Michelle Richmond

The Coldest Book Tour: Visiting a Danish Prison for The Marriage Pact

In March, I visited Denmark to promote the the Danish edition of The Marriage Pact, Til Doden Os Skiller. Upon my arrival at the airport, Camilla, my wonderful editor from Klim, checked me into my hotel (a perfect little boutique hotel in the heart of Copenhagen, aptly named Ibsens) and whisked me off to a lovely bookstore for an interview and party, complete with champagne and traditional Danish wedding cake.

I spent the next day exploring Copenhagen in the driving wind along with my new friend Helle, who admitted that the weather was particularly brutal, even for the hearty Danish. Then we headed to Horsens for the Danish Crime Book Festival at Faengslet, a prison that closed in 2006 and has been re-opened as an arts venue. Yes, a real prison! A quick overview of my prison interlude:

Ate lunch in a converted prison cell
Had a tour of the prison, which has an amazing interactive exhibit about the prison’s most famous escape
Met some of my Scandinavian crime writing heroes
Talked with a lot of terrific journalists
Received the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for the Best Foreign Crime Novel published in Denmark. This was absolutely a highlight of my writing career. I LOVE Scandinavian crime, and it was such an honor to be among some of my crime-writing heroes.
Fell head over heels for an old anarchist who started the publisher company, Klim, back in the sixties to publish Marxist pamphlets
Listened to a Danish actress read from the book
Got accidentally locked in the prison yard with Camilla for a short spell after hours, which made the whole thing feel very authentic!

Walking the echoing halls of the prison felt so apropos for the book, and I couldn’t help but think of Jake and Alice in those prison cells. Huge thanks to Camilla, Helle, Casper, Christina, and the whole team at Klim for making this an amazing trip, as well as to the Danish Crime Academy.

Faengslet Prison in Horsens, home of the Danish Crime Book Festival

Eva, a wonderful book journalist in Horsens

I also had a chance to stop by Denmark’s leading online book retailer, Saxo, to talk about the book.

I can’t wait to go back to Denmark. It’s now one of my favorite countries!

The Marriage Pact Challenge: Could you follow these marriage rules?

Could you follow these 10 rules for a lasting marriage? These rules are from the bestselling novel THE MARRIAGE PACT?

The Marriage Pact 10 Rules for Marriage:

1) Always answer when your partner calls

2) Exchange at least two thoughtful gifts every month

3) Cook your partner dinner twice a week

4) Unfollow your ex on social media

5) Never spend more than two nights apart

6) Tell your partner all your passwords

7) Only wear clothes your partner deems attractive or appropriate.

8) Enable the ‘find my phone’ feature so your partner always knows where you are

9) Have no secrets from each other (and confess any old ones!)

10) Do one activity your partner chooses every weekend.

Get the Marriage Pact book club party guide, including the rule sheet and rule tracker. Download 10 Rules for Marriage (and create your own).

Scroll down to see how book bloggers did with the challenge, and share your own results with the hashtag #MarriagePactChallenge.

Get the Sunday Times bestseller, The Marriage Pact.

“A smart, searing, frightening look at modern love.” Today.com

“Riveting psychological suspense!” Lisa Gardner

“Gripping, thought-provoking, and irresistible.” Dean Koontz

Sam at Clues and Reviews is struggling with #7, and her husband just doesn’t get #2:

I am absolutely breaking rule number seven when I roll out of bed and immediately put on my rattiest pair of sweatpants and my old university sweatshirt. #sorrynotsorry. By Friday, I finally decided to let Chris in on the experiment and he is extremely confused. When I suggest he should practice the new rules by purchasing me a thoughtful gift he tells me that he was the gift I received when we got married. I tell him that does not count.

Amanda at On My Bookshelf has a little problem with Rule #9:

One evening, to prove that I don’t have any secrets (rule number 9), I asked him if he wants to know my passwords. He looked at me strangely and asked if I want to know his passwords as well.
Let’s stay at rule number 9. Oh guys, I have secrets, I do! One evening, when he was very deep into searching for a new car in the internet I told him, haha, you know what, I’ve hidden a huge jar of Nutella behind my books, haha. He shrugged and said he’s not surprised. So now I have to look for a new hiding place for my huge jar of Nutella.

More blogger’s experiences with The Marriage Pact challenge coming soon.

What about you? Could you follow the rules? Which one would be the deal-breaker?

marriage rules — *10 Rules for Marriage according to THE MARRIAGE PACT by Michelle Richmond*

The Marriage Pact wins Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for the best crime novel published in Denmark

I’m so excited to share the news that The Marriage Pact (Til Doden Os Skiller) has received the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for the best foreign crime novel published in Denmark in 2017. I’ll be attending the 2018 Krimimessen Horsens (Horsens Crime Book Festival) in March to meet some of my Scandinavian crime writing idols (hopefully I can keep my cool around Arne Dahl) & receive the prize. And the festival is even held in an historic prison. Huge thanks to my wonderful Danish translator Ninna Brenøe, and to my publisher, Klim.

Truman Capote Prize

I am honored and so happy to share the news that I have received the Truman Capote Prize for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Short Story, from the wonderful Alabama Center for the Literary Arts and Alabama Writers’ Symposium.

I will write more in a later post on why Truman Capote’s work and this award mean so much to me. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville in the past. Monroeville was the childhood home of Truman Capote and Harper Lee, and each year at the symposium, a local theatre group stages a production of To Kill a Mockingbird in the old courthouse upon which Lee modeled the courtroom scenes in her classic novel.

It is a special event and a welcoming, wonderful gathering of authors and readers.

About the prize:

The Truman Capote Prize for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of Literary Non-Fiction or the Short Story is selected by an anonymous committee of literary scholars and writers organized by Dr. Don Noble. This award is made possible through a generous donation by Dianne Lawson Baker of Tuscaloosa.

The 21^st Annual Alabama Writers Symposium will be held April 19-20, 2018. To register for the Alabama Writers Symposium, contact Alisha Linam at 251-575-8271 or Alisha.Linam@CoastalAlabama.edu. For more information, visit http://www.CoastalAlabama.edu.