HORSE’S HEART:
– Preface

Thank you for checking out my book(s)!

I’ve been writing poetry, lyrics and fiction all my life, but I’ve never really shared my works with a wider audience. (Yes, I’m really nervous about this!) Professionally, I’ve written a wide range of non-fictional pieces; worked as an editor, proofreader, writing coach, blogger and journalist; and I have lectured and taught classes in Creative Writing, Media & Communication, English Language & Literature and Swedish Language & Literature. None of that was half as scary as publishing things I’ve written just for fun.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced me into shielding (500+ days and counting as I write these words), I wanted to keep myself busy and, at least somewhat, sane. I decided to write about the experience of being completely isolated, but my mind wasn’t in it. Turns out you can’t keep depression at bay writing about the very thing that threatens to pull you down. I needed something that would excite me and keep my mind out of the black hole.

Luckily, I had something that was vying for my attention. A rather extensive archive of DNF writing projects to be precise. Two of said projects, we can call them Anna and Bo, had always seemed to annoy me more than all the other scripts combined.

Anna was a dystopian AU, set in a rather grim future where a plague has wiped out more than half of humankind and society as we know it has collapsed. I wanted to explore how modern humans would fare in a world where technology fails, food is scarce and money has lost its value. How would they survive? And how would they rebuild?

Bo was a YA fantasy rooted in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. It takes place in our time and is centred around a young girl who grows up believing in the old gods and fairy tales. What happens to a child who “tells tall tales” and believes in a world that doesn’t exist? And what would happen if it turns out she was telling the truth all along?

Both of these stories had potential, but I always felt they lacked that special something. You know, that feeling, whatever it is, that makes you want to share a story with all your friends and family. (Yes, I am that annoying person who wants my people to read, watch and listen to the stories I love, and I’ll shamelessly nag them until they actually do it!)

The pandemic made my old plague story feel relevant, but a part of me believed that Anna and Bo would be really good as a couple. If they weren’t so bloody vanilla! I set about plotting ways to make them work together and that’s when it dawned on me. There was, indeed, a way I could shake things up and inject some serious action, intrigue, and smut into the mix.

Enter DNF project Calle, an MC action romance with a twist. A group of kids in a small country village form a fantasy club. Their mission: to prank teachers, exhaust parents and defeat the school bullies. Over the years, as the kids grow older and their lives become harder, the club grows with them. Until the day they all have to move to the big city to continue their education that is. Will the distance and the fact they won’t be going to the same school anymore break them apart? Or can they find a way to keep their chosen family together?

Chucking Calle into the mix, I set about turning my sweet vanilla duo into a spicy polyamorous thrupple. And here we are… I am now at a stage in my writing where I’m debating POVs, timelines, chapter orders and other technicalities. However, as I’m not 100% sure when, where and how the important characters from the three different stories will meet up for the main (joint) plot events, I’ve decided to focus on developing their backstories for a while.

In a series of stories, that I will be publishing both here on Wattpad and on my blog aswewrite dot com, I will tell you how Ulfrheim came to be, who the main players in the sagas are and how they all came together at the right time. In the first two stories, Horse’s Heart and Fenrir’s Cubbies: The Path To The Patch, we meet Edda, Angel, Horse and, of course, Fenrir’s Cubbies. 

In Horse’s Heart, after nine years of compulsory education, life is about to change for the 68 teenagers leaving Year 9 in Liden, a small countryside village northeast of Sundsvall. A long, glorious summer holiday awaits, and then most of them are off to college in the big city. But first, they have to attend the traditional graduation ceremony in the massive white church, and then there are graduation parties to attend.

Horse has mixed feelings about this day. On the one hand, he is chomping at the bit, ready for the challenge college will bring. On the other hand, he’s dreading saying goodbye to the Cubbies. They have been such a massive part of his life for the past ten years and a life without them doesn’t bear thinking about. What will it be like to only be responsible for yourself? And what is he going to do about Edda?

Edda has mixed feelings too. She needs to have a serious discussion with Horse, but she’s been putting it off for months now. The truth is, she’s been afraid of losing him. The big bad biker boy has no shortage of girls vying for his attention, and she can only imagine what it will be like when he moves to the city. Edda just wants to be left alone, but for that to happen, she needs to remove the target from her back. And that means saying goodbye to the boy she has loved her whole life.

I hope you will tag along on this adventure and look forward to hearing from you in the comment sections!

Love and Lust,

//Lïnnéa x