Update from Stef Penney
Stef Penney
First update from author Stef Penney - The Book of Nordland
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It seems quite a while since the project launched at the end of March, but a lot has happened in that time. I’ve had to juggle thinking about the new book with finishing the edit for my forthcoming novel, The Beasts of Paris (Quercus, May 2023), which is set in 19th century France, and writing and recording a radio play for BBC Radio 4, The Willows – an adaptation of the Algernon Blackwood horror novella set on the Danube in 1921. So there has been a lot of switching back and forth in time and place, as well as having Covid, but now I can allow my mind to settle fully in Northern Norway.
The call-out for tips on the Bodø 2024 website was really interesting. The pieces you sent in – and some follow-up conversations – have given me wonderful descriptions of places, of light, the different times of year, the sea, the vagaries of the weather, snippets of history – and has led me to photos of truly amazing places and much poring over maps. Maps are vital to me – I pin a map of the setting of my current book above my desk. After staring at Haussmann’s Paris for four years, now it is a map of Nordland. Internet maps and Google Earth are a godsend. I look up the meaning of names – Shudder the mountain, Goose water, the Black Ice… Google Translate informs me that ‘Misvaer’ means ‘mistakes’… although, much as I like it, I’m not sure about that one.
The landscape overwhelms me with its extravagant beauty – how can I possibly do it justice?
It’s been fascinating to compare those initial tips with the Zoom writing workshops we held for young people in Bodø. Not so much about the landscape, and a definite lack of enthusiasm for winter, but they gave rise to vivid pieces about daily life and the war memories of grandparents. I learned about Russefeiring and that military service is still a thing in Norway – I had no idea. I’m also stunned that 15 year olds can move into a flat with their peers to go to high school if the school is too far from home – that would cause outrage in the UK!
The process of writing is a journey of exploration. I start with some ideas – the setting and the main characters, and as I write, more things fall into place. I may know the endpoint I’m aiming for, or not. Sometimes that imagined destination vanishes and is replaced by something else. All this is a roundabout way of saying that I don’t have a plot that I plan in advance and flesh out as I go. When I was a screenwriter I hated having to ‘pitch’ a storyline to raise development finance. How on earth could I describe a story, bring out the main themes, characters, settings, emotions – all before it existed?
Having said that, ideas for the book have begun to crystallise, and some key characters have taken shape – primarily a teenage girl, Elin, and her grandmother, Svea, who keeps many secrets. It’s a contemporary setting – something I haven’t done before, with reference to past events, both in the war and since (as I write that, it seems dauntingly ambitious and presumptuous, but, well…). I want to incorporate the unique landscape, but not in the tradition of tales of harsh, rural life. I’m not yet sure how – but, with your help, I’m hoping I will get there!
I’ve been inspired by the book Fire and Ice by Vincent Hunt, about the German scorched earth policy in Finmark and Troms that clearly had great consequences for Nordland. It contains extraordinary stories and some shocking interviews with survivors. I’ve recently been thinking about how trauma can echo down through generations. It’s something I notice in my own family, and I’m keen to explore further.
I want to emphasise that this will not be a ‘WW2 story’. That’s why the main character is a contemporary teenage girl, negotiating life, school, friends, thinking about her identity, and finding out why her grandmother and her absent mother are . . . the way they are.
I want to set it in an area where Elin would be sent away from home to high school as her father is the priest for a rural parish. I imagine her home being in an isolated village, either at the head of a fjord or on a lake – inland rather than coastal. Perhaps from there you can see Svartisen… If anyone has stories about such a place, I would love to hear them.
Also, if anyone has stories of the war and its aftermath, in particular about POW camps and the Blood Road, and they are willing to share them, I would be thrilled. And any other stories as well – please keep them coming!
I would love to hear more from teenagers – the things that worry you, the things that excite you… I never stop researching, even towards the end of writing a novel. It’s not so much establishing a base of research and then building upwards, more a constant weaving to and fro (okay, I’m not a weaver).
Also, if anyone would like to lend their name to a character in the book, please let me know via the link on the website!
Tusen takk to all those who have contributed so far.
Ser deg senere!
Stef Penney
www.stefpenney.com