The book has finally arrived!
Last weekend was pretty special! Mijn book ‘De Krakenvorst, boek 1: Keruga’ was presented to the public at the Castlefest winter edition, a great fantasy fair. My publisher gave me my copy of the book, and I was in the stand the whole weekend to sell and sign my book. caught up with other authors, which was great, and found out new things about myself (e.g. that I can talk with interested customers and point them at my book! I’m not that much of a socially handicapped recluse I always believed myself to be). My parents and Bianca were present on saturday, and that evening we celebrated the publication of my book by opening a bottle of Champagne. I was very happy! Now the hard work begins to get my book in the hands of readers. This week I will be busy sending out signed copies to people. (If you by any chance want a signed copy of my book: order it with me and I will gladly send you one!). A couple of copies will go to bloggers and writers who have promised to write a honest review of my novel. I am very excited to learn what other people think of my book! That’s always an exciting phase in the publication process - I like what I wrote, or I wouldn't send it out to be published. But do other people as well? Anyway, it was great to hold my own copy of the book in my hands - the words from my head finally transferred to paper. With a great cover by Maarten de Bruin, who also worked in the stand drawing caricatures of people. He did mine as well!
Oh, there will be another book presentation and book signing early next year. On friday the 13th of Januari in the evening I will be with my publisher at book shop Stevens in Hoofddorp. I hope I will see some of you there to catch up! The months after that there will be events as well, with the other authors of Macc, and I’m looking forward to those as well!
In the mean time I have been working on my short story collection ‘Conquistador’. The news has been made public last week: my book will be published in the Boek10-project of publisher Godijn publishing in Hoorn. In this project ten authors will present their ten books, in one big event (may 6th in Hoorn, write it down, hold the date, you are all invited to come!). The books will have a similar look as part of the series, but on the inside they couldn’t be more different: from contemporary literature, young adult and short stories, to fantasy and thrillers. The publishers thought my manuscript was very intriguing and accepted it for the project. It is a dream come true, as I love writing short stories very much and always dreamed of having a collection published! ‘Conquistador’ will contain eleven interconnected short stories and a novella, that follow the changing face of humanity far into the future, when the stars have died and even black holes have evaporated. Always the question remains what it is to be human, when even in the form of machines or complex group intelligences basic human nature shines through. I believe these stories contain my best writing, and the novella Conquistador has the best action scene I have ever written! Cornell, my best friend, is going to design the cover! He is a gifted artist and has made covers for the Dutch popular science magazine KIJK.
The rest of the year I will be at comic-cons and fantasy festivals with both books! Elfia, Castlefest, the Dutch Comic-Con, Imagicon … I want to be everywhere my books are!
The second book of the De Krakenvorst-duology is already finished, and my publisher has said he wants to publish it next year. So I have some rounds of rewrites and editing to look forward to and then another book presentation at the end of 2017. And I’m thinking about getting a second short story collection out in 2018 as well - if ‘Conquistador’ is well received.
On the short story front a lot is happening. My story ‘De laatste draak’ was published at fantasywebsite Fantasize. A great site to follow, and I will publish some more stories there. My story ‘De sprong’ was published in the last edition of SF Terra. Sadly my name was left out, but the editors promised to rectify that in the next edition, when my story ‘Planeet van Monsters’ will appear. The editors also asked me to send in another story, and I will gladly oblige! If you like SF and fantasy stories, reviews of books and movies and interviews with artists, SF terra is a fun magazine and I heartily recommend it to you. Also I recommend Fantastische Vertellingen. The editor Remco Meisner told me two stories of mine are slated to appear: ‘De Stoet’ in the march-edition and ‘Het plotselinge woud’ in the june-edition. Also my short story ‘Sensory deprivation’ will be published in the next edition of Tjonge - the smallest magazine in Europe! The Dutch Star Trek club The Flying Dutch has accepted my story ‘In elkaars ogen’ for publication in 2017! So, a lot to look forward to! I have sent in stories to new competitions as well. I’m participating in a Valentine-competition (fun!), I have sent in a story for a competition for genre stories of 1000 words maximum (I wrote 999 words in total), and I’m going to participate in the Trek Sagae-competition with several stories. It’s going to be an exciting time in april/may of next year, when the winners of a lot of these competitions will be made public … And my publisher has also entered my book to compete in the Harland Award for best genre novel - so there’s even more excitement coming my way!
I like being able to publish longer novels as well as short stories. I love writing both (maybe I like writing short stories even better), and I think getting short stories out there is a great way for people to meet my work, and maybe build some interest in my novels!
It all means that being an SF- and fantasy-author is now my main job. I have to realise that I’m basically running two jobs. One where I make money (being an editor of the Dutch Veterinary Journal) and one that is my life long passion and childhood dream come true. With book signings and fantasy fairs, short story competetions and rewrites of manuscripts, and the plan of starting to write a long hard SF-novel, there’s not much time left for friends and family. I guess they will have to meet me at the events where I’m at. The rest of my spare time I want to relax with my wife, take care of my aquariums, and catch up on all the movies I don’t want to miss. This situation will likely continue a couple of years. Think of it as me doing a college course besides my job - I have a chance of being an author now, but I will have to invest in it! I’m not letting this chance pass me by. Things will calm down eventually, I believe, but for the next couple of years I will not really be available any more. Still, if you come by at a fantasy fair, comic con or book signing, I will gladly catch up!
Oh, there will be another book presentation and book signing early next year. On friday the 13th of Januari in the evening I will be with my publisher at book shop Stevens in Hoofddorp. I hope I will see some of you there to catch up! The months after that there will be events as well, with the other authors of Macc, and I’m looking forward to those as well!
In the mean time I have been working on my short story collection ‘Conquistador’. The news has been made public last week: my book will be published in the Boek10-project of publisher Godijn publishing in Hoorn. In this project ten authors will present their ten books, in one big event (may 6th in Hoorn, write it down, hold the date, you are all invited to come!). The books will have a similar look as part of the series, but on the inside they couldn’t be more different: from contemporary literature, young adult and short stories, to fantasy and thrillers. The publishers thought my manuscript was very intriguing and accepted it for the project. It is a dream come true, as I love writing short stories very much and always dreamed of having a collection published! ‘Conquistador’ will contain eleven interconnected short stories and a novella, that follow the changing face of humanity far into the future, when the stars have died and even black holes have evaporated. Always the question remains what it is to be human, when even in the form of machines or complex group intelligences basic human nature shines through. I believe these stories contain my best writing, and the novella Conquistador has the best action scene I have ever written! Cornell, my best friend, is going to design the cover! He is a gifted artist and has made covers for the Dutch popular science magazine KIJK.
The rest of the year I will be at comic-cons and fantasy festivals with both books! Elfia, Castlefest, the Dutch Comic-Con, Imagicon … I want to be everywhere my books are!
The second book of the De Krakenvorst-duology is already finished, and my publisher has said he wants to publish it next year. So I have some rounds of rewrites and editing to look forward to and then another book presentation at the end of 2017. And I’m thinking about getting a second short story collection out in 2018 as well - if ‘Conquistador’ is well received.
On the short story front a lot is happening. My story ‘De laatste draak’ was published at fantasywebsite Fantasize. A great site to follow, and I will publish some more stories there. My story ‘De sprong’ was published in the last edition of SF Terra. Sadly my name was left out, but the editors promised to rectify that in the next edition, when my story ‘Planeet van Monsters’ will appear. The editors also asked me to send in another story, and I will gladly oblige! If you like SF and fantasy stories, reviews of books and movies and interviews with artists, SF terra is a fun magazine and I heartily recommend it to you. Also I recommend Fantastische Vertellingen. The editor Remco Meisner told me two stories of mine are slated to appear: ‘De Stoet’ in the march-edition and ‘Het plotselinge woud’ in the june-edition. Also my short story ‘Sensory deprivation’ will be published in the next edition of Tjonge - the smallest magazine in Europe! The Dutch Star Trek club The Flying Dutch has accepted my story ‘In elkaars ogen’ for publication in 2017! So, a lot to look forward to! I have sent in stories to new competitions as well. I’m participating in a Valentine-competition (fun!), I have sent in a story for a competition for genre stories of 1000 words maximum (I wrote 999 words in total), and I’m going to participate in the Trek Sagae-competition with several stories. It’s going to be an exciting time in april/may of next year, when the winners of a lot of these competitions will be made public … And my publisher has also entered my book to compete in the Harland Award for best genre novel - so there’s even more excitement coming my way!
I like being able to publish longer novels as well as short stories. I love writing both (maybe I like writing short stories even better), and I think getting short stories out there is a great way for people to meet my work, and maybe build some interest in my novels!
It all means that being an SF- and fantasy-author is now my main job. I have to realise that I’m basically running two jobs. One where I make money (being an editor of the Dutch Veterinary Journal) and one that is my life long passion and childhood dream come true. With book signings and fantasy fairs, short story competetions and rewrites of manuscripts, and the plan of starting to write a long hard SF-novel, there’s not much time left for friends and family. I guess they will have to meet me at the events where I’m at. The rest of my spare time I want to relax with my wife, take care of my aquariums, and catch up on all the movies I don’t want to miss. This situation will likely continue a couple of years. Think of it as me doing a college course besides my job - I have a chance of being an author now, but I will have to invest in it! I’m not letting this chance pass me by. Things will calm down eventually, I believe, but for the next couple of years I will not really be available any more. Still, if you come by at a fantasy fair, comic con or book signing, I will gladly catch up!
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