Villi Asgeirsson

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Reviews – What are they Good For?

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Nothing is more rewarding to an author than seeing their book reviewed. It doesn’t really matter all that much whether it’s positive or negative. The fact that someone took the time and effort to read your novel and write a review is humbling. Positive rewiews are better, of course. They stroke our ego and make us feel good about ourselves. Still, nobody has managed to write only stellar fiction and critical reviews help us grow as writers and create better future work for you, the reader. We must expect criticism as much as we hope for compliments.

Thankfully, Under the Black Sand enjoyed favourable reviews, only getting four or five stars. There weren’t many, but each one encouraged me to keep going. I never received any reviews for my second novel, Blood and Rain. There may be all kinds of reasons for that.
– The genre may be less popular. Everyone was mad about Nordic and Icelandic things.
– The book may be less interesting, but then, it is being translated into two languages, unlike the Black Sand.
– I didn’t push it like the first.

Maybe I should have. I love the setting and some of my favourite characters are in it. Celestina definitely has the best character introduction in any of my stories.

Here is hoping Undir Svörtum Sandi will be reviewed when it comes out in just under two weeks. It will encourage me to write more, maybe in my native language, and it will tell me if I’m doing things well or need to improve in certain areas.

Below are some of the reviews placed for Under the Black Sand.

★★★★★ – Amazon
A unique story in a unique environment.
21 January 2015 – A story unlike other love stories. Contains all the aspects that makes you want to keep on reading (power, lust, love and well described feelings and sceneries). Movie material.

★★★★★ – Amazon UK
Unusual fast moving story
28 May 2014 – I bought this book as I like stories based in Iceland. It sat in my ‘wish list’ for ages as I was unsure whether or not to buy. There were no reviews to guide me. However I am so happy that I did in the end purchase it.

This fast moving story is about a forceful businessman, set in todays post 2008 bank collapse Iceland, trying to get a large project passed a political and environmental resistance to his plan. As the story develops you get flashbacks to the past, his past, which eventually consumes his time. It is a story of love over the centuries, of struggle against hard times and also of murder. I cannot give to much away as this will ruin your enjoyment. If you like a slightly supernatural story this is for you. Very good.

★★★★ – Amazon
Gripping story
6 February 2015 – Very good story; starts a bit slow, but if you keep going it will eventually grip you. It made me want to watch the short movie in which the book is based. I very much enjoyed the way the history of Iceland is used as a backdrop for the story, that works very well. The pronunciation guide was a nice touch, by the way.

★★★★ – Goodreads
Nordic spirits and a Nordic Tiger
11 May 2015 – This crime novel swings from standard mystery to very different mythology. Very pleasing story that is tied up well. Most of the characters are very real but not sympathetic. No sweethearts traipsing through this tundra. Great melding of ancient and co temporary conflict.

★★★★ – Bol (translated from Dutch)
Intriguing
29 September 2019 – An intriguing, non-linear, dark and moody book. Well written but no easy meal. The experienced reader will be rewarded with a beautiful and powerful story.

Fan Fiction

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I once tried my hand at fan fiction. You can see some of the results on the front page as the old posts rotate beneath my books. It was going well, I saw the world in front of my eyes, I liked Luna, the main character and the story was based on an incompleted work, giving me the opportunity to fill in the blanks.

I never finished it. Why?

It wasn’t mine. It was based on the Diamond Dogs album by David Bowie. He had intended to create a musical, based on George Orwell’s 1984. He never got the rights, so it never happened.

Hunger City was about Halloween Jack and his rollerskating gang. Bowie created a storyboard but what I’ve seen doesn’t really make a story. When Bowie died in Janyary 2016, I was devastated and work on my then work in progress, Blood and Rain, halted. I saw no point in continuing. His death delayed that book a whole year. I still needed something to get my feelings out and I started writing Hunger City.

In this story, I went with a female protagonist. She lived in a post-apocalyptic world where the Diamond Dogs (a gang – not real dogs) go after the mutants living on Burgess Hill. She finds an old book with Bowie photos and is fascinated. His world is so different from hers.

This leads her to Hunger City, where she meets all sorts of characters, including Halloween Jack himself. The city is dark, the characters shady, an unfortunate soul hanging from a dead street light, the good time girls ready to please.

One day, I stopped working on it. Didn’t know how to end it and went back to work on Blood and Rain. Never returned to Hunger City. I could have easily come up with an ending, but I never did. Now, almost four years later, it feels the moment has passed.

Fan fiction feels different. Even if this story is all mine (I never used any action from Bowie’s story board drawings), except for a few character and place names, it doesn’t feel mine. It feels like I’d have to ask Bowie’s estate or fans for permission, like I would have to be careful not to offend anyone. I’d be writing for Bowie fans, not my readers.

It is quite possible that I’ll revisit the story sometime in the future, resurrect Luna, but she would be getting her own story in her own world.

I don’t think I’ll be doing fan fiction. Ever.

My First Translation

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It’s hard to imagine the thrill of writing a full blown novel until you do it. When Under the Black Sand was completed, six years ago, I could hardly believe it. If I can do it once, I can do it again, I though. in 2017, Blood and Rain was published. It was written differently, deliberately simpler than the debut, much more linear.

That was two years ago. What has happened since?

I took a new job and that ate away most of my time. Still, I have managed to finish the first draft of Mont Noir, promised for 2019 but will be published next year. Then there are the Portuguese and Spanish translations of Blood and Rain, both coming soon.

That’s not all. I revisited the Black Sand and translated it into Icelandic, my native tongue. I always felt it should exist in Icelandic. It is an Icelandic story, the mythology, the saga that spans a thousand years, the modern reality of the boom-bust economy and privatisation, the disconnect from what really matters as we lose ourselves in the race for material comfort. They all play a role in the story and so it should be accessible to my fellow countryfolk.

Funny thing about going through it again and seeing it in its native language, I felt I needed to expand on a few things because the Icelanders would “get it”, while I deleted other things as it didn’t need to be explained to them. The Icelandic version has turned into its own thing. It is the same story, but it feels different.

I may want to revisit the English text now, but maybe I should focus on future projects instead. Time will tell.

Undir Svörtum Sandi will be published on 17 October 2019.

Free Books! Happy New Year!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To celebrate the arrival of 2019 and the fact that I’m obsessively working on my third novel, and planning to publish it in 2019, I have created coupons that allow anyone to buy my novels for nothing.

The two first novels, Under the Black Sand and Blood and Rain are absolutely free at Smashwords for a short period of time.

If you don’t have them yet, jump over there and get them. Time is short.

And see you later in the year when Mont Noir becomes a thing.

The free novels can be found here.

Back Home?

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Yesterday was a big day. After living in a kind of limbo for years, Under the Black Sand is finally home. Sort of. It has finally been translated into Icelandic.

As some may know, it takes place in Iceland. It follows Iceland’s history from settlement to modern times, yet it was never available in the language spoken in the country.

While I self-published the novel at the time, I think I may want to try to find a publisher for the Icelandic version. Watch this space. I’ll keep you posted.

Mi libra es espanol?

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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.