Camilla Läckberg on tour in the States

The reigning Queen of Swedish Crime will be making her first extensive U.S. tour in late March/early April. Tiina, who has just translated The Hidden Child, and I, translator of the first four books in the Fjällbacka series (The Ice Princess, The Preacher, The Stonecutter, and The Gallows Bird), will also be signing our translations at Camilla's appearance in Scottsdale, Arizona. Collectors: This will be your only chance this year to acquire her books signed by both author and translator.


We hope to see you at Poisoned Pen Bookstore, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd # 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85251-4344 at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 30. For more info call the bookstore at (480) 947-2974 or see their website here. See you there! (Sorry, I don't know the other cities on her 10-city tour except New York and Denver.)

Stieg Larsson's radical life

Here’s an interesting article from Solidarity about Stieg’s political background, as told by his friend Håkan Blomqvist. Including some eye-opening views on Stieg's relation to Grenada, the conservatives in power in Sweden, and the rise of racism there. I haven't seen a lot of this information before.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2010:Best Mystery and Thriller

See all the winners here!

Author of the Year in USA Today

Stieg Larsson has been named "Author of the Year" in USA Today. Congratulations once again, Stieg. I hope you're regarding this ride with amusement.

Booksigning at Albuquerque Costco Dec. 18

Hi, New Mexico Stieg Larsson fans. I'll be signing books and chatting at the Costco warehouse #116 in NE Albuquerque on Renaissance Blvd. near Home Depot on Saturday, Dec. 18 at 1:00 p.m. They have the 4-book box set for turning your friends and relatives on to Stieg. Hope to see you there!

"Why I Translate" article in Publishers Weekly

I was recently honored by being the first translator ever asked to contribute to the "Why I Write" feature in Publishers Weekly. Read the 500-word article here. I hope it helps improve working conditions for other literary translators.

Happy Halloween! Fallen angels, anyone?

I just finished another translation from Swedish, which will be published in 2011 by Sibling Press in the UK and Australia as Nephilim.

All you vampire fans, try out something new: these fallen angels, one of whom stowed away on Noah's Ark when God was trying to wipe them out with the Flood, then interbred with humans and created a new race that has survived to the present day. The Nephilim look like us, they talk like us, they walk among us! They're trying to fight global warming to stop another flood, and begin by murdering CEOs of the worst carbon dioxide polluters in Sweden. You decide whether they're good or bad.

Åsa Schwarz has written this as a young adult novel, but like the Twilight series, adults can read it as well, and there will be more books coming.

Treat yourself to a new brand of the undead.

Seattleites! Mysteries of translation revealed at Elliott Bay on Sept. 12

(photo from my home office in Seattle, around the time I was translating the 3 Wallander procedurals by Henning Mankell that I did)

Come on down and meet us (Tiina Nunnally and Steven T. Murray) at Elliott Bay Book Co. at 5 p.m. on Sunday, September 12th. We'll be talking about translating Nordic crime fiction and other stuff, and will answer all your questions about Stieg Larsson's books that we know the answers to! Also any other of our many translations. Reg Keeland promises he will show up too.

Camilla Läckberg ties the knot in Stockholm

No photos yet, see Ian Johnson's blog. Camilla Läckberg and Martin Melin look ecstatic, while the guests had to huddle under arbors and white umbrellas amidst rain and lightning. Best wishes to them both from sunny New Mexico!

Library Journal covers Thrillerfest

Here's a link to a good article and comments about the hunt for the "next Stieg Larsson" in Library Journal. I think it's a vain endeavor, because Stieg was definitely an original, but two interesting candidates from Sweden attended Thrillerfest last month in New York. Camilla Läckberg, the reigning leader of the bestseller pack in Sweden and much of Europe, with her blend of grisly murders, small-town police work, and domestic coziness, and Maria Gustafsson, who writes incisive international thrillers informed by her background as an interpreter at high-level conferences. Watch for U.S. releases by both of them!

Off the chain!

This Stieg Larsson thing is going nuts — who knew this would be the "hottest book on the planet"? And how often do you see a book on the cover of EW? Pretty good article, though the main emphasis seems to be on speculation about the casting of the upcoming Hollywood version of TGWTDT.

My vote? Brad Pitt for Blomkvist, old enough yet still a believable babe magnet and an actor with a great range; for Lisbeth Salander, I tend to agree with Roger Ebert that they should just hire Noomi Rapace to do it in English, but I know she's done with that role.

Who will it be? Someone less than 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, and not with a cute round face like some of the possibles being mentioned. Do it right, people, choose an unknown with the right edge!

Abbondanza!

Shot at Costco, Albuquerque in April.

Another talk and booksigning in Albuquerque

Sorry for the late notice, but Tiina and I are appearing at Bookworks tomorrow, Sunday, June 13, at 3 p.m. — 4022 Rio Grande Boulevard NW, 344-8139. All you locals come on down!

We will be interviewed and take questions from the audience. The store has ordered in a bunch of our older titles, so you collectors be sure to show up.

Here's a pic from April in front of a theater in Milwaukee showing TGWTDT aka Men Who Hate Women.

Upcoming signings: Albuquerque and Houston

I got my advance copies of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest from Knopf, and I have to say you'll probably be pleased with the cover. Instead of the dull gray featured online all these months, the jacket is silver foil! Yummy. A festive conclusion to the series.

Tiina Nunnally and I will be appearing and signing this book and some of our other crime translations at two Sunbelt venues in coming weeks.

First is at Barnes & Noble at Coronado Mall, Louisiana & Menaul, in Albuquerque on May 28 at 7 p.m. Tiina will be "interviewing" me.

Then on June 3 at Murder by the Book in Houston, Tiina will give her talk on translating Scandinavian crime fiction, and I'll answer questions about Stieg Larsson and the trilogy. Tiina puts on a great show, don't miss it. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. The store is ordering in as many of our crime translations as they can find in print, also from the UK, so collectors take note. (I had so much fun there last year with Karin Alvtegen I just had to come back to meet the great fans again and sign the last of the Millennium books.) We may also have some rare copies of Tiina's own crime novels for her to sign...

America set to be conquered by Stieg in mass market

Hoi polloi can now read Stieg on the cheap!

Quoted by the BBC

See the interesting article by Finlo Rohrer in the BBC News Magazine for yet another take on Stieg and his posthumous success.

UK Bestselling Books of 2009

Tattoo #9, Fire #18

Excellent article about Stieg and Eva

Financial Mail Women's Forum has a wonderful article about Stieg Larsson and Eva Gabrielsson, written by Antonia Hoyle, entitled "The Girl Who Didn’t Inherit a Fortune: Widow of bestselling Swedish author Stieg Larsson has not seen a penny of his £20m." Read it now!

Tiina wins award from Swedish Academy!

A nice Christmas present arrived by phone from the Swedish Academy: a special award for Tiina for her contributions to “the introduction of Swedish culture abroad.” Cited in particular were her translations of works by Per Olov Enquist, Bodil Jönsson, Astrid Lindgren, and Klas Östergren. Here's a photo of the home of the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Museum in the old Stock Exchange building in Gamla Stan. (Thanks to Galen Frysinger of Sheboygan for the loan of the pic — a much better photographer than I, and with much better weather.)

#1 Fiction of 2009 at Barnes & Noble

Yes, The Girl Who Played with Fire was picked #1 Fiction book of 2009 on Barnes & Noble's website. Way to go, Stieg!