# Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!
I am Michel Peen, an author from the Netherlands. My book When No One Sees is about recognising bullying, responding safely and supporting recovery. I wanted to bring the quiet side of bullying into view: what happens when someone cannot easily explain what is going on, or when the people around them do not recognise it. The book combines personal experience, fictional examples and practical tools. It is written for readers looking for a clearer starting point, rather than a promise that every situation has a simple answer. The English edition retains Dutch organisations and procedures, so readers elsewhere should use the appropriate support and rules where they live.
# What is/are the real-life story(ies) behind your book(s)?
My own experience of bullying is part of the reason I wrote this book. I know that finding words for a difficult experience can be hard. I wanted to connect that personal starting point with practical questions: what can someone notice, what can be written down, and who can help with the next step? The fictional situations in the book are there to make those questions easier to recognise. They should not be mistaken for accounts of particular people or for evidence that one response will work in every case.
# What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
For a practical book like this, I think one mistake is to make the explanation sound clearer than the reader’s real situation actually is. A sentence can sound reassuring while leaving someone unsure what to do next. Another mistake is to mix personal experience with a claim to speak for everyone. I want readers to know which parts are personal, which examples are fictional, and where a tool can offer a starting point without replacing appropriate help.
# Do you tend towards personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
Both matter to me. Putting something difficult into words has personal meaning, but the book also needs to be useful to someone whose life is different from mine. That is why it moves beyond my own story into questions, plans and examples. I hope a reader can take one manageable next step from it, or that someone supporting them can find a better way to listen. The value of the book is not that a reader has to agree with every page.
# What role do emotions play in creativity?
Emotions give a subject its weight, but I do not think intensity alone makes an explanation useful. In a book about bullying, the words need to leave room for uncertainty, anger, fear and the difficulty of speaking. At the same time, I want the reader to be able to follow the page. For me, the challenge is to keep the human feeling while giving the writing enough shape to be understandable.
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