Peter was born 24 October 1946 in the Northern Dutch city of Groningen, where he grew up and lived until 1978. Having lived in the tiny village De Poffert for a number of years with his wife Claire and daughter Danja, he moved to Roden, where his son Dorian was born (who by the way entered the Paul Harland Award competition twice and ended in the top 20. But the future is still bright.)
Peter spent a number of years working as a schoolteacher, and then made the transition to music. His songs De hoge heren van het dorp, Adem mijn adem and Vliegen als een vogel all reached the charts in the 1970s. Peter still plays and writes music and is currently working on a new EP.
A yearning for more serious literary work in the fantastic and history genres resulted in the production and publication of almost 40 novels and children’s books, among which his first fantasy novel, De schrijvenaar van Thyll, which won a Eurocon Award in Budapest.
Peter’s most recent productions are the fantasy novel De helden van Sidian and the science fiction thriller Chesnek bv, both published by the Dutch publisher Zilverspoor. His new novel Zam de fikser will be out soon.
Apart from a writer, Peter is also an enthusiastic maker of stone tools and he calls himself a stonesmith – referring to his level of expertise. Furthermore he spent years building tiny scale model of an entire ruined city in Egyptian style (see the picture at the top of his facebook page), where his spirit has kept returning since he was a child. He considers this city his life’s work.
Since 1980, and the first Hillcon in Rotterdam, Peter has visited all-but-one of the Dutch NSCF conventions, along with his brother Theo, who was just as much as a genre enthusiast as he is. Theo sadly passed away in December 2020.
Occasionally Peter brings his guitar to play his songs and filk a bit, playing around with comical scifi-lyrics.
For more information, visit his homepage at www.peterschaap.nl.
