Christoffer Petersen

Authentic Arctic Thrillers

greenland missing persons

Upcoming releases – February 2022

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I’m still putting things together for January, and hope to put out a couple of short stories on the fly. However, two books are scheduled for release in February, including:

The American Artisan (novella)

When ghosts from an old case haunt an American artist as he walks the streets of Nuuk, Constable David Maratse is recalled to Greenland’s capital to investigate.

The American Artisan is the twenty-third in a series of novellas to feature Constable David Maratse in Greenland.

This is a fun one as one of the main characters is named after a backer of a recent Kickstarter campaign. The tone, however, isn’t fun, as that character is in peril, of course.

The Crocodile Beat* (novel)

In Australia’s vast and desolate Northern Territory, Constable Petra ‘Piitalaat’ Jensen’s most southerly missing persons case might just be her last.

Forced to take some well-earned leave, Petra searches for solace in the Australian Outback, only to find herself caught up in the search for a missing police sergeant.

The Crocodile Beat is the thirteenth in the Greenland Missing Persons series of novellas and novels normally set in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic, rich in tradition, myth and culture.

Both books will be posted to Amazon on the day of release, but may take up to a day to be visible.

However, The Crocodile Beat will be available in more stores as I try something new. It won’t be available in Kindle Unlimited, but it will be available for streaming in Kobo Plus. I’m trying new things in 2022 in the hope to gain more exposure.

We’ll see what happens.

Chris

*Edit (February 5, 2022): The Crocodile Beat will be a stand-alone novel. Sigh. 🙂

Proceeding South!

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Everyone needs a hero – or several. One of mine is the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. Fans of Scott will protest, and I’ll ignore them. 😉 However, one of Amundsen’s classic quotes was in a telegram he sent to Scott: ‘Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen’. Thus kick-starting the race for the South Pole.

Love it!

And in that vein… Petra is heading south!

The Crocodile Beat is coming along, and I’m using concept art to develop it.*

I started using 3D art in the creative process last year. Before that I often used sketches to puzzle out one thing or another, but the 3D stuff has taken it to a new level. Like it or loathe it, I’m loving it! 🙂

Anyway, you’ll see in artwork above, I’m teasing out an idea of Petra in a desert area. She’s got a small pistol tucked into the small of her back, a water bottle, and the ubiquitous Land Rover.

She’s all set.

About that Land Rover, however. I’ve always loved them, always wanted one, and even more after a very short stint as an off-road instructor in a Land Rover Defender. But money and climate… you know. Owning a Land Rover is never going to happen.

But, if you’ve read some of my books, you’ll note that they turn up every now and again. 😉

Chris

*Edit (February 5, 2022): The Crocodile Beat will be a stand-alone novel. Sigh. 🙂

Greenland Noir – podcast

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Something a little different today. I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for a podcast with the hosts of Book Lover’s Companion.

It was great fun and Edith and Teacup were generous hosts. We covered a lot of ground – most of it covered in snow – as we talked a lot about Greenland and the inspiration for my stories, and the Greenland Missing Persons series in particular.

And I tease a lot more information from my background, and more personal Greenland experiences, of course.

I also talk about being an indie author, and air my thoughts on what it takes to make a career outside of traditional publishing.

I hope you’ll join us for Episode 45 – Greenland Noir: Talking Murder and Fishy Business with Christoffer Petersen.

 

Nothing is impossible

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The publishing world has changed drastically since the advent of eBooks. There are thousands of articles and blog posts about the changes, and I’m not going to recap any of them here. But what I will say, as an independent author, is the smartest thing I ever did when flirting with the traditional publishing world was to keep my English rights for the books they were interested in.

I’d like to take credit for that smart move, but I must confess that at the time, I was ready to go all in, and sign over everything, because I believed I had finally made it. An editor from a big French publisher reached out after finding me on Amazon. They were interested in my books, but they would only deal with an agent. I found a reputable agency in Copenhagen, and I’m guessing having a publisher in my back pocket might have worked in my favour, and I was invited to meet them in the big city. I took my bag of books – I think I had five at the time – and I went off to make my fortune.

Sitting on the train, I felt like I was in a Disney movie, with my bag of books clutched to my chest. It was fun. I was excited about the prospects of becoming a ‘real author’. There was a tiny part of my brain that urged caution, and reminded me of everything I had achieved already as an indie author, but I ignored it. I was ready.

To cut a long story short, after the initial meeting and a tiny bit of haggling about commission rates, I accepted and the agency said they would send the contract to be signed.

The Chestnut Man got in the way.

Yep, that Chestnut Man.

Basically, the agency was swamped, understandably so, with putting the finishing touches on that book, and my contract took a little while to arrive. In the meantime, that voice urging caution got louder and louder, and when the contract did come, I renegotiated and pulled my English rights, leaving the agency to represent my foreign and film rights only. My English rights were my only source of income, so I kind of needed them. Prior to pulling those rights back the agency suggested I return to teaching.

This was in 2018.

I quit my teaching job in December 2017, wrote Seven Graves, One Winter in January/February 2018, published it on Valentine’s Day, got spotted in March, signed in June.

However, the French realised they already had a “Greenland Crime” book in their catalogue, and they pulled out. But during that time Françoise contacted me. She was a translator and had heard about the French interest in Seven Graves, One Winter, and was keen to translate it. But of course that particular deal fell apart. And with no other French interest, so did the opportunity for translation.

Fast forward to February 2021.

I was getting more and more disillusioned with traditional publishing, and considered quitting my agency contract to be truly independent once more. I reached out to Françoise. Was she still interested? And would she like to translate Petra’s Greenland Missing Persons series? They were not on the agency’s books, and therefore not bound to any contract or commission.

I think you can see where this is going, but I’m really excited to say she was interested, and today I published the fifth French translation in the Greenland Missing Persons: Le Piège de l’Hiver. Françoise is currently working on the sixth book in the series. You can find the others here. You’ll also see a Polish edition – more about that later. 🙂

When dealing with the traditional world of publishing, you’re often told about the things that are impossible to do as an independent author. Getting indie books translated was one of those things. Well, when you find the right person, and you both agree on the terms, then nothing is impossible.

One of my favourite books is Michael Asher’s Impossible Journey. It’s a fabulous true-life account of a husband and wife crossing the Sahara with camels. Michael Asher is one of my heroes and I was fortunate to meet him and his wife, photographer Mariantonietta Peru, at a lecture in Glasgow. In the book, Asher visits a French explorer to pick his brains about desert travel. What Théodore Monod said has stuck with me ever since I first read it: … nothing is impossible. Only, some things are difficult.

That quote and that attitude has been my mantra for as long as I can remember. It’s gotten me this far, at least. However, I’d like to add something to that quote and change it slightly to:

Nothing is impossible. Only, some things are difficult, but with the right help, many things can be easier.

I got the right help with my French translations.

Thanks, Françoise!

Chris

Sit down and make stuff up

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Yesterday, I had a rant, I think. But when I think about what my job entails, yesterday’s worries or niggles are just so yesterday. Ultimately, my job is really simple. I sit down and I make stuff up. Sometimes I might stand up, record notes or chapters for transcribing, or maybe go for a run to puzzle out a problem, but more often than not I sit down and type. I’ve been through a few keyboards, and my preferred writing computer – a laptop smaller and lighter than an iPad – has very few symbols left on the keys. I guess it helps when writing mysteries.

Okay. Bad pun.

But what “helps” is the whole idea of not knowing what will happen next. I love that. I also love it when I get an idea that could fit with something else, but will need a good shoehorn to make it work. Which is where I’m at today.

I ran a Kickstarter recently, and some generous backers chose the option of getting written into one of my Greenland stories as a character, interacting with my main characters. I’m in full swing working on those stories, and am very excited about how they might fit into the current “canon”. The stories are scheduled to be sent this Christmas Eve, so no spoilers here. But I can’t help sharing a cover, just for fun.

While I thought these short stories might be standalone, it’s more fun for me to make them a part of the whole thing. Yes, this will involve playing with the timeline a little, but they will be “point fives” and can be read later (obviously) without spoiling the stories that come before or after.

They are personalized stories with “real” people fictionalized for the plot. They will also be published over Christmas, but not before they have been sent to the new “characters” first.

Lots to do.

Lots to make up!

Chris