The Land of Spirits is a mythological fantasy world created by Dutch author and entrepreneur Jochem de Jong. He was born in 1982 in the city of Gouda and grew up as an adventurous boy with a rich imagination. Inspired by stories like ‘Robin Hood’, ‘William Tell’ and ‘The Three Musketeers’ he started writing fictional stories in elementary school. Both his family and teachers encouraged him to keep writing, and as he grew older, to play and compose music. In his teenage years Jochem developed a form of dissociative disorder that manifested itself as persistent derealisation symptoms: the detached experience of living in a dream. For several years, he tried to find resolve in philosophy, science and art. In the end, after his father unexpectedly died from a heart attack when Jochem was nineteen, he found his greatest escape in writing fantasy stories and atmospheric film-music that complemented his dissociated state. Eventually, this led him to create the mythological fantasy world Land of Spirits.

During his twenties, while his health improved and he built his own business composing and producing music, Jochem worked on a collection of stories, novels and albums about the Land of Spirits. Unfortunately, when he was twenty-seven, he unexpectedly lost his mother to a heart attack as well. Not long after, in search of meaning and joy, Jochem made a clean start, focussing on his health and his career as an entrepreneur. His first two Land of Spirits novels did eventually get published in The Netherlands, but reaching thirty, Jochem began to realise that his fantasy world had become so vast, he would never be able to finish his creation. He left the project behind for almost ten years, during which he learned to program software applications for DJs and music producers and started an additional software business. Within the span of just a few years, Jochem built a large and diverse international network and the esteemed publisher Routledge internationally published his book about music production.

When he was thirty-seven Jochem met his wife Aysun. Together, they traveled the world and built the joyful and inspiring home they had both sought after for so long. With her diverse background in combining multimedia, technology and business development, Aysun helped turn Jochem’s music software business into a big success. Eventually, inspired by managing a remote team of creatives and programmers, Jochem realised there was a way to revive and complete his Land of Spirits project. Approaching forty, Jochem created a new website for his fantasy world and started working together closely with other writers, composers and artists from all over the world, in a communal effort to fully bring the Land of Spirits to life.

Now, living in Amsterdam and happily married to Aysun, no longer held back by his dissociative disorder, Jochem is taking his Land of Spirits to the next level. By combining his fantasy world, his international network and experience running a software company, he has teamed up with his lifelong friend, author and entrepreneur Jesse Stael to turn the Land of Spirits into a video game.