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.

"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.

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.

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...

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.

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!

Stieg Larsson's Best of 2009 on Amazon.com

Stieg took the following honors on Amazon.com this week for The Girl Who Played with Fire:

Customers' Top 10 Mystery & Thrillers — #4

Top 100 Editors' Picks — #7

Top 100 Customer Favorites — #25

And if you like the cover of TGWPWF, be sure to vote for it on Amazon!

Maps of Hedeby Island in English available

I'm sorry that the publishers did not include the two maps of Hedeby Island in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They make the plot much easier to follow! So if you want paper copies in English, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Fjord Press, PO Box 14630, Albuquerque NM 87191. U.S. stamps only, of course. If you're not located in the U.S.A., you can check the postage rates to your country at www.usps.com: click on Calculate Postage, then on Calculate International Postage. Choose your country, click on Letter, and enter 0 pounds, 1 ounce. It looks like airmail postage to most countries is $0.98, so if you don't have stamps just put a dollar bill in with your SASE.

I'll keep sending out maps until it the copying gets too expensive, so please copy them and pass them around to your friends who are Stieg Larsson fans.

Update 28 Nov 2009: The maps are now available for download on a fan site under "Books." Mange tak, Chris!

The Girl Who Played with Fire reviewed in the New York Times

Famously tough but fair reviewer Michiko Kakutani has written a very nice review of Stieg Larsson's second in the Millennium series, The Girl Who Played with Fire, in the New York Times. Thanks, Michiko!

Stieg Larsson wins Galaxy British Book Award!

All right! At the Nibbies tonight, Stieg Larsson walked away with the Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year award at the Galaxy British Book Awards. I always knew he could do it. Wish you were here, Stieg.

Here comes the first U.S. paperback!

Just found this cover shot of the new U.S. mass market paperback on the Barnes & Noble site. Looks like Vintage Crime/Black Lizard has set a pub date of June 23rd. The book has that clean, cold, Swedish look reminiscent of the UK Camilla Läckberg covers, but with distressed type. (Are those trees from Sweden or upstate New York?) This should help keep Stieg's fans cool on the beach this summer. Fighting global warming one thriller at a time...

Reg Keeland on the blogosphere

Hello all you readers of Stieg Larsson in English! Reg Keeland here, and I've finally figured out how to blog. I welcome any comments or questions you might have about the Millennium series, and I'll do my best to answer them. Languages that are welcome on this blog are English, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, and Spanish, but I'll usually be replying in English.

Step right up, and let the blogging begin!