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Monday, March 23, 2009

Scandinavian Crime Fiction survey - help needed

I've recently received an email asking for crime fiction fans' help:
I've been reading crime fiction for many years, and have carried this interest with me to my MA in Creative Writing, which I'm doing at the moment. Luckily, (as part of my course) I now have the opportunity to carry out some research into the publishing phenomenon of my choice, and I have opted to look at Scandinavian crime fiction.

.... I'm looking for readers to complete a shortish online questionnaire on their experiences of this sub-genre.
If you feel like contributing, and I'm sure she'd appreciate it, the survey is here. (You can do the survey anonymously if you wish and it is quite short!)

7 comments:

  1. Done, and it is short and painless. I was rather surprised to find a question about book covers - more marketing than creative writing, I should have thought, but never mind.

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  2. I wanted to be helpful, but I certainly don´t remember my first Scandinavian crime novel, or when I read it???? My first favourite was Lord Peter Wimsey, and I really don´t know where I went from there. Norwegian Maria Lang, perhaps.

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  3. Anonymous1:14 pm

    i enjoyed that!

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  4. Oddly enough I vividly remember my first - it was the first Mankell published in the US and I had bought it for our library.

    I think the covers question has to do with "publishing phenomenon" theme of the project, which may be more about analyzing trends in publishing than about writing per se.

    Gee, wonder if this means Americans and Brits will start writing books with Scandinavian settings to get in on the trend :-)

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  5. I've done it too - thanks for posting the link! I think the first one I read was Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, but I am not sure. I agree that the book cover question was odd - snow, ice and bare trees seems to be a theme, but I don't read books based on their covers ;-)

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  6. Anonymous9:15 am

    Hi, I filled up the form. Can I see the other responses or the site of the person who has asked these questions.

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  7. Hello everybody. Thank you very much for responding to my questionnaire - your contributions are appreciated. I'll just add that the focus of my research is the identity of Scandinavian crime fiction from the perspective of reader and publishing industry. I'm carrying out this project for a course called 'The Novel in Society' which does have something of a commercial bias, hence the question about book covers!

    There is a creative element, too; you'll be amused and possibly horrified to hear that I'm writing a Scandinavian crime-type short story as part of this assignment. Your answers to my questionnaire will influence this. It's at an early draft so far, but I know it will be called 'In His Absence' and is set in Orkney.

    I haven't had a creative writing blog before, but have just set one up. There aren't many entries so far - just a couple. But you're welcome to browse it at: http://selfishshellfish.wordpress.com/

    When my project is complete and has been marked I will post a summary there, too.

    You're welcome to get in touch with me on this or any subject.

    Happy reading!

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