What I Want You to Experience When You Read The Runes of the North
When I started writing The Runes of the North, I wasn't just thinking about the story I wanted to tell. I was also thinking about how I wanted someone to feel while reading it.
I wanted the book to feel like an exploration.
I wanted you to feel as though you're stepping into the story alongside Elin, discovering things as she discovers them. Not knowing exactly where the next clue will lead, or whether something you've already read will become important later.
I didn't want everything to be explained immediately.
There is something I really enjoy about mysteries where you are given just enough information to start forming your own ideas. You notice something small, perhaps a symbol or a detail that doesn't seem particularly important at first, and then later you begin to wonder if there was more to it than you realised.
That is the kind of reading experience I wanted to create.
I wanted you to have questions.
And then, hopefully, even more questions.
The landscapes are also an important part of that experience.
Scandinavia has such a strong sense of history. There are mountains, forests, ancient stones, archaeological sites and landscapes that have witnessed generations of people before us. When I was writing, I wanted some of that feeling to come through in the story.
I wanted you to be able to imagine standing there.
Looking at something ancient.
Wondering who stood there before you.
What they believed.
What they knew.
And what might have been lost over time.
For me, that is one of the fascinating things about archaeology. We can uncover something that has been hidden for hundreds or even thousands of years, but finding an object doesn't necessarily mean we understand the story behind it.
Sometimes we are left with fragments.
Objects.
Symbols.
Stories.
Places.
And unanswered questions.
I wanted those ideas to become part of the mystery within The Runes of the North.
Mythology and folklore are woven into the story as well, but I didn't want them to simply sit in the background as decoration. I wanted them to feel like part of the world Elin is trying to understand.
Some of the things she encounters have their roots in real history, traditions and places. Other elements belong to the fictional world of the story.
I enjoy that space between what we know and what we don't.
That little feeling of could there be something more to this?
And that is where I wanted the book to live.
I wanted there to be moments where you can slow down and take in the surroundings, and other moments where the story pulls you forward because you need to know what happens next.
I wanted curiosity to gradually become tension.
I wanted discovery to sometimes bring more questions than answers.
And I wanted the deeper Elin goes into the mystery, the more you feel that there is something beneath the surface that she has yet to understand.
But above everything else, I want the book to feel immersive.
I don't want you to simply read about a mountain, an ancient site or a forgotten story.
I want you to picture yourself there.
I want you to hear the silence of the landscape.
I want you to feel the atmosphere of the places Elin visits.
I want you to become curious about the things she discovers.
And when she finds something that doesn't quite make sense, I want you to be asking the same questions she is.
Because for me, the best kind of mystery isn't one where you are simply waiting for someone to give you the answer.
It's one where you are trying to work it out for yourself.
That is the experience I hope The Runes of the North will give you.
A feeling of curiosity.
A sense of discovery.
A little unease.
Moments where you stop and wonder what something really means.
And hopefully, that feeling of wanting to turn the next page because there is something else waiting to be uncovered.
Most importantly, I don't want you to simply read about the world I've created.
I want you to feel like you've entered it.
Because when I was writing this story, I wasn't just trying to create a mystery for you to solve.
I was trying to create a world for you to explore.
-R. D. Holmstedt
Comments