Steaming lava fields & rotten shark meat: researching my novel

Researching a novel isn’t exactly like, say, conducting laboratory research. Luckily for me. A few experiences from my first 10-day “research” trip to Iceland:

 

Floating in a boat on a glacial lagoon – the same lagoon with its dramatic icebergs that years later is now featured on the cover of my book.

 

Watching a sheep with spiraling horns climb on the ruins of the turf-roofed farmhouse where my grandfather had been born in another century.

 

Sampling hákarl, an Icelandic delicacy consisting of fermented shark meat. Enough said.

 

Meeting my distant cousins in Reykjavik, who, despite the fact that they’d never even heard of me before, invited me to luscious salmon feasts in their homes and took me touring around the countryside.

 

Riding a snowmobile over Vatnajökull, Euorope’s largest glacier, and trying not to panic when it broke down in the midst of the vast icy wilderness.

 

Listening to a farmer recite from memory the poetry of my great-great uncle Páll Ólafsson while he milked cows in the barn at dusk.

 

Trekking a still-steaming lava field in the north, where astonishing ribbons of lava seemed frozen in midstream, gleaming with the colors of undiscovered planets.

 

Driving for hours by myself in a rented jeep and never seeing a single car or house or road sign along the way.

 

And, of course, writing down absolutely everything I saw, smelled, heard or imagined in my notebook.

Comments

[colleen]

this makes me daydream while awake...and stirs up many emotions...i can't wait to meet freya

[Cathy Gere]

Hi Christina,
Congratulations on the book. I'm awaiting my copy, and I'll let you know when I'm finished reading it. I've been waiting for this moment, and I just wanted to say that I was so happy when I saw that your LNP was coming out. It sounds like you've been through a lot, but your determination and ambition would not be kept down, and now here you are, waiting for the launch! Good luck with everything.
Cam

[Christina]

Cam,

I'd forgotten about LNPs! So happy you are going to be reading it and thanks so much for your good wishes.

Christina

[Darien Fisher-Duke]

Speaking of the glacial lagoon--we went on a boat tour there too, and there was a seal in about the same spot that the person is on your book cover. All I can say is that I dearly hope the person "in the lagoon" was photo-shopped in! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Sharon]

Christina,
I loved your book! I spent a year in Iceland as a Navy doc at the NATO base in 1992. I've been back to visit a few times and have fond feelings for the country and the Icelanders. It was great to experience "being there" again in your novel.

Your book would make a spectacular movie....

[Adrienne Nunna Hersey Bucholz]

Christina,
I don't even know what to write...but I know I have to! I finished your book and wanted to start from the beginning again....but it was time I got dressed! I connected personally on so many levels throughout, but when Freya's birthday was Feb.18th....mine....that WAS too much! My mother is Icelandic, I live on Long Island...have been to Iceland many times [lived there for one year] but more frequently in recent years-- especially to meet with my female first cousins to discuss "family". Although I spoke Icelandic as a toddler, my Mama didn't enforce it so I lost it and have struggled, shamefully, ever since to regain it. After reading the explanations of the word for horse, perhaps I won't be so hard on myself. What I will do, however, is spend more time talking with my mother! I will be passing your book around to my siblings and children!

Thank you for so much more than a great read!!! I would surely see the movie!!!
Best , Adrienne Nunna

[Gestur Páll Reynisson]

Afar áhugaverð bók. Skemmtilegur frásagnarstíll. Gangi þér vel.

[Amparo 524T]

Dropping by for a hello! http://www.xking.com Hardcore Video