What’s coming in 2024

I’ve spent almost all of 2023 writing, even though it might seemed like I hid from the world (I have). If you like any of my books so far, good news follows! (I’m really looking forward to having TWO books in ANY series…)

Storytellers follow-up

It’s happening. A few months ago, on a Thursday, someone asked me if there will ever be one, and I said no – I just didn’t have any ideas. I’d have to force myself to squeeze something out and it wouldn’t be very good. Then I had a dream. (Which is actually how Storytellers started, only it took me three years to realise the dream won’t give up until I write it down.)

The Poison Never Dies is about a thirteen-year-old girl, Camilla – because of course I know everything about being a 13yo girl – who awaits her first date. The boy never shows up. Instead, she overhears a very suspicious conversation. In the morning, the person is found dead. There are no traces, no reason to believe there’s been a murder, and Doctor Brynjólf declares the person died of natural causes. Is Camilla right? Was this conversation about what she thinks it was? Who’s going to believe her? There is love, there is another murder, lots of blackmail, and I know you only really want to know one thing. The answer is: YES HE IS THERE. And he’s happily married. With a son, too.

I’m posting quotes of the unfinished version on my ko-fi for subscribers only. I don’t know whether I’ll finish the whole book this year, because…

Why Odin Drinks follow-up

…I am at the nearly-ready-for-editing stage with Bloodbath & Beyond. It’s Freya’s coming-of-age story, largely. It retells a few myths, while adding new (ahem) ones and remixing them somewhat. The making of Brísingamen is one of them. Another is Gullveig – who, according to the Norse lore researchers, might be Freya or not (she is, in my book). And there is Queen Taylor. While I was working on the first drafts, I did not foresee Taylor Swift becoming the actual Empress of everything. I have to slightly tone down the sheer number of quotes and song titles I smuggled in, since they’re a bit too easy to find now that she is the #1 pop star in the world and if someone has never heard of Taylor Swift they’re probably either dead or live inside a cave without wi-fi. Nevertheless, she teaches Freya quite a lot about being Queen. Freya, obviously, hates the fact that she has to get lessons from a mortal. If not for Bragi, whose words have the power to replace the truth, her reputation might get a fatal blow when King Redscarf shows up…

There are/will be excerpts on ko-fi. I also posted an original draft of a story called ‘Thor and Two Ladies’ (which explains why Thor is married to Sif, but the mother of Magni is Járnsaxa) for ko-fi subscribers, except apparently I’ve done that in the worst format possible, i.e. a Google Doc, so I have to replace that with a short e-book. While I was writing ‘Thor and Two Ladies’ I didn’t know yet that it will ever come out, and that I’ll adapt the book for MG readers, so it’s… I wouldn’t say smutty, I don’t know how to write sexily, nevertheless, I’d say the audience needs to be a bit older than 14.

Books 2 and 3 in The Ten Worlds series

Those are tricky, because I have to write them at the same time. (The photo is my set-up for working on two books at the same time.) There is a significant overlap, as book 2 (Land) is the proper sequel to Children, while book 3 (The Blue King) is a complete biography of someone who becomes very important in Land. Do you remember Maya’s premonition about Magni holding hands with a dark elf? More of Maya’s premonitions come to pass…

It’s actually a strange feeling, because I haven’t written those premonitions in Children with complete books two and three in mind. They just came back then, and now they all make sense. Almost too much sense. My characters dictate what I am supposed/allowed to do, and predict their own futures. Where Children was mostly Magni’s book, Land is mostly Maya’s (they still get half of the book each), and The Blue King will be the mysterious dark elf’s one.

Land will also be a re-telling of Hrafnaflóki’s discovery of Iceland, complete with a raven that flies to search for land and returns when he finds none. It will be about love that hurts, people who don’t want to be found, and if you have never liked Freya, you will enjoy it on a whole different level. Land was actually so finished (I thought) that I even sent it to my editor, then I drafted The Blue King and found out I had the dark elf completely wrong. So, I am now trying to force myself to work on both at once, to find out how to minimise the overlap so that a reader of The Blue King (which will also work as a standalone) both understands what’s going on and doesn’t feel cheated/bored by repetition of the same events from a different point of view. This is incredibly difficult, turns out. Still, I hope to have Land at least ready for the final editing pass before the end of the year.

Secret Project

As you can guess from the name, it’s secret. It also means I am writing five books at once. (Although I must admit that most of the time I am writing zero books at once, because five is a bit much, and I overwhelm myself with my endless creativity. He said modestly.) Even if I were to run out of ideas, those should keep me busy for at least three years…

Release schedule (i.e. the dates when I will definitely not publish those books)

• Bloodbath & Beyond: late summer/early autumn 2024
• The Poison Never Dies: late autumn 2024
• Land: winter 2024-beginning of 2025
• Secret Project: who knows, really, not me

So, I might have only published one story this year, ‘Here, Let Me Give You a Hand’ in the anthology Anatomy of Fear, but I’ve spent almost all of 2023 writing. A lot. Hopefully, I will spend 2024 finishing some of it!