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Leon De Kock

Goodreads Author

Born

in Pretoria, South Africa

Website

http://www.leondekock.com

Genre

Science Fiction, Horror, Poetry

Influences

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Terry Prattchet, JK Rowling, Agatha Christi ...more

Member Since

August 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/leondekock

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Leon de Kock was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on Friday the 13th, October 1972, the sixth child of Pierre and Sally de Kock.
Although life seemed boring on the surface, Leon lived an adventurous young life through reading. Everything went, he started off innocently with Enid Blighton of Famous Five fame, rolled through the other greats of the day, devoured Agatha Christie and then got sucked into the darker, more intense novels of Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz and the likes. Currently his reading includes a lot more of the fantasy novels of authors such as Rowling, Pratchett and others.

His story telling began at a young age, by high school he was telling full-length stories through epic poems, some of which would be incorporated into a Leon de Kock was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on Friday the 13th, October 1972, the sixth child of Pierre and Sally de Kock.
Although life seemed boring on the surface, Leon lived an adventurous young life through reading. Everything went, he started off innocently with Enid Blighton of Famous Five fame, rolled through the other greats of the day, devoured Agatha Christie and then got sucked into the darker, more intense novels of Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz and the likes. Currently his reading includes a lot more of the fantasy novels of authors such as Rowling, Pratchett and others.

His story telling began at a young age, by high school he was telling full-length stories through epic poems, some of which would be incorporated into a book and published many, many years later.

After completing school in 1990 Leon enrolled for an apprenticeship with the South African department of Post and Telecommunications. After qualifying as a technician he stayed in that job until 1997, when he moved to work in the field of information technology. During those years he played bass guitar in a variety of heavy metal bands, where he was also responsible for most of the lyrics, and managed to get two of his poems published in a magazine.
The editor of the magazine said of his first poem it was 'Dead in the Marketplace'. It didn't stop said editor from publishing the poem though.
By 2001 Leon was working as an IT technician on a major coal mine in the Mpumulanga province of South Africa. It was around this time that he started work on the epic apocalyptic novel, Hordes.
By 2002 the bright lights of his hometown of Pretoria were calling, and he moved back, with no job and no clear course of the future. He found himself working as an estate agent, then moved into architecture, working as a draughtsman.
He kept up work on Hordes, and also wrote a second novel, the fantasy horror Dream World. A six month hiatus from working life, caused by a broken tibia and fibula from taking a tumble off his dualsport motorbike while riding off-road in December of 2009 helped him to complete a lot of his unfinished writing.
Both Hordes and Dream World were Indie published on Amazon Kindle in May 2012. This was followed in June of the same year by the fantasy Story of Enchantment, a novel written through 250 poems, most of them epics, forming one continuous story.
Dream School, the sequel to Dream World, followed in 2014.
In 2015 came the horror Serenity, to be followed in 2016 by another apocalyptic, Sniffer.
The companion book to Dream World and Dream School, titled Guide to Dreaming, was published in January 2018. Also in January 2018 came the collection of short stories, Night is for Nightmares.
The first book of the fantasy Vespula series, Rituals, was released in September 2019, and was followed in by the second novel in the series, Insanity.
In February of 2023 his collection of poems, mostly epic tales, was published under the title Riotous Rhymes.

Leon currently lives in the city of Kempton Park, in the province of Gauteng, South Africa, where he continues life as a novelist and architectural draughtsman.
Never far from nature, he has close ties to the Gauteng and Northern Regions Bat Interest Group as their membership secretory. He holds a membership with the Exploration Society of South Africa and the Speleological Exploration Society.
In 2013 he was involved in a National Geographic expedition to retrieve hominid fossils from the Rising Star cave formation, working as a safety caver in support of the scientists.
In 2014 he was involved in the Gobolo expedition to Swaziland to help explore and map the Gobolo Cave formation, one of earth's rare granite cave formations.
Although his healthy sense of self-preservation has kept him from taking the plunge over the 50 meter precipice into the cave known as Armageddon, he was part of the team that first discovered and explored what would turn out to be one of the largest, deepe ...more

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Leon De Kock’s books

Average rating: 4.33 · 51 ratings · 12 reviews · 22 distinct works

	Losing the Plot: Crime, reality and fiction in postapartheid South African writing liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hordes it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2012 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dream World 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Story of Enchantment 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dream School it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Serenity it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night is for Nightmares it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rituals it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sniffer 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Guide to Dreaming 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Leon De Kock's Blog: Wondering Aloud.

Kruger Park Big 5 Coloring Book

My new book, the Kruger Park Big 5 Coloring book, is part of a new series I'm working on. Yes, while I am still continuing the Vespula series, this is just something fun.
You can find this book on Etsy, at
Kruger Big 5 Coloring book

This new series is aimed at teaching kids, especially city kids, about nature. Check out the other books while you are there. Read more of this blog post »

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Published on June 20, 2025 03:02 • Tags: big-5, coloring-book, kruger-park, leon-de-kock

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Leon De Kock wrote a new blog post Kruger Park Big 5 Coloring Book My new book, the Kruger Park Big 5 Coloring book, is part of a new series I'm working on. Yes, while I am still continuing the Vespula series, this is Read more of this blog post »
Jun 20, 2025 03:02AM · like
Leon Kock joined the group World, Writing, Wealth
Feb 17, 2025 12:26AM · like

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Quotes by Leon De Kock (?)

“Vir hom is dié geluk egter voorwaardelik: “[D]ie soort geluk van enigiemand wat – min of meer – eksistensieel lewe. Dus: die angoisse is nooit ver nie, maar dis ’n kreatiewe soort angoisse wat mens suiwer en altyd verowerend die onbekende instuur, sonder veel rus, maar met heelwat genade.”
― Leon De Kock, André P. Brink En die spel van liefde: 'n biografie

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“Deur in die openbaar te praat en te skryf het Brink op sy eie manier aan die stryd deelgeneem; verder het hy ook ’n ope brief aan P.W. Botha in die New York Times gepubliseer waarin hy die Suid-Afrikaanse regering met die Gestapo vergelyk. Só lees sy eerste paragraaf: You have now succeeded in establishing a deadly silence surrounding yourself and your Government. Now no one can report on what you are planning or doing, no one can expose your lies and evils, no one can speak up for those oppressed, hounded, turned out of their burning homes, tortured or killed by the latest incarnations of the Gestapo. Not even the number of those who are disappearing around us daily may be divulged.141”
― Leon De Kock, André P. Brink En die spel van liefde: 'n biografie

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“[D]ié viciousness in my het ek tevore al gesien, bowenal by Ingrid, telkens as ek begin vrees het ons staan nie meer saam nie; die wêreld is te swaar vir 2 wat nie eendragtig is nie. En dan word dit ’n perverse soort toets: O.k., jy hou jou terug; dan sal ek jou wys dat ek so bitter kan wees dat jy nie van my sal durf hou nie (kleinserige selfverdediging): ek sal bitsig & wreed wees; en as jy net die destruktiewe sien dan faal jy; as jy sien hoe dit gebore word uit bang, gekwetste liefde, dan kom ons saam anderkant uit. Perverse sadisme wat heeltemal destruktief word.7”
― Leon De Kock, André P. Brink En die spel van liefde: 'n biografie

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