Have you met my new baby, RANSACKER!?
Weighing in at a delightful 438 pages, Ransacker is my most ambitious novel yet. It’s a companion novel to Berserker (which means it stands apart as its own story) and follows the coming-of-age of Sissel Hemstad, a young Norwegian immigrant living in 1886 Montana with ancient Viking magic running in her blood.
At the beginning of the book, Sissel is the only one of her siblings who has not manifested an ancient Viking power and she thinks she’s been left behind. But she is awakened one night by a strange and irresistible call and finds that she can “hear” the vibrations of precious metals. She is drawn to a nearby stream and purely on instinct plunges her hands into the waters. When she takes them out she finds them covered in gold flake. She is a Ransacker, and has the power to locate and summon precious metals.
While it was challenging, I found it very satisfying to write historical fantasy. I’ve always been fascinated with stories of the pioneer and homesteading times. Setting Ransacker and Berserker there let me play with a lot of western tropes – gold miners, cattle drives, gunfights! And I got to give a Viking twist to it all.
If you’ve enjoyed my books in the past, I would love it if you would check out Ransacker today.
These photos were taken at my NYC book launch party at McNally Jackson! I got to take a photo with my mentor RL Stine and his wonderful wife, Jane. Broadway actors Jennifer Blood and Chris Critelli did a staged reading! It was so much fun!
