A storytelling home by Léa Plourde-Archer

Modern tales of a messy abode

recent posts

She/her. Montrealer. Full-time freelance content creator, blogger and translator (French to English/ English to French). Currently working on several manuscripts about the life of composer Violet Archer (my great aunt).
  • All about my book projects

    All about my book projects

    Well, seven years later, I’m back. Only for a quick post, though. I’ve decided to revive this blog simply to keep people up to date with what I’m doing and to leave a trace somewhere on the internet.

    After years spent working as a content writer for online websites, I’ve decided to pivot towards the world of literature. Writing about home renovations, B2B, and real estate wasn’t cutting it anymore.

    I needed something more stimulating to keep my creative mind satisfied. In recent years, whenever I had free time, I wrote and illustrated several books meant for my kids and other close relatives. One was about my father’s life (he passed in 2012), and another was about my mother-in-law (she died in 2021). I self-published these two books, as they were not necessarily meant for a broader audience. You’ll find these books here and here.

    Now, I’m ready to make this my full-time gig. I’m currently working on a few manuscripts and have started sending them out to publishing companies in Canada.

    Two of the manuscripts will cover the life of famous Canadian composer Violet Archer (my great aunt). One manuscript is meant for children and the other for an adult audience. I’ve also written a manuscript describing the journey my grandfather and great-uncle embarked on as children immigrating from Italy to Canada, making the journey all by themselves as their parents had already made the trip years earlier.

    My goal is to get these stories out to the public as testimonies of courage, perseverance, and passion.

    May we all be inspired by the spirit of these creative, loving humans!

  • Europe 2018: a few snapshots

    Europe 2018: a few snapshots

    I just came back from a 6-week trip where my half-sister and I traveled around 3 european countries. France, Spain and Italy gave us plenty of things to see, hear and taste. Along the way, we made long and short stops in the following cities:

    Paris – Lyon – Rome – Florence – Marseille – Bordeaux (and the Châteauneuf-sur-Charente region) – Madrid – Cadiz – Sevilla

    There is so much to see and do in these lively and beautiful areas of the world, and we truly enjoyed our time to the fullest (well, except in Sevilla as we both got quite sick). We are so fortunate for being able to travel to and discover these incredible places! Here are a few pictures of our trip:

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  • October-November playlist

    October-November playlist

    So, I’m leaving in January for a two month trip to Europe. These past few weeks I’ve been try to learn a few words in italian and to brush up on my spanish, as Italy and Spain are two of our destinations. Therefore, a lot of the songs on this list are in either of these languages. There’s also some punk rock, some gypsy music, some french hip hop and three songs that are top contenders for my favourite songs of the year (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Femina, Angèle).

    Here are the 26 songs that been spinning the most in my earphones in the past few weeks:

  • Concert diary + playlist June – July – August – September

    Concert diary + playlist June – July – August – September

    So, summer is over. Yep! And once again, I tried to catch as many concerts as possible. I wish I had the time and energy to write another epic concert diary like I did last year but alas, here is the next best thing: a playlist!

    These are the artists that I got to see this summer:

    IAM, Joyce N’sana, Loco Locass, Shauit, Sonido Pesao, Mamselle Ruiz, Bandidas, Karim Diouf, Tomas Jensen, Pierre Kwenders, Jacobus, Nomadic Massive, Pierre Guitard, Radio Radio, Joseph Edgar, Les Hay Babies, Les Hôtesses d’Hilaire, Lisa Leblanc, Marie-Jo Thério, Rufus Wainwright, Anderson.Paak, Martha Wainwright, Patrick Watson, Isabelle Boulay, Coeur de Pirate, Pierre Lapointe, Champion, Elisapie Isaac, Wyclef Jean, Daniel Bélanger, Diane Dufresne, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Les Cowboys Fringants, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Flavia Nascimiento, Youn Sun Nah, Bixiga 70, A-WA, Les Deuxluxes, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Sidi Wacho, Kool & the gang, Laura Marling, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra, Ait Menguellet, Tinariwen, Dengue Fever, Tropico Bravo, Gabino Palomares and Leonard Cohen (well, unfortunately not his human presence but his voice was there a lot)

    Just to be clear, some of these bands shared stages. No, I did not attend 49 concerts (unfortunately).

    And there are a few other shows coming up: Hanson (yes, that Hanson!), Ibeyi, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Boogat, Lisa Leblanc

  • May-June 2017 Playlist

    Music, music and more music!!! Just for fun, I’ve decided to start compiling playlists every two months or so, which will include the songs that have gotten the most airplay in my earphones.

    Some of these tunes are new whereas others date back to the 70s or 80s, but I consider them to be candy to my ears in this moment.

    The following artists are included in this late spring playlist:

    Fleet Foxes / Mad Season / Temple of the Dog / Feist / Sylvan Esso / Juana Molina / M83 / The Mountain Goats / Arcade Fire / The War on Drugs / Soda Stereo / Fleetwood Mac / King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard / Thee Oh Sees / The Kills / Los Espiritus / A-WA / Quantic & the Flowering Inferno / Leonor Gonzalez Mina / Amadou & Mariam / Anderson.Paak / The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy / Tank and the Bangas/ Noname / Aubrey Logan / Antonio Lizana