I've been asked about the inspiration behind my romantic thriller, Spilt Wine, so allow me to tell you a little story about its inception. In the spring of 2015, I was living aboard Zonder Zorg in the Burgundy region of France, waiting for the flooding on the Saône to ease so I could head northward. I had just published my fourth book on boating in two years, and I wanted a change. To occupy my time, I began building a wooden model of a skûtsje from a forty-year-old kit I had bought online. It was based on a barge almost identical to my 1908 Zonder Zorg. While waiting for the glue to dry, I decided to begin writing a novel, a new direction for me. I'd written nothing but nonfiction since I w
In the spring of 2015, having just completed the first draft of my historical/thriller novel, Spilt Wine, I headed skütsje Zonder Zorg northward up the rivers and canals from the Burgundy. I was too close yet to the story to begin rewriting and editing it, but I was still in a creative mood. I looked for inspiration for another story, and as I followed the Meuse, I paused in Verdun to work on the idea of a story set in World War One. Verdun was the site of the largest and longest battle of the War, fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916. Estimates of casualties range from over seven hundred thousand to nearly a million. Among these, more than three hundred thousand were killed. Ninety-n
