The Next Big Thing?

I’ve been invited by Chris Chalmers, author of the wonderful award-winning novel, Five to One (he blogs at www.chrischalmers.net ) to take the Next Big Thing questionnaire, where authors talk about what they’re publishing next.

So here goes...


What is the title of your next book?

Pappa's Girl 

Where did the idea for the book come from?

The idea for Pappa's Girl first came to me when I took part in a non-fiction seminar during the last term of my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. I immediately thought of writing about Finns who emigrated to Sweden in the 1970's. Instead, however, a story about a fictional family grew in my mind, and I wrote a short piece for my next class. Eventually on firm advice from my excellent tutor, Lucy English, I changed my MA project at the last minute and started writing Pappa's Girl.   

What genre do your book fall under?


Romantic fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This must be the most difficult question! I think I'd love to see Finnish actors 'do' all the parts but really couldn't tell you who. Can I take a rain check on this one…?

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Emotionally anaesthetised by her displaced childhood, and her parents' violent break-up, Swedish teacher Ulla learns how to love and be loved through going back to her Finnish roots.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?


Pappa's Girl will be published on Kindle later this month.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Three to four months. Finishing it has taken me years, though!

What other book would you compare the story to within your genre?

There is an excellent Swedish novel on the same subject, Beyond, by Susanna Alakoski. It's much darker than Pappa's Girl.  The novel has also been made into a film starring the then married couple Noomi and Ola Rapace. (You may have noticed I have something of a crush on Ola, but I digress).

Who or What inspired you to write the novel?

The inspiration for Pappa's Girl came from my mother. Although the novel is not biographical by any stretch of imagination, I wanted to write about some of the difficulties I knew she had encountered when she first moved from Finland to Sweden.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

As well as a story of love, Pappa's Girl, also shows the reader, through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl, Ulla, what it's like to move to strange new country, where according to her beloved Pappa 'everything is bigger and better'. 

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading about My Next Big Thing. I will now pass the task of answering these same questions to another writer. Next week in the spotlight will be the veritable authoress and blogger extraordinaire, Karen Gowen.  
I look forward to reading about her new project.

James Bond is everywhere in London

I have to admit to being a bit of a Bond fan. I grew up with Roger Moore as the Bond, and have since had difficulty in thinking anyone else can be as good as him in that role (I know, I know, Sean Connery was the original but I'm too young  - ahem - to remember him). But, our current Bond, Daniel Craig is doing a pretty good job to win me over. He's so much more edgy than the Bonds of my youth. As the Telegraph Magazine yesterday said, 'There's a real sense that this man is burning up from the inside.' How true (shivers down my spine).

So I cannot wait till Friday when I'll be seeing Skyfall. Not only because it's a new Bond film, or because Craig is such a dish, but also because my current near-obession, the Swedish actor, ex-husband of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-famed, Noomi, Ola Rapace also stars in Skyfall. Such a shame he's playing a baddie…although, perhaps that's a good thing…(more spine tingling).

Ola Rapace in Syfall. Photo: Aftonbladet.se 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I was very sceptical about watching a Hollywood version of the first book in the wonderful Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  Although I felt the Swedish films left a lot to be desired, mainly because the plot of the books was completely mixed up between the three films, they had some authenticity as films made in the country where the crime novels originated from. Watching the whole action in English would surely take a huge amount away from the Swedish atmosphere?

I also absolutely loved Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in the three films by Oplev. She seemed to capture Lisbeth's complicated character - and she spoke Swedish. (As aside, I've yet to forgive the actress for leaving her lovely husband, Ola, just because she's become the more successful actress - or at least this is what the gossip magazines in Sweden cite as the reason for the couple's marriage breakdown and I believe them...).

But as the opening credits rolled on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I got a feeling that this version by David Finch could be quite good.



And I was right. The relatively unknown actress who portrayed Salander, Rooney Mara, was absolutely brilliant. She completely nailed Lisbeth as the distrustful, vulnerable, yet talented and confident modern sleuth with some serious issues with the 'perfect' Swedish society she inhabits. Lisbeth's apparent lack of social graces became both tragic and funny in Mara's skilled acting hands. There is a moment when watching Blomqvist work his laptop, she shuts her eyes in frustration at his slow speed at the keys. It was both funny and sad.

Just as when reading Larsson's first book, during this first film we all completely fell in love with Lisbeth. We felt sorry for her, we admired her, we worried for her.

The rest of the cast - apart from a couple of dodgy, faintly German-sounding, accents - weren't bad either. Daniel Craig is on top of his game; he totally sold his version of Blomkvist to me. My only beef with the accents was a minor one. Although I wondered why the director felt the need to have any accents at all - neither Craig as Blomkvist or Mara as Salander have Swedish accents. Perhaps the Swedish cast, led by Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger, couldn't do the mid-Atlantic English? I highly doubt it.

In any case, the story's authenticity did not suffer from this lapse in accent discipline, especially as the film was obviously shot in Sweden. In the final scene we even get to Blomkvist's Stockholm stomping ground in Söder, something I was gladdened by.

I now cannot wait for film two in the trilogy. Larsson's second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire is my favourite, mainly I think because it's set in Stockholm, near Blomkvist flat on Bellmansgatan. There is nothing like reading a book, or watching a great adaptation of a favourite book which is set in a city where you grew up. And I hope the disappointing viewing figures in the USA aren't going to stop the sequels. Now that really would be a tragedy.

So if you, like a few other million readers, loved Stieg Larsson's books, do go and see this film. It won't take away from the magic of the novels, on the contrary, it'll add another dimension to the story.

Ola Rapace in 'Svinalängorna'

Noomi and Ola Rapace

What can I say? This guy should be a huge Hollywood star. Ever since I watched him as Wallander's side-kick in the Swedish TV detective series I've had a big crush on him.

In Svinalängorna (Pigsties), a Swedish film recounting a sorry tale of alcoholism and violence in a Finnish immigrant family in Ystad, in southern Sweden (the Wallander town), he has a somewhat small role. Ola plays the loving husband of Leena, (played by Noomi Rapace of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -fame) who's successfully blocked out her miserable childhood until a phone call arrives from hospital saying her mother is dying.

The book by Susanna Alakoski, which the film is based on, is not actually as shocking as the film. I enjoyed the book very much because of the combination of dark humour and tragedy and hope it'll soon be translated into English. Why it hasn't as yet, I'm not sure. The film, a directorial film debut by Pernilla August won a Guldbagge, the Swedish Oscar, as did the Finnish actress Outi Mäenpää for her portrayal of the long-suffering wife who slowly, together with her husband, succumbs to alcoholism.

If this film ever hits your cinema, I urge you to go and see it. You'll cry, you'll laugh and you'll never think of Sweden (or us Finns) in the same way again.

Outi Mäenpää in the film Svinalängorna 

But back to the Rapace's. According to the press the couple who have two children have separated. Amicably, they say themselves; not so, say the press. There's talk that Noomi, who used to be the less famed actor of the two, dropped Ola as soon as she became a world-wide star through the Stieg Larsen Millenium films. Whatever, the important thing is that the man is FREE. Did you hear that, girls? She dumped him. Personally I think she needs her head examined....

New Object of Desire

This actor played a police detective in the Swedish Wallander series on BBC4. His name is Ola Rapace and he was the on-off boyfriend of Inspector Wallander's daughter Linda, played by acress Johanna Sällström who sadly took her own life early 2007.

Ola caught my eye not only because of his moorish looks but also because in the Wallander series he played the part of the angry young man, always striving to put right what was wrong, so brilliantly. The character's youth combined with his passion often led him to judge people too harshly or make decisions too quickly, but it was also this passion that made you understand that he would, in time, be a very skilful detective. His portrayal of a young guy who couldn't commit to his boss's daughter also rang true.

I'm not sure what Ola is doing now, but he has starred in an English-language film, Rancid, as well as other Swedish and Danish productions. Let's hope this talented, 38-year-old actor becomes a super star soon. You heard it here first.