Til Finland!

Hejsan, allesammen og godt nyt år!
jeg håber alle har det godt og har haft et godt år i 2006 - og at 2007 bli'r endnu bedre.
Jeg har lige fået gode nyheder fra Finland - Taavi har konfirmeret at SKS's årsmöde holdes i Finland sidste weekenden i maj, dvs. i dagene 25. - 27. maj.
Nærmere oplysninger ventes senere i måneden, eller i begyndelsen av februar.
Jeg ved ikke akkurat HVOR i Finland vi skal mödes - men det er vel ingen dum idé at bestille tickets til Helsinki så snart som muligt, det er vel förste stop for de fleste av os i Norge, Sverige, Danmark og Island, på vejen til mödet.

ævar örn.

De nya stadgarna

Hejsan, alla tilsammans.
Via linken SKS-stadgar kommar ni åt de nya, redigerade stadgarna, som vi har aksepterad vid årsstämman i Köpenhamn den 20 maj 2006.
Några flere ändrinar blev diskuterat, men inte aksepterad/beslutat vid denna årsstämman, och jag vet at inte alla er nöjd med detta - men det er fakta, att vi inte röstade om de föreslagarna , så de får venta til vores nästa årsstämma, i Finland 2007.
Men "do not despair" - jag hittar inte det skandinaviska ordet for "despair", sorry...
Ingen - jag vågar att lova detta - ingen vil säja någonting, om enskilda medlemssällskaper utser 3, 5, 7 eller 327 människor för att välja sitt lands kandidat for Glasnyckeln - det som gäller er att juryen for självaste Glasnyckeln til slut består av tre personer - dvs när det er dags att välja mellan de fem, nordiska kandidatarna.
Men för vi träffas i Finland nästa är får vi utreda denna saken, vi skal ha glasklare regel for hur det ska se ut med juryerna och hur de skal fungera. Melda er om ni har konkreta föreslag pg. detta emnet!

Nyheter fra Island

Hallöjsan alla samman!
En liten bidrag på skandinavisk, denne gången ...
2005 var et stort år for islandske krimier/deckare, med åtminstone 10 krimis, måske 12, det er litt av en defineringsproblem... Vår jury arbetar just nu med at finde ut av, hvilken av dom er den beste - och 10 författare holder fingrene kryssat (Jag vinner bestemt ikke, for jag måste av-krydsa fingrarna for att skriva detta ... )
2006 publiseras 6 deckare, som jag vet om, måske flere, vi får se. Ni som har besökt SKS-möterna kender minst två, kanske tre av disse forfattere, som nu har nya deckare ut, dvs. Arnaldur Indriðason, Árni Þórarinsson och Páll Kristinn Pálsson, som skrivar sin andra, gemensama deckare, och så jag sjelv.
Den fjerde deckaren - som egentligen er en thriller - er skrivet af Stefán Máni, vores glasnyckel-kandidat sista år, som inte blev översatt på grund av att forlaget inte ville betala for översättningen.
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir skrivar den femte, det er hennes andra krimi, men hennes förste, som blev publiserat ifjol, var väldig populär och er blevet översatt til många språk.
Och den sjette er fra vores veninne som vi aldri sett, nämligen Stella Blómkvist.
Så det ser rett bra ut med islandske deckare i år.
Torsdag 30. november har vi vores årliga krimikvell/deckarafton på Grand Rokk - pub, med fritt whiskey och sigarrer och jazz - och opplesning ur nye krimier, förstås ...
Hur ser det ut i dom andra länderna?
Skriv til mig, och så publiseras det här så snart möjligt ...

Finland 2007, ? 2008, Iceland 2009

As most of you will know by now, Suomen Dekkariseura will be hosting the AGM and the awarding of the Glass key next year. What not so many of you knew, until now, is that we are ready to host these events in the spring of 2009! Yes, I know, it's still a long way away, but anyway...
I reckon it's okay to go public with this information, even if it's not officially official as yet, but our boss, Kristinn, committed the Icelandic crime society to host AIEP's AGM in 2009, so we'll do a double since we're at it... Start saving up for the trip now, it'll be worth it - even if it keeps raining.

But: Do we have a candidate for 2008? Norway? Sweden? Anyone? Somebody mentioned Barbados, but I'm not sure they're up to it.

Cheers,
Ævar Örn.

The worst summer

This is a warning - if anyone of you out there were planning to visit the south, west or, particularly the southwest corner of Iceland this summer: Forget it!
The weather in the northeast has been o.k. but over here - where people actually live - this has been the rainiest, coldest, most miserable of icelandic summers as far back as I can remember - and believe me, I remember a lot of cold, wet and miserable summers and this one tops them all.
Guess I'll just have to stay indoors and write. A crime novel, maybe. Or something.

Cheers,
Ævar Örn.

Copenhagen report

Hello folks - and congratulations Sweden and Finland!
As most of you probably know by now, the 15th Glass key went to Sweden this year, just like last year (we really have to figure out how to beat the swedish mafia, folks, this just can't go on - even if we are a criminal organization...). But, anyway, Stieg Larsson's Man som hatar kvinnor (this should be men in plural, but I'm using a stupid computer right now that doesn't have the double dots at the ready on the keyboard, and I'm just too stupid and lazy to bother finding them somewhere else...) was the best nordic crime novel this time around, according to the juries of the five countries participating in this annual competition of nordic crime writers. The other candidates were, as you no doubt have heard, even if I've neglected publishing this here on the blog, Finlands Matti Yrjana Joensuu (I'll correct the spelling as soon as I get back to Iceland...) for his novel Harjunpaa ja pahan pappi (Harjunpaa och djavulens prest); Norways Frode Grytten for his novel Flytande björn and Denmarks Gretelise Holm for her novel; Under fuld bedövelse. Iceland did not have a candidate this year, for reasons previously explained.
Sadly, Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack before his first crime-novel was even published. He passed away in november 2004, a few months before Men som hatar kvinnor was published, only 50 years old.
This novel, however, was only the first one in a trilogy he called The millenium trilogy, which he had already written before his premature death. The second novel in this criminal trilogy; Flickan som lekte med elden, will be published shortly.

The AGM itself went better than anyone could hope for - or not nearly as well as some might have hoped... I'm not at all sure how to put it, to be honest. There were not many of us there, but representatives from all four remaining countries in the SKS as suc, i.e. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, were present at the meeting, and Anders Koch Nielsen was present at the handing over of the Glass key on friday, representing Denmark.
In short, we can put it like this: The show will go on.

There was a compromise of sorts, regarding the premises for membership/partnership in the SKS/glass-key co-operation. There is no obligation to host a conference/AGM/glass-key ceremony on any host country. If some member-organization takes it up on itself to host a regular, full-blown meeting, the glass-key will be presented at that very meeting. Should this not be the case, however, it is up to the winner's home-country to do something in order to bring attention to the fact that she/he won the award.

Some more changes were made to SKS's rules in order to simplify things and secure the future participation of all five independent nordic countries in the glass-key co-operation, the details will be published here as soon as the minutes of the AGM are ready.

Let it suffice to say, that the 11 of us who were there left Copenhagen pretty optimistic as to the future of the Glass-key - at least I left Copenhagen in a much more optimistic mood than I was in before the AGM.

As to the meeting beyond the meeting - the informal meeting of minds and friends - it was, I think, quite successfull. We had some nice chats, the outer surroundings were a bit chilly, I admit (Copenhagen was not in it's sunniest of moods, this time around), but the Faroese house was as cozy as ever, their food, their hospitality and the general, laid-back atmosphere of this nice house made us all, I think, feel at home and welcome.

We also shared a nice dinner on friday night, but as there was no conference, the program ended early saturday afternoon, and the majority of attendees went their seperate ways after that. I freely admit that I quite regret having decided to spare myself the costs of another night in a hotel and going directly to visit my very best friend in the world instead. Ordinarily, this would not be a decision to regret, but as I sat there in front of the tv, with my very best friend in the world, his wife and a couple of their friends, cheering - along with everyone else at this small and informal party - for Lordi and their success as each and (almost) every country gave them 8 or 10 or 12 points that fateful saturday night, I must admit that I wished I'd stayed and went with Paula, Marja and Taavi to some pub or another to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. I almost jumped on a train back to Copenhagen, as the voting progressed and Lordi's victory seemed more and more of a certainty... But I decided to do the sensible, responsible thing, and just get drunk in their honour right where I was instead...
But I bet no-one had more fun in Copenhagen that night than Paula, Marja and Taavi. And I must say that Lordi's victory renews my hope in mankind...

Anyway, this years conference was short and to the point - and, I think, quite successfull. We managed to change the rules in a way that will hopefully secure the future of the Glass-key, and we had a good time together. What more can one ask for? Well, a full blown conference for one thing, some might say - and that's exactly what we're getting next year if everything goes according to plan - and that conference will be held in Finland.

So keep posted - if we stick with the tradition, the conference will be held on the same weekend as the Eurovision finals ... and that will surely be an extraordinary weekend in Finland next year.

And yes - alas - I was, under heavy protest, elected president again. So it's not all good news from Copenhagen - but most of it is.

SKS's framtid - the short version

Hallo alla tilsammans!
In the following 19 (!) short articles (as there seems to be a newly developed problem with publishing long articles on this blog) I dare to present to you my view of SKS's future. I have already sent an e-mail with approximately the same content to all vice-presidents for consideration. But this is the short version:

• we should stick together and keep it simple
• anyone who wants to be eligible for nominating and voting for a Glass-key candidate has to be a member of the SKS
• being a member of SKS (as a national society) involves only two things: The Glass Key (nominating the respective society's candidate and, after that, voting until we have a winner...) and hosting the AGM every five years (if there are five societies in the SKS willing to fulfill these (easy) conditions).
• let's have some fun, folks
• As for the rest of it, it's just something we have to work out. And we can work it out - if we want to. Why make things complicated, when they can be simple? After all, we're not Germans (and let's hope no Germans read this site and start burning Icelandic flags in protest of this insulting generalization of german philosophy...)

PLEASE - do not hesitate to comment upon each and every article concerning SKS's future - either as a direct comment on each article, or as a seperate article to be posted here (simply mail it to me: avarorn@simnet.is and I will post it asap.

SKS's framtid - Statutes and purpose

The main – no, the ONLY purpose of SKS should be what is stated in paragraphs 2 and 6 of its statutes.
It is my personal opinion, that there is no need to be too formal about this whole business. Of course we have to have clear-cut, simple and sensible no-nonsense guidelines, rules or statutes, which we have to follow. But the main thing is to ensure that nordic crime-writers, as well as academics and enthusiasts in the field of crime-writing, keep in touch, compare notes – and compare novels/short stories, with the aim of rewarding the best each year.
My idea of the SKS is that it should be a loose-knit organisation, what we in the north call a paraply-organisation, made up of the various, national societies, and – possibly – also individuals who care to join us and, according to paragraph 3, meet the requirements for membership on their own.
Such individuals will have to apply for membership and be accepted – or rejected – at an AGM, and we might well add some further amendments to our statutes as to how this is to be done (does the individual need to have published a certain number of books/short stories/articles or otherwise made him/herself worthy of membership? Does he/she need recommendation from one or more members? Etc.)
This, however, does not mean that these individuals have anything to say about who gets the Glass Key – this should be left exclusively to the juries of the respective, national societies. If, however, any of these societies choose to ask an individual who is not amongst its members to be a member of their jury, that, of course, is their prerogative.

SKS's framtid - No effort: No reward.

But – and this, to me, is a non-negotiable premise for any society wanting to have a say about the Glass-key – the respective society must be a member of the SKS.
To me, it seems unreasonable and, quite frankly, simply unacceptable for any society to insist on nominating and voting on a candidate for SKS’s Glass key, whilst denouncing SKS and refusing to be part of it at the same time.
It kind of reminds one of the story of the Little red hen (and for those who do not know this story,

here

it is).
And surely, fulfilling the duties of a member of SKS is a lot less hassle than what that poor old hen had to go through before she finally got to eat her bread...
If a society is not a member of the SKS – well, then it’s not entitled to enter a candidate for the Glass key. It’s as simple as that. Or that, at any rate, is my personal opinion on this particular issue. Feel free to disagree and try to convince me along with anyone else within SKS that this should not be so.

SKS's framtid - The simple life

Is it not possible to simply make this an organisation, where the five contributing societies (+ perhaps a couple of enthusiastic individuals) meet for a chat, an interesting exchange of views and experience and eventually a few interesting lectures from a few interesting extra/celebrity-guests once a year, and then simply go about their own business for the rest of the year?
Does the co-operation have to go beyond the co-ordination of the juries and the joint prize awarded in the wake of that limited co-operation?
Has it ever done so?
And is it really necessary to have a full-blown organization with a seperate budget and all the hassle that comes with it? A board consisting of a president, five vice presidents and a secretary and whatnot? An accountant?
My answer, until I hear otherwise, is no.
This is how I see it: We have five, national societies, each of them different in some ways; membership-criteria, numbers, etc. But we know of each other, and we have certain things in common. And we want to meet each other and award a prize for the best, nordic crime-novel/book of short stories each year.
So where’s the problem?