Entertainment
7 May, 2024
Honour for city novelist
UP-AND-COMING local author and Viking enthusiast Megan Formanek has been awarded the Red Ribbon from the Whishing Shelf Book Awards for her second novel, No One’s Viking.
Released in February, 2023, No One’s Viking – book two of her Viking saga – has taken top gongs at the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, an independent author’s competition judged by a panel in the UK and Sweden for her smart plot, deeply engaging storytelling and in-depth knowledge of Vikings.
“No One’s Viking is a smartly plotted Viking drama filled with complex and fun-to-root-for characters. A Red Ribbon Winner and highly recommended,” said the Wishing Shelf Book Awards panel.
Ms Formanek said it was particularly exciting to receive an international accolade as a FNQ historical fiction writer.
“I’m an author in the tropics writing about Vikings, so it’s really honouring to receive international recognition for my book,” she said.
“This is an international competition for independent authors, and I entered the fiction category which is very broad because it includes everything from romance, to comedy, to historical fiction, so to be selected in such a broad category and from 11 out of the 15 readers in the judging panel, it’s exciting, it brings legitimacy to my work early in my career and motivates me.
“Part of the judging panel is based in the UK and the other half in Sweden, so for an author from FNQ to be awarded is amazing. It makes me exceedingly proud to represent the Far North.”
No One’s Viking is the second book in Ms Formanek’s sequel from her Viking Trading Lands saga, with a third part being released in July 2024. It brings back main character and heroine Astrid on her journey as a well-respected textile merchant but when someone dark from her past reappears, Astrid is once again tangled in another odyssey.
“In No One’s Viking Astrid builds a network of women in her business to become a successful merchant but it’s not without trials. There’s love, loss, fighting and it’s not all happy endings but at the end she begins another journey,” she said.
Ms Formanek said she’d like her books to be a safe place where people can escape to. “I’d love for someone who’s had a hard time or needs a little break from the world to fall into that beautiful fantasy world for a little bit,” she said.
“The message is also to take care of what we have, our earth our soils, our water, how much we use and consume. We’re really lucky and we take it for granted.”
The Viking Trading Lands series is available for purchase on Amazon, Bear Hill Forge in Yungaburra and the Tanks Markets, and available at all Cairns and Mossman libraries.
