Christoffer Petersen

Authentic Arctic Thrillers

petra

The Boreal Tattoo

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This was never meant to happen. What began as a short story has developed some … perhaps a lot. It’s still novella length, but while Petra (no spoilers) is convalescing in her hospital bed in Nuuk, she gets a new assignment.

She’s meant to be in Australia!

Which means The Crocodile Beat has been pushed to number 14* in the Greenland Missing Persons series. Yep, like that’s never happened before! Sigh.

So, The Boreal Tattoo – publishing soon – will be the 13th in the series.

More on that later. 😉

Chris

P.S. Thanks, Eva!

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

Le Palais de la Pleureuse

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Just a quick post to say Le Palais de la Pleureuse (The Banshee Palace) is on it’s way. It’s currently in the process of being published to the various platforms. It’s the 7th of the Greenland Missing Persons series to be translated into French.

All that remains to say is …  thank you, Françoise!

Chris

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. 🙂

Some method, plenty of madness!

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I was recently interviewed for Mystery & Suspense Magazine about writing crime novellas, and to share some thoughts on why novellas can be a really good length for crime stories, and why so few crime writers write them.

If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, then you’re absolutely right. It is contradictory. But, as I mention in the interview – alongside a host of fantastic authors, I might add – novellas work for me in many different ways.

I wrote my very first Maratse novella: Katabatic between the Fenna novels and Seven Graves, One Winter. The experience was liberating, and I was consumed by the story, inspired by the length, and motivated to write more.

I wrote a lot more.

And with each novella I wrote, I allowed myself to explore topics, writing styles, and new characters within a ‘safe’ and supportive story format. Safe in this context hopefully doesn’t mean boring, as I had so much fun writing Maratse’s novellas, and that fun spilled over into the Greenland Missing Persons series too.

I don’t go in for padding. A story is the length it needs to be, and if that length is a novella, and it works, then it makes no sense to pad it out to hit publishers’ (and readers’) expectations of longer works. Some stories demand more pages, and that works too. But a story is meant to entertain, and I’m sure we’ve all read stories that could have been 100 pages shorter. Likewise, many readers who have enjoyed my novellas often wish they were a bit longer.

I understand that too.

And so I still write novels.

But I’m itching to write more novellas.

However, I think it’s best to return to this topic later, and give you a chance to read the article first.

The interviewer, William Burton McCormick, is an established author in his own right, and has recently published one of his award winning short stories.

I’ll be back with more thoughts about novellas and short stories later.

Chris

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