Biography

Raising my cattle in the evening... Our cow, Elsa

As Kierkegaard said, life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Already at an early age, I knew that I would write novels, but my life certainly was no straight path towards this goal. Before I had the calm to write Carolien Blansjaar & the Cursing priest, I had to to sow my wild oats first—and I had plenty of them. By now, I now have managed to simplify my life to the point that I can take a swim in the morning, write books during the day, raise my cattle in the evening, and criticize after dinner.

I was born in 1956 in Indonesia, as a son of Dutch parents. Due to a wave of nationalism, our family had to repatriate to the Netherlands when I was one. We lived in a small village near the German border, then in Scheveningen and The Hague, and finally in Amsterdam, from 1961 on. During my highschool time and ever after, I have been engaged in art, literature, theater and art history, next to my studies and political activities. Photography has always been a special passion. I started out with a Kodak Box II, continued with an old Voigtländer, and at age 17 bought a Praktika SLR, to capture the stage rehearsals I took part in, make portraits, and photograph street scenes. Today, I work with the Nikon D800, while I use digital Hasselblad cameras for my studio work.

I studied Political and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and the Free University Berlin, focusing on the history of political ideas, and graduated cum laude in 1982. Since then, I had a career in public administration and financial services, next to my life in an experimental artists' commune, and my ongoing activities as a photographer and art researcher.

In 1986, I moved to Munich and together with my friends set up a successful company in the field of mortgage services for commercial property. I also became the manager of three real estate holding companies. After 25 years, I quit the financial field and worked as an image editor and picture rights specialist for a large medical publisher. Next to my work, I studied the art history of the last decades of the 19th century and since 1990 operated my own artistic photo studio. Between 2000 and 2008, I organized and financed an art-historical research project producing high-resolution 3D scans of plaster sculpures by Auguste Rodin in 25 art museums all over Europe. After 2008, I developed the concept of photo-theatre art and realized over 20 ambitious photo series in my studio in Munich-Moosach. During this time, I hosted and trained over 40 interns, from Germany, England, Romania, Morocco, Turkey, Nigeria, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and the US.

During a construction project, September 2016

Publishing my photo series The Ultimate Dracula led me to Dracula Studies. I discovered the true place Bram Stoker had in mind for Castle Dracula, and solved the mystery around Count Dracula’s lifetime identity, fruitlessly debated among Dracula experts for 50 years. I also found the truth about the novel’s intended time frame, the actual site of the Scholomance and the first known American serialization of Dracula. In 2014, I established that the Icelandic version of Dracula, Makt myrkranna, was no abridged translation of Stoker's orginal. I learned Icelandic to create an annotated translation, which was published as Powers of Darkness in 2017. The book attracted international press attention and was positively discussed in the New York Times, The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and the Chicago Tribune, among others (see page POD Reviews). When an earlier Swedish version of Dracula was unearthed, I found out it might have been created by the Swedish journalist Anders Albert Anderson-Edenberg, and discovered that parts of the Swedish preface were copied from the memoirs of a Stockholm pastor. My research activities earned me the Research Award of the Transylvania Society of Dracula in 2014, the Special Award of the Lord Ruthven Assembly in 2018, and the Golden Bat Award of the 'Children of the Night' International Dracula Congress in 2021.

Between 2011 and 2018, I have traveled Romania more than a dozen times. Together with Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, I worked on a Dracula Travel Guide. From December 2013 till November 2016, I was the acting editor of Letter from Castle Dracula, the official news bulletin of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula. In October 2015, I took the initiative to organize the Fourth World Dracula Congress in Dublin, that was successfully held on 20-21 October 2016 at Trinity College, Dublin. As a follow up, I initiated a new international Dracula conference series in Brașov. The first event in these series took place in October 2018; the next event is scheduled for 16-17 April 2021 as an online conference. You can learn more about my academic activities in this field at my Vampvault website.

I have two sons, Dylan and Floyd, who studied Social Work and Art Pedagogy respectively and work in Bavaria, Germany. In January 2021, they got a little sister, Charlize, who just celebrated her second birthday. Another baby sister, Laurie, is expected for May 2023. I am ready to travel, however - fully vaccinated and boostered.