I'm starting to get excited, you?
Usually I don't look forward to winter that much, being diagnosed with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Though I like the cold, I love the sound of snow crunching under my boots, and the wintery light over the fields, the dark gets to me every year. My day light lamp helps, and this year I have something special to look forward to too! In December the first book in my fantasy duology 'De Krakenvorst', 'Boek 1: Keruga' is slated to appear. I finished the rewrites, finetuning the manuscript. The publisher has checked my corrections. He told me after four chapters he thought it to be tense and exciting, 'het leest als een trein' (flowing like a train). That's a great compliment! It's now being looked at by a corrector for the last spelling mistakes. In the mean time the artist is busy at designing the cover and I will get to see that very soon! Also: my publisher is organizing a book release party at a book shop, where I will sign my book! The first one ever in my career as an author. So I'm very excited for that as well! I think this will be early december, and I will also introduce the book at the Castlefest Winter edition December the 10th and 11th.
In the mean time I'm thinking about my next large project. Some weeks ago I decided to drop my non-fiction project. I had made a start on it, collected material, quotes, trying to edit, but it was a lacklustre effort, and I had to confront the fact that I wasn't very motivated to write another non fiction book. The fire for that has gone, I guess. I've said what I wanted to say, and I am more excited by the prospect of writing fiction more! The idea's I have for a proper hard SF novel are growing nicely, and I am getting a sense of where the story will head. I even have a title for it: 'De afvallige ster' (the prodigal star), and I hope to start writing that novel before the end of the year. I have already stopped writing short stories for the near future to clear up space in my time and imagination, but I will probably still write some in between larger projects.
On the short story front there is news too! First: I've sent in three stories to compete in the Fantastels-competition! Last year I reached third place with a story, so I'm curious as to where my tales will end up now! I also found a Valentines Day story competition and I even have a story that I can send in for that one. Sadly I didn't reach the final selection in the 'De mens van 2050'-competition. But well, I can't win them all, I guess. Better luck next time. I sent in two short stories for the SF-magazine SF Terra. I didn't receive a reply, but it turned out they thought they already answered me. They were very happy with the stories and 'Planeet van monsters' en 'De sprong' will be published soon! I also sent in a story, 'In elkaars ogen', for the magazine of the Dutch Star Trek Society 'The Flying Dutch'. In 2015 they published my story 'Valstrik'. They were happy with this new tale and it will appear in their publication in 2017. I became a member of the club as well, as I love Star Trek! Finally, I sent in my story 'Thuisreis' to the publishers of Ganymedes 17 as a candidate for inclusion. I'm still waiting to hear what they think of it, but the official selection will only take place in june of next year. In the mean time I'm going to send in a story for Tjonge and another one for Fantastische Vertellingen, where my story 'Het plotselinge woud' is still slated to appear soon. Then in december there's the Trek Sagae-award, and I hope to compete with four very different stories. I haven't heard back from Moord & Mysterie, but I sent in a story for them as well earlier this year. And if all that is not enough, last weekend I sent out a collection of connected stories, titled 'Conquistador', to a publisher for a very interesting project. It would mean a lot to me if they would accept the collection for their project, so fingers crossed! Publication would be summer 2017, so with a bit of luck there will be two books by my hand for you to read next year.
Not much new poetry on my blog these last months. I'm focusing on story writing now, but rest assured, I am still looking for ways to get a collection of poetry out there as well.
In the mean time I'm thinking about my next large project. Some weeks ago I decided to drop my non-fiction project. I had made a start on it, collected material, quotes, trying to edit, but it was a lacklustre effort, and I had to confront the fact that I wasn't very motivated to write another non fiction book. The fire for that has gone, I guess. I've said what I wanted to say, and I am more excited by the prospect of writing fiction more! The idea's I have for a proper hard SF novel are growing nicely, and I am getting a sense of where the story will head. I even have a title for it: 'De afvallige ster' (the prodigal star), and I hope to start writing that novel before the end of the year. I have already stopped writing short stories for the near future to clear up space in my time and imagination, but I will probably still write some in between larger projects.
On the short story front there is news too! First: I've sent in three stories to compete in the Fantastels-competition! Last year I reached third place with a story, so I'm curious as to where my tales will end up now! I also found a Valentines Day story competition and I even have a story that I can send in for that one. Sadly I didn't reach the final selection in the 'De mens van 2050'-competition. But well, I can't win them all, I guess. Better luck next time. I sent in two short stories for the SF-magazine SF Terra. I didn't receive a reply, but it turned out they thought they already answered me. They were very happy with the stories and 'Planeet van monsters' en 'De sprong' will be published soon! I also sent in a story, 'In elkaars ogen', for the magazine of the Dutch Star Trek Society 'The Flying Dutch'. In 2015 they published my story 'Valstrik'. They were happy with this new tale and it will appear in their publication in 2017. I became a member of the club as well, as I love Star Trek! Finally, I sent in my story 'Thuisreis' to the publishers of Ganymedes 17 as a candidate for inclusion. I'm still waiting to hear what they think of it, but the official selection will only take place in june of next year. In the mean time I'm going to send in a story for Tjonge and another one for Fantastische Vertellingen, where my story 'Het plotselinge woud' is still slated to appear soon. Then in december there's the Trek Sagae-award, and I hope to compete with four very different stories. I haven't heard back from Moord & Mysterie, but I sent in a story for them as well earlier this year. And if all that is not enough, last weekend I sent out a collection of connected stories, titled 'Conquistador', to a publisher for a very interesting project. It would mean a lot to me if they would accept the collection for their project, so fingers crossed! Publication would be summer 2017, so with a bit of luck there will be two books by my hand for you to read next year.
Not much new poetry on my blog these last months. I'm focusing on story writing now, but rest assured, I am still looking for ways to get a collection of poetry out there as well.
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