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Karen van der Zee
Romance Novelist
Long-time Dutch expat Karen van der Zee is without doubt, a writer's success story. She has written novels and stories from her globetrotting life in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States, and she holds the admirable distinction of having 35 romance novels published by Harlequin Books.
As a child, Karen loved writing stories and dreamed of seeing the world. She got lucky and fell in love with a globetrotting American who took her far and wide because of his career as a development economist. They met in Amsterdam, he asked her to marry him in Rome, and they tied the knot in a bizarre ten-minute ceremony in Kenya, East Africa, where he was a Peace Corps volunteer.
Later, in Ghana, West Africa, not only was their first daughter born, but Karen's first romance novel as well. The book was accepted for publication and Karen continued writing and publishing romances. Writing turned out to be the perfect portable career for Karen, since the family went on to live in Indonesia, the USA, Palestine (Ramallah), Ghana (again) and Armenia.
She is now venturing down the path of non-fiction and writes about her (mis)adventures living the expat life on her blog Life in the Expat Lane. She also has a humorous book about her life abroad, which is now in search of a publisher. The Washington Post has published several of Karen's stories and RDR Books included one of her tales in their travel-humor story collection I Should Have Just Stayed Home. Four of her stories appear in Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World (Three Rivers Press).
Karen van der Zee is currently living in the US, waiting to hear where her next overseas adventure will take her. |
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Expat Women's Interview with Karen |
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Expat Women: Karen, congratulations on your success as a novelist. How did you decide to start writing romance novels and why do you think you have been so successful? |
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Karen: I remember the "decision" quite clearly. I was living in Ghana, and was spending most of my time practicing my writing by concocting short stories in English and submitting them to American women's magazines, and consequently starting the writer's requisite sad collection of rejection letters. I had already had a couple of stories published in the Netherlands and Belgium, written in Dutch, but perfecting my written English was taking some work. Unfortunately, just knowing where the commas went was not quite enough.
Then one day, I found a romance novel at the house of a friend. I had never read romance novels, but this one was set in Egypt, which I found exotic and interesting. I took it home, read it and thought, "I can write a story like that. I even live in an exotic place that I can use for a setting."
It was easier said than done, but after a lot of frustration, I managed to finish it. I then sent it to the address of the publisher of the romance novels I had been reading and studying in the meantime. Then I waited... and waited. Nothing. I shrugged it off and started another story. One year later – I was living in the United States at the time – I received a call from the publisher: They had fished my manuscript out of the slush pile and wanted to publish it!
Then I was off and running. My subsequent books were also accepted and later translated in over twenty languages, which was a real kick. I spent a lot of time studying writing and sharpening my writing skills, all of which I could do from wherever 'home' was at the time.
I would like to think I was successful because my books were fun to read, but part of it was my great luck in the timing: my first book was published in the eighties – the beginning of the boom in the romance novel publishing business. |
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Expat Women: What challenges have you encountered as a writer living in foreign countries? |
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Karen: My first challenge clearly was writing in English, which I spoke almost fluently at the time, but creative writing was another skill I had to learn.
Another challenge in the early (pre-Internet) years was working in isolation: I had no other writers in my immediate environment to share my writing trials with, or with whom I could enjoy brainstorming and critiquing sessions. These days with e-mail and social media this is not as much of an issue, although nothing is better than personal contact with writers in the flesh. (And this goes for family and friends as well.)
Once I became reliant on the Internet, a major challenge was accessing the Internet in the locations in which we lived. I had no Internet in Palestine and had to depend on the good graces of my husband's office to send off e-mails and submit my manuscripts to my publisher. In Ghana it was also often a problem. Not only was the Internet itself unreliable, but the electricity would go off just as I would be on a roll with my writing.
However, overall in my writing career, there have been many more advantages than challenges. Writing (fiction) is just about the perfect career because it is so portable, you can make your own schedule, you are your own boss, and you do not depend on the foreign environment to work... well, apart from supplying you with electricity and an Internet connection. |
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Expat Women: What are your top five tips for anyone considering a writing career as an expat? |
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Karen: I can only speak to the writing career as a novelist, but here goes... |
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Make sure that writing is something you really want to do in the first place, not just because it would be the perfect portable career. Know what it is you want to write (about) and be focused; |
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Be aware that writing a book is not the most difficult part in a writing career. What is more difficult is getting your book successfully published and marketed so people will actually buy your book. Nowadays even print publishers expect much of the marketing and publicity work to be done by the author. Study the book business. E-book publishing is up and coming, but for new novelists doing it on their own it is not (yet) a great money maker;
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Find a community for support, in the flesh, or online. In your expat community, join or start a writing club or a book club so you will find people interested in reading and writing. Study and learn all you can about the craft of writing – and stay inspired; |
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Be disciplined. If you are serious about it, treat it that way. Have a routine and sit yourself down in front of the computer and write. Not having a boss and an office to go to is a great advantage for many reasons, but it requires self-discipline to get the writing done; and |
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Realize that income from traditionally published books is slow in coming, unless you make the New York Times bestseller list, of course... and we can all dream. |
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Expat Women: Karen, you have lived abroad much of your adult life, and since leaving Holland, your home country, have never lived there again. Do you feel you have roots anywhere? What about your cultural identity? |
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Karen: This is an issue that I have thought about quite a bit! Of course my original roots are in the Netherlands where I grew up, but I do not really feel I belong there anymore, if that makes sense. When visiting the Netherlands, I often feel a bit like a foreigner. I speak the language, but at times I do not 'get' things. I do not know all the names of people in politics or popular culture. I have never owned a house there, raised children there, and so on. My extended family is all there, but my old friends have disappeared into time and space.
I have lived quite a few years in the US as an expat and I now have dual citizenship. My children live in the US and are American. I am more familiar with the logistics of life in the States than in Holland, but I did not grow up in the US and there will forever be that feeling that I am not American, that my roots are not here, that I feel different about certain issues and cultural norms. Although I am very comfortable here, I do not really feel I belong here, either.
I think I am a global citizen. I feel most at home in a multi-cultural setting, with an international mix of people who have similar experiences. |
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Expat Women: What is your most memorable moment from your expat experience? |
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Karen: Oh, I have so many! One of the things that always strikes me when living in developing countries is the contrast between old and new, or traditional and modern, and how often our preconceived notions about places and people are so wrong or different. One funny incident was when my husband and I were invited to lunch at the palace of a Ghanaian Ashanti chief in his home village. Ashanti chiefs when dressed in their traditional kente cloths are very imposing figures. I had seen a number of these men at celebrations and in official settings, but I had never personally met one, so I was looking forward to this lunch at the palace.
So here we were, waiting in the receiving room of his palace, a very ornately decorated room with antique colonial furniture and a huge chief's throne, which was elaborately carved and painted with gold, the seat covered with a leopard skin. In came the big chief, in jeans and Nikes, looking like a college basketball coach, plunked himself down on the leopard skin and dropped his Samsonite briefcase next to the throne on the floor. I did not have the guts to take a photo.
Other memorable times include the scary situation when my husband and I almost ended up in jail in Uganda, and the occasion of my giving birth in Ghana with the African doctor wearing a white singlet, a butcher's apron and rubber boots (no worries, thankfully, all was fine). And of course my wedding in Kenya, where my groom was getting instructions on how to go about getting a second wife if he wanted to have two. Fortunately, so far, no second wife. |
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Expat Women: Karen, we applaud your vision, stamina and portable career success. Our sincere best wishes with wherever your expat adventures take you next! |
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