In November 1968 he married for the second time, to Karin Steensma, an interior decorator. At this time he was contacted by a Dutch publishing company whose primary holding was a Dutch newspaper. They asked if he would convey his war experiences for a series of articles to run in their paper and they proposed to send a ghost writer to take down narration and compose the pieces. After twenty years in the business world, he longed to return to his first calling of writing. He wanted to write about what had happened to him and his friends during the war. As a writer, he had the ability to express himself about what they had gone through, where he knew the others could not. Steensma supported his decision. He agreed to write the articles himself, if they would give him an advance and publish them in book form at the end. They agreed and he set about his task. After a year of work his book was published in 1970 under the title (The Rattlesnake Cave). Roelfzema was not happy with the book, the title, the cover, the publisher or how the book was being promoted. After six months it had sold some 13,000 copies in Holland. Roelfzema purchased the rights to the book, reworked it to make the stories flow together better, changed the title and got Prince Bernhard to write a foreword. This second presentation was titled "" (Soldier of Orange), for his association with the royal family. It became an international bestseller.