My Author Focus blog articles are aimed at highlighting talented writers whose work I admire and who I believe deserve a wider audience. This month, it’s the turn of Bjørn Larssen. Bjørn was the very first independent author I read, when I picked up his novel Children in 2020. I reviewed this on Goodreads last year and I’ll always remember it was where my love of independent fiction first began. Children is a retelling of Norse myth, taking those familiar tales and viewing them from a different standpoint, where the side characters take centre stage. It was a novel with so much going on, defying all my expectations whilst still retaining the essence of the source material. It really opened my mind to what was possible with fantasy fiction.

Bjørn must be doing something right because his debut novel, Storytellers, outsold 96% of all books released in 2020. Fellow novelists should stop and reread that sentence again, because it gave me pause for thought. Countless books are released every year but as Elle Griffin’s fascinating post from last year highlights, 96% of novelists only sold between 0 and 1,000 copies of their books in 2020.

Despite the odds, Bjørn has bucked the trend, choosing a clear path as an independent author, which has not only found him a growing audience but has also garnered notable critical acclaim. Storytellers was a 2019 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Winner and a 2021 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Award Finalist, whilst Children was a 2020 Stabby Award Nominee. In addition, Bjørn was a Queer Indie Awards Winner (Speculative Fiction) in 2022.

Bjørn has also recently joined the blogging team at Before We Go Blog. His article on the impact of Bridget Jones’s Diary in the 1990s is a great and revealing read. I also enjoyed his witty and acerbic assessment of the movie Don’t Look Up, one of my favourite films from last year.

All Bjørn’s writing displays his trademark wit and humour, and his latest release, Why Odin Drinks, gives full rein to this side of his writing. An initial novella, Creation, was released in 2021 to significant critical acclaim and Bjørn’s now expanded on this concept in a new release in 2022. The Creation novella is now incorporated into a collected series of four short stories/novellas, entitled Why Odin Drinks, and you can read my Goodreads review of the collection here. In contrast to Children, Why Odin Drinks is a laugh out loud comedy, where Bjørn skilfully combines toilet humour, satire, pop culture and what it means to be a god when there’s no instruction manual. Whilst this is clearly a humorous book, Bjørn also uses this as a platform to explore deeper, philosophical questions. As ever with his writing, you need to be paying attention.

His latest literary direction certainly shouldn’t be confused with an author who is anything other than serious and ambitious in his work. The world has become a darker, more unpredictable and worrying place with the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia. There can be times when as writers we ask ourselves why we create art in the face of so much anguish and misery, as subject Bjørn explores in his excellent February blog article. Whatever your chosen genre or creative medium, I believe art remains important in the face of everything the world confronts us with. Suffering and dark days are always with us, although sometimes they can come uncomfortably close to home. Yes, the world will find ways to hurt us and those we love. However, people still want to escape from that, to be elevated, to have their lives made richer and to experience something more. As Bjørn puts it:

What can I do that will actually make people feel better?

Perhaps the only answer is “make them laugh.”

What next? Bjørn is already working on a sequel, entitled Bloodbath & Beyond. I also understand there’s a romance novel in the works as well.

I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Bjørn over the past couple of years. As fellow novelists it’s always good to find people with whom you can share ideas, as well as the highs and lows of life as an author. I think Bjørn is one of the most talented and versatile writers around (and no, he hasn’t paid me to write this article). He’s a unique voice in fiction and I really enjoy the breadth of his work and admire the ambition of his writing. If this post helps him find a few more readers, then my work is done.