Ready to begin your advent adventure with Maratse?
The Last Wild Song of Winter is out tomorrow! (Shameless Amazon link!)
Advent
Challenge the Northwind!
I dropped the teaser yesterday. Today I’ll tell you a little bit more about Northwind.
The format is a daily episode posted here on the blog. Each episode is roughly five pages long if you were to read it in a paperback. Hopefully your tablet or phone is comfortable on the eyes to make the reading more enjoyable. Each episode will take you and the characters one day closer to Christmas, and, hopefully, many steps further away, as the whole point is to make you wonder if Christmas will come this year?
Did I just ruin the ending?
Yes, perhaps, and yet not at all.
I think most people understand the ups and many downs of a classic Christmas movie, and look forward to it all working out in the end. The journey is what’s important. Northwind, inspired by the Scandinavian Christmas Calendars, uses the same framework, with 24 days of adventures.
So once again, Luui Angakkuarneq, the shaman’s daughter, now in her late twenties, faces a challenge to be overcome in the far north of Greenland. She is ably assisted by Kalaagi and Naaluk, the Qamaarlutik brother and sister you may have met in Yule at Aurora Station. And then there is Aunix Cobick, the pilot, also from Yule at Aurora Station. Aunix is flying home for Christmas, but is delayed, and more besides, by the sneaky Northwind, and it’s up to Luui to secure safe passage for her friend to get her home for Christmas.
That’s it in a nutshell.
What happens in the dark December days leading up to Christmas Eve is something else entirely.
I look forward to sharing a new episode of Northwind with you every day in December, from the 1st to the 24th. And, if we’re lucky, Luui might just save Christmas!
Northwind is set one year after the events in Yule at Aurora Station. It is not necessary to read the first book, but it might enhance the story if you do.
Also, Northwind will debut here every day in December, but will available to purchase in a polished and revised edition in eBook format on December 25th this year (2022). I’ll put the link up as soon as it is ready.
Chris
Come back on December 1 for the first episode!
Singing the last wild song of winter!
I’ve mentioned the advent books, and this is just a quick plug to mention again The Last Wild Song of Winter. Maratse, in his own quiet way, suggested he might need an advent calendar, and this is it – and a very Jack Londonesque one it is too.
The basic premise is a story for each day in December from the 1st to the 24th when the Greenlanders celebrate Christmas.
Maratse is his usual reserved self, but he has company as he and a criminal – that’s up to you to decide – are trapped in an isolated cabin as the temperature drops. They tell stories to get through the worst of the endless night each night, and each story leads Maratse closer to a conclusion, and helps him decide on the necessary action he must take before Christmas Eve.
It’s a simple concept which I hope will have you hooked this December.
Here’s the book page, and the shameless Amazon link! Just 0.99 until the day of release.
Chris
Advent Books from Greenland!
While I’ll never pretend to be Christian, I have to say I enjoy Christmas. Actually, I enjoy the feel of it more than the actual it, if that makes any sense? But part of enjoying Christmas, for me, is creating my own traditions, one of them is the Criminal Advent Calendar. 😉 I’ve written four of them so far, with just one year when I missed. I wrote The Ice Circus that year. That was my Christmas book in 2019.
Each advent book is supposed to be read like an advent calendar, with a chapter (or episode) for each day. It can be challenging to write, as a lot can happen in a day. But to be true to the form of a traditional Scandinavian Christmas Calendar, the heroes (and villains) can only do so much as they must wait for the next day in December before acting on what happened the day before.
Some readers have struggled to wait, too.
I love that. 😉
I’ve written follow-on books to The Calendar Man and Invisible Touch, but those two books are the calendar books. Yule at Aurora Station is last year’s advent calendar. It was only supposed to consist of a story for each Advent Sunday, but I got carried away and made sure there was an entry for each Advent Sunday and every day in December. The Last Wild Song of Winter consists of interconnected stories with a new story for each day in December until Christmas Eve when the Greenlanders celebrate Christmas.
Yule at Aurora Station is the most magical as, 1) Luui is in it (but all grown up) and 2) because I couldn’t help myself. I stuffed all kinds of spirits – good and bad – into that book, and I loved every second of writing it. The other three books are less fantastical, but hopefully magical in their own way.
The links above will take you to the book pages on this website, while the links below are the usual links to Amazon.
- The Calendar Man (Petra)
- Invisible Touch (Petra)
- Yule at Aurora Station (Luui)
- The Last Wild Song of Winter (Maratse)
These are the advent books I have written so far, although you might want to come back tomorrow for some BIG NEWS! 😉
Chris
Yule at Aurora Station – 4th Advent, Part 4
The final installment of Yule at Aurora Station is LIVE!
The story concludes in typically dramatic style and then continues over the last few days from the fourth Advent Sunday to Christmas Eve.
Has Luui saved Christmas?
Is there hope for the Arctic?
And what happens next?
Grab your copy today and find out!
You might prefer the complete edition, also available via Payhip or Amazon.
Yule at Aurora Station – 3rd Advent, Part 3
And we’re live with Yule at Aurora Station, Part 3!
Things are heating up for Luui in the far north, as the stakes get higher and the magic bigger, badder (if that’s a word), and beyond her control.
Yule at Aurora Station is a fantastic blend of Greenlandic myth, climate change, greed, and friendship. I’ve gone all in with beasts and spirits and I’m good with that. I’m just not entirely sure how Luui is going to get out of this one.
Will she save Christmas?
Honestly, with everything that’s going on, Christmas is the least of her worries!
If you’re joining me on this journey each Advent Sunday, or waiting to grab the entire story once it is done (something Jane prefers), I just want to say thanks. I’ve added bonus material in the form of another desktop wallpaper.
Oh, and slight spoiler alert, someone from Luui’s past turns up in this one.
