I Never Expect
I never expect to
write a thing -
Certainly not another
thing.
One fifteen,
I lie in bed,
Teeth brushed, face
clean,
A Håkan Nesser* in my
hand.
On page a hundred
five
It’s come
alive.
Before that it was
heavy -
Just a little dense
for me.
At my side
With pencil, tiny
bedside pad;
I whittle one or two
sharp-witted titillating titles
With a bibble babble
text to follow;
Who knows what I’ll
tweak tomorrow?
I’ve rubbed up
'gainst the Nesser lamp,
Borrowed just a bit
of brilliance,
Unashamed to put his
stamp,
Take that loan and
use it as my own,
Which name, of
course,
I’ll praise.
I’m merely grateful
for each phrase
That comes to pass.
*Hakan Nesser Swedish
author of crime fiction.
Writing is a creative process, and you need to have the doors and windows of your mind open so that you have the possibility of change. -- Håkan Nesser
Håkan Nesser was 38 when his 1st book ("Koreografen") was published and 43 when his 1st crime novel ("Det grovmaskiga nätet" -- The Mind's Eye) came out, and he duid not become a full-time writer until he was 48. He has said, "It is difficult to survive as an author in Sweden, so for commercial success, it is a good idea to write crime, get yourself translated, and live happily ever after.... I t ink the genre is good; it deals with the fundamental questions of life and death.... What i am interested in is family dramas and why we are doing bad things to each other and what our motives are." In his early novels the main protagonist was Van Veeteren, a police inspector who later retired to run an antique bookstore. Later, Nesser wrote from the perspective of inspector Gunnar Barbarotti. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and he has won the Bästa svenska kriminalroman (Best Swedish Crime Novel Award) 3 times (for "Borkmanns punkt" [Borkmann's Point] in 1994; "Kvinna med födelsemärke" [Woman with Birthmark], 1994; and "En helt annan historia" 2007) and the 2000 Glasnyckeln (an award given to Nordic crime novels, named after Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel "The Glass Key") for "Carambole" (Hour of the Wolf).
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