To celebrate the release of the new charity anthology, Children of War (review), I am doing a series of author interviews and guest posts, featuring several of the authors who wrote a short story for this anthology. This multigenre anthology supports the children of Ukraine. All proceeds of this anthology will be donated in perpetuity to the Voices of Children Foundation in Ukraine or another similar charity. This foundation is “a Ukrainian charity providing counselling and other forms of psychological support to war-trauma victims. The charity was established in 2015 and has been working with volunteer psychologists to bring art therapy and mobile psychologists to the most vulnerable in Ukrainian society, victims now of yet another armed conflict.”

The sixth author I’ve interviewed is Daan Katz! His story in Children of War is The Dragon’s Demise. It’s a fantasy story set in one of the worlds of the author’s fantasy universe. It’s the story of a boy experiencing severe trauma and the impact thereof on the rest of his life and his wish to fulfill his father’s last wish. Check out my review of the anthology for more info!

Curious to read more by Daan Katz? Check out my reviews of Night’s Reign (here) and Death and the Maiden (here).

Author Interview

About the author

Hobbies: Music. As an avid amateur musician (classical singer and pianist) I spend most of my free time listening to music, singing, and playing the piano. Fun fact: I don’t know the first thing about contemporary music.

What was your favourite book as a kid?

That’s a hard question to answer, as I loved a lot of books, but if I have to choose one favourite, I guess that would be “Nobody’s Boy” by Hector Malot. I was eight when my teacher read the Dutch translation of the book to us – just a few pages at a time – at the end of each school day. The entire class was spellbound when he was reading. It was magical!

What kind of a book would you love to write one day?

I already wrote that book. Two of them, actually. I love writing about people who are somehow “different”, and am writing them in pretty much all of my stories. So I guess I’ll just continue doing that.

What is your motto as a writer?

I stole my motto from Ernest Hemingway. “Write hard and clear about what hurts.”

About the anthology

Why did you decide to write a story for this anthology?

My parents were both children when WW-II broke out and Germany occupied our country. Mum, especially, was heavily traumatised by the war and unwittingly passed her war-trauma on to me and my sisters. Though I don’t know how Mum’s war trauma affected my sisters, it absolutely left its mark on my psyche, and continues to impact my life in subtle ways even to this day.

I’m hoping that with this anthology we can raise enough money to help many children who have become victims of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, so they can heal.

If there was one message linked to this that you could pass on to the world, what would it be?

I honestly don’t know. I’m drawing a complete blank here. There’s too much to say.

Quick Round

Tropical island or Antarctica?  Neither. But I’d love to be able to walk on Scheveningen Beach just once more.

Night or day? Evening. Quiet evenings, where the writing just flows.

Ice cream or pizza? Can I have an Irish Coffee instead?

Coffee or chocolate? Chocolate.

Culture or nature?  Both. I love culture, but we need nature. I think it’s sad we’ve become so obsessed with culture that we’ve neglected to take proper care of nature.

Guest Post: Representation of disabled people in literature

As a disabled author (wheelchair dependent, diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and autism), I have some very outspoken opinions about disabled representation – or rather the almost complete lack thereof – in literature and other media.

Admitted, times do seem to be changing, and we are seeing more and more authors writing about disabled people, BUT… when we do see a disabled character cast in a major role, it’s almost always about the disability. That is, unfortunately, not the kind of representation we need.

So what do we want?

That’s a valid question, but to answer it, I’ll first have to tell you what we don’t like to see – yet still see too much of.

We don’t need this:

• The disabled hero as a tragic character who feels their life is over now that they’ve become disabled, so they end up taking their own life or getting euthanasia (“Me before you” – I haven’t read the book, so I won’t judge the writing itself, but the message is quite disgusting to me and many other happy wheelchair users.)
• The disabled hero gets miraculously cured, or (in fantasy) finds out about their magical abilities which effectively cure them of their disability. NOT cool! It’s just another way of saying that a disabled person can’t possibly live a happy and fulfilling life – which, with all due respect – is total bollocks.
• The same old, same old syndrome – The totally helpless wheelchair-dependent character who can’t even eat without help, let alone wheel themselves around with blithe abandon. The mute autistic who throws several tantrums a day and also happens to be a savant. The psychotic who is a dangerous serial killer. For Pete’s sake, can we just stop that nonsense, please? That’s totally not how it works and only serves to strengthen these harmful stereotypes.
• It’s yet another story about a character’s disability. Usually about their fight against and victory over the disability. Do we spot a pattern here? You think I sit in my wheelchair all day every day thinking about how disabled I am? Think again.
• Inspiration porn. One of my big bugbears. “Look at that guy in his wheelchair! He’s doing his own grocery shopping! He is such an inspiration!” I beg your pardon? Just shopping for groceries does not make me special at all. I have four perfectly fine wheels, which serve me better than my legs ever have, so there. Now, if I were to single-handedly slay a band of armed thugs… THAT would be something worth bragging about, but just living an ordinary life? Hardly.

What we DO need more of:

• Realistic disabled heroes, where their disability is just one of the many obstacles on their way to victory. Because, you know, disabled people are just ordinary people, who need the same things as everyone else: Food, clothing, shelter from the elements, love and intimacy. (Surprise: we can have sex – and enjoy it, too!)
• Diversity. No matter what Hollywood would have us believe, no two wheelchair users are the same. (Some can’t walk at all, some can, but not for extended periods of time. And everything in between. Also, not every wheelchair user has a spinal cord injury. There are many reasons why people might need a wheelchair.) No two autistics are the same. There’s a reason why it’s called the Autistic Spectrum. I could easily fill a book about the individual differences between autistics. No two psychotics are the same. I know, I’m starting to sound repetitive, so I’ll shut up about it now, but I’m sure you’ve got the gist.
• Give us arse-kicking disabled heroes. Many of us have learnt to transform our disability into our super-power. Many people don’t realise every disability comes with its own set of advantages. Being in a wheelchair makes me fast. Having Ehlers-Danlos makes me physically flexible and able to easily adopt poses that would be uncomfortable if not entirely impossible for others. My autism grants me hyper-focus and makes me detail-oriented, both of which are incredibly useful qualities for an author to possess.

In other words, we simply want to see an honest portrayal of what it’s like to be disabled. Surely, that shouldn’t be too much to ask for.