catherineldf | Guest Blog Post - Author Margret Helgadottir on "The Stars Seem So Far Away"

Thanks so much, Catherine, for inviting me to talk about my debut book, The Stars Seem So Far Away, published by Fox Spirit Books and released on Valentine’s Day.

The Stars Seem So Far Away is a story set in a dark and apocalyptic world in a distant future. Plagues, famine and wars rage across the dying Earth. The only animals and vegetables left are the ones created in laboratories and artificial soil. The last shuttles to the space colonies are long gone. Pirates roam the tall seas, robbers the main roads. Fleeing the deadly sun, humans migrate farther and farther north. The megacities of Svalbard struggle with the swarms of refugees and must put up temporary refugee camps. It is a pessimistic world, filled with death, misery and despair, but I wanted to tell a story where there’s also hope, love, laughter and friendship.

I have deliberately kept it short; this book is not a heavy brick. I wanted to tell just enough to create an atmosphere, to give the reader a feeling for this fictional world. It’s not a novel, but it’s not a collection of stories either. It’s a hybrid, a fusion of linked tales that together tell a larger story. My intention was to give the readers glimpses from this grim world, like pieces of a larger puzzle, or short film clips.

I also strongly believe in telling broader, more universal stories through the eyes of people who struggle with their own feelings and personal stories. The Stars Seem So Far Away is told through the eyes of five survivors: One girl who sails the Northern Sea, robbing other ships to survive; one girl who guards something on a distant island that could ensure the survival of humans in the future; one guerrilla soldier who fights for independence for his forefathers’ land; and finally, two siblings who become separated when the plague hits Svalbard.

I’m sure everyone says this about their debut work, but this has been an important process for me. It was only two and half years ago that I found confidence enough to start writing fiction for publication. A few of the stories in the book are actually amongst the first stories that I wrote. I have chosen to write fiction in English, which is not my native tongue, so working on the book has also been part of a tough language-learning process. Today, when I read through the book, I can see clearly how I have developed as a writer; the later stories flow better and have a more sure voice.

I usually plot my stories before I start writing them. Sometimes it’s just a few words, other times it’s a detailed sketch. It’s nice to have an idea before I start writing, though I have found that the narrative often changes direction after I begin, and I will not know the ending until I get there. The Stars Seem So Far Away followed this pattern. It was only after I’d written two of the stories that I started to see glimpses of a larger fictional world and realised that I could in fact build a world brick by brick based on these two stories. And then after a few more stories I put up a rough list with stories and details I wanted to include in the larger project. But it was only the frame of the book. I knew how I wanted it to end, but not how to get there. This I only knew after several more stories. It has been a very demanding, but fun, writing process.

I think the idea of this alternative future for the northern parts of the world has been dormant in me for many years. I have for instance been fascinated by the doomsday vault, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, ever since it was built. I have also long pictured a world where humans, due to climate changes, must flee to the northern world, and where places that today are sparsely populated could become covered with cities. I’ve had the image of the skyscraper city on Svalbard in my mind for many years. It’s interesting to look at nearby places and imagine ‘what if?’

I know my writing and language can’t compete with Hemingway or Tolstoy, but I’m very concerned about writing a good story, so I hope I have succeeded in this and that people will like the stories and the characters.

My stories have appeared in several magazines and journals, including Gone Lawn and Luna Station Quarterly. My fiction has also been or will be published in nine print anthologies, including Impossible Spaces, six volumes of Fox Pockets, and two more Fox Spirit publications. I am co-editor of the coffee table book European Monsters, a collection of fiction and art released from Fox Spirit Books in December 2014. It is the first of an annual monster series. In 2015 I will co-edit the second volume in this series and I will also edit an anthology of winter tales. Hopefully there will be time to continue writing as well.

The Stars Seem So Far Away is published by Fox Spirit Books and can be ordered as paperback and Kindle from Amazon. Epub and Mobi are coming soon.

Amazon UK (paperback): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stars-Seem-So-Far-Away/dp/1909348767

And Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stars-Seem-Far-Away-ebook/dp/B00TSR8U6W

Amazon US (paperback): http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Seem-So-Far-Away/dp/1909348767

And Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Seem-Far-Away-ebook/dp/B00TSR8U6W

Learn more about me at my webpage, http://margrethelgadottir.wordpress.com or on Twitter, where I am @MaHelgad