Claudia van der Sluis

Biography

Claudia van der Sluis (Amsterdam, 1963) grew up in a middle class family. Her parents ran a small restaurant in the center of Amsterdam in the seventies. She describes her childhood as carefree and happy, with two loving parents and a younger brother, Paul. “Everything was possible," she says of that time. "And we were terribly spoiled. The sky was the limit in our home, it was very important to enjoy life alongside the hard work and our parents supported everything we did."

She thanks her free childhood that her career took an erratic and fascinating course. After high school she worked at the PTT (now KPN) in Amsterdam and followed the cooking school at the Elandsgracht in Amsterdam. She was twenty-four when her son Alessandro was born (1987), whom she has raised alone for the most part.

Claudia started writing by accident, after she was forced to abort her career as a cook. A vacancy in the newspaper ensured her first steps as a writer: love novels for publisher Favoriet. She had a lot of fun. "I do not know how much I have written, but there are certainly over 30 publications in the five years that I've done it. I made up creative plots and often didn’t know beforehand how it would run, but I always managed to make a good story. To get in the mood, I made boards with cut out pictures of ideal couples and then my imagination began to work itself. "

Because she wanted to write for children, Claudia began training at Script+ in Amsterdam. Her first children's book was published in 1996 by Publisher Sjaloom: Mijn vader is een wolkenman and was translated into German as Mein Vater ist ein Wokenmann, quickly followed by the youth novel Zeep! (soap).
Almost simultaneously appeared Hoera, ik mag trakteren with Tirion publishers, a hobby book.

In 1997 she got a job as an editor at the magazine Vriendin and put writing books aside for a while. "My life was an everyday madhouse. I traveled around the Netherlands, sometimes had ten pages in a week to work on and took care of my son. Then there were the press trips to travel abroad and the many wine tastings as culinary editor because that was one of my duties. It was a great time, I enjoyed it plenty." In that time she met her new partner.

Only in 2001 there appeared another book, this time in a completely different genre, published by Schors publishers: Modern Witches.
"Not an odd choice for me to write about spiritual subjects because I did fortunetelling with Tarot since I was twenty and I explained dreams for as long as I can remember, later even in various magazines. I got deeper into astrology. Also, I got it from home. My father did astrology and tarot and my mother, like all of us in the family, was very sensitive and spiritually developed. "
‘Het grote boek van de Maan’ (Das magische Buch vom Mond) appeared in 2002 followed by De vier elementen (Die Reihe der Vier Elemente) in 2003, immediately translated into German. Modern Witches (Alte Traditionen, Moderne Hexen) eventually sold for more than 40,000 copies.

In 2000 she started an IT company with her partner and Claudia learned Photoshop and web design. As a writer and freelance journalist she was always busy, though the company demanded more and more of her time and attention. She interviewed many celebrities like Marlies Dekkers (fashion designer), Tom Egbers (soccer commentator), and Manfred Kets de Vries (leadership). "Sometimes my fear of failure made me humble and scared, then I would think: today or tomorrow everybody will know that I am not really skilled and just doing something."
After her divorce in 2007 she moved to Sicily to live and work there. She wrote her books Kogelvis en Gestalkt after the popular television series Flikken Maastricht for Karakter publishers, released in 2008, as well as her latest hobby book Lange halskettingen (Long Necklaces), again with Publisher Tirion (now bankrupt).
Claudia worked as a freelancer for several magazines over fifteen years. She kept on writing and has a second career designing websites in Wordpress. Currently the author is working on a novel and a book about divination. There are plans to release Modern Witches and The Big Book of the Moon as ebooks.
This year, 2015, she celebrates her twenty-fifth anniversary as a writer.
www.claudiacreates.nl

Official Publications
Mijn vader is een wolkenman – Sjaloom, 1996
Hoera ik mag trakteren – Tirion, 1996
Zeep! – Sjaloom, 1997
Hoera, ik geef een knalfeest – Tirion, 1998
Mein Vater ist ein Wolkenmann – Elefanten Press Bei Bertelsmann 1999
Moderne Heksen – Schors 2001
Alte Traditionen. Moderne Hexen: Hexenwissen im Alltag für Jedefrau und Jedermann – Iris Bücher & mehr, 2001
Het Grote Boek van de Maan – Schors, 2002
Das magische Buch vom Mond – Iris Bücher & mehr, 2003
De vier elementen: Lucht – Schors, 2003
De vier elementen: Aarde – Schors, 2003
De vier elementen: Vuur– Schors, 2003
De vier elementen: Water– Schors, 2003
Gewoon Uniek - Dossier Mode – Uitgeverij Kwintessens, 2003
Biertje – Dossier Alcohol - Uitgeverij Kwintessens, 2004
Die Reihe der Vier Elemente 1. Erde. Kräfte und Eigenschaften der vier Elemente - Iris Bücher & mehr, 2004
Die Reihe der Vier Elemente 2. Wasser, Kräfte und Eigenschaften der vier Elemente - Iris Bücher & mehr, 2004
Die Reihe der Vier Elemente 3. Feuer Kräfte und Eigenschaften der vier Elemente - Iris Bücher & mehr, 2004
Die Reihe der Vier Elemente 4. Luft, Kräfte und Eigenschaften der vier Elemente - Iris Bücher & mehr, 2004
Genoeg - Dossier Eetgedrag - Uitgeverij Kwintessens, 2005
Lariats, kleurrijke halskettingen met glaskralen – Tirion Uitgevers, 2006
Wopper – Dossier Pleegkinderen - Uitgeverij Kwintessens, 2006
Lange Halskettingen - Tirion Uitgevers, 2007
Kogelvis – Karakter Uitgevers, 2008
Gestalkt – Karakter Uitgevers, 2008
De glazenwasser – Smashwords 2012
De secretaresse – Smashwords 2012

Where to find Claudia van der Sluis online

Where to buy in print

Books

This member has not published any books.