Some time ago, my
literary agent Hanneke van de Water came up with the idea to interview me on
camera, on board my boat in Andijk marina, Netherlands. My novels are largely
set against a background of seafaring and yachting, so the boat was a good
choice as a setting for the interview, which took place in September 2021.
The interview
naturally is in Dutch, but it is subtitled in English for my English speaking
readers. Hanneke interviews me about the pair of books already published in
Dutch - The Batavian and The Cargo - and asks about the third
one, Two Fathoms Deep, which will soon be published in Dutch as Drie
Meter Zand.
We discuss my
approach to writing in general, how these stories take shape inside my head and
where I get the inspiration. And the reason why I also publish in English even
though being Dutch.
The interview touches
on many things not readily appreciated by the public, such as the uphill
struggle for any new novelist to compete with established bestseller writers,
who after all started as new authors themselves. Another subject we go into is
the need for research before you write.
A very relaxed personal
account which I hope will appeal to my readers.
My books (The
Batavian, The Cargo, and Two Fathoms Deep) are available in
English from Kindle Direct Publishing. For the moment they are only available in digital format,
but paperback versions are being prepared.
During June and July, 2021, we cruised the northern Dutch and German islands in our 32 foot boat Manokwari. The weather didn’t favour us - heavy wind and rain one day, sun and no wind the other. Eventually we only made it as far as Borkum, Norderney and the German mainland harbour of Greetsiel – not very far if you remember we got as far as Helgoland some years ago.
During summer there was little trouble due to the Covid situation - few people asked for our vaccination certificate, certainly not in Holland, but neither did the Germans, exept for the harbourmaster at Norderney, where we had to show our yellow vaccination booklet.
the historic canal lock at Termunterzijl
By now everything has changed with the introduction of the digital Covid passport required almost everywhere in mainland Europe, such as restaurants and cafes in Holland, despite our high vaccination rate of 85%. I’m not sure how much the situation has changed in Germany as I write this, with summer behind us, but everywhere it seems the authorities are still in panic mode.
contrast in energy: coal-fired power plant and a wind farm at Eemshaven
Luckily, in early summer we met with few official obstacles. As I mentioned previously, the weather didn’t want to play - gale force winds, no wind, tropical downpours, but also occasonally a very fair day, as shown in the photographs. We were privileged having a boat to retreat to in these troubled times, whatever the weather decided to throw at us.
Dried out mud bank at the isle of Vlieland
The setting for my books
Part of our cruise took us once again to the area where two of my books are set: The Cargo and Two Fathoms Deep. The western basin of our Wadden Sea, between the isles of Texel and Vlieland and the mainland port of Harlingen, is the scene of some of the action in The Cargo. Well-known waters for us, and it was fun to return to exactly those places that inspired me to write The Cargo, about five years ago. More photos of our trip can be found HERE.
Napoleon's fort on Texel, the scene of part of the action in Two Fathoms Deep
My third novel Two Fathoms Deep, already available in English from Kindle and scheduled to appear in Dutch as Drie Meter Zand early next year, is largely set in the area around the isle of Ameland and the mainland port of Lauwersoog. The novel starts in Napoleonic times, as a Dutch officer in Napoleon’s forces barely survives a sea battle in which his ship is sunk under him near the isle of Ameland. Two centuries later, the wreck is re-discovered after his descendants find his personal log hidden in an attic.
During our summer cruise we explored the sea route around Ameland to Lauwersoog, where the main protagonists of Two Fathoms Deep are left to their own devices after having been assaulted in their boat and towed out to sea by a gang of ruthless salvage men. The action eventually takes them to the Thames estuary and the Crouch on the English east coast.
Heavy rain at Borkum, and below: the ancient steamer Prinz Heinrich, built 1906
A pleasant surprise
Halfway our cruise I was pleasantly surprised by messages from my Dutch publishers (Palmslag) and my literary agent Hanneke Tinor-Centi about a good review of Het Transport in the 2021 Thriller and Detective Guide of a national Dutch newspaper, Vrij Nederland. They awarded me three stars out of five.
In Het Transport, published in English as The Cargo, two yachtsmen, father and son Brouwer, are confronted with large-scale woman trafficking originating in Russia, after they have found a dead young man floating in the Wadden Sea. That evening, after the drowned boy has been taken ashore by the lifeboat, a mysterious young woman arrives on board their boat, asking after him, and shortly afterwards their life is turned upside down as they are stalked by criminals and wanted by the police.
The review in Vrij Nederland mentions a world in which the police aren’t always to be trusted. Many people would be surprised at the need to drop out of sight of the authorities, but if you’re wanted by them and chased by criminals at the same time, you may not have a choice. Being on the run, and the harshness of Dutch asylum law in which ordinary people are caught like a fly in a spider’s web, are central themes in the book. How will it end for the protagonists? Read the book, I’d say...
My books Two Fathoms Deep, The Cargo and The Batavian are available in digital format from Kindle Direct Publishing. Paperback versions are being prepared.
proposed cover for paperback version
For The Batavian and The Cargo I made video trailers:
Update: On August 5, 2021, after Amazon/KDP finally resolved the problem regarding unpaid royalties, I re-issued my books on Amazon.com.
Available once more: The Batavian, The Cargo and Two Fathoms Deep.
——
Fortunately I don't have to live off my writing career. Writing is only an
expensive hobby to me and in consequence I have little to complain, compared to
all those unfortunates whose business went bust or whose paid job became a
victim of the economic fall-out of the Covid measures.
Many authors have had to suspend book presentations and lectures, except
perhaps those best-selling authors who enjoy an invested interest by the media.
Book stores have been closed, which inevitably translates into disappointing
book sales. Nevertheless, I have sold dozens of copies of my last Dutch release
Het Transport (issued last autumn), through
both private channels and the publishers. The cost of publishing and printing
was not met by far.
My third book Drie Meter Zand(in Dutch) is on hold for the moment pending developments,
before I risk investing in a publication. I will need some kind of certainty
that we won’t be locked down once more in the next autumn as a result of yet
another virus scare.
Fortunately I have an advantage in being bilingual. English is my second language,
as I have written previously in this blog, and from the start of my novelist
career I have translated my manuscripts into English, initially just to share
them with my English-speaking friends.
A few months ago I took up the
plan of publishing in English using an internet platform. The choice fell on Amazon (Kindle), but this proved to be an uphill race - as you have read above, I was forced to temporarily remove all my books from Kindle: The Batavian, The Cargo and Two Fathoms Deep. They are available once again from August 5, 2021.
The planned paperback version of Two Fathoms Deep is currently on hold - I'm monitoring the Amazon channel at present - once I'm satisfied, I will publish it.
Well, finally I took the plunge. Much of the delay
is due to a lack of confidence in my command of the English language being up
to what I planned for several years. Back in March I published The Batavian in English, on Amazon/Kindle. It was received very well by those who read it.
EDIT 17 JUNE: Regrettably, a protracted struggle with Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing over unpaid royalties resulted in my removing The Batavian and all subsequent books from Kindle - I will find another platform for publication as soon as I can. More info on my website.
The Batavian
was published in Dutch as De Batavier, two years ago, before the world was
rocked by the greatest crisis since WW2. I held lectures and the book was a
fair success, mainly because it was accepted by the Dutch public libraries’
organisation. It even warranted a small second impression. A year on, the world
went in lockdown, and even though I published my second book Het Transport (The
Cargo) in Dutch last October, I never managed to launch that book like De
Batavier, with all public gatherings forbidden.
giving a lecture about De Batavier in 2019
I learned
English over half a century ago. As a teenager I had access to my parents’
collection of English novels, and the ones that appealed to me most were
C.S.Forester’s Hornblower series, set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic
wars. At age 15 I started reading them, having had two years of English at
school, and by trying to make out the context from the words instead of using a
dictionary, I quickly advanced to the stage where my English teacher, good old
Mr Van Overbeeke, stopped asking me after my homework, wondering what happened
to me.
sailing frigate of the 1800s
Despite all,
there is a difference between being familiar with English and feeling quite at
home with day-to-day vernacular. Being in regular touch with many friends in
the UK and even beyond, in the USA and Australia, made a difference. I have
written and still write many a magazine article in English, but that is of a technical
nature.
After I write
a book in Dutch, my native language, the first thing I do is write a
translation in English. But the first translation of The Cargo, which will be
published next, frankly looked awful after I read it back a few years later. So
I largely re-wrote it. Perhaps it is easier to think and write in English
before writing in Dutch!
The Batavian
is the second manuscript I wrote following The Cargo. Some elements are
autobiographical, but most is fiction. The stage is largely set on the Turkish
coast and the Greek isle of Kastellorizo, where I sailed a rented boat with my
wife Henriette and friends in 2014. Shortly afterwards in 2015 and 2016, the
huge flow of refugees from the Syrian war gained momentum, an exodus through
Turkey and Greece and beyond into the Balkans. The idyllic coast and islands
were swamped with refugees, and I followed the news, horrified by all the
deaths at sea. I still have folders of data taken from various news sources all
over the world.
The Batavian
tries to tell the story of the refugees. Probably I haven’t even touched the
essence by half, but even so I hope I managed to come close enough to paint a
picture of what happened, and still happens in the Mediterranean on a daily
basis. There are real people out there, people like you and me with emotions
and fears and hopes. No wonder that Leila Hammadi, when she encounters Mark as
he pulls her out of the sea, recognises him for another lost soul, and loses
her heart before they’re torn apart once more. The aftermath of that affair
take up the second half of the book, as in the ensuing years he goes after her
in the chaos of the Greek refugee camps.
Will he find her again? I suggest you
read the book...
