Portobello Book Blog

My big dream has always been to be published in English. It sometimes felt like chasing the holy grail and a unicorn – except harder. But, it’s possible. I know that now.

               I’m Norwegian. I’m not really biIingual in the sense that I grew up speaking English.  I didn’t have English-speaking parents or lived in an English-speaking country. Nor was I particularly brilliant in languages in school. Learning English grew out of obsessive reading and pure desperation.

               I  can remember my first words in English. I must have been about four or five years old, and we were in Kingston, Jamaica. We were in a cafe, it was hot outside and I don’t know why I was sent to buy drinks. But I can remember walking up to the counter, and looking up a a women with the nicest smile on her face.

               “Four cokes, please”, I said, looking back at my mum who was laughing. I was very pleased with myself.  It was also the first time I realised that knowing other languages  meant you could talk to someone who didn’t speak Norwegian.

               And here comes  the obsession and desperation.

               As soon as I learned to read, I was off – I would read anything. The library in my hometown was my favourite place in the world, and I would go there at least two-three times a week to stock up on reading material. I would usually manage to read one book on my way from the library to the bus station. And yes, I have walked into a lightpost on more than one occasion.

               When I was a thirteen, we moved to Benidorm in Spain and stayed for three years. I attended the Norwegian school there, which was fine, but it meant that I no longer had access to a proper library. Most of the books in the school library, I had read, most of them twice or more. And of course, I didn’t speak a word of Spanish.

               Then one day, we stopped at a cafe in Benidorm run by an English woman. I still remember her name. Kay was really sweet and she gave me a bunch of short romances, like pocket novels. They were thin, printed on cheap paper and for some reason all set in hospitals in Germany. But there was a whole stack of them and they were not too difficult to understand, even with my school level English. I was happy.

               I read these novels over and over again, using my battered school dictionary – there was  no Kindle or Google translate back in the seventies. Later I got hold of Agatha Christie books, American romance novels; the type of books tourists would leave behind when they returned home. It did wonders for my language skills. Mostly I would read the book first, without checking any words, just to ‘inhale’ the story, then I would read it again with the dictionary. 

               To entertain myself while I struggled with reading these books, I started writing my own stories. Also, everything on the telly in Spain was dubbed in Spanish – except in musicals, they would speak Spanish, but sing in English, which was wonderfully absurd.

               Because I had no idea what the actors was saying or even what the story was about, I would rewrite the movies as I imagined them. By doing this, I also picked up quite a bit of story telling, dialogue, character development and dramatisation without realising that was what I was doing.  I had never seen a book on how to write. I didn’t even know they existed – no Google, remember.

               Later when we returned to Norway – and to my favourite library – I discovered their English section. I would read everything, sometimes twice or more.

               In the nineties I started writing together with an Indian writer. We wrote thrillers; Nordic Noir before it was a thing. We rewrote the books in English and sent them to UK agents. We  lived in Cheltenham for a year, and while there, went to London and approached agents at their offices. (We asked first). It was fun and a bit crazy, and certainly an experience.

               In 2007, I was able to go full-time as a writer. I write historical romance series in Norwegian, and to amuse myself, I would work on projects in English. Once in a while I would send out short stories, book proposals and the thrillers – we even had a couple of agents in those days. 

               Then in 2017, we moved to Wales, to stay for a couple of years. While we were there, I was picked up by One More Chapter, and found myself with a brief to write a contemporary romance in English, set in Norway.

               I freaked out at least once a day. And then I reminded myself that this was so out of the ballpark, that the best I could do, was to have fun and get on with it. Also, to remember to breathe.

               Although I might have to get a t-shirt with a unicorn holding the holy grail … 

Natalie