Michel Vimal du Monteil recounts his journey to becoming a published author

FRENCH born Australian author Michel Vimal du Monteil was Gloucester Library’s featured author in February.

He drew in his audience, many of whom were aspiring writers, with an engaging and humorous recount of his journey to becoming a published author.

Michel was born in provincial France.

As a teenager, he left home to pursue business studies at university but spent much of his time playing rugby, boxing and sailing around Europe and North Africa.

“I knew I could write but I just didn’t have the time,” he said.

In 1979 he moved to Sydney on a sixteen-month contract with the French Australian Chamber of Commerce and decided to stay.

He embraced Australia’s surfing culture and pursued an array of jobs.

Michel worked as a windsurfing instructor in the Whitsundays, a translator and conference interpreter in Sydney and the Asia Pacific region, a trade consultant, and a voice over artist and subtitler at SBS in the early years.

In 1988 he embarked on a career as an investment banker where he worked until he retired in 2011.

Living on the northern beaches of Sydney he pursued his love of surfing, motor bike riding and golf.

Still, there was no time for writing.

That was until one day in 2005 when he thought he would take on the infamous Long Reef Bommie surf break and got smashed.

“It was beyond my level of competency,” he confessed.

For a time, he could no longer pursue his active lifestyle, so he began to write and quickly got hooked drawing on personal experience to write fiction.

“I wrote when it was raining,” he said.

“I wrote on planes when I was travelling for work.

“I even wrote in the office when bored.”

Encouraged by his wife, Annemieke, a trained editor, he continued writing until he finally had a completed manuscript.

His next task was to find an agent, but as he explained: “I wasn’t famous; I wasn’t a well-known sportsperson; I wasn’t a criminal.”

Feedback from publishers was mostly positive but conflicting.

Michel accepted constructive criticism and continued to refine his work.

By chance, years later, Annemieke met an agent who was looking for new authors.

But it would be several more years before his manuscript was sufficiently honed and ready for publication.

Finally, ‘Where There is a Will’ was published in 2021, 16 years after he began writing it.

The book received very favourable reviews and in 2024 Ulverston UK published it in large print format and as an audio book.

Michel’s advice to aspiring writers is simple.

“The process of writing is the process of rewriting,” he said.

“You learn not to take rejection personally.

“There are a lot of talented writers out there and the manuscript needs to be as good as it can be.”

His second book, ’Where to Now’, was released in October 2025.

Thanks to the lessons learnt from the long, arduous journey to get his debut novel published, the second one only took three years from inception until publication.

“I am not a disciplined writer,” Michel explained.

“I don’t write every day.

“But when the juices flow, I will write from breakfast time until Annemieke inquires: ‘Are we going to have dinner then?’.”

By Marilyn SANDERSON