Siri Pettersen's Blog, page 6
October 4, 2023
REVIEW: "Irresistable."
Holy f*ck! (Sorry!) It’s Silver Throat launch day in Norway and the frontpage of dagbladet.no - one of our biggest papers - could have choked me on my coffee. «Irresistible. Overwhelmingly generous fantasy queen with another striking story. Hold on to your seat,» says Cathrine Krøger who thinks it’s all pretty fantastic: The dramatic scenes, the atmosphere and the different characters. But of all the praise, this is what moves me the most: «This is not a book about the battle of good and evil – but rather a nuanced psychological tale about our complex lives; difficult love, breaking of trust, and how failure and experience at the best can make you wiser.» Like she says: Now we understand each other. Thank you for this reading.
October 2, 2023
A clean slate...
I wiped my blackboards again. Silver throat is launching in two days, and as I write this, it’s popping up in mailboxes and bookstores all over Norway. Two hectic weeks are coming, with interviews, reviews, and the launch party, and in the thick of it, I need to be two people. I need to be present. Alert, attentive, available. But at the same time, I need to step away from it, and embrace the next book, unaffected by expectations and reactions. I need to be both here and there… Silver Throat belongs to you now, your present, my past. The next book belongs to me. My blackboard wall is a clean slate and it’s time for the Vardari finale. My sanctuary for the next few months, and I hope I will serve you all well. Thank you for being here. I truly love you for it!
September 28, 2023
Signed a thousand books!
Signed over a thosand books today. This is half of them… My thumb is flat, my heart is full, and Silver Throat is on the way! My deepest thanks to everyone who pre-ordered. I love you all, even those who asked me to sign with a haiku… And thank you to the ever brilliant Gyldendal, ARK, Norli and Outland for an amazing job making things happen.
September 12, 2023
10 years since Odin’s Child!
Tonight, it’s exactly 10 years since Odin’s Child launched. The release party topped the capacity at Fuglen coffee shop, which proved way too tiny for the purpose, much like my corset. Let’s just say both were severly challenged 😬 From a wobbly chair I gave a speech about the book, not yet aware that it would change my life. Ragni’s legendary tail cake was wheeled in like an omen of incredible things to come: 400K books sold, in 20 countries.
It’s wild, but clearly not my doing. I write the words, but my readers bring them to life with fanart, cosplay and tattoos. The creativity and generosity of this communtiy astound me frequently. Many of you were at that first release party, and will also be at the upcoming one on October 12th, and I love you for it. You are the nerds who know that fantasy is so much more than just escapism.
Fantasy gives us hope. Strengthens us. It provides inspiration and motivation to take on the biggest challenges we face. That’s why we read it, that’s why we write it.
A hell of a lot of thanks to you all, for buying, reading, sharing, creating and cheering. To booksellers and librarians for practically forcing the book on people. To agents and publishers for working relentlessly. Thank you ❤️
I’m celebrating these 10 years at Kulturhuset in Bergen, where we’re on stage for the city’s brilliant booksellers. Gotta run! Cheers, and here’s to 10 more years! I’ll see you at the release party ❤️
September 7, 2023
The Raven Rings to Ukraine!
The Raven Rings is sold to Ukraine! And dear gods, that moves me for so many reasons. First and foremost because it means that YES, books are still being published and read, in an industry that broke when war came. Infrastructure, publishers and libraries were bombed, with dreadful and widespread consequences.
But words and stories cannot be broken, so the industry is getting back up, and I’m eternally grateful for the chance to contribute, both with books and with the money from the sale that will be donated in its entirety to humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
This will also be the very first ILLUSTRATED edition of The Raven Rings! My publisher, Nebo BookLab in Kiev, has tons of gorgeously illustrated books to be proud of, from fantasy giants we love: Sanderson, Abercrombie, Stiefvater, Pullmann, Maas, Kristoff, I could go on. A party I stumble into with the greatest humility.
Another milestone: Ukraine will be my 20th book-country, which feels pretty wild to me.
My never-ending gratitude to all who read my books, and to Grand Agency for making this possible, to my Norwegian publisher Gyldendal, and my new publisher, Nebo Booklab in Ukraine! 💙💛
August 20, 2023
Silver Throat is out for pre-order in Norway!
(Dear international readers: This is the pre-order for the Norwegian edition of Silver Throat, which will be out in Norway in October.)
Svaret er NÅ! Nå kan du forhåndsbestille SØLVSTRUPEN! Personlig signert, fordi jeg elsker dere, og det gjør du hos Ark bokhandel.
Jeg sa jo det ikke var lenge til! Boka kommer blodfersk på lager den 5. oktober (om 49 dager, for dere som har nedtelling) og det ligger an til en helsikes slippfest den 12. oktober, så tøm kalenderen og finn fram korsettet!
Millioner av takk til alle som bestiller og deler. Dere har hjulpet meg å gjøre ganske ville ting, så jeg regner med dere fikser hårete mål nummer 666 også: Å kræsje en server med bokslipp. Husk å oppgi hvem bøkene skal signeres til! Og husk å ha en glitrende dag! 🙌🥰❤️
August 4, 2023
4 books on the bestseller list!
The national bestseller list is out, and I’m pretty sure that:
1) It’s the first time babies had four books there.
2) It’s the first time I had four books there.
3) My wall calendar is freaking out.
I can’t believe that all of our fantasy babybooks made it all this way! I’m so incredibly greatful to my co-writer H.L. Phoenix, my publisher Kagge, and every single one of you who bought the books! What a way to start the weekend! ❤️
June 13, 2023
New wallpapers are up!
Hey, everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that I put up new wallpapers just now, with the blood vials from Silver Throat, so go grab them right here if it feels like a long wait for the release. Or if you’re just geeky like me, or you miss Náklav. Available in 4:3 and 16:9 ratio, and should fit perfectly on your or laptop or phone 🥰
June 7, 2023
SECRET PROJECT: Fantastic babybooks!
I’m launching more than Silver Throat this fall. We’re actually launching FOUR more books! They’re tiny, but in this case it’s the reader’s size that counts. The idea was on ice for years cause I couldn’t get the drawings right, until I met H.L. Phoenix, who rules at drawing! We worked in secret, and the result is a series of GORGEOUS AND GEEKY BABYBOOKS, for kids, and adults who have kept their joy of life!
When I say fantasy is for everyrone I really mean it! Still babies often have to settle for dull realism: Ball… Bottle… Bucket… House… (Welcome to the world, sweetie, you’ll be bored senseless… 😬) Not on my watch, as they say. Babybooks don’t have to be boring, they can be fantastic, mythical, magical and horrible! That’s why we created:
🦄 FANTASTIC BABYBOOK with dragons, unicorns and phoenixes!
🧌MYTHICAL BABYBOOK with jotuns, nixies and trolls!
🧙♀️MAGICAL BABYBOOK with witches, fairies and magic potions, and my favourite:
🧟♂️HORRIBLE BABYBOOK with zombies, werewolfs and sea monsters! (A delightful horror story for 0 - 3 year-olds.)
Why? Because it’s fun! Because the kids deserve it! Because every morher, father, aunt and cool friend deserves to give a unique gift that ignites the joy of reading! Even if they’ll have a hard time choosing, because they’re all gorgeous! Helge’s characters are iconic and so super cute you could just eat them! 🩷
The purpose is to amaze and excite from birth. To sow the seed of creativity and imagination in our youngest, before the world gets them. But the long term goal is obviously to brainwash kids into fantasy addiction, so that we’ll have more readers in the future. Call it a pension plan 😬
Our series of FANTASTIC BABYBOOKS is launching in Norway in july, at Kagge Forlag, and we’ll shortly put up preorders for signed copies (Norway only) because who doesn’t need signed babybooks, I mean come on I guess… 😄 Fantasy to the people! Revenge of the nerds! May the person with the longest Christmas giftlist win! 😬❤️ Do you love them? We love them!
May 12, 2023
Danish release date: Silver Throat!
🇩🇰Great news as we enter the weekend! DENMARK has the first official foreign release date for Silver Throat, and it’s October 26th, THIS FALL! Look up my brilliant Danish publisher, Gyldendal, online for more updates. The release date is nothing short of remarkable, because it means Denmark is launching the same month as Norway! Amazing work, and much respect to my wonderful translator, Rolf Stavnem.
