I really can write!
- Mar 1
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 3
I now own a large metal plate that states this, after all :)
This corner of the internet hasn't seen any action in quite some time. Keeping blogs alive is difficult – or better, finding the time for it is difficult, especially when you have to do ten thousand other things that are more fun or important.
Why the sudden activity, then? Well, something amazing happened this weekend. Anyone who follows me on my socials, or who is a bit involved in the Dutch writing world, has probably already seen it: I have won the Harland Prize, the largest writing competition in the fantastic genre in my country!
The Harland Prize has been organized since 1976, under various names, such as the King Kong Award, the Millennium Prize, the Paul Harland Prize and the Harland Awards. The writing competition focuses on short stories (up to 7500 words) in the speculative genres, such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical realism and everything that goes with it.
The award ceremony was held in the Utrecht library the 'Middag van het Fantastische Boek' (the Afternoon of the Fantastic Book). It's a day full of workshops, panels, a book (goodies) market and, of course, contest results! Here's what the jury had to say about my short story, Error 404:
“I find the main character sympathetic from the first sentence. I find her credible: her age, her love for books, relationship – very palpable, without many details.”
“This story does almost everything right. It starts a bit slow, but it is tightly put together. (...) The main character is round and credible, with a past and (eventually) a future.”
“Very nicely written story, which actually barely feels like science fiction at first, because we have almost reached that stage. Students already use a lot of AI and thinking for themselves is a dying skill. The plot twist (...) is genius.”
“Beautiful story that I have very little to complain about. Actually, there's nothing to complain about at all!”
Error message 404 takes place in the near future, where we are all in constant contact with an AI that can whisper all the information humanity has ever shared on the Internet into your ear. Thinking for yourself is hardly necessary anymore. The main character, a Dutch teacher, nevertheless tries to encourage her students to learn the 'old school' way. But when she retires and no longer has access to the school's network, she finds that she too cannot live without that bit of modern technology...
Want to read it? Keen an eye on hebban.nl, where an ebook will be shared with all the five winning stories (Dutch only, sorry). You can find the previous editions there as well. And it is free! All you need is an account Want to know more about the contest? Go here!
So yeah, that was a big celebration, a year and a bit after Sterrenduister got published. I can't imagine a better birthday gift!
Housekeeping notice: my newsletter is not newslettering, as I can no longer send email notifications with my current plan for this site. Not really sure what to do here, as I'm barely writing newsletters anyway. Also, I promise everyone who subscribes to my newsletter a download of some of my illustrations. But ever since registering goes via two-step authorization, this has not been working well. So for the people who missed the boat, you can find the illustrations here:
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