A pirate with a cause
A Red Deer author is raising the Jolly Roger in his pursuit of literary fame and fortune.
Gertjan Zwiggelaar celebrated the release of his first self-published novel, A Pirate’s Tale, this past July.
“I’m a bit of a pirate at heart,” says Zwiggelaar, explaining his fascination with the peg-leg set. “ I think there is actually a legitimate reason for people to be pirates in an oppressive state where the government taxes people to death.”
Set in the late 1800s, A Pirate’s Tale tells the story of Peter Mann, a 25-year-old newspaper reporter for the Halifax Morning Post.
Loosely Based on CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge, Mann also happens to share Zwiggelaar’s fascination with pirates. So when Mann learns the legendary pirate William Bartleby is rotting in a local jail, he is eager to interview him before the authorities send him to the gallows.
Bartleby, the “Scourge of the Seven Seas”, eventually persuades Mann to help him escape from prison, setting in motion Mann’s transformation into a pirate captain who steals from the rich to give to the poor — Robin Hood with a hook, patch and peg leg.
Eventually, Mann re-invents himself as a legitimate businessman whose trading company is, ironically, plagued by pirates.
Like his characters, Zwiggelaar has been a thorn in the side of authority.
A frequent contributor to the Advocate’s Letter’s page, the self-described anarchist relishes unleashing broadsides against “incompetent governments run by pin-headed cowards,” the “poorly trained malcontents” in the RCMP and “that illicit horror known as Canada Revenue Agency.”
Zwiggelaar prefers to think of A Pirate’s Tale as a “swashbuckling roller coaster” rather than a platform for his political views. However, he concedes it’s a “philosophical book” that tackles some meaty issues.
In the end, he hopes it will persuade readers to think more critically about Canada’s “sick society” and try to understand why some people would embrace piracy as an alternative to oppression.
“My pirates have legitimate reasons for doing what they do,” says Zwiggelaar. “They actually believe they’re doing the Lord’s work. They’re not murderous cutthroats, but they do occasionally have to kill somebody, but it’s usually somebody who deserves killing.”
Zwiggelaar’s life has been a roller coaster, much like those of his characters.
Born in the Netherlands, he immigrated to Edmonton with his family in 1960. Six years later, the Zwiggelaars moved to Saskatchewan, where Gertjan indulged in his passion for art, drama and writing.
“One of the best presents my parents ever gave me was a beautiful fountain pen and a dictionary,” he says.
Zwiggelaar received a visual arts degree from the University of Regina, following it up with an education degree in 1982.
He moved to Red Deer in 1988 to take over Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School’s drama program. He quit teaching in 2001 to spend more time painting and writing.
Zwiggelaar credits Michio Kaku’s Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century with helping him make the jump.
Kaku argues entertainment is the growth industry of the 21st Century, and Zwiggelaar wanted his eggs in that basket.
Since 2001, Zwiggelaar has churned out more than a half-dozen “eggs.” In the fall of 2001 he wrote a children’s fantasy novel, The Incredible Adventures of Princess Keira and her Friends. Three years later, he finished Worm Tales, 24 short stories about anthropomorphic earthworms.
Zwiggelaar pounded out the first draft of A Pirate’s Tale in a month and a half. He describes the act of writing as “autonomic”
“I actually believe the book was a gift from God, quite frankly,” says Zwiggelaar.
Four years later, reading A Pirate’s Tale still gives him the shivers.
“There are scenes in this book, I tell you, I read them and I still cry,” he says. “One time I read through it and I was blubbering at the end of the story.
Zwiggelaar has high hopes A Pirate’s Tale will persuade other publishing houses to take a look at his other novels.
They include A Journey to the Underside, a science fiction novel based on Hollow Earth Theory; Islands of the Chimera, a take on H.G. Well’s The Island of Doctor Moreau; and a pirate novel based on the German legend of Faust.
“I figure if you’re going to catch a fish, you might as well have more than one net in the water,” he says.
Zwiggelaar is also hopeful his books will wash up on Hollywood’s palm-fringed shores.
A Pirate’s Tale would make an “absolutely stunning motion picture” compared to the unoriginal films coming out of Hollywood these days, says Zwiggelaar.
Given the choice, he would pick Mel Gibson to helm the project.
“How can a piece of crap like No Country for Old Men win a Best Picture (Oscar)?” asks Zwiggelaar incredulously. “Or Brokeback Mountain, for heaven’s sakes!”
Zwiggelaar is looking forward to fixing the errors that cropped up in the first printing of A Pirate’s Tale. His publisher, PublishAmerica, is willing to help him, as long as he sells 50 copies first.
In the meantime, Zwiggelaar enjoys painting fantasy images and landscapes, which he shows regularly. “I’m going to be famous . . . there is no doubt about it,” he says enthusiastically.
For more information about A Pirate’s Tale, visit www.gertjan.ca or www.publishamerica.com.
Contact Cameron Kennedy at ckennedy@reddeeradvocate.com.
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