Just wanted to say another hello to everyone again, and this is round two with Hildur Knútsdóttir. And we’re talking more about her as a writer and especially Hrím, as I’ve been reading this book and have been loving it. It’s the world building, and as you’ve said before, it’s yes, it’s the world building, and then I’ve gotten to the love story part between the two, and there’s a little jealousy there. And yeah, it’s been a real challenging, yes, but really, really fun read.
Just if we can start going into it, one thing I noticed with a lot of your work is the cover art has been really cool. Do you work with an artist? Is there a certain artist that you enjoy working with? How do these book covers come to be?
HK
Yeah, so it depends on the book. So for example, Myrkrið Milli Stjarnanna and also Vetrarhörkur and Vetrarfrí, they were done by in-house designers at Forlagið. They have three full-time in-house designers who make a lot of book covers. And then for Ljónið, Norman and Skógurinn, I commissioned, I convinced them that we could commission a painter that I really love.
His name is Þrándur Þórarinsson, and his paintings are also, I think he’s kind of obsessed with old Reykjavik, but his paintings also usually have some kind of fantastical elements.
Before he did the covers for me, I bought the painting by him, and it’s like two women kind of dressed like flappers, and they are dueling with pistols in front of a very famous hot dog stand in Reykjavik.
So he has, and it was just like the perfect vibe for Ljónið, old Reykjavik meets new Reykjavik, and kind of like a fantastical twist. So he agreed to do all the covers for that trilogy, and I have the paintings actually, so I bought the paintings also.
And then for Hrím, I had a very specific cover in mind, because Hrím is kind of inspired by Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children Series. Do you know that?
IAC
Yeah, no.
HK
So I read them when I was like 11, 12, and 13, and they are about like cro-magnon people, which is like a type of people that is extinct now. And also at the time when cro-magnon people were living with Neanderthals, and they were like, like, Mammoth. They were like hunting Mammoth. So it’s like, like, that was also kind of the vibe that I was going for, and they have like a very distinct cover. So if you google them, it’s like a woman. She had like a mountain lion with her.
So I wanted that kind of cover, but also maybe updated because they are like very 80s, I would say, those covers. So I really wanted to get an illustrator, and I found Heida Rafnsdottir, or no, sorry, my editor, she found her. She is an illustrator, and she has been drawing, yeah, it’s called The Island of Winds.
And it’s, yeah, it’s like a computer game, which takes place in Iceland. Yeah, and also I wanted the cover to be like Icelandic. Like, I didn’t want to have like, because I know there are a lot of people who draw fantasy, but not a lot of people in Iceland do it. So I wanted to have like a real Icelandic feel. And if you want to check out her work, yeah, the game is called Island of Winds, and it has a really cool website. Yeah, and so I found her there, and we asked her if she would be willing to do the cover, and she said yes, thankfully. Yeah, so I’m really happy about the cover.
IAC
Excellent. No, I intend to put the links to these individuals and the games and such in the show notes.
HK
Okay, okay, great.
IAC
So yeah, I think it’d be great for people to, if anyone’s interested in exploring this, this is fantastic. Thank you. So I talked to our reading group, and got a few questions for you before we read.
HK
Okay.
Before I selfishly moved into Hrím, and you might have mentioned this in part one, but just just to recap, in general, like who are your favorite writers? Who are your influences? Who do you just, I guess, if you have the time, who do you sit down with and read just for fun?
HK
So I read a lot in English, and like last year I went on a real like a horror book, Spree. And I read and loved the books by Christopher Buehlman.
Also, what I’ve been doing for the last year is, because my book is coming out in English, and I’ve been reading my way through the authors that blurbed my book, that blurbed that.
And I think it’s probably a pretty good fit, because obviously my editor, she sent it to authors that she… I’m not saying that we write similar books, but she sent it to authors that maybe are in some ways doing something which I’m doing, so a lot of horror writers, and maybe have some, like we share a vibe or something.
So I’ve been reading my way through that. And then I came across Christopher Buehlman, for example. And I also discovered Rachel Harrison this fall, and she’s great. I’ve read all her books in just like two weeks, because I love them so much. And I also really love T. Kingfisher. She publishes with Tor Nightfire as well. But I think probably my favorite authors are, so I really love Naomi Novik.
She’s a particular Temeraire series, which is like fantasy books about the Napoleonic wars, but with dragons in them, and they’re really good. And also her book Uprooted is one of my favorites. And then I also, and the older favorites of mine are Isabel Allende, and Jane Austen.
I really love Jane Austen. And Marion Keyes. I really love her. She’s really funny. Yeah, so these are a few of the authors that I’ve been reading lately.
IAC
Excellent. And small sidebar. For folks who are interested in the culture of Icelandic culture, something happens in December called the Book Flood. And we’re probably going to release this, I’d say just right around Christmas, today being December 15th. Could you explain that a little bit? Does it really happen as it’s written about? Is that a real thing that happens in Iceland? Just a flood of books?
HK
Yeah, it does. So the majority of Icelandic books that are published are published in the fall. And it used to be like just in November and December, but the publishers are trying to stretch it out a bit. So the Christmas Book Flood now starts in like the middle of, or like beginning of October, I would say. So almost all of the books in Iceland come out in these three months. So October, November and December. And it dates back to the second World War, actually, because at that time there was this one Christmas, and I was assured it’s of almost everything in Iceland, except paper. So they just printed a lot of books, and everybody gave each other books for Christmas. And that started this tradition.
So it’s really like a season of books. So all the books come out at this time. And like you do, if you’re an author, you do a lot of events. You go like all around, and you read from your books and workplaces, invite readers, no writers to come to read from the books. And schools also invite writers to come and do all kinds of interviews. But it’s really, it’s also kind of like a stressful time, because the competition is really fierce, because your book is coming out at exactly the same time as all the other books.
And there’s only so much space on the TV programs and in the papers that do reviews. So there are some books that just are lost in the flood. So it’s kind of like sink or swim, and some books rise to the top and others just kind of disappear.
So that’s stressful.
And also, and just speaking for myself, so because I came out in October, so it’s like a Christmas flood book.
And I’ve been doing a lot of events.
And I just did probably my last reading this morning for a group of teenagers.
And I’m just I’m so I’m really tired, but all my like social energy is just spent.
And it’s kind of hard to like switch gears because you just like stay in your cave for for so many months writing, and then you’re supposed to like go out and do promo.
But another nice thing is I mean, of course, it’s great because everybody’s talking about books and like, “have you read this one and have you read that one?”
And so like the whole nation is talking about books for these weeks.
And then it also means that like, we the writers, we are basically all on the same schedule.
So like we are manuscripts need to be like handed in before April.
And then during like, in June, you get like the copy edits.
And, and then probably in August, your cover is finalized.
So you can like, so I guess it’s like more like you’re in the same workplace or something.
Yeah, so it has pros and cons, I would say.
IAC
Okay, so I guess it kind of sections your year up because like January and April, you’re madly writing and then submitting stuff.
HK
Yeah.
And so for many years, I was trying to write while I also had the book out in the Christmas book flood. And I just ended up being like really disappointed in myself because I didn’t get a lot of writing because it’s hard for me to switch gears. So if I have like, an interview and the reading in one day, I can’t like write in between them. So a few years ago, I just decided that I was gonna stop trying to write during these months. So I usually don’t write anything in the fall. But so I usually and a lot of times I start books in January. So I’m going to start a new writing a new book in like probably just like the 4th of January or something.
Yeah.
IAC
And the part that I’m excited about, and again, I’m being totally selfish with this because I’ve been reading Hrím, again, the first couple of chapters were just they were tough, basically just I am a language learner.
HK
So I’m sorry, I also make up a lot of words in it.
IAC
But, you know, I mean, and it just for anyone else out there that is kind of stressing over something like that, you never stop learning a language. They’re just domain and domains of vocabulary that you’ll never finish.
But yeah, no, I once I hit around, I’d say 15 to 20%. I read on Kindle. So once I hit around the 15 to 20% mark, I noticed that I was reading more and more pages without writing stuff down. And I’m at this like, this really nice point, where I’m just starting to get the story. I know enough of the backstory, I’ve learned the character names, and I’m starting to see the personalities come out and the people. And I got to say this, this book, it’s I’ve enjoyed it on two fronts.
One, the world building is really cool. And in a second, I’m gonna have you talk a little bit about that.
Now I’m getting into the part where the characters are the love stories beginning and a little bit of jealous.
HK
The love triangle.
IAC
Yeah, so it’s really neat because like, you know, this this alternative historic Iceland, but yet the emotions are still kind of raw and very similar and people can identify themselves. So at first, if I can, will you set up as much as much as you can?Will you set up this the world building of Hrím?
HK
Yes, so I think it’s like two things that happened or like were the inspiration for this these books or three things. So they take place in the north of Iceland, which is where my parents are from. And it’s an area that I’ve been visiting my whole life.
And I’ve spent a lot of time there.
And it’s really beautiful.
And I know it intimately.
And I wanted to write about that and try to portray some of my love for the area in the story.
And then I was really fascinated, because I read a few years ago that we humans as species, we are the only animal that has moved in the food chain, because we used to be.
Yeah, we used to be in the middle of the food chain. So we ate animals, but animals also ate us. But through technology, we have moved to the top of the food chain. But we are still like middle of the food chain type of people. And like the people who were eaten by animals are exactly like us. They have the same hard-wiring and the same physiology. And I was trying to imagine like, what would the society like that look like? And what, how do you live in this reality that you might get eaten? And then I’ve also been really fascinated with megafauna, like really large animals, which is like in the ice ages, there was megafauna. So like mammoths and like giant rhinoceros and like really huge animals. So yeah, and like when you put all this together, you have Iceland with megafauna with giant animals that are really dangerous. And sometimes people eat them, but sometimes they eat the people. But then again, because I’m me, I also had put in monsters.
At the front of mine, he was like, he asked me like, what’s the difference between an animal and the monster?
And I think what makes the monsters in the story, what makes them monsters is that nobody has ever seen them.
So and I think that like, that’s that is what you need in monsters.
You need this, like they are the unknown, I think.
Yeah, yeah.
So that’s kind of how it came about.
And but I had to really, and it was quite tricky, like trying to, because I didn’t want to, like my perspective or like modern perspective and put it in that story.
So I, yeah, so I had to think a lot about like, what, how do these people think and, and how would that society work?
And yeah, and how is their outlook on life, I think.
IAC
And there’s, there’s parts where there’s different, different groups that are that spread out, come back together for a season to trade with each other and kind of like gather together. And part of the culture of catching up with people is kind of finding out literally who survived, who was the last season or something like that. So and it’s just, it’s people treated as like a matter of fact, but just part of the world. And so if I can, and again, the rest of this is mainly my selfishness, wanting to make sure that I’m understanding the story. So I guess I started taking questions down around chapter, chapter eight, right as, right as the group is coming into this large village, and you describe the main fire and the long tent and the couple of tents surrounding that. Was that based off of historic Iceland a thousand years ago?
HK
Yeah, so I based them on, yeah, on, I think they call them löngtjöld or something. Yeah, I based them on like the, yeah, basically, so I would describe their technology as kind of being like, like when Iceland was settled by Vikings.
So they can, they can, they can like work metal, they can work iron from the box, did you call it like peat? I don’t know. So basically, their technology is kind of similar to the technology that people had when they, yeah, when they first settled in Iceland, I kind of based it on that.
IAC
Okay. And then, but yet at the same time, as everyone’s coming together, our main character is seeing people and getting excited and there’s friends are greeting each other. So it’s, it’s like that part has to the thousands of years, human nature is still generally the same. We’re excited to see old faces and old friends and find out, you know, what people have been doing, catching up to friends that we haven’t seen in a year.
HK
Yeah, and of course, and you know, and they’re teenagers, so they, you know, get drunk and they fall in love. And you know, and I also wanted to like talk about like life goes on, life happens, you know, even though the living conditions are maybe harsh, you know.
IAC
And a couple of the instruments you described, the longspil.
HK
Yeah, so yeah, so that’s an actual like old Icelandic instrument.
Yeah.
IAC
So this is neat, you really brought in, you brought in parts of classic Iceland into the storyline. Moving on, the seals in chapter nine, the seals that they’re hunting.
So they had, so if I understood correctly, they could only hunt these large seals when the seals came on the shore because they were just too fast in the water.
HK
Yeah, or so they are hunting the baby seals. And they have to wait until their mother goes into the water and then they can kill the baby seal.
IAC
Okay, that makes sense.
HK
Yeah.
But the baby seal is like huge and you need like four people to drag it away from the from the shore. And they have to do it like before the momma seal gets back because like she’s huge and just crush them.
Yeah.
IAC
And right when Jófríður the begins to try to attack one, and unfortunately she gets pulled in or she kind of falls towards the water.
There’s a part where some seaweed or something gets entangled.
Is that just the seaweed getting tangled up?
Where’s that?
HK
Yeah, yes, yes, yes.
She just slips on like slippery seaweed.
Yeah.
IAC
And again, very tender scene right around page 77 where her mom’s kind of taking care of her and she’s like, I don’t want to lose you that really hit home. Yeah, I’ve really been enjoying this book.
HK
Thank you. Thank you very much.
IAC
And then I yeah, right around chapter 10, we move into the part where Síður kind of comes and he wants to after when Jófríður is recovering, he wants to take her for a walk and they kind of fall in love.
And then it’s then when after that they’re kind of they’ve coupled up and then Bressi comes back, which is her lifelong friend.
Is that’s I kind of that’s where I kind of that’s where the point of which I am in the reading is like there’s that jealousy that starts and Eirfinna is talking to Jófríður there saying that he’s like he’s liked you all of his life. And it’s just kind of neat. It looks like it looks like any like teenaged angst, you know, you’re trying to navigate that really difficult time in life. You know, we all remember that. So yeah, I just I guess there’s no questions here. I’m sorry. I’ve really enjoyed I’ve really enjoyed this book. And then once like, yeah, once I’ve just kind of come to understand what’s going on and it’s been really fun.