Who Am I?
My pen name is GK Jurrens. I am an author. I believe in the transformative power of reading, writing and publishing compelling fiction and nonfiction. I want to inspire readers by building on lessons I’ve learned and sharing them so my readers can learn and rise above life’s challenges as I have, but to achieve that in an entertaining and informative way.
Like you, I am peppered by my past. That makes me a better author, like you, maybe? Four years of government service, followed by a career in technology and international business consumed me for over thirty-five years. The scars of many battles left me inspired to write about them, as well as to chew on big chunks of life after Uncle Sam & Big Blue (IBM).
That boot camp lasting 3.5 decades prepared me for what followed: a delightful couple of decades (almost, so far) immersed in creative photography (no A.I., thank you), watercolor painting, digital painting, studying and playing music, traveling, meditating, writing, publishing, dabbling in podcasting, and narrating audiobooks in earnest. And as an erstwhile danger junkie (scuba & skydiving, motorcycles, sea kayaking…), well, you can imagine the stories that are now oozing onto the page.
Recently, I collected all my artwork in one place. Browse HERE if you dare.
Like my father before me, and his before him, I’ve always been a dreamer. And now? No stopping that!
In other words, I turn my dreams into something I can feel and hear and taste and touch and see. I’d invite you to do the same if you aren’t already doing so. It’s not as hard as you might imagine. Or maybe it is, but if you want something badly enough, the impossible becomes inevitable.
Some say I’m over-educated: Liberal Arts, Electronics Engineering, Business and Technology Management, Systems Research and International Management. But I think it’s made me a better writer.
With a strong background in both the Arts and Technology, I bring each to my writing in a big way, along with strong opinions and a mouth that isn’t afraid to articulate a unique perspective in my writing, which is all me, by the way, and not from using that plagiarism engine called artificial intelligence. Can you imagine some idiot feared the word “artificial” so much to the extent of renaming it “super-intelligence”? Insert my most ironic chuckle here and move on.
For those of you who know me, I am quietly but deeply passionate about a few disquieting messages which you will find sprinkled throughout my work.
A cornucopia of crud sticks to the roof of my mouth like last night’s hangover. In my writing you’ll find mere hints of contemporary issues such as social anxiety, social injustice, corporate corruption, political tampering, naked gun violence, crimes against the environment, pushing the boundaries of personal ethics, questionable social engineering, personal compulsions, personal safety, public health, social responsibility and individual redemption. These issues provide color and texture to my fictional characters.
While giving voice to these messages in my books, I FIRST wish to create an entertaining diversion for you with villains you love to hate and heroes you hope will survive and thrive, maybe with whom you’ll even fall deeply in love.
Besides, such vagaries of human frailty make for gripping and believable fiction, do they not? You might just find my books illustrate frightening possibilities for an impossible world that have already become all too vivid.
Oh, one other thing you should know about me. The allure of the obscure provokes my writing toward unpredictable directions. I can live on that edge if you can. I guess that makes for my “brand” as an author: the allure of the obscure.
I love to write. Through my writing, I hope to change the world, just a little, one reader at a time, in an entertaining and thought-provoking way.
That’s it. So let’s go!
With pen in hand,
GK
