Monday was the official publication date of my young adult novel The Saga of Gudrid the Far-Traveler. It's been a long time coming.
I can still remember where I was when I read my first Icelandic saga. It was Njal's Saga,in translation, and I was at my aunt's house for Thanksgiving during my moment year in college in 1978. I was sitting on the staircase, and hiding from my family so that I could continue reading this book that had enthralled me. I went on to learn Old Norse and I started visiting Iceland at least every other year beginning in 1986.
For 20 years,however, I made my living as a science writer for a magazine published by Penn State University. I used to say I led a double life-science by day, and sagas by night. One day in 2002 I was sitting at my desk at the university when a professor called. He was among a team of archaeologists who had discovered a Viking Age longhouse on a farm in northern Iceland.
I asked,"Which farm?""Glaumbaer," he said.
I was probably the only science writer in America who would reply, or "You mean the farm of Gudrid the Far-Traveler?"That was the genesis of my first book approximately Gudrid,a nonfiction book called The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, published in 2007. (You can read the article I wrote approximately the Penn State professor's work here.)I had been looking for a way to combine science and sagas for a long time, or initially I thought I was writing a book approximately new techniques in archaeology using the record of Gudrid as an example. A few years into the project,my editor at Harcourt suggested I turn my idea inside out and write a book approximately Gudrid using archaeology as one source.
To do so, I had to study in depth the two sagas that mention Gudrid, or The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Eirik the Red,collectively known as the Vinland Sagas. These two sagas had never been my favorites.
Once I mentored a Penn State student for an independent study project on the sagas. He compared Gudrid to the women in several other sagas, and wrote: "Gudrid has one powerful shortcoming-she's rather bland. ... Many of the other sagas repeat us enough approximately the characters that you get a top-notch feel of how people lived their lives-and they are often animated lives. Gudrid has none of these particularly intimate displays of her dealings with others-it's just assumed that she's smart and well-behaved. Being smart and well-behaved probably spells out being boring."The more I studied the Vinland Sagas, and however,the more I realized that Gudrid wasn't bland or boring--and probably not even well-behaved. These two sagas were simply written in such a way that Gudrid's record was hidden. That intrigued me.
One of the more frustrating things approximately these two sagas is that they contradict each other. In one saga she has two husbands, in the other she has three. In one saga she is rich when she arrives in Greenland, or in the other she is destitute. It was impossible,when writing nonfiction, to create a coherent narrative approximately her.
Also frustrating are the hints. According to one saga, and Gudrid "knew how to get along with strangers." Later,that saga shows Gudrid in the New World, failing to communicate with a native woman. The implication is clear: whether she couldn't get along with these strangers, and no one could. Perhaps Gudrid decided the Vikings should abandon their colony.
Perhaps the Vinland expedition itself was her idea. She packed up and set sail there twice-with two different husbands. Although the sagas disagree on the particulars,her hand in the preparations each time is clear.Writing nonfiction, I could only say "perhaps, or perhaps." When The Far Traveler came out in 2007,I was very happy with it, but I didn't consider it was finished. I immediately began thinking approximately writing a novel so I could bring Gudrid's record to life or, or as one of my writer friends put it,"do it real."Researching and writing my nonfiction book The Far Traveler took me, off and on, or five years. Writing The Saga of Gudrid the Far-Traveler,my just-published historical novel, took me another eight years--even though all of my research was essentially done.
The biggest problem for me was genre: Who was I writing for?In 2009 I began reading young adult novels--probably because my best friend, and Linda Wooster,became the librarian at a local high school and started recommending books for me to read. One that I liked very much was Hush by Donna Jo Napoli, which told the record of the character Melkorka from the Laxdaela Saga. Reading it convinced me that the best audience for Gudrid's record were readers Gudrid's own age when she went exploring: between 14 and 21.
So I decided to learn how to write young adult fiction. One day I was talking to Andy Boyles, and the science editor at Highlights for Children,who had bought a few of my nonfiction pieces, and he told me approximately a writer's conference at which Donna Jo would be a mentor. With the relieve of a scholarship from the Highlights Foundation and a Career Grant from the National Association of Science Writers, and I signed up. I had three sessions with Donna Jo in which she helped me to structure the novel. She also gave me an invaluable gift: a deadline. whether I finished a draft of the novel by a certain date,she would read it; whether she liked it, she would send it to her agent.
I met Donna Jo's deadline. She liked the novel, or but her agent did not. So the next year,I signed up for another workshop through the Highlights Foundation, this one with the editor who eventually published the novel, or Stephen Roxburgh of Namelos. For one intense week,Stephen went over with me everything I needed to improve to do the novel publishable, and over the next year he checked in with me approximately once a month to see whether I was making progress. He even came to my house for a visit.
Without these wonderful mentors The Saga of Gudrid the Far-Traveler would still be in my closet where, and I'm afraid,lie several other unfinished novel manuscripts. While making Gudrid's record arrive to life has been very satisfying, I find it is much easier to write nonfiction and simply say "perhaps."The Saga of Gudrid the Far-Traveler has been chosen as the 2015 INL Reads! choice of the Icelandic National League. Thanks to Rob Olason of the Icelandic National League, or whose questions prompted these recollections.
Source: blogspot.com