by Lisa Strømme
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Keep going. If you really want to write, deep in your heart, if you can’t live without it, then keep going. It’s an endurance game. And don’t be disheartened by rejection—it’s an important part of the process because it makes you dig deeper.
Before you even try to get published, make sure what you’ve written is honestly your absolute best. You need to be critical and pick your work apart, leave it for months, come back to it, then improve it, until you are genuinely proud of it from every angle: plot, style, dialogue, setting—everything. You’ll know when you are there. Until that point, you will always know that it could, in some way, be better.
Read. Read. Read.
Be kind to yourself. Be patient. Find a creativity coach, a teacher, or a like-minded writing group who will help you have fun with the process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My heartfelt thanks go to my wonderful agent, Bill Hamilton, for believing in this book and providing such expert guidance and support along the way. I’d also like to thank Becky Brown and the rest of the team at AM Heath.
To my brilliant editor, Clara Farmer, and everyone at Chatto & Windus for giving The Strawberry Girl the perfect home and for offering such a constant stream of warmth, enthusiasm, and professionalism.
Thanks also to Shana Drehs and the team at Sourcebooks in the U.S.
I would like to acknowledge some of the particular sources from which I drew inspiration for this book, namely:
Lykkehuset: Edvard Munch og Åsgårdstrand by Inger Alver Gløersen, Den Munch Jeg Møtte by Inger Alver Gløersen, The Private Journals of Edvard Munch edited and translated by J. Gill Holland, and also what must be the definitive Munch biography in English—Edvard Munch, Behind the Scream by Sue Prideaux, which was an excellent resource.
For their immense generosity, I would like to thank Tone Brunner at the Munch Museum in Olso, Gry Pettersbakken at the Lillehammer Art Museum, and Line Berg Harstrom at Munch’s house in Åsgårdstrand.
I am deeply grateful to Niall Williams for being a milestone on my writing journey. Thank you for inspiring and teaching me, but also simply for writing. I am so grateful to you and Christine Breen for the influence you have had, and the encouragement and generosity you continue to give.
To my fantastic coach and good friend Janet Whitehead for providing inexhaustible reserves of what can only be described as pure magic! You helped me see so many new perspectives, reminded me to have fun with the process, and you never stopped believing.
Special thanks to Heather Hepburn for more than thirty years of unwavering hand-holding, for reading them all, and never giving up the absolute conviction that I could do it.
I am also grateful to the following people for listening and offering continuous support and encouragement: Heidi Andersen, Hege Nedberg, Kjersti Dovland, Robert Bjørka, Lene Mørch Kerrison, my parents, and all my UK friends and family.
Finally, to Dagfinn, Sofie, and Kristoffer. Light. Nothing is possible without you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Credit: Chatto & Windus
Lisa Strømme was born and raised in the UK but has lived in Norway for almost twenty years. Since graduating from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, she has worked as a marketing manager, translator, text editor, and English teacher. Now, she is a full-time writer and creativity coach and teaches courses in the creative process. She is fascinated by history, and her passion is writing historic fiction. The Girl Between is her first novel. Lisa lives near Oslo with her husband and two teenage children.