Jano Venter, the author of “ ‘Duplication of Cases’,” is an undergraduate student at UTA studying History and Psychology. “I was born in South Africa and moved to the states because my father got a job here. Originally I came to UT Arlington with the intent of studying aerospace engineering, but after I graduated from the IB program I found my calling in history of ideas, especially when I realized the potential of psychology to innovate the way Cultural History and Historical analysis is done. At some point in my career, I wish to approach history with a more scientific psychological approach drawing from social
psychology to see if it is possible to trace the morphology of cultural institutions throughout history and perhaps one day measure them in a way that makes historical analysis meaningful, but for now I need to get my degree and get through my exploratory research. Because history of ideas and literature has always been dear to me, I decided to write a new type of science fiction story, one dealing exclusively with medicine, but in the traditions of the steampunk genre. I also always wanted to write a vampire story, and I felt Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Transference’ was a hallmark of vampire stories in its original subject
matter. In that vein I wanted to write something that is in effect a ‘medical mystery’ that also draws
on Celtic folklore and some gothic elements. Essentially I wrote what I would want to read, and I
can only hope others enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. In my spare time I write reviews for the
website folk-metal.nl and I also have one comedic piece published titled ‘The True Cost of
Misconduct,’ which is available on amazon.”
