Hello from New Hampshire

The Sea Queen is coming out in the US in less than a week (August 14)! Do you have your copy pre-ordered yet?

It’s also been getting some good advance reviews:

Advance review from Booklist:

The “sea queen” is Svanhild Eysteinsdotter, a strong-willed woman with a difficult path ahead. In ninth century Norway, six years after the events in The Half-Drowned King (2017), Svanhild, married to the raider Solvi, loves her seafaring life but knows her intellectual son’s needs must come first. This leads to rising marital strife, while Solvi pursues revenge against Harald, Norway’s king. He’s not alone. Throughout the country and elsewhere, disaffected exiles and noblemen resentful of Harald’s taxes rise up against him. Svanhild’s brother, Ragnvald, king of Sogn, is loyal to Harald, and as rebel groups join forces, helping Harald achieve a united Norway becomes increasingly dangerous. Although less action- oriented than the first in the Golden Wolf Saga, the second captures the era’s violent atmosphere, where blood feuds last generations, and an early incident of stark brutality long haunts Ragnvald. Through her multifaceted characters, Hartsuyker adeptly evokes female alliances, the complications of love and passion, and vengeance both terrible and triumphant as she effectively juggles many subplots and settings, from Norway’s harsh, picturesque coast to sulfurous Iceland and Dublin’s muddy harbor.  —Sarah Johnson

I’m doing a launch party on August 20 at Politics and Prose at The Wharf in Washington, DC. If you can make it here is the FB invite. But no tour for this one–moving was enough!

I’ve been living in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire for a little more than three weeks now. In that time, I unpacked all my boxes, shopped for the zillion things a house needs and an apartment does not, and oh yeah, finished a draft of The Golden Wolf. I’m letting it sit for a week before I go back to it, and do one more draft before sending it to my editors.

In some ways, three weeks seems like a long time, but of course, it’s almost no time. I thought I would do a long post about what it’s been like moving here and settling in here, but so much of it is very prosaic. It has been very hot. Also, New Hampshire gets some very violent thunderstorms, including some hail one day. Luckily no tornadoes, though there was a warning one day.

I’m very happy we moved here, and I’ve been finding ways to get more involved in the community, through volunteering and making other connections. I feel like I want to do everything right away, but I also know how easy it is to take on too much.

I’ve been re-reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder since I got here. They were extremely formative books for me, and I wanted to be a pioneer girl in the 1860s when I was in elementary school But I think I’m enjoying them now because those books are all about moving and making a home, and that’s what I’m thinking a lot about these days. And as much work as taking care of a house is, compared with an apartment, it’s less work than building a new house from scratch on the prairie every few years. That’s always good to remember.

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6 Comments

  1. VERY excited about “Sea Queen” coming out and I have pre-ordered from our local independent bookstore. Our family is descended from Svanhild and Harald and I bought copies of the Half Drowned king for my 2 sisters and our 6 daughters. We have also renamed an annual family gathering our “Svanhild” gathering of our Viking tribe, inspired by your book. You made her come alive. I looked at your book tour and wish you would come to more bookstores in Northern California. Petaluma is too far away. I will email our local store and encourage them to contact you. I am also a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. Enjoy and good luck with your move.

    1. Hi Sandy–Thank you! And thank you for reminding me that I haven’t updated my appearances section. Unfortunately, all of those are from last year. I’m not doing as much as a tour this time, but I will make sure to try to get to Northern CA at some point.

  2. My cousin Kristin, 2 weeks older than me, is the book searcher in our small book club of two. She has been spot on, mostly, so I look forward to your books. And, I find it encouraging to discover you are also my cousin, many generations removed. I have been smitten with Norway, it’s history, it’s people, and it’s persistence and struggle to achieve the incredibly kind and thoughtful Nation it is today. We are such a young country by comparison, but I do hope we can skip some of the painful growing pains so successfully survived by Norway. Thank you for your work.

    1. Le premier livre est publié en France. Le titre est “Ragnvald et le Loup D’Or”. Je ne sais pas quand ils vont publier les autres, mais je pense bientôt–peut-être trois ou six mois.

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