Anna goes for a last walk with her dog, Gunnar.

Alexander presents himself to Sigrid as Svein, her dead son.

Anna is visited at her summer farm by her friend Fridtjof. He tells her that it has been three years since Emil went missing and that it is time for her to let go and move on.

Alexander embarks on an audacious plan to win Sigrid's trust.

Anna, Emil's wife, finally opens Emil's will, three years after his disappearance.

Beyond The North Wind was the first novel I wrote and was published on Amazon. I thought it would be fun to narrate and serialise the novel, chapter by chapter.

Here is the first chapter. Alexander, a young Englishman, is passing through Norway after the events in Magnus and, before that, The Book of Alexander (both published by Salt). His story will become entwined with that of a Norwegian woman, Anna, who is looking for her missing husband, Emil.

Excellent advice, from a senior lecturer in creative writing at the Open University, on all stages of writing a novel. How to start, keep going, and produce a draft ready for submission to an agent.

What can a writer expect from a "writing career"? Ups and downs, highs and lows, of course! With experience comes wisdom. Learning about writing, books, readers, and the publishing industry never stops.