Member: mambo_taxi

Not at all, I'm afraid! I'm just too busy writing in Swedish, which has to be my top priority. I'm so glad you've read and liked my stories though! If you'd like to read something complete, there's my erotica in various anthologies. Click on "English" at my website.

posted by StellaSandberg at 3:07 am (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Oh, I'm glad you found me over at Authonomy! I'm working on translating the first few chapters of my second finished novel right now. I'm sure there are "Swenglish" grammatical constructions and suchlike in my translations, and I'd be grateful if you pointed them out!

posted by StellaSandberg at 3:31 am (EST) on Dec 4, 2008

I'm glad you liked it! I hope the rest in the series will be translated too, but perhaps the ones not set in London don't have the same interest for the English market...
Hehe I thought of that too... I also suffered from the misconception that there would be some reference to a sexual relation between Euthanasia and Agnes, which I waited for in vain throughout the entire novel! I don't know where I got it from. Someone told me Burman's books were "queer" but I don't quite think that a gay detective and a molly house suffice to make them so if the protagonist is 100% straight.

posted by StellaSandberg at 5:36 am (EST) on Oct 2, 2008

Indeed, it is a Romaine Brooks self portrait.

posted by chloelikedolivia at 12:17 pm (EST) on Sep 22, 2008

Amen to that! I guess if you picked it up with the vampire cover you'd be disappointed in the first half and if you picked it up with the pulp cover you'd be disappointed in the second half... The author could have written two different bestsellers instead!

posted by StellaSandberg at 7:46 am (EST) on Sep 22, 2008

That's too bad about "Sabine" - I actually found it a fairly entertaining and easy read. I think it falls apart pretty much exactly in the middle, at the sudden introduction of the vampire thing. After that, I admit I didn't keep on reading as eagerly as in the beginning when I was still hoping for a more properly pulpy development of the lesbian love story. I also hoped I'd get to see more of Sabine, who's a bit elusive, a bit like a very contemporary and anachronistic charicature of the lesbian feminist - and instead she just sort of falls out of the plot altogether. At least any trace of personality does. ;P

posted by StellaSandberg at 6:54 am (EST) on Sep 21, 2008

Sadly, the vampire plot in "Sabine" isn't even a lesbian vampire plot... I've now finished it and I think it falls apart into two different halves - the pulp pastiche and the vampire novel. I bought it with the pulpy cover so I feel cheated! And actually it's very vague on the lesbian sex, there's a lot more straight voyeurism in it, which is odd for a lesbian pulp novel... Let me know what you think!
Thank you for the pulp recommendations! I've read "The Price of Salt" under the title "Carol" and I like it a lot. For a while I was afraid it would degenerate into a detective novel with perhaps a desperate murder and some chasing thrown in, a little like the sudden change of genre in "Sabine", but luckily it didn't. I was so relieved when I read the ending!
Oh I'm sure Sweden can be as exotic as any other place, depending on how different the place you're from is... I've seen English people struck by the fact that most of the country is actually covered with trees. I think nothing of it as most of it is anything but untouched wilderness - more like industrial planted forest mixed with fields and houses and roads - but I guess it seems exotic if you come from a very open and very densely populated farming landscape... And of course historical Sweden can seem exotic to me too, like any historical setting. Come to think of it, none of Burman's historical mystery novels are actually set in Sweden - they're set in London, Rome and I think Istanbul, though the protagonist is a Swedish authoress.
No, I haven't written anything about Queen Christina, for two reasons - I mostly keep to the 19th and 20th centuries and I never use existing historical persons as characters. A lot of people writing historical novels do that, they do a lot of research and write these semi-biographical, semi-fictional accounts of someone's life. I'm not sure what I think about that, ethically. Personally I prefer to have a little more artistic freedom and invent my own characters, that's half the fun!

posted by StellaSandberg at 5:27 am (EST) on Sep 16, 2008

Regarding pulp pastisches, have you read Monica Nolan's "Lois Lenz"? It's a fun read, though imo not as good as the real thing! It feels more like a pastische of some girls' school mystery novel than lesbian pulp fiction, really... Right now I'm reading another one - "Sabine" by A.P. I thought it was a real pulp reissue at first, perhaps because of the anonymity of the author, but sadly the illusion is shattered by a needlessly glued-on vampire theme. I haven't finished it yet, so I'm not quite sure what I think... Do you have any pulp recommendations?
Re "Streets of Babylon" I hesitated between 3 stars and 4. The Swedish original is out of print so I read it in English too and I suspect I might have given it one more star if I'd read it in the original language with Burman's witty style intact... I'm not saying the translation is bad by any means, but it's a funny feeling reading something written from such a Swedish viewpoint in a foreign language and with little explanations such as "the small Swedish town of..." added. So exotic all of a sudden! Anyway, Burman writes mystery novels with very thin and predictable plots, while the real point of her books are the historical settings, the gossip about real and invented celebrities of the day and the funny, self-confident heroine.
I too love everything Garbo but especially Queen Christina...

posted by StellaSandberg at 2:58 am (EST) on Sep 15, 2008

Oh, I didn't realise you could see that! :) Well, I do have some English books too - I found your library because we share quite a few of them. A few of my favourite Swedish authors are translated into English - Carina Burman, Eva-Marie Liffner and Monika Fagerholm. By the way, I love your profice picture from Anna Christie!

posted by StellaSandberg at 11:36 am (EST) on Sep 14, 2008

Thank you! I appreciate it -- I'm wildly behind on my tagging but I have so much fun with them!

posted by daykeeper at 8:52 pm (EST) on May 31, 2008