Hi there.
Happy you're interested.
Feel free to get in touch.
Let's get this started...
About Me.
General
I'm Abian (pronounced ah-bee-ahn). A tall, blonde Dutchman - blessed with being born in one of the coolest countries in the world: South Africa.
For a twenty-somthinger, I still have a scandalously childish imagination (sticks still look suspiciously like shimmering swords to me). Beyond that, I live barefoot, love traveling, get nerdy about art, tackle life with the abnormal tactics of a home-schooler, and have never stopped blotching story ideas on abandoned bits of paper. Now I live near Johannesburg with my parents, sister and grandma. Daily life includes feeding chickens, dodging taxies (minibuses with a driving law of their own), designing products for a living, playing pool, jamming softball, and longing for heaven.
Photography is another of my semi-professional hobbies.
Me
Interview.
What's your perfect novel?
My perfect novel: a fantasy mixture between C. S. Lewis, Terry Pratchet, and Karen Hancock. If Asterix and Obelix could be in there it couldn’t hurt.
Favorite things?
Newly cut grass, fresh baked cookies, grandma’s gravy, kicking off my shoes, tree’s dappled shadows, the deep blue winter sky, smell of the African wild.
When did you fall in love with the imagination?
I don't think when is a good question. Everyone is born with a colourful imagination. Rather: It's somehow never faded on me (I suspect a great deal others secretly feel the same); it has only matured.
So now you're wondering how I got here...
(Me too)
It begins long, long ago...
(Relatively)
"Imagination"
It all started with the joy of blundering through the garden after dragons and skyships as a kid.
(Not that I've ever stopped)
—>
"Art"
Enjoyment lead to the discovery of communication: people trained to express their imagination?!
Incredible!
—>
"Story"
Simply creating the things I saw lacked something I had in the begining: a sort of life. By combining the skills I learned, the worlds and characters could find context and expression.
—>
"Vulnerability"
Skyships, strange creatures and lively characters (except for being exciting) hardly have meaning. The thread of story gives them context and life, but even this is bland: it lacks a rawness. That has been the most terrifying and rewarding part of my journey: learning to express my struggles in these stories...
Sticks n Swords
General
SticksnSwords .com is a place to hang out, touch sides on what I'm doing and thinking, and for you to get to know me. I hope that everything you find here feels genuine and fresh - that is my intention.
If it inspires you to shoot for your own dreams - even better.
If you enjoyed being here, have questions, or just need to talk, send me something: I'd like to hear from you!
...Or browse my projects ->
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Ooh, smell that?
Visit my project page to see what's brewing.
Loaded with fun, sincerity and a dash of creativity, the little that's there is my budding playground.
