This is a question most authors hate. It’s about loads of things. Life, mostly. Features sex, violence and a bowl of custard. (Or it did do) I’ll be giving you a list of my characters and my notes about them soonish.
WHY SET IT IN HOLLAND/WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HOLLAND ANYWAY OR DER NETHERLANDS OR ANYTHING FOR THAT MATTER?
I first became aware of Holland when I saw Van Der Valk on TV in the late 1970s. (Actually I was much too young to stay up and watch this but I used to love the theme tune ‘Eye Level’ by the Simon May Orchestra which I was convinced for a few years was the Dutch national anthem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0O-2oAvNTo
As you can see Van Der Valk was played by Barry Foster, the notorious serial tie killer in Hitchcock’s ‘Frenzy’.
Then came the Dutch bacon adverts…Rudd Gullit, Van Basten and I’m sure that the holiday rap was produced by DJ mike and sven who were as far as I know, where Dutch. Have a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7aJr1fIGMk
So for better or worse there was quite a bit of Dutch popular culture swimming about in my subconscious. In fact anything European fascinated me. It still does. It’s that kind of mix of the familiar with the marginally alien. I loved Europe and its quirks from a very young age, be it, Eurovision song contest, Italo disco, German electronic robotic geniues, Swedish supergroups, Norweigian chart toppers, The Moomins, World Cup Espanga 1982, European cinema, The Vanishing, Goodbye Lenin!, Three Colours…but all this should be under the influences really.
MARKETING
I’m not sure how commercial or marketable a publisher would find my book. As a reader however, I feel it could easily slot into a few quirky markets that could make a few quid if done right.
I could be an arsehole and try and predict if you’ll like it, by what other authors I read and enjoy. So if you like ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell, ‘The Sirens of Titan’ by Kurt Vonnuguet, ’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, ‘Flow my tears, the policeman said’, by Philip K. Dick, ‘The Trial’ by Franz Kafka, ‘The Master and Margurita’ by Mikhail Bulgakov, ‘Diary of a madman and other stories’ by Gogol, ‘Crime and Punishment’ by Dosteovsy, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by George Orwell, then a fair few of you will like this. I can’t promise that’s its in the same league as the aforementioned novels but you should enjoy my book. When it’s written. Or published. Which it needs to be. I’ll stick some extracts and things up next. Probably.
