An Interview with Dave Dröge: Author of Julia’s Memories & The Interflow of Things

My name is Dave Dröge (Vlaardingen, 1966). I worked in ICT (development and design) and graduated in psychology at the Erasmus University and the Open University, including getting a BAPD qualification for diagnostics. From 2010 I mainly write novels: the first two years a trilogy about three writers who have an ambitious plan, establish a metaphysical revolution through an artistic event, simultaneously held in Paris and Amsterdam. The following year I wrote a relatively short novel which describes a dream world faced with a harsh reality. Recently I wrote The Game Changer, a large-scale novel about a company doctor in the port of Rotterdam, and currently I am working on the Amor Mundi series.

Tell us about your book.

The book consists of two parts. Julia’s Memories (part 1) is a biography and coming of age novel, written from the future. Interflow of Things (part 2) is a highly realistic science fiction novel. The two powerful volumes flow naturally into one story, as Julia awakens while writing her memories.

Why did you want to write a book?

Fiction means having ultimate freedom. With fiction you are not bound to fact-finding, proclaiming the opinion of others or correctly displaying historical events, such as in journalism. With fiction you are not bound by procedures and strict methods of science. Writing fiction enables you to sketch a vision of the past, present or future that is creative, a fantasy about reality or about where society can go or is already moving in your perspective. You can do everything with fiction, including unmasking some of our current worldviews.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

I like to have freedom in my writing. But if a publisher is willing to accept this, there is no problem in working together. Meantime however, I want my books to be out there, although I do not have many readers at this point in time.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

A lot of the initial writing is done very early in the morning, say from 5 till 9. Furthermore, editing and thinking what to write and doing research is done mostly in the evening.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

This depends on the book (I hope), since my goal is to write in a certain atmosphere and maintaining this throughout the novel. The atmosphere is chosen as a writing challenge and by thinking about the content of the story and the main character(s) involved.

Who are your biggest writing inspirations and why?

This depends a bit on the period and the book I wrote. Next to doing research, reading non-fiction works, I have read some fiction during writing of my books in between, just to grasp a bit of the atmosphere I want my novel to be heading too f.e. More in detail: my first book called The Paris Convention (metaphysical challenges) deals with Michel Houellebecq and Bernard Henry Levy. See this page.

Why did you write about this particular subject?

Artificial intelligence will influence our society more and more and the questions about to what extend this can be a good or bad thing will become more present in the near future. I thought it was interesting to combine this with a coming of age story of an artist for various reasons.

What did you learn on your journey as an author?

Mainly that I just love to work on a novel and use my creative energy to see if I can deliver something by working hard on research and on thinking what to write next, and then trying to get the work done. The work itself is more than once leading me into something I did not think of beforehand, leading me towards another chapter and even a plot that seems to come from nowhere. But that only happens after putting a lot of work in it and making time for staring at blank pages for a while.

What’s next for you as an author?

Currently, I am working on Part 3 of the Amor Mundi series. Furthermore, I am considering writing a non-fiction book as well.