"You write stories, do you?" a friend said. "Why don’t you write it all up and
do something with it?" That "something" has slowly grown into a story in
which the sometimes harsh reality is mixed with a fairy tale. The story is about
Ángel Flores who is tragically in love with CHARLIE DARK.
The foundation was laid for my personal style: succinct and clear prose with a
complex storyline. The atmosphere is imaginative and fairytale-like with a
penchant for the extravagant. But how bizarre and grotesque the stories
sometimes may seem, they always have one foot in reality, like in a magical
realist painting. Deceptively lighthearted and naturally heavy themes are covered
as gender dysphoria, sexual fluidity, sexual harassment, suicide, perpetratorship
and victimhood.
Maan: not exactly the typical teenage love story
After I wrote Charlie Dark I began working on my second novel MAAN
(Moon). This would ultimately be my debut as a published novelist. The theme
is self-determination and individual freedom, wrapped in a story about an
impossible love. As a main character he chose the trans woman Maan who
wants to make her own choices on all aspects of life. If Maan is still a boy he
lives with his eccentric mother, Saskia, the widow of the wealthy merchant
Lambert Humalda, in a big house on the edge of the Frisian Dantumadiel.
Rick is in love with the beautiful Maan, but becomes confused when he tells
him that he is really a girl.
Reünie: a tragicomedy about revenge
I decided to keep my firstling, Charlie Dark, in the drawer and began a new novel, a tragicomedy about revenge: REÜNIE (Reunion).
Dorian Pots arrives on a sunny May day in Diepenheim, the city of his youth. He intends to start a new life with his old puppy love Jasper van Vliet. But then he sees Titus Balkenhol on the terrace of cafe Boonk, wearing a blue polka dot dress. This willy-nilly old school chum, the clown of the class, tells him: "See you tonight at the reunion of our old school class." A reunion? Why does Dorian knows nothing about it? His former classmates have more surprises in store.
Charlie Dark: love that turns into obsession
And now finally the time has come for my first manuscript and my most intense novel: CHARLIE DARK. I wrote it in 2012 and I have reread and edited it in the summer of 2018. Then I decided to present it to my publisher for publication.
In the bars, streets and parks of Amsterdam and Paris, the story is told of a sensual love that turns into an obsession. Angel thinks he recognises in Charlie his childhood friend and falls desperately in love. Is he really him, or will Angel's fantasy world collide painfully with the harsh
reality?
MAAN and REÜNIE are published by IJZER (2015, 2017).
