Big day in my world today. Today (thanks to Ori Pomerantz for his technical expertise) my new novel Hailstone Mountain made its appearance at Amazon. In order to take advantage of Amazon’s promotional programs, we’ll be exclusively with them for a while.
Hailstone Mountain is an H. Rider Haggard-esque story, in which Erling is struck by a curse that could kill him slowly. In order to break the curse, he must sail north (along with Father Ailill, Lemming, and others) to confront the source of the magic face to face. Meanwhile, Lemming’s niece Freydis is kidnapped by her relatives from up in Halogaland, and it’s not a nice kind of family, so she must be rescued. And that sets off repercussions that could destroy the whole country. Erling must join forces with a bitter enemy to stave off a monstrous horror.
In other news, my American Spectator review of the Vikings TV series is now a citation on the show’s Wikipedia page. That’s my second citation there. So where’s my honorary doctorate, already?
It’s possibly not unrelated that (I’m told; I haven’t looked) somebody posted the Spectator piece at Free Republic, where it became the target of ridicule and obloquy. I don’t mind. I’ve heard from a couple people today looking for various kinds of information, so my profile is higher than it was yesterday, and that’s what you want when you’re trying to sell books.
Also it’s pretty much decided that I’m going to be going for my Master’s in Library and Information Science. Where will I find the time? I don’t know. If it cuts into my reading, I can always blog about library science, which ought to be within the parameters of this blog.
Oh, one more thing – if you’re a book blogger with an established blog and have Kindle reader capability, contact me at lars (at) larswalker (dot) com, for a free review copy of Hailstone Mountain. We did that for Troll Valley, and it worked out pretty well.
The release date could have been at least 5 months ago, but I’ve been busy. Mea culpa.
In other news, if you are a book blogger and need an .epub (for Nook, for example), we have that. If you are a reader who prefers Nook, the book is sold by Amazon DRM-free, and you can convert it using Calibre.
Mr. Walker,
I appreciated your piece about the History Channel series on the Vikings, which I read at The American Spectator’s website. I enjoy learning about my ancestors (Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish), but I had no interest in the network’s fictionalized series. Your article made me believe that I made the right choice.
Now, a question: In a preview for the show, I saw a woman warrior. On television and in my readings, I have never come across a female Viking warrior. Is this accurate?
Thank you for your time.
Brian Peterson
Spring Hill, KS
(with many relatives Bemidji and north)
Brian, you’ve stepped onto an area of contention. Some strong statements have been made in recent years about female Viking warriors, and most reenactment groups (including mine) include women who fight.
My own view is that there is no mention of women warriors in the historical sagas (there is some mention in older, legendary material). Secondly, it seems obvious to me that if the Vikings had had substantial numbers of women in their armies, the monks who wrote the chronicles (and hated the Norse) would have mentioned it in their condemnations. But there’s nothing like that.
I believe Viking women were capable of handling themselves, and may have got some training. But sexual roles were pretty clear, and the women’s job was to stay home and manage the farms.
Booyah! Buying …