Siri Pettersen's Blog, page 7

SILVER THROAT COVER REVEAL!

❤️‍🔥Heeeere it is! Vardari 2, Silver Throat, is released in Norway October 5th, that’s less than 3720 hours! (Can’t wait? Scroll down.)

Imagine having stolen the devil from those in power. Robbed them of their source of everlasting life. And started a war, so fuelled by fear and disdain, that you are forced to become what you are hunting.

Juva is scarred for life by the man she liberated. The devil himself, whose blood sustained the eternal lives of vardari. Now, she is battling the unintended consequences: a flood of wolf-sick, a wavering city council and vardari ́s desperate feud for the last drops.

Consumed by grief and fury, she is forced to side with dark, fanatical forces. Juva is fighting for everything she holds dear, but soon finds herself on a knife’s edge when she realises that the scar from Gríf cuts far deeper than she had imagined...

Náklav’s foundation is cracking under a flood of wolf-sick.

Divine images miraculously reveal the true faces of evil.

The elite who ran the world are crawling out from the shadows.

A vardari awaiting death finds a reason to live.

A fanatical priest opens the doors Drukna

🔥 CAN’T WAIT? (Ha ha, if you scrolled right down for this, you’re my favourite 😆😍) As always, I’ve pestered my publisher for a few extra advance reader copies, because I love you and I can never thank you enough for what you do for me. So yes, there will be a giveaway of ARCs! (Norway only, sorry! I can’t provide details yet, but it’s got something to do with what my publisher likes when they scroll relevant hashtags, and you didn’t hear it from me! 😬)

I’m explosively excited, and I’ll sprinkle a million karma points over all who help me spread the word that SILVER THROAT is coming, in 155 days! Oh, and make sure you see the story, it’s got heartbeats and everything!✨🙌❤️✨

SILVER THROAT update! (Vardari 2)

NORWEGIAN RELEASE this fall and COVER REVEAL next week! 🔥🐺

You know the feeling when you said you’d do the big thing, and you did the big thing? It’s a remarkable sensation, those weeks after a book is finished, and my work space still looks like a war room. The notebooks, scattered. The blackboard wall chock-full of scribblings, like a testament to months of madness and effort. Ideas that sprouted and died, some that made it to the perfected end. Wiped, rewritten, wiped again, and you can see the layers of frustration and exhilaration in faded chalk.

I’ve been in a small room, but a different world. Spending time with people who don’t exist, in a city I know more intimately than the one I live in. To me, it raises searching questions about reality and meaning. A process that I can never fully understand or explain. Living a life of story. It’s a passion driven by a deep desire to tell you, show you, and make you - my readers - feel intensely alive! To make your heart hammer like Juva’s. There is no other goal but your emotional journey. This is what I live and breathe for, I am beyond excited about this, and I hope I have succeeded.

Now, a completely different labour begins, the only one visible to the world: The launch. The cover is finished too, and to me, it’s the best I have done. I think you’re gonna love it too, and I can’t wait to share it with you! That will likely happen next week, along with more juicy details about the book and the RELEASE DATE! Watch out so you don’t miss it. I’m working hard to keep earning your trust, it truly means the world to me. My deepest thank you for all your love and support ❤️

Masterclass at the Norwegian Literature Festival

(Norwegian only) Ti år tok det. Ti år med nei, til et utall forespørsler om skrivekurs, fordi tid, og fordi metodene mine er … la oss si eksentriske 😬

Men etter en uhyre velformulert henvendelse fra Norske Barne- og Ungdomsbokforfattere har jeg sagt JA for aller første gang! JA til å blottlegge hele skriveprosessen og demonstrere verktøyene og rammeverkene jeg bruker for alt fra plotting til verdensbygging til karakterutvikling.

Make no mistake, dette er IKKE et kurs i prosa, dette er metode! Metode du kan stjele og iverksette så snart du kommer hjem. Og ja, jeg hører at jeg går over snittet intenst til verks når jeg plotter bøker, men jeg drister meg til å påstå ting tyder på at det virker.

Deltakelse krever påmelding, og du må være barne- og ungdomsbokforfatter. Vi holder på i 90 kompakte minutter, og starter klokka 9 på morran, som jo sikrer at alle i rommet er fanden så dedikert til faget ☕️

Dette foregår på Norsk Litteraturfestival på Lillehammer, fredag 26.5, og det villeste av alt er at bortsett fra festivalbillett så koster det - hold deg fast - Ingenting!

Begrenset med plasser - meld deg på her.

Ta med deg skrivefrustrasjonene dine, så løser vi dem på Lillehammer! Ha ha, drøy påstand, gotta love it! Jeg gleder meg latterlig mye til å se dere der!🔥💪👑

In memory of Dina Norlund

Dina Norlund passed away last week, near her 28th birthday, leaving a vast community of storytellers in tears. Dina was a beautiful person in every way, an exceptionally talented artist, awarded a Kirkus star for her gorgeous graphic novel «The Snowcat Prince» which is actually launching in the US next week. It is surreal that she wont get to see it, and heartbreaking that there wont be any more.

Nine years ago, Dina created the first illustration I ever saw of Hirka, and the first I shared on a fanart friday. I was awestruck. I loved her art, she loved my books, and today I feel incredibly lucky to have met her. I only wish there could have been more time … She was the spark that ignited an unbelievable rush of fanart a decade long, and counting, and I can’t help but wonder if it was all her doing, her magic.

This is her Hirka from 2021. It is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

My heart goes out to her family, her friends, and her beloved cat. I have heard and read so many beautiful things about her these past few days, and we can all only hope for such a legacy. Thank you, Dina 💔❤️

Iron Wolf US Launch Day!

Good morning, USA! Today is launch day for Iron Wolf, and I’m tremendously happy that Laura Simeon in Kirkus included it in her list of 10 titles you wont want to miss, saying:

«Norwegian fantasy superstar Pettersen follows her internationally popular Raven Rings trilogy with a new series set in the same ancient Norse universe.» (Yes, I can I get that on a T-shirt, I checked)

The book is off to a truly amazing start, with the holy grail of reviews, the Kirkus star, calling it «an immersive, darkly exhilarating read», «taut and suspenseful» with «masterful worldbuilding and vivid Nordic setting.»

This must surely be better than chocolate! I am so deeply grateful for this praise, which I share with my translator, Tara Chace, who clearly did an outstanding job. Thank you!

And my deepest thanks to YOU, for being here, with the endless love and support you continously offer, I can’t begin to tell you how much it means. And if you share this news, I owe you even more thanks! And a million karma points, obviously. Hugging bonanza to you, my brilliant agent at Grand Agency, essential Norla, and glorious Arctis Books USA.

And yes, I am now on the very last chapters of Vardari 2: Silver Throat. Shecduled for release in Norway this fall, and hopefully very soon after for the rest of you. Thank you for nagging me! 🥰🙌

Thorrablot, and terrifying tradtitional foods…

I don’t know what you’re having for dinner, but if it isn’t rotted shark or a ram’s scrotum, you may want to rethink your life. You see, today is Thorrablot, blot as in «ancient norse ritual of blood sacrifice to the gods», so obviously abolished by the Church, but fear not! Iceland keeps the Thorrablot alive and terrifying, focusing on their notorious cuisine.

If you want to prove yourself, you better be up for culinary delicacies like rotted shark’s meat (hákarl), congealed sheep’s blood wrapped in ram’s stomach (blóðmör), and the boiled head of a sheep (svið).

If you’re just feeling peckish, go for a pickled sheep testical, or the odd ram’s scrotum. But really, any preserved foods are fine, you may want to stick with pickled herring or some dried stockfish.

If you decide that viking life is not really for you, settle for their «Black Death» schnapps, or a Black Death Negroni wich is probably the best thing I’ve ever had that has landed me in hospital with an allergic reaction 😬🥃 Happy Thorrablot!

Happy Lupercalia!

Tomorrow is the day for the annual Ancient Roman wolf’s festival, a wild, loud, free-spirited romp to remember, and if this is new to you, you can thank the remarkable skill of the Church when it came to appropriating pagan rituals and heathen holidays. Apparently, random sex lotteries, blood sacrifices, and naked men running in the fields and streets, whipping the women with strips of goat’s hide, wasn’t quite to their taste, so they pushed the less sinful Valentine’s instead. Their loss.

Lupercalia was connected to the cult of the god Faunus, and believed to purify the city and protect the cattle. They even had their own priesthood: the Luperci («brothers of the wolf» and I’m totally stealing that!) along with Netflix-worthy rituals like sacrificing dogs and goats, and anointing their foreheads with blood from the knife, whilst laughing. Because why not. As they ran, women often got in their way on purpose to be whipped, as it would render them more fertile.

The Christian church forbid participation in the festival in In 494 CE, but reportedly, not everyone cared …

Any resemblance between Lupercalia and Yrarennet in Iron Wolf is entirely coincidental, I have never taken part in a naked whipping fest, and if I did, I can’t remember 😬

Image: Lupercalia, Andrea Camassei, ca 1635, currently at Museo del Prado, Madrid. Public domain.

Get laid for fishing luck

… and other weird Norwegian customs: Way up north, where I grew up, the ocean is our lifeblood. It was how people fed, travelled, worked, lived and died. It was loved and feared, giver and taker, an endless source of legends, and the first chance for young men to prove themselves. Because back in the day, fishing was a man’s job, and a capable man who didn’t go, got the mark if a lesser man. («Mindremannsmerket»)

February 8th was called «Fiskedøgra» (Fishing days) the start of long trips that could last for months at a time. This ritual of survival was ripe with superstions, keeping everyone on their toes! There would be no talking on board, because mythical creatures like «draugen» detested the human voice. And if a woman entered the boat, it had to be thoroughly cleaned from bow to stern to get your luck back. With the fish, that is. Not with the women. However, getting laid before the trip was known to secure excellent fishing luck, go figure … There’s even a North Norwegian expression for it: To get «haill», from the norse «hald» meaning to hold, or have a grip on. It might even apply to writing, you never know. Better safe than sorry, so good luck, everyone! 😁🐟

Become boundless

Every morning before breakfast, I go for a walk or a run in the woods. First thing I do, no matter the weather. I’m addicted, and for a good reason. At first, I thought it was the ego of feeling accomplished, but I’ve realized it’s the complete opposite. It’s awe.

When I’m out there, I see a world that functions with or without me, a magical kingdom that couldn’t care less about my grievances. The sun rises, the mist clears, and the birds are chirping their ode to my insignificance in their day. I am just another living thing on the planet, clueless of the true grandure and scale of the universe.

So I begin each day feeling small, and it keeps me sane. Because back in the world of humans, there will unfailingly be sh*t to deal with, but I am not so easily toppled, because I woke up remembering that IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER! That’s the genius of perspective. I can sit down to write, because I’m barely a fart in the scope of nature. What I do means nothing, and therefore everything. I am so tiny that it makes me feel unbound. Free. Am I making sense?

Yes, you may have things going on that seem unsurmountable, but looking for that sense of awe will help, no matter how heavy your burden. It’s even backed by science as critical to our well-being. So step into the presence of something vast. Allow yourself to feel so small that it makes you larger than life, and then immerse yourself in your creation with renewed vision. Lots of love, appreciation, and wishes for a magical day! 🙌💙

How to make almost everything work for you!

Have you allowed the wrongs of the world to seep into your soul lately? Honey, who could blame you, one glance at the news and we’re on our last will and testament. It’s a narrative we easily adopt because we’re conditioned to. (We’re talking basic survival: That stick looks off, I’m gonna guess snake and scram!) But it isn’t TRUE, and there’s a dead simple way to remember that, so you can raise your spirit, and focus on creating beautiful art!

I’ve been recalling a simple, well-known trick lately that’s so instantly relieving it’s like magic. I want to share it because you may have forgotten, and you’re awesome and you deserve to feel great so you can create masterpieces! Ready for it?

Notice what’s NOT wrong. That’s it! Are you in pain? Take a moment and go through all the places in your body that are NOT painful, even if it’s just your hair! Is your house crumbling? Look around and notice everything that’s working. So what if the roof leaks, you’ve got a fantastic, fully functional coffee mug, gods how cavemen would envy that b*tch! Are you anxious? List all the things that are safe, like that pillow. Expecting the apocalypse? Look again, and see all the things that are moving in the right direction. Is the bus late? Thousands of buses are perfectly on time, right now. Weeeeh!

This is excellent for art! Do you loathe your creations today? Look, words appear as you type, the future is now! The paper is soothing, the colors are vibrant, the guitar is gorgeous as eff! Whatever your art is, there are a million things about it, that is NOT wrong. Just noticing and remembering them can prevent an ugly derailing. It really works in all it’s logical simplicity. So if something rubs you the wrong way today, try it, and appreciate the abundace of things that are WORKING RIGHT. Then go and create your art 🥰

If this makes sense to you, please share it with someone you know, who might need it right now, and be part of a bigger magic. Let me know how it turned out! Wishing you a perfectly right day. Lotsa love ❤️