About JK
I’m so glad you are here. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer), make yourself comfortable and let me introduce myself.
My name is J.K. (Koos) Stenger, and I am a writer from the Netherlands.
I’m so glad you are here. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer), make yourself comfortable and let me introduce myself.
My name is J.K. (Koos) Stenger, and I am a writer from the Netherlands.
Stories must have been around since Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. I can only imagine with a holy sense of wonder what the first created human beings must have talked about as they walked through paradise. The inspiration must have flowed unhindered. Sin had not yet entered our world and every thought, every idea and every word they spoke was infused with Heaven’s gold. Imagine that… Rivers of inspiration.
Had they been asked to write, they would have written books, so deep and so original that it would have put the world’s best writers to shame.
I doubt that their books would have been fiction in the strict sense of the word. After all, fiction is defined as a story that is created by the imagination, and is not necessarily true, although all fiction carries truth. Otherwise, nobody would want to read it. Most of these heroes were regular saints, but a few were like the devil himself, without even a speck of good in them.
While Adam and Eve never wrote a book, and were never asked to, I felt the calling to write from a very young age.
Small beginnings
When I was six years old, I taught myself to type on my mother’s old Remington. With one finger. Even today, I could not break away from that rather clumsy technique, although, in my favor, I may add that I now might be among the fastest typists in the category of those who only use their right index-finger.
I didn’t care for speed as a six-year-old, and I still don’t, although, admittedly, it’s a little embarrassing when people break out in surprised gasps and stutter, “Only one finger?” But when I was young, as long as I could sit behind that typewriter, I was the happiest kid in the world as I whole-heartedly stepped into my fantasy world.
There I got acquainted with my first characters. They were mostly dogs and cats, but occasionally other animals showed up, sometimes endowed with serious psychological problems.
So, I helped the good ones escape enormous dangers, always in outrageous ways, and the bad ones always ended up being punished. In those days of innocence, right was easy to determine, and so was the wrong. But one thing was clear; all these characters were alive and real.
That was my first brush with writing.
What now?
When I became a young adult, the writing stopped rather abruptly. The desire to write never left, but other duties called and took up my time. I traveled, was involved in several mission projects, and fiction writing was far from my mind.
But when after many years I settled back in the Netherlands around the year 2011, I was clueless as to how to proceed. Virtually being penniless, I faced problems. And it was then I was reminded of my love for writing. Writing was the answer.
I was of age, without any important diplomas to speak of in a worldly sense, but yet part of a demanding world where you are expected to faithfully pay your bills. What better way to earn a living than by writing? After all, writing is something that can be done until you are 95 or even 100 years old.
As long as my right index-finger will cooperate, I can write. It was time to pick up my dream again. I followed a course, read lots of books, and slowly, stumbling with every word, I began to write again. Nothing big. Just small blog-like articles. I found work through what they call a content-mill where people offer writing jobs and you can apply for them.
My first paying job was to write SEO-related articles for a Dutch website. No requirements. Just write anything, as long as it had a few search terms in it that the client provided and it had to have a minimum of 300 words.
And then, again through the content-mill, I got a new job. I needed to write … a book. A book … a whole book. Me?
“Yes,” came the answer.
“You seem like a trustworthy writer. I want you to write a book. Can you do it?”
“I-uh … I guess so.” I did not want to let the opportunity pass by, but writing an entire book! How is that even done?
The client wanted a story about a priest who counsels sick people in a hospital. But there, in the hospital, it turned out some sinister malcontent was killing the patients, and the priest and an angel from heaven needed to expose the killer.
That sounded great. A priest, an angel, a mystery… that was something I could work with… But an entire book? “How many words?”
“5000.”
Only 5000? That was a relief. Although, it still seemed like a mountain, but not nearly as high as I first feared. Since then, I have learned that a regular novel contains around 80.000 words. Something is considered a short story when it contains somewhere between 30.000 and 40.000 words. 5000 words is nothing. But at that time, the number still seemed high. I licked my lips, swallowed hard, and took the job. Writer Anne Lamott shares in her much-appreciated book on writing titled ‘Bird by bird,’ the following:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a professional, but when you first sit down to write something new, ‘It often feels like pulling teeth.’
Since that day, I’ve done a lot of tooth-pulling, but it has become easier and easier. Since that first story, I’ve written over 40 books as a ghostwriter and many articles and blog posts. I wrote a novel under my own name, ‘An Amish Fantasy.’ At present I am working on my second book under my own name, titled ‘Crowns of Glory’ and hopefully it should be out before long.
That’s it for now.
Thank you for reading this. It’s my hope and prayer that some of my words and stories may resonate within your heart, build you up, and minister the best of all things, which are faith, hope and love.
Hello, my name is Maria and, I too am from the Netherlands. In my earlier years I studied English and together with my husband we have traveled the world. Languages always had my interest and the translation of various articles from English into the Dutch language became a much treasured pastime. My work mainly involves translating Dutch to English and English to Dutch.
The work you ask me to do for you will be delivered promptly, meticulously, and in accordance with the agreed-upon specifications, ensuring flawless spelling and grammar.
You can contact me and we can discuss the project.
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”