The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – A Night in Paris: Where Every Secret has a Heartbeat by Victor Sage

Episode Date: May 31, 2026

A Night in Paris: Where Every Secret has a Heartbeat by Victor Sage https://www.amazon.com/Night-Paris-Where-Secret-Heartbeat/dp/1965555667 In the glow of a Parisian night, chance meetings are never accidental. Tony arrives in Paris carrying more than jet lag he carries a past carefully buried beneath discipline, silence, and control. Alice Rose moves through the city with effortless elegance, her beauty masking a mind trained to see patterns others miss. When their paths cross in a quiet hotel bar, the attraction is immediate, magnetic, and unsettling. What begins as an intimate connection between two strangers slowly reveals something darker beneath the romance. Secrets surface. Histories collide. And the city of lights becomes a maze of mirrors, where nothing is quite what it seems and every choice carries a cost. As desire deepens and trust fractures, Tony and Alice must decide whether they are players in a dangerous game… or pieces already placed on the board. A Night in Paris is a seductive blend of romance and suspense a story about power, vulnerability, and what it truly takes to begin again when the past refuses to stay buried.

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Because you're about to go on a monster education role. rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Folks of Voss here from the Chris Voss Show.com. Ladies, gentlemen, the airline sings that makes official. Welcome to the big show, as always. 16 years, one of the oldest still broadcasting, rarely your podcast. And nearly 3,000 episodes, we were bringing you the Chris Voss show.

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It is entitled A Night in Paris, where Every Secret has a Heartbeat. Victor Sage is the author who's on the show with us today. His book came out May 19th, 2026, hot off the presses. He's a first author, and he's got more works coming down the pike. Welcome to show, Victor. How are you, sir? All right. How are you doing? I am doing excellent. Thank you for coming as well. Give us any dot com's website, social media, emails, where are we?

want people to find out more about you on the interwebs? You can find the book itself in Kindle right now. And this book just came out. And this is my very first book. So the publishers basically are setting those things up for me once I had before had other things in it. So he said, first time publisher, go for it. We will take care of everything for you. So right now, you can find my book in Kindle. And later on, I'll get my book. more of these social media stuff. And there'll be a link for it on the Chris Vos show. Now, so Victor, to give us a 30,000 overview, what's inside this book? Maybe, is it a romance novel too? It's a romantic thriller. Ah, romantic thriller. People like, people really like those,

those thrillers there. So that's a big thing for him. So give us an overview of what the books entails and kind of what's in it. It starts with basically a very odd kind of romantic. between two individuals. And they both think the other individual is not what they are. But the thing is, they really fall for each other, but really cannot open themselves up. Not as much as that they're awkward or anything. In fact, the other way around.

So what happens is in the book, these two characters come in, they get it off kind of stuff. And then it goes into a flashback. to these two persons from childhood all the way to the day they met in Paris, the entire. That is where during that part it shows up who they really are. And once that comes in, after those two large sections, rather, that's almost one part of the book. What happens is suddenly things go sideways.

and they suddenly come to know in a very precarious position who they really are both of them. And from there, there's suddenly that close attraction suddenly become, was he really attracted? Or is she really at, or is that all a show? And somebody out there with father figure, but really not a father figure, keeps an eye on the main protagonist, Tony. And he comes in, but he rescues the fact that nobody knows who rescued. Tony knows that the other person, the lady, they don't know.

And he finds the pathway for them to disappear. Ah. So they disappear. Yeah. That sounds like an interesting way to go. Yeah, they disappear from the kind of work they were doing. and basically the people they knew and they just basically except for that father figure, nobody really knows where they are.

Now, this is looking for them. Uh-huh. And tell us about some of the characters. Who are the main protagonists in the story? His name is Tony Arnold, and he is from U.S. It doesn't say we're in U.S. The other protagonist of the lady, her name is, Alice Rose. She has a very, I wouldn't say complicated, but a very colorful listing. Her background

is she's originally from Spain, but she, her parents, her father was an attache to Spanish, what you call a ambassador. So he went to different countries. She picked a lot of languages. And eventually, but right now she was working for the French government. So she's essentially European. That's put it that way. And they meet together in Paris. And basically, the story starts that when Tony comes in into this huge five-star hotel kind of place, I'm tired, I'm going to go and get some drink.

Oh. And the way he acted or whatever, the bartender gives him a second drink after some time. It was a McCallon 25. Oh. Yeah, Tony is a really out there guy. And when he saw that, looked around, she knew exactly who sent it. And before even the bartender said it. But the thing is, at the very beginning, it has got a few French lines.

And initially, when I wrote it, there was a lot of French lines in there. And then I realized that it had to change it. People won't be able to always read it. So that's how it starts. And they are both interesting characters by themselves, charismatic, and they got essentially attracted to each other. Their background is told to each other, kind of. But that is the superficial top-level background, not everything.

And it's a lot of trips and turns that kind of almost feels, hey, these guys are not supposed to be like this, especially the male protagonist. Where he came from and where he went to, it's incredible. And a night in Paris, what was the reason you said it in Paris? That's obviously a great romantic spot, but why did you choose that yourself? You know what? Paris has got this sense of both romance, emotion,

feeling of some, it is the hot spot of fashion too. Now, one of Tony is, one of his jobs is he's a fashion designer for women's clothing. And like very high level designer companies buys off his unique drawings of what you call it, the designs. And that's why he was there. So that is how it started. Oh. And this is your first book series. How long did it take you to write this book? And how did you kind of know when, hey, I think I have a knack for this writer thing.

What's kind of your background that you have and stuff? That's going to be a little bit of odd story. I am a co-founder, entrepreneur myself. I gave up my work some time ago and go full-fledged in that. But as a new business, you work many hours. So I was really working 16, 17 hours a day, seven days a week. And my stress level was going through the roof. I needed some way to let it out.

And all of the things I normally do, woodworking, riding on my motorcycle, they all went out the door. So I realized that I sometimes write or sometimes imagine things. I don't put my imagination in there. Nobody's going to know it. So I started writing whatever was coming to my head. And it started increasing its size. And I realized when I'm writing, I forget about this world and I enter a different world.

I move around with them and all of these. And I did a lot of research to do my book, everything. I even used Google Maps, what you call that, on location to walk around in Paris to see from the hotel to this bar, how long will it take for real, all that kind of stuff. So it really felt like I was there

and forgot about the stress. And that's how. That's how it has played out. Was it hard writing a book for the first time? What techniques did you use maybe trying to write an hour a day

or something? Seriously, seriously, but originally, like I said, I wasn't writing a book per se. I was just putting in my thoughts. And it started going like this. Then I said, hey, I better end up ending it. I could make its chapter.

And I was doing it more or less almost every day. Whenever I was like, oh, this is getting nowhere. I can't work right now. I'll start writing. And my stress level would go down. Oh, wow. So you found it to be therapeutic. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. That's wonderful. That is wonderful. This is something that people should know. Writing is a great way to get your thoughts out. Now, do you have your characters come to you and they kind of haunt you and bug you to get you to write? Or do you have to make it up from Whole Claw? No. It is odd once I started writing more seriously. Just let me tell you, I almost finished the book like by myself. It was only 33,000 words at that time.

I went back and was reading it, and I'm like, hey, if I read or reads this, they was thinking, where did this guy come from? How do you get this? So I went back and wrote a flashback of both the characters. And suddenly that book became 85,000 word book. Oh, wow. 8,000. It became like a novel. And it was still not, my manuscript was just there. I write a computer room in the hand.

But somehow my wife ended up seeing it. And she was like, wow. She got attracted to her with the romantic part. And then later on, she didn't even tell me and send it to the population. And I got connected from them. I'm like, how did you get my book? People are evidently excited about your book and you want to get involved with it. So that's a good sign.

As we go through the rest of this, tell us about the new. book. I think you have an extended second book in the series that's going to be coming out soon. Yes. So this is what happened. I had, I was a little bit at the, when I end up realizing that, hey, this is no more just, just writing. It is becoming more like a novel, like the second time over. I had a different ending when it was 33,000 words. After writing and increasing it to the number, because of the flashbacks. I was like, before even going to the end, I was already condomblating book the story in my head. I was like, for me to write this story, I got to change the ending here. And that's what happened. As soon as I, in fact, before even I came to know,

publisher got it or all that stuff, I started writing the second book. Oh, really? Wow. You got big plans. Is this going to be a series? Do you see rolling out? for the future for the rest of time and all eternity? At least I know there's going to be a third book. I haven't even come up with a name. I called it book three and I already wrote three chapters of that book. Oh, you've got a third book going down. I just left it there. Just to answer another question to yours, you said that do my characters come and haunt me? I don't want to say haunt me, but I often wake up in the morning. Don't know how, but he got a whole bunch of things in my head, like new ideas, I sit outside with my coffee and I take a piece of paper and start writing,

whatever. Oh. It's important to write stuff down. If you don't write stuff down, you'd be like, oh, I'll remember that earlier. I know a lot of our authors who have on the show, they learn to write stuff down at night so they can take advantage of their thoughts because when they wake in the morning, and the thoughts are gone. Yeah.

Yeah. My body's other way. In the morning, I wake up through that. So I write them down. And tell you the truth, a few of my friends, once they came to know, I'm writing and all that. He said, hey, you can use different things. Use your phone to talk. And I'm like, I think and write or use my finger on the keyboard better than talk.

Yeah, you got to go with what flows, right? For some people, it just flows better. I do better when I sit down with the keyboard and start typing. I can just sit and do the, what you would call it, the type on the, um, the phone if I need to but for the most part I just typing on that way there's some people I think I had some on the show recently they wrote out their manuscript yeah there are people like that yes I was like wow okay but my heads up to them I'm serious I've seen my handwriting and I don't I can't I can't read what I write half the time sometimes if I find something from the old days I

look back on it and I go they wrote this that is correct yeah but writing when it flows it really flows because I remember one day I had a few ideas. I woke up with it. Seriously, I made coffee quickly. I went out, I have a little sitting area on the outside and I was, I just took one piece of paper and started writing. And an hour and a half later, I was like, oh, I better start going back to work and let me take my notes. I realized I wrote 22 pages. Oh, wow. Yeah, I just like, oh my God, I got to go and get all of these back in the computer now. I didn't really. I didn't really. realize that. I just kept on writing. So that's how it happened. Yeah. However it works, it works. So you may have three books in the series. Do you see this being one that goes on for a long time into the

future? I, in a back of my head, I haven't even started the third book. I was thinking that, I can because the characters in my book are very interesting, the main characters. In fact, even I can go back and the flashback that I have, each one of them can be. I'm a book that, you know, I just went over. And I was just thinking, I'm like, I'll think about it later. Let me just pay attention to the right one. Yeah. It's a great thing you've stepped into being an author and being able to talk about these things. And of course, novels are really popular, especially with the ladies. They love those romance novels and they love, oh, secrets and all that sort of stuff. And yeah, so have you been, you've been, I think you said mentioned you've been to

Paris? Is that right? No. No. I basically, that's why I was saying that once I started writing, some of the names are real. Well, there is a hotel that can see from the, just across from the Apple Tower. And I named another restaurant. That is also real. And I was like, should I let them walk or should they get a car? And I'm like, okay, let me just walk the road myself. So I got onto Google Maps and, you know, they have that to where you can go and then walk yourself. I essentially walked over there and were like, this is not that far. Yes, they could walk. So they ended up walking to the restaurant, which has had a little more time for me to add more

dialogues in there between them, more things coming out. So in fact, I even looked into when they were basically, I would say running away or whatever, disappearing. I even looked at, they don't call freeway, they call highways, right? I even looked at the highways that they will take exact numbers. And not only that, I even looked up what time of the day they're going, what kind of traffic they have. And all of these things. And somebody was following them.

They figured it out. So they cut off into another road. And I was like, can that road get them to where this was? And how much extra time do they need? So all of these things I went in. So, no, I haven't been to Paris or in France. But I'll tell you what, after writing the book, it feels like I have. Ah, did you use any Google Maps or anything to use Google Maps to take and try and familiarize yourself with the city?

Yes, I did. And like some of the places that I put in there are happening in outskirts of Paris. So I had to go. First, I looked up in Google Map. And then I did a zoom in with the aerial view and look at it where the roads are there. I can put something there. Few of the things is most of the names I use that are public places kind of thing. But few of the, essentially at the end of the book, they end up in Bay of Biscay in a village.

I made up that name. There is really nearby a village where I put it. That is exactly like that. I didn't want to use their name. It's a small village. But seriously, tell your truth, I went in and looked at the village, how it works. What do they do? people does in, even walked in through the map in there.

Yeah. It's, it's kind of wild how you can just kind of go walk the streets of any major city on Google Maps there. Yeah. You can get it, you can actually get it on the ground, look around. And so it can probably help you work on scenarios and different things. And what advice would you give for aspiring young writers, people who want to write for the first time?

What advice might you give them? Some of the things that I found out during this time and learned it in the hard. way because the first-time writer, create something called Story Bible. A Story Bible. Yes. And absolutely create a very detailed character map for main characters, detailed. What do they do? Where they came from, even weight, height, what is their characters, everything. Because what happens is readers can catch up if you make a mistake between page four and say it's 421, they can. I do as a reader. So you always have to check. There are the two main things you have to do and do research. Whenever you do research,

my book has got a lot of also, I won't say a lot of, but scientific and technical terms. I'm talking about tech, not like sci-fi stuff, but they, I went in and really checked them. They're not sci-fi. They're real. Real news. can say, okay, so if you are an engineer in that line, you would say, oh, wow, we are working with this stuff and you pulled it in your book, huh? Okay. Kind of. Yeah. I never even heard of the Bible. No one has told me about this story Bible, and I'm just gooking it now. And yeah, it acts as a comprehensive reference document that houses all the critical information about your fictional world in a novel. It acts as a memory bank, encyclopedia, and fact checker to help writers track character details,

settings and timelines to ensure narrative consistency across the book or series. I love that. That's really great. Yeah. Character problems, world building and settings. Absolutely. You can map it all out. That sounds really, that sounds really helpful.

It is. Very helpful. And all the interviews we've done, no one's ever brought up a story Bible. It is so helpful that, and the story Bible will increase. Don't think like you're going to just write. and then things will evolve. My story Bible evolved over time. I had to add characters that I didn't think about later on,

but even small characters. I had to go back and put it in the right place. And the story Bible helped me. Before an 85,000-word novel, my story Bible had over 25,000 words. Oh, wow. Yeah, because it evolved. And I have a section for tech.

I've got a section for each of the characters. I've got a section for each of the location that I'm going to set this thing up. About the antagonist, what are they? You have to define them too. And even if they are a part of, say, something like an organization, even if you're making it up, basically, if you were writing, say, for example, somebody writing a sci-fi, you want to break the physics, make your own physics, but make sure it is there, same all across your book.

It's very interesting and wonderful and great. Anything more we need to know about the series before we go out? Just so that I will leave you in a cliffhanger. Okay. You will look for the second book, I believe we. Ah. Yeah. Yeah, it's just that I'm almost 80% done with the second book,

but it has already crossed 110,000 words already. So it will be a little bit of. better. Yeah. This is really great. I'm sure people are going to be looking forward to the book and the next book that's going to come out and all that good stuff. So as we go out, give people your final thoughts, pitch out, tell them where they can get to know you better, any dot coms, etc., etc. Yeah, for right now, if you want to get hold of the book, please go to Kindle. You will find it. Very soon, the audio versions are coming out, and they're coming out in four languages other than English, it is going to come out in French, Spanish, and Hindi.

They will be also available. Those versions will be available also on Spotify. Main places where you can listen to a book. So those are all going to be there. As for, since I'm a new writer, I've never wrote before, all my personal social media stuff are all full of other things. I haven't created anything yet. I am creating.

In fact, my publisher is creating those for me under my name Victor Sage. And you'll find it that way. Maybe in the future, I can send it to you and you can talk about it. That should be awesome. That should be awesome. Thank you very much for coming to show. We really appreciate it, Victor. It's been wonderful to have you, and we'll look forward to your forthcoming book, too.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice to be here. Thanks for mine for tuning in. order up his book wherever fine books are sold. A night in Paris where every secret has a heartbeat. Out May 19th, 2026 by Victor Sage. Thanks for joining in. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Christchrist, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, one of the TikTok and all those crazy places in the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time.

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