After publishing my debut novel, "The Mulberry Door", I was pretty busy. As an indie author, I had to arrange everything myself, not only where my book was being offered, but also the marketing and, of course, social media exposure. But I’m a writer, and although coming up with posts and then posting them is fun, I just want to write.

Within the fantasy genre, you have people who prefer to read the book first and then watch the movie adaptation. There are also people who prefer to only watch the movie, and then there’s me.

I have the feeling that the fantasy genre is growing older right along with me, but that could be a coincidence. Actually, no, because I don’t believe in coincidences, but that’s beside the point.

Do you ever ask yourself: what do I want to read? Or: what do I want to feel?

I started writing The Mulberry Door with my main character, Jenny. I knew what was going on in her mind at the beginning of the story. I also knew that I couldn’t magically make her pain disappear. I know, it’s a fantasy story, but in every world, pain still exists.

We live in a society that tries to make us grow up as quickly as possible. In fact, when we’re young, we want to be adults ourselves.

Picking up a fantasy book is almost automatic for me.

We think of 'comfort books' as books that make us feel good. Books that offer comfort and sometimes even create a feeling of safety. If we were to compare them to a warm blanket on a cold winter day, then 'healing fantasy' is the warm mug, filled with our favourite drink, that we hold in our hands.

Have you ever experienced someone looking at you strangely when you tell them how you feel during or after reading a book? And especially when it’s a fantasy book? Because that can’t be real, right? “It’s just a book, it’s not real.”

Let me be honest with you, when I entered the world of YA Fantasy, I really doubted whether it was something for me. Not the fantasy part, because I already loved reading fantasy before that.

Reading about characters who find themselves in another world actually gives you the feeling that if that is possible, perhaps it is also possible for you to feel better.

Reading is not just a way to pass the time, it's also a way to step into a new world, filled with the thrill of discovering everything for the very first time.