12 Samples — More Details to Come

I’m behind on updates, so I’m going to list work here that I need to create individual entries for later. Contact me for the actual samples if I haven’t posted them yet.

Samples:

Laittomat [Outside the Law] by Tuomas Lius (LIKE)
Tuomas Lius — Outside the Law — Sample Translation (PDF)
Fully synopsis also available.
Pakonopeus [Escape Velocity] by Taavi Soininvaara (Otava)
Taavi Soininvaara — Escape Velocity — Sample (PDF)
Viides tuuli [The Fifth Wind] by Päivi Honkapää (WSOY)
Päivi Honkapää — The Fifth Wind — Sample (PDF)
Meren alku [The Beginning of the Sea] by Päivi Honkapää (WSOY)
Päivi Honkapää — The Beginning of the Sea — Sample (PDF)
Kaisa Lipposen vaihtokaupat [Cassie Stevens Makes a Trade] by Samuli Valkama (Tammi)
Tärisevä traktori [The Trembling Tractor] by Hannu Hirvonen (Tammi)
Suurkontio Tahmapää rakentaa [Big Bear Stickyhead Builds] by Hannele Huovi (Tammi)
Maalla [In the Country] by Tapani Bagge (Tammi)
Alpo löytää kotiin [Alpo Finds His Way Home] by Jukka Lemmetty (Tammi)
Ahaa! sanoi Pikkuruu [Aha! Said Pikaroo] by Hannele Huovi and Kristiina ja Louhi (Tammi)
Soita minulle, Kukka Kaalinen! [Play for Me, Callie Flower] by Sari Peltoniemi (Tammi)
Histamiini ja Koni Alakulo [Histamine and Naggy Crestfall] by Raili Mikkanen (Tammi)

Strange Love / Outoa rakkautta

Turbator/Pelipeitto Oy, 2008

By Kirsti Ellilä

Read an excerpt.

From the Burning Bridge Agency project:

Romantic horror stories

Kirsti Ellilä’s (b. 1958) short stories will be a surprise to readers who expect routine romantic short prose: her stories are literally strange, stories about human relationships in which romance intersects with elements of crime, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Ellilä has demonstrated herself to be an excellent short-story writer with a first-rate ability for describing human relationships, no matter what the genre.

Kirsti Ellilä is a generalist writer who lives in Turku and has published books for children, teens, and adults. Her work in various genres ranges from ironic relationship stories to psychological thrillers, fantasy, and horror. Ellilä has also written science fiction short stories and three plays. Ellilä’s protagonists are female: girls, teenagers, and young women. She describes her characters’ lives, their strengths and weaknesses, through the means of irony and sarcasm, with a feminist spin.

Ellilä’s most recent novel, Life Preservers (Pelastusrenkaita, Karisto 2010), touches on the discussion within the Lutheran about the rights of sexual minorities, female ordination, divorce, and love affairs between middle-aged women and young men. Life Preservers is an independent sequel to the novel Priest on Board (Pappia kyydissä, Karisto 2009). Ellilä’s next work, a fairytale novel written for teens named Reetta and the Prisoners of the Castle (Reetta ja linnan vangit), will appear in fall 2010.

What the critics are saying about Kirsti Ellilä:

“The characters are regular mortals, quiet and conscientious everyday types, whose extravagant passions and sexual desires, as well as their most powerful dreams and visions, are revealed as the narrative progresses. … Ellilä’s genius is precisely in this mode of narration, in which the internal and secret passions of the absolutely average, everyday person float to the surface.” – Hömpän helmet women’s literature blog

“Ellilä builds the action of the book with a light touch” –Salla Vrunou, Etelä-Saimaa newspaper

“I recommend this for everyone, both as entertainment and to spark ideas and conversation.” – Kirjavinkit.fi book reviews

“Ellilä’s trump card, in addition to humor, is that she makes her protagonists multidimensional, interesting characters. She skillfully writes according to the conventions of the romance genre, yet at the same time modifying and turning those same conventions on their head.” – Sanojen aika, Helsinki City Library