It is my pleasure to open #Norsevember with a post about what it's like to sail with this beautifully reconstructed Viking warship, called Havhingsten (the Sea Stallion). You might think that a journey aboard a Viking warship begins with rowing out of harbour, but in truth, the journey begins before then. It begins by walking through wet grass towards the harbour on a typical summer morning in Denmark. The ship lays low in the calm harbour water, the mast has been raised and

About to head into Shackled Fates, and it's been too long ago since you read the first part of the story, with no time to re-read Northern Wrath? I've got you covered. Behold: a short synopsis, multiple spoilers included (yes this is short—it’s a 600+ paged book, y’all). Haven't read Northern Wrath, yet? This is the wrong page, head here, immediately! Looking for the sequel? This is where you ought to go. If you're good on both accounts, and want to refresh your memory, proce

In this video I explore some writing tips and tricks on how to make wooden characters feel more realistic to readers. Click CC in the corner for subtitles in case you can't understand my Scandinavian accent.

In this Viking Age video, I tell you the true tales of 13 shieldmaidens! 13 Viking Age female warriors as found in the sagas. Click CC in the corner for subtitles in case you can't understand my Scandinavian accent.

In today's video I show how I keep track of everything as I outline, plot, write and edit my novels, using post-its or sticky notes. Click CC in the corner for subtitles in case you can't understand my Scandinavian accent.

Today we’re leaving our current century and packing the ship to sail back into the Viking era to look specifically at some fun law texts.

How far did the vikings travel? And how far did their trade routes go? At this point, most people interested in the Viking Age have heard the story of Leif the Lucky who, thanks to a lucky accident, over-wintered in North America. So, let's start there. North America Leif the Lucky was the son of Erik the Red who quite famously was exiled not just from one country but from THREE countries! A true criminal of his time, upon being outlawed from the island where he had arrived t

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the fourth Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is

When I debuted, no one told me that not only would I get to hold my book in my hands and see it in stores and libraries, it would also be eligible for awards. I admit, I hadn't really thought further than "get published". When I was told that Northern Wrath is eligible for awards, my initial reaction was a big question mark. In fact, a whole row of question marks: What? How? Are you sure? Seriously? You're joking, right? I am here today, to tell you that it was in fact not a

I am starting this year by opening my inner closet and show you the old beginning to Northern Wrath. Unedited, untouched, exactly as it appeared that first day, when I began to write this novel. This blog post will therefore include slight spoilers for Northern Wrath. When I was starting to write, I would have loved to see how a published author had begun writing their novel. It wold have served as great inspiration. That's why I plan on sharing first drafts of pieces that ne

While I wrote my Norse-galore debut novel, Northern Wrath, I often listened to music to get into the right mindset. This means that even today certain songs make me think of specific chapters I wrote while listening to that song. Today, we're looking at some songs that fit specific chapters in Northern Wrath. It's a spoiler free blog. Spoilers have been hidden and will only be revealed by highlighting the specified sections. The hidden spoiler sections go into more specifics

The Hanged God Trilogy includes everything from historical characters to historical places and even real events. So, today we're taking a closer look at what exactly it is that is taken from history and presented in Northern Wrath, the first book in the trilogy. A glance at this page should not yield any spoilers but opening the boxes marked spoilers certainly will. Below you will find several lists of people, places and events you might have encountered in Northern Wrath. If

A large majority of my epic Norse fantasy "Northern Wrath" takes place in Midgard. Midgard, the middle realm, is one of the nine worlds. Norsemen in the Viking Age believed that there were nine worlds. Among these nine worlds, Midgard represented the world as we know it. "Northern Wrath" is therefore very much anchored in our real world. Many real historical characters and events are described and several real places from the tenth century are mentioned in passing, and some a

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the fourth Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the fourth Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the third Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is a

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the second Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is

This is NOT a review of the Wheel of Time books. I suppose you can call it a reaction blog... For it is a collection of my live reactions and thoughts to reading the Wheel of Times series for the first time. The thoughts were originally shared on Twitter and have now been collected here for everyone's convenience. These are my full reactions from the second Wheel of Time book, with some post-read writerly thoughts at the very end. To gain better understanding of what this is

It's time to talk about Viking Age ships in Scandinavia. I'm going to call them viking ships from now on. (No, we're not about to go into the whole Norsemen vs. vikings debate here. I'll write a separate blog post about that at a later point) To do research for my trilogy about vikings and Norse mythology, I ended up becoming a crew-member onboard a Viking longship. My knowledge of viking ships is anchored both in that experience, and in extensive reading through non-fiction

Yesterday Ubisoft released the awesome trailer for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. I adore the other AC entries, and more importantly, I am a massive Viking nerd, so it's safe to say that I was excited. I have dedicated years of research to Viking Age Scandinavia and Norse Mythology in order to write my fantasy trilogy "The Hanged God". I have visited countless museums and sites, combed through archaeological findings, deciphered rune-stones and read Viking Age law-texts. I also