I reported in November how it was a slow month for my writing, with a three-week (laptop-free) holiday. December was mixed, with all the family activity around Sinterklaas, Christmas and New Year. I only wrote 3,400 words in November and 8,500 in December. The other big distraction in November was acquiring my Dutch citizenship: that’s right, I’m now legally a Kaaskop. Or can I only say that after having my photograph taken in Volendam wearing klompen and traditional dutch clothing, while carrying a wheel of cheese?
However, the New Year has seen a productive start to the writing process again, and I’ve been in full flow, managing 14,000 words on “Ghost Ship” during January and 5,500 so far this month.

The story of “Ghost Ship” focuses on the teenage Hauke, and provides more detail of the backstories for some of the characters who are mentioned in “Broken Shards” and how he met them. Berhane and Genet, who become his mentors, make their first appearance in his life. It describes his growing relationships with Hazel at the ADM, Drishti, the young ghost artist, and the actress Keetje. Hauke has his first encounter with the Valkyrie, Mist. It explains his acquisition of the “Tijdgeest” and adoption by Persephone. It also introduces a host of new characters, both living and dead: the goth Barbie, Fay; Marjolein, a volunteer in the café at De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery; Eirene, the tattoo artist who helps imbue power in Hauke’s tattoos; several of the women working the red light windows in the city, including the enigmatic Sukie, who seems to know more about his mother than she is willing to reveal, and the cynical detective Inspecteur Visser of the Amsterdam Politie, who heads a small unit tasked with apprehending the ‘Wandelaar van de Duisternis’. Plus a supporting cast of angels, demons and other creatures from the “Lands Beyond Death” who ensure that life as a Veil-Walker is never easy.
As with “Broken Shards” the location is predominantly the darker underbelly of Amsterdam, but set against the historic backdrop of the Covid years with its lockdowns and riots.

While I make no apologies for the spice rating in “Broken Shards” — I felt was necessary to highlight Sanne’s development — I’ve toned down the level of spice in “Ghost Ship”. It’s all implicit rather than explicit. There is still a focus on Hauke’s sexuality (he is growing as a teenager), and a fair degree of risqué (sometimes even downright smutty) humour, but the sex scenes are all “behind closed doors”.

Last weekend, Lilian sent me her first photo of her design for the cover art, and it’s looking good. The style is similar to the cover of “Broken Shards”, with a dark, brooding sky and nighttime views of the city across water.

My original (self-imposed) target was to have my first draft of “Ghost Ship” complete by mid-February, today if I’m being precise, and I was planning for a release around Easter. That first draft might be closer to the end of February than I’d intended, perhaps even early March, with a revised publication date in May.