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Mi libra es espanol?

30 September 2018 by villia Leave a Comment

I haven’t written in a while. Been busy working, playing guitar badly and I did start work on translating Under the Black Sand into my native Icelandic language.

A couple of days ago, a (presumably lovely) lady from Argentina offered to translate the Sand into Spanish. I read the contract (a major undertaking) and decided to go for it.

And here is a promise. I shall keep this site updated in the future. I shall let you know how the translation goes and what it’s like to have someone you’ve never met translate a novel through Babelcube.

Oh, and maybe I’ll finish the Icelandic translation myself. And finish Mont Noir, the sequel to Blood and Rain. And see if I want to finish Hunger City, a Bowie fan fiction. And maybe I want to write the two sequels I had planned for Under the Black Sand.

Whatever happens next, I’ll keep you posted.

Design Decisions

17 August 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

Here it is. A new site design. It’s WordPress and I have no idea how to use WordPress. I write novels and shoot photos. I even play with airplanes during my working hours. I don’t design websites, but here it is.

The reason this site exists is to help the world find my novels. That’s it.

Feel free to leave feedback, get the novels for whatever price you like and let me know what you think.

Latest news is that I am working on two new novels, Mont Noir is a sequel to Blood and Rain, Hunger City is a sort of a fan fiction set in a post-apocalyptic world. And there are others, but we’ll talk about that later.

Cheerio!

The Loss of Democracy

1 March 2017 by villia Leave a Comment

I have used this blog almost exclusively for talking about literature and my novels. That’s what this site is for. But I have to share this with you because some things must never be silenced. I put the text below in a comment somewhere, but I don’t want to lose it in the chatter that is Facebook. It’s dark and grim, but so be it. Here goes…

We are at a watershed in history. Dangerous times. There is so much misinformation (now with an official name, alternate facts), hate speech, doublespeak, polarisation. I’m not an expert in anything, but I did something as part of a research for a current project. I read the headlines on the cover of a newspaper from 1929 to 1940. Every single day, one after another. I experienced history like they did at the time.

It was chilling. We all know what happened. Hindsight made it a sinister read. Going from a relatively safe (if turbulent) world towards world war. But you know what? They knew what was going on as early as 1935. Maybe earlier. War was all but certain as early as 1936 and any doubt was gone by 1937. It was the lack of action that allowed it to happen. The few voices that shouted were drowned. No one nation or man was to blame. Everyone that stood by and did nothing contributed to what would happen.

What we need now are strong voices of people that can see the dark version of the future and will do anything in their power to steer us in the other direction. It’s easier to go with the flow, even take part in the march towards the edge, but we really don’t want to go there.

I’m not predicting a war. I hope we’re not that dumb. I’m predicting the stripping of civil rights and some kind of dictatorship. Because the moment we stop believing in democracy, we lose it.

Are Internet users thieves?

8 February 2017 by villia Leave a Comment

Back in 2007, I released my short film Black Sand onto the world. I used it as an experiment to see if Internet users really were the thieving scum some claim them to be. It’s been ten years and I can’t remember the details of how it all went. After searching my old blog (in Icelandic), I see that it was downloaded 799 times in the first two weeks. Ten users had paid for it, which made up 1.6% of total downloads (that’s what it says on the blog, I must have had better data back then). It doesn’t say much though, as this was the infancy of paid content online and many got in touch saying they would have paid for it if I’d included an Icelandic bank account. I believe the final numbers were slightly more favourable, but it’s been a long time and I can’t be sure.

Ten years on and I have another product. And I’m still curious. How has the Internet changed, have easier payment options encouraged more people to pay for content or are we mostly freeloaders that won’t pay unless we absolutely have to? Having seen iTunes sell billions of songs, Netflix and Spotify sell millions of subscriptions, I’m not convinced we are all thieves. I believe it has everything to do with ease of access and fair pricing.

Blood and Rain - paperback cover — Blood and Rain – paperback cover

BLOOD AND RAIN is my new novel. It’ll be published on 3 March but can be pre-ordered now. And the price? Whatever you want to pay.

The idea is to let potential readers decide what they pay for the novel. Go and get it, pay a euro, ten euros, nothing. It’s up to you. A month from now, I will write a new blog post and present the findings. How many people bought it, how many people paid, how many didn’t pay, what was the average price, what was the median income per downloaded item (if I can get my head around median).

I’m doing this because I have never believed Internet users were thieves. It’s just that the accessibility of content wasn’t always optimal. It was easier to download an MP3 than it was to get on a bus, go downtown and buy a record. And pricing. Sometimes I’m shocked at the prices of online content. Why do I pay €15 or more for an eBook when the physical book is similarly priced? My novels are available in print editions and I know that it’s not cheap to get them printed. Digital distribution costs next to nothing and we should, at least partially, pass the savings onto readers, listeners or viewers. Yes, us authors need to live, eat, pay mortgages, but what we save on printing costs shouldn’t only benefit us. It should benefit us all.

So, go get to it. Order the book if you like the synopsis. Pay whatever you like and watch this space. I shall be revealing everything a month from now.

Oh, and isn’t this a nice way to sell a book that deals with anarchism?

HUNGER CITY – New Series

8 March 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

As many may know, I was about to finish my second novel at the beginning of this year. I sent the manuscript to six readers and gave them a deadline on 9 January to turn in their findings. I would then go about ironing out typos and inconsistencies, creating the final draft. Blood and Rain would be published somewhere in spring 2016. Nothing could change that.

Or so I thought. David Bowie has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years. I studied his music as a teenager, immersed myself in his world. I was fascinated by his sounds, words and looks. He was different, somehow above the rest.

David Bowie died on 10 January this year. One day after the deadline and two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his latest (and last, we now know) album, Blackstar. I was devastated. It affected me more than I thought it could. A huge part of my life was gone. It was, literally, like losing a close relative.

January passed and I had no desire to revisit Blood and Rain. February passed and things were still not getting any better. I would look at the written pages and try to get into the world of Barcelona in 1937, but it felt distant. One day I will finish it, but first this…

We went to Venice on a mini holiday at the end of February. The masks were fascinating, the city beautiful. Something happened in my head. I remembered a line from a Bowie song.

The Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees
Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal

And this.

But there’s a shop on the corner that’s selling papier mache
Making bullet-proof faces, Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay

The Diamond Dogs wore white masks and went hunting for mutants. A story begun to form in my head. The story of a girl that is forced to leave her home on Poachers Hill and go back into Hunger City to find Halloween Jack. The story is writing itself. I sit here and I type, but almost feel like it’s being channeled through me. I don’t want to sit here alone and work on this in solidarity. I want to share it with the world now. One chapter at a time. Get your feedback as we get through the story. Discover the mysteries of Hunger City together.

This is not the story as written by Bowie himself. It is not a copy of his storyboard. This is a story about a girl that lives in the world of Hunger City. And yes, Halloween Jack will make an appearance later in the series.

Enjoy. Here is the link to CHAPTER ONE. A new chapter will be published every week until the story has been told.

David Bowie’s 100 Favourite Books

21 January 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

As the fallout from Bowie’s death settles, we collect our thoughts and try to make sense of his life and legacy. As I mentioned in my previous post, I fell in love with him in my teens. He was larger than life and he sang about feelings of isolation and anxiety. Something I was only too familiar with after the death of my father.

I believe what turned me onto him wasn’t just the music, the costumes and whatever doomsday thoughts he dabbled in. I have always been curious about life, the universe and everything. Bowie was extremely well read and seemed to share this curiosity. In fact, I think his curiosity far exceeded mine. His ability to express his findings in art certainly did. He opened up strange doors that would never close again. My life was richer because of him.

Having been a fan for more than 30 years, I know his music inside and out. All periods, also the incredible and overlooked 1990s. I could go upon a stage and give an unprepared lecture about his life and influences. I have all his records and a few books on him and his art. While the world scrambles to get to know him – Blackstar is no 1 in 69 countries and his album sales rose 5000% in the week after his passing – I can sit back and enjoy what I already am familiar with.

So how can I get to know him better without reading another biography? How can I get into his mind and tap into that universe of his? The answer is, get to know his influences. As mentioned above, Bowie was extremely well read. There are countless photos of him reading through the decades. He posted his top 100 books on his Facebook page in 2013. I have read a couple of them, but most are a mystery. Many I have never heard of.

So here is how I’ll commemorate David Bowie in the coming year and beyond. Read the books he loved. Let him continue to expand my mind and horizon. His music may just take on a whole new meaning.

Only question is, where to start?