he
possibly have known that he would become entangled with the taskforce
against Fantasy Man?
Racing
around the globe as well as around the clock to piece the challenging
puzzle laid out by Fantasy Man will prove to be a quasi-impossible
task for the authorities... until fate does what it does best,
bringing together the most unlikely group of people to solve the
riddle. But Fantasy Man had one last defiant act up his sleeve,
another simultaneous worldwide show of force with a fatal outcome...
What
would you do faced with the enormity of Fantasy Man’s challenge and
a deadline to stop him?
If
you were selected for the archeologist’s paranormal adventure,
would you willingly take on the challenge of ‘war to end all wars’?
Would
you give up your dream of a highly successful self-made career in the
entertainment domain, to save the world, or simply to ease the burden
of a troubled soul?
Fantasy
Man will change your world forever, if you dare take his challenge...
Jean-Michel
Désiré was born on the magnificent tropical island of Mauritius,
where he completed his primary and secondary studies in compulsory
bilingual French and English languages. An acute love of reading
combined with a great interest in art (drawing and painting) pushed
Jean-Michel from a young age to want to write his own comic books,
but a lack of opportunity blocked his efforts. It was this same lack
of opportunity of the time that triggered a need to perform further
studies. At age 22, Jean-Michel left Mauritius for North London,
England, where he completed a bachelor of Engineering in Electronics
followed by a Master of Philosophy in Microelectronics.
While
concluding his Master’s degree, Jean-Michel met the lady who became
his wife a year later, year during which they also moved to Montreal
Canada where Jean-Michel had been offered an engineering position in
the Aerospace industry. Life had its own agenda, and within the first
eighteen months, their daughter was born in the middle of a snow
storm in Montreal. Six years later, their son came into the world and
the obvious demands of family life became the main priorities.
During
the winter of 2008, Jean-Michel slipped on the ice during a storm and
fractured his ankle in multiple locations. Recovering at home after
surgery, Jean-Michel decided that the time had come to revive his
passion for writing. Within two years, his first book ‘The
Storyteller’s Nights’ was published. The positive feedback from
readers fueled Jean-Michel to exploit his bilingualism and he
translated the story into French, ‘Les Nuits du Conteur’ being
published in 2015. He then felt the wind in his sails and published
‘Fantasy Man’ in 2017, and recently, ‘Revanche (Revenge)’
(the follow-up to ‘Les Nuits du Conteur’) in 2019. ‘Fantasy
Man’ is presently nominated for an award, top ten finalist to be
announced on 22 August 2019. He has just completed the first draft to
his next English book, entitled ‘The Miracle Ladies’, which he
plans to send to the publisher within the next few months, after the
essential rounds of self-editing.
Engineer
by day, writer by night, Jean-Michel plans to keep letting his
imagination go wild while capturing it all on paper. Surrounded by a
great family, he plans to write a whole lot more. When he is not
writing, he spends quality time with his family and travels yearly
back to Mauritius to visit his Mom and brothers.
GUEST POST
Who is your hero and why?
I
have many heroes, and each of them has at some point in time fueled
my passions. It all started with the fictitious character ‘Tintin’.
This character made a great statement of always fighting the good
fight, every moment of every day. I was even more fascinated when
decades later, I found out that he was the character that inspired
the first Indiana Jones movie, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.
My
next hero was (and still is to this day) Jackie Chan. I was a
teenager in Mauritius when his movie ‘The Big Brawl’ came to the
big screen. It was one of these rather rare occasions when a movie
theater packed with people found applause at the end of the movie. I
was stunned when I recently read Jackie Chan’s autobiography ‘Never
grow up’, that the movie was an actual flop. I kept watching as
many Jackie Chan movies as they came out while my life went on, and
upon reading ‘Never grow up’ recently, I realized that the main
things that this actor taught me were to always see the funny side of
anything, and that only hard work pays off, if one is willing to
accept that everything has a price. In Jackie’s case, what at the
time of watching his movies came out as total devotion to practicing
martial arts, only recently also showed how high the price of his
success is… (I won’t spoil it and those who are truly interested
will read the book).
Another
hero is Ritchie Blackmore, lead guitarist of the seventies hard rock
band ‘Deep Purple’. He portrayed another who worked very hard at
achieving perfection. You will by now have figured out that I too
tried my luck at becoming a good guitar player. I never got there,
although I did have some wild times with a band named ‘Beware’
and the couple of gigs we did in a bar. To this day, some of ‘Deep
Purple’s’ music brings a smile and excitement. Blackmore and the
band were pioneers who in my view, changed music more than Led
Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. If there ever is an autobiography of
‘Ritchie Blackmore’, I will certainly read it. I’ve heard bits
and pieces of side stories that he was also a psychic, and that’s
an aspect that has a lot of interest from me.
Finally
(I could likely find more heroes but for the purpose of this blog, I
believe this is enough), there’s the man who made the world’s
best guitarist for many years in a row, Yngwie Malmsteem. What
Ritchie Blackmore had pioneered into great music, Yngwie turned into
a science so precise that it will always be to me an enigma. Again,
some of Yngwie’s music still gets me jumping up and down in joy and
whenever I feel sad or down, his music will bring me back up in no
time.
What
kind of world ruler would you be?
I
would be a pretty lousy ruler, because I’ve understood that no one
can please everyone. As such, a ruler whose prime directive is to
treat everyone fairly, is doomed to failure by the mere nature of our
humanity, whereby the grass is always greener next door. Yet, our
society is set-up in such a way that we do need rulers. I can only
conclude that the good ones are few and far in between.
What
are you passionate about these days?
This
is a damn good question and I truly don’t know if I can answer
meaningfully. There are so many great things in my life: fantastic
family, near and far, interesting and challenging engineering job,
great fun writing books and letting my imagination go wild, wild,
wild… I will thus risk saying that I am passionate about hopefully
being able to inspire people the way I have been and still am
inspired by the heroes that I’ve mentioned, answering a previous
question.
What
do you do to unwind and relax?
During
the short Canadian summers, I enjoy the pool, reading books that I
feel drawn to, drinking good beer, great whisky and the absolute
fantastic company of family. The rest of the time will still include
the books, the good beer, the great whisky and the company of family,
but this is when I also catch up on movies and TV series. The winter
months also include some short periods of solitude where I try to
focus and put order in my priorities for the coming months, generally
aiming for the coming twelve months (one year).
How
to find time to write as a parent?
It
definitely was not really possible when my kids were growing up.
Ensuring school work was done and simple house chores were executed
as part of life training took a lot of energy, not to mention the
challenges of teenage-hood and potential bad friends in some
instances. Luckily, anther blessing in my life, this time has passed.
My kids are now wonderful young adults who are tackling their own
life challenges and struggles, but who find the time to come back to
the nest and seek encouragement from time to time.
Describe
yourself in 5 words or less!
Idealistic
fool!
When
did you first consider yourself a writer?
From
a young age, possibly at around twelve years old. Consideration
become reality at age 50.
Do
you have a favorite movie?
Wooohooo!
Another difficult question since there are many movies that have
inspired me, making it difficult to choose one as an absolute
favorite of all times. But to answer the question, I’ll risk ‘The
Ten Commandments’ (the original movie by Cecil B de Mille and
starring Charlton Heston). Other unforgettable movies are ‘V’,
‘Close Encounters’, ‘Aliens’ (2nd
movie in the long list) and a few others.
Which
of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
Well,
it seems that there are no coincidences in this world. ‘The
Storyteller’s Nights’ was self-published, an approach that I have
come to regret in time. But I was too excited to be patient… In
fact, I will explore possibilities of getting a second edition
properly published in the near future. However, to my pleasant
surprise, there was some interest from ‘Principal Entertainment’
and there was even a script prepared. But I did not like the way the
script digressed from the book’s storyline. I understood the
frustration that other authors that have their books turned into
movies may experience, especially after reading and watching ‘Angels
and Demons’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and others. I can certainly
imagine ‘Fantasy Man’ also being made into a movie.
What
literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
I’m
not sure how to answer this question. Let’s just say that ever
since I’ve joined Goodreads, I set myself a challenge of reading at
least twelve books during any given year. When matter go well, I have
reached over eighteen books in on year. The choice of books will vary
between action/adventure, Thriller, Fantasy and Spiritual Books. On
occasion, I will venture into a different genre.
As
a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
The
Gorilla, or the Black Panther.
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