Villi Asgeirsson

Drafting ideas...

a sky without stars

Celestina – from Anarchy to the Skies

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Back in 2014, I started drafting my second novel. There were three rules to set this novel apart from my first.
Nothing supernatural.
It would be shorter than my debut.
The story would be linear.

The protagonist would be an Icelandic wannabe journalist. A man with ambitions larger than his worldview.

The Spanish Civil War was a period in history I knew almost nothing about, and the project became an excuse to explore it. I read Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and In Diamond Square by Mercé Rodoreda and some other works. I watched an old British documentary from the 1980s where people who had lived through the war told their stories.

Only then did I start writing.

My man from Iceland makes a deal with the German embassy, is unwittingly recruited as an informer and sent to Barcelona. There he meets many characters. One of them would come to define everything that followed.

At that point, Blood and Rain was not meant to be part of a series. But the characters had other ideas.

Celestina first appears as noise through a wall late at night. Then, over breakfast, we see her properly. Smoking a cigarette, frying eggs, talking about anarchism. Possibly the strongest character I have ever written, and I had no idea what she would become.

By the end of Blood and Rain, Celestina has turned into a killer and the Icelander has fled the city. Their relationship is broken and there are loose ends that need tying up.

Mont Noir was meant to do that, but strong characters rarely do what they’re told. Celestina was recruited to blow up a train and a plane and blame it on her old friend, but things take a turn. In Mont Noir we get glimpses of her past. How she became an anarchist. How she ended up on the streets of Barcelona with a gun in her hand. How she learned to hate authoritarian regimes and injustice.

At the end of Mont Noir her story still wasn’t finished. She needed a third book.

A Sky Without Stars began life before Mont Noir was even published. Here, Celestina has become an aviator. She longs to fly into battle, but women aren’t allowed to. Instead, she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, ferrying planes from one airfield to another. After a promotion, she begins flying espionage missions. When one fails, she finds herself behind enemy lines, in Amsterdam. The only person she can turn to is her old friend from Barcelona. The one she could have loved. The one she almost killed.

In A Sky Without Stars, Celestina finally becomes who she was always meant to be.

She began life as a side character, a love interest, a voice in the background. But she wouldn’t stay there. Her story was deeper than I realised. Her loss greater. Her strength more profound. She needed three books to grow, but she did.

By the end of A Sky Without Stars she has become what she was destined to be. A reluctant hero with nothing to lose, and everything to give.

As I wrap up the trilogy and move on to new projects, I’ll deeply miss Celestina. She has lived in my head and heart for a decade, guiding me as I learned to write. Her story may be told, but her spirit will live on in every strong female character I create from now on.

A Sky Without Stars is out now.

A Trilogy – Completed

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Origins: Blood and Rain
In 2013, as I was finishing Under the Black Sand – my debut novel – I started thinking about what to do next. I had proven I could write and complete a novel, it felt like quite the achievement and I wanted to try it again! Apply everything I had learned, avoid some of the pitfalls and detours Black Sand had presented.

Blood and Rain would be that next project. The criteria were simple:
Shorter than Black Sand.
Linear, no flashback hopping.
Nothing supernatural.

I suppose I still wasn’t quite ready to leave Iceland behind. Gunnar, the protagonist, was an Icelandic reporter. He was bored and as the Spanish Civil War broke out, he saw his path to glory open. Unsurprisingly, as he arrived in Barcelona, he was perfectly out of his depth.

Blood and Rain probably served as a training ground. My characters were deeper, the events were real, if stylised and modified for the story. I think my writing style was emerging. Short, to the point, as little fluff as possible. And let strong characters run the story.

And that’s when Celestina appeared. She began as a love interest, but refused to play the role. Her backstory would be revealed and deepened throughout the trilogy, but it already dictated her every move. She wouldn’t let herself be “paired off.” She had her own purpose. In the end, she almost took over the book.

From Barcelona to Amsterdam: Mont Noir
Mont Noir followed. I hadn’t planned a series, but Celestina demanded more space. Here, Gunnar – now calling himself Frank – lives in Amsterdam. It’s early 1939. Celestina is still a thorn in Franco’s side, and someone in the German administration decides she could be useful in triggering a limited war between Germany and the West. She’s flown to Berlin, then to Amsterdam.

Mont Noir is shorter, leaner, more to the point. I dare say I was honing my craft. It also introduced new characters. Lodewijk, the aging diplomat who returns in the final novel, and Marleen, the beautiful jazz singer.

The Question That Ended It All: A Sky Without Stars
I wasn’t planning to create a trilogy. The spark for A Sky Without Stars came when I visited the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) in Amsterdam. One of the first things they ask you as you enter is this:
Under occupation, there are three choices.
Adapt.
Resist.
Cooperate.
What would you do?

I think it was in that moment that I realised, the Frank and Celestina saga needed to be completed. I had been absolutely clear with myself. I will NOT write a World War Two novel. Ever! It’s overdone, and there have been so many tragic and beautiful stories, that I can’t possibly hope to compete in that space.

But the question lingered. Each of my characters would answer it differently. Frank had never been a hero. Would he adapt? How long could he get away with it? Lodewijk was a patriot, but would he risk others for his own safety? Celestina had left the Netherlands at the end of Mont Noir. Where was she now?

On 6 January 2023, as I was preparing the Mont Noir launch, I was sitting in a Dutch Air Force canteen in Soesterberg. I had a few hours to burn. I opened a new Scrivener document. I typed the first line. Then the next. Within a month – 7 February, to be exact – I had a complete first draft. The story came out fully formed. The characters made their choices. I simply watched and wrote.

Now that A Sky Without Stars is complete, two things stay with me. First, strong characters are everything. Once they live, they drive the story. Second, I’m convinced Sky is my most layered and emotionally mature novel. Not necessarily the most complex – that honour still belongs to the debut – but it’s the deepest. It even closes an arc first opened in Blood and Rain and never revisited until now.

This book truly ends the trilogy. It completes the arcs for Frank and Celestina, bringing them roughly to where they wanted to be at the start of Blood and Rain. Roughly, because they have evolved, endured, changed. And so have their ambitions.

As I close this chapter on my writing journey, I can’t help but wonder if I will miss them. Especially Celestina, the character who began as a love interest and became the backbone of a trilogy. As I move toward new and very different projects, I suspect she’ll keep shaping the women I write.

Time will tell. Now I am going to celebrate an achievement that I honestly never thought I would reach.
Finishing a trilogy that grew stronger with every book.

A Sky Without Stars is out now.

A Sky Without Stars – Pre-Order

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A Sky Without Stars is almost here. It has been a long journey, both for the book and for the larger story.

The final novel in the Frank & Celestina trilogy began at a Dutch air force base in January 2023, a month before Mont Noir was published. My son had an introduction day there, the base was hours from home, and I spent the day in the canteen with my laptop.

I started the morning on a fantasy saga that may or may not appear one day. The setting worked against me. Uniformed pilots on lunch breaks, the sound of engines, the atmosphere. Dragons and castles refused to cooperate.

I opened a new Scrivener file and typed. It had no title. For months the project was called “that WW2 thing,” but there was a plan. An early reader of Mont Noir had asked how the story would end. What would happen to Frank, Celestina, and Lodewijk. The question surprised me because I had not planned a third book. I had not planned to write sequels at all. Still, she had a point.

If there was going to be an ending, I needed to write it.

That air base pushed the story into focus. In this book Celestina becomes a pilot. Not air force, which was not possible for women in the 1940s, but a pilot all the same. Frank remains cautious and slow to decide. His plan to leave the Netherlands came too late and he found himself trapped in an occupied country. Lodewijk works for the Nazis. He despises it, but it keeps him alive.

The outline and first chapters were written on 6 January 2023 in Soesterberg. The first draft was finished a month later, on 7 February. It was rough and unreadable, but it was the skeleton of what became A Sky Without Stars.

We are now finalising publication. On 10 October 2025 the ebook will be available worldwide. Amazon is taking its time to approve the listing, but you can pre-order at a discount on Smashwords. Depending on timing, you may even be able to download it already.

If you want a note when the book drops, plus news, behind-the-scenes notes, and a free short story, subscribe to the newsletter.

Announcing: A Sky Without Stars

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It’s finally time. And I’m excited!

A new novel is on the way, my fourth.
And the third and final installment in the Frank and Celestina saga.

I never intended to write a series, but after Blood and Rain, I wanted to explore the characters further. Frank was interesting, but Celestina demanded more time. Why was she the way she was? Her backstory was touched upon in Blood and Rain, but not explored deeply enough.

Then came Mont Noir.
Celestina is on a warpath after what happens in Blood and Rain. Barcelona no longer offers hope. There are only ghosts. The only thing left is revenge. She is angry, but dangerous. Franco wants her out of Spain, the Germans need a job done. A deal is made. And Frank is the perfect scapegoat.

In Mont Noir, we uncover more of Celestina’s past. Her motives, her desires, the traumatic events that shaped her view of the world.

That should have been the end.
But then I had the privilege of visiting the Verzetsmuseum in Amsterdam, the Resistance Museum, which remembers the occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945. I was looking at the artefacts, listening to the stories, and something struck me. They have to come back. Frank and Celestina must meet one last time. The loose ends must be tied. The story needs a true ending, the conclusion it deserves.

That’s where A Sky Without Stars was born.
Inside that museum.

The novel begins in Amsterdam on the eve of World War Two. It follows the bombing of Rotterdam, the occupation, the persecution of minorities, resistance networks, espionage, escapes, and ultimate sacrifice.
A Sky Without Stars goes deeper, darker, and more human than anything I’ve written before.

I’m glad I wrote it.
Their story begins in Barcelona in 1936.
Continues in Amsterdam in 1939.
And ends here, in 1942.

This is the final chapter.

I’ve worked on this novel since the day Mont Noir was published.
Today, I can finally show it to you.

I can’t wait to share it with you.