Interview 'Amsterdams Stadsblad'

A true-blue 'Amster­dam­mer' fina­list in a prest­igious American science fiction story contest. It hap­pened to Floris Kleijne once before, but this time the author even won.

   Kleijne retains his Dutch in­excitability. "Frankly, I was kind of expecting it," he reports laconic­ally. "That is to say, I had a good feeling about it. But the first price came as a big surprise, of course."

   The Writers of the Future Contest is held every year in Los Angeles. The contest was founded 21 years ago by science fiction legend L. Ron Hubbard to dis­cover and en­courage begin­ning writers.

   Kleijne's first place har­vests extra glory thanks to his Dutch nativity. "I was a final­ist last year as well, and then there were only American, Canadian and English writers. I am the only non-English-speak­ing participant."

   Besides the 1,000 dollar in prize money, there is also a writing workshop in Los Angeles awarded to the winner. "And a hideous trophy," Kleijne jokes.

   A place in the finals, a first price; it seems Kleijne has the hang of writing. What is his secret?

    "My secret is apparent when you compare two of my stories. I am inter­ested in the human aspect. The science fiction side must have con­sequen­ces for people's lives."

   The winning story is a good example of this. "It is about time travel and someone who gets the opportunity to change a decision made earlier. The point is that this does not always work out for the best."

   Kleijne doesn't only write science fiction. He is also skilled in horror and fantasy. "In fact, everything but liter­ature," he adds. "And in The Netherlands of all coun­tries this is not taken serious­ly." Kleijne doesn't mind. "I feel at home in the genre. It is possible to portray people in extreme circum­stances, in a less subtle fashion than in liter­ature." Nevertheless, Kleijne wants to try his hand at liter­ature at some point. "But that is still a vague ambition."

   However, Kleijne is working on a novel. "There are already a few finished chapters." There is no active interest from any publishers, but the award will certainly help. "Winning such an award is taken very seriously in this genre." That is fortunate, because there is a lot of competition. "And a lot of it gets read in embarrassment and thrown into the trashcan."

 
The Dutch version of this interview was published in the local Amsterdam newspaper Amsterdams Stadsblad on March 16, 2005. © 2005 Amsterdams Stadsblad. This translation © 2009 Floris M. Kleijne.