Amsterdam, 1942 In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, survival means three choices:Adapt. Frank keeps his head down. Silence keeps him safe, until silence turns into complicity.Resist. Elise prints posters…
Drafting ideas:
It Never Stops – The Soundtrack of a Trilogy
If the Frank & Celestina trilogy had a theme song, it would be Sketches of Spain by Nits. Not the Miles Davis piece, but the haunting Dutch song from 1983. It is quiet, elegiac, and full of echoes. It begins with the line:“The streets of Barcelona are filled with blood and rain.” That lyric became the seed for the first […]
A Trilogy – Completed
Origins: Blood and RainIn 2013, as I was finishing Under the Black Sand – my debut novel – I started thinking about what to do next. I had proven I could write and complete a novel, it felt like quite the achievement and I wanted to try it again! Apply everything I had learned, avoid […]
A Sky Without Stars – Pre-Order
A Sky Without Stars is almost here. It has been a long journey, both for the book and for the larger story. The final novel in the Frank & Celestina trilogy began at a Dutch air force base in January 2023, a month before Mont Noir was published. My son had an introduction day there, the base was […]
Announcing: A Sky Without Stars
It’s finally time. And I’m excited! A new novel is on the way, my fourth.And the third and final installment in the Frank and Celestina saga. I never intended to write a series, but after Blood and Rain, I wanted to explore the characters further. Frank was interesting, but Celestina demanded more time. Why was she […]
A New Novel – coming soon
Today is my birthday and I feel like giving you things. My books. All of them. And a quick update on what’s coming.
Memory Lane:
Keep Writing
I have no time to write. I have just finished a nine-day working week and I’m tired. The attic needs attention before the workers come in next week. The kid needed to go to school. Maybe I should give up this novel-writing nonsense. Who am I anyway? Who am I kidding? Kiddo was out the […]
Afternoon – a short story
Where are my bedsheets, he asked? You will all be sleeping with us, she replied. They asked why, and she just smiled. Didn’t want to tell them that if they died, they would die together so that no one would have to mourn the others. They would live together or die together.
Laying an Egg
Writing a novel is a huge undertaking. Millions of people try it, but only a few manage to finish it. Sometimes, when we are in the middle of the novel writing process, we get tired of the characters and the universe we’ve created. We shelf the project, and many never return to it. Short stories […]
Religion and Society
The writing of Under the Black Sand is in the final stages. Sentences are being polished and paragraphs shortened. Whole scenes are being deleted without mercy, if they drag along or don’t add to the story. Here is one which is still in, but only just. It may very well be cut before the book […]
The Performer – a short story
The audience was still stomping and clapping, calling his name. It annoyed him slightly. What did they want from him? The same old songs he’d played for years on end? The same banter between the songs? I wrote this one after… blah, blah, blah.
Keep Calm
Distractions. They are everywhere. They are the writer’s worst enemy. Someone said that genius was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. It’s all hard work and keeping at it. An updated version of this quote was that genius was 1% inspiration and 99% avoiding the Internet. Keep writing, they tell us. Write daily. But sometimes it’s […]
1917 or 1968?
“Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.” – says the Guardian. Michael Hastings was best known for his 2010 article in the Rolling Stone magazine about General Stanley McChrystal. The general was forced to resign from his post as commander of all U.S. […]
