It was a first time, as there is a first time for everything: my visit to New York City. I needed to go there to do research for DARK FIBER. I needed to explore Jonathan Kelder’s state of mind when he wanders that city. Jonathan is my protagonist and while he tries to figure a way out, his antagonist weaves a web around him, pulling the net ever tighter. In New York, I put myself in Jonathan’s shoes and hopped on an early ferry to Ellis Island as that seemed the most suitable place to start my journey. It was strangely vacant, Ellis Island, but its emptiness didn’t breathe a single molecule of freedom. My footsteps ricochetted hollowly off the blood-colored floor tiles and…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts from the “Books” Category
These past few months my life seems to revolve around words and chords, around writing and music. It made me rethink the name of my blog and my dear friend Jay unwittingly told me what it should be: Writers Rock. Words come in multiples as I am working on the revision of my thriller Dark Fiber. One day I hit 5,000 words and the next day I don’t even come close to a mere 500. But no matter how many words do find their way from inside my head to my manuscript, music accompanies them all. If I am on a roll, I switch my iTunes controls to repeat and listen to the same song over and over again, until I almost fall in a…
Tagged: Booktunes, Cath Crowley, Dark Fiber, Gorillaz, Jennifer Donnelly, Mina Witteman, Raaf Hekkema, thriller, writing, YA, Young Adult
These days I am writing an average of 3,500 words a day revising my thriller DARK FIBER. It’s hard work, leaving me no time for a social life whatsoever. Luckily that isn’t a problem at all, because my protagonist Jonathan Kelder doesn’t have a social life either, and part of my method of writing is that I like to experience what my protagonists’ go through. If they go out rafting, I go out rafting. If they hike cold and misty mountains in Canada, I hike the same cold and misty mountains. I love doing what my protagonists do. And I think it works. One of the compliments I get from readers is that reading my books make them feel like they are actually joining…
Tagged: Canada, Dark Fiber, hermit, Husum River, Mina Witteman, thriller, Wet Planet Rafting, writing
Today’s a writing day. I can feel it in my bones, I can see it outside. It is the most perfect weather for a writer, here in Amsterdam. Like yesterday – when I did 5,000 words on the revision of my techno thriller Turing’s Deceit, a.k.a. Dark Fiber – autumn races past my window, pushing on every writing fiber in my body. A stiff northern wind brings me sunshine and bright skies one minute, hail and thunderstorms the next. It is as if the Northern gods urge me to write faster and faster, as if they want me and my protagonist to hurry up, and get us to Ragnarök to fight that mythical war against the great serpent. I am wondering whether my protagonist…
It is very rare that I get to read a book that immediately touches the right chord. Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution is such a book. Andi Alpers, her protagonist, grabbed me by the throat at the very first page and didn’t let go. I read Revolution in one go, not wanting it to stop. Not the words, not the music in it. Ever! Revolution is about Andi Alpers, a gifted musician and student. She is a senior at a prestigious private school in Brooklyn when grief threatens to destroy her life. She is angry with her father for moving on with his life, heartbroken by the pain she sees in her mother, who’s not able to cope with life anymore, and she blames…
Tagged: Delacorte Press, Jennifer Donnelly, Mina Witteman, Paris, Random House, Revolution, YA, Young Adults
It was a almost like a trip down memory lane. I had to report at school, at 12 sharp. High school, that is. Now I have been at high schools quite a bit these past years. It comes with the territory: children’s book writers go out for reading and signing sessions at schools. It’s fun and it creates an audience, it sells books. I often combine a reading session with a workshop creative writing. It’s amazing how much talent there is out there! After spending a couple of hours with kids I usually head home tired but totally replenished. My inspiration cup filled to the brim with intriguing protagonists and unexpected plot twists, and with the strongest urge to write, write and…
Tagged: Amsterdam, De wietman, density, dry ice, potato cannon, science, spud gun, The Weed Man, YA, Young Adult
Last Friday the Amsterdam sky lit up with protest fires, built on the bridges by outraged squatters, thrill-seeking tourists and hormone-driven adolescents. Last night the skies lit up again. But this time it wasn’t the anti-riot squad that did the scattering, this time it was the sun. For me it felt like the Sun Spirit was telling me he was keeping his fingers crossed. It felt like he was sending me all the good luck in the world. I need those good luck wishes! I need them in relation to that wonderful skin-crawling adventure fantasy I wrote and that is on its way to the US: THE SUN SPIRIT! It is the first volume of the Warriors of the Sun tetralogy and…
Tagged: Amsterdam, canal, Herengracht, The Sun Spirit, Young Adult
Mina Witteman 