The debut novel in the series about Silja Frost is called "What Yours to Keep," published in 2024.
My Writer's Life
I've loved stories for as long as I can remember. I'm certain this love blossomed because I was read to as a child.
Both my parents and grandparents would read to me, everything from fairy tales to classic children's books. And once I learned to read myself, you could usually find me with my nose buried in a book.
All I ever wanted for Christmas and birthdays were books, books, books. Back then, there was no greater joy than a new book in my hands.
Eventually, I started creating and writing my own stories, but the thought of becoming an author myself never really crossed my mind. Not even when I picked up writing again as an adult.
I simply had all these characters appearing in my head—characters who carried stories and gave me a need to write them down.
The idea that someone else might find the same joy in reading my stories only occurred to me when I sold a short story to the weekly magazine, Hjemmet.
They were keen to buy more short stories, but the problem was that it was the first and only one I'd written, so I had to get to work on a new one!
In 2007, I began working on what would become my first book manuscript. Even then, Silja Frost was the main character. Since then, I've written several versions of that initial manuscript, all of which are safely stored on various memory sticks.
I began the manuscript for what would become my debut novel, "What's Yours to Keep" in 2018. It's an entirely different story, but Silja Frost is still firmly in the driver's seat. She's been with me every step of the way since 2007, and we've become very well acquainted over all these years.
In the spring of 2021, just days after I quit my job as a middle school teacher, an email arrived from Kari Marstein at Gyldendal stating they were interested in my manuscript. It was almost unbelievable! And now, four years later, the book has not only been published by Gyldendal and Fabel, but it has also found its way to Sweden.
The fact that so many people have found pleasure in reading my book is what brings me the most joy and has become the strongest motivation in my writing. Because in heart and soul I still am, and always will be, a reader. But as fate would have it, I ended up becoming a writer too.
Silja Frost's next case
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