Alexander’s career as a novelist started off a bit unconventionally. After graduating from the Creative Writing program at the University of Iceland, taking one year as an exchange student in Creative & Media Studies at Middlesex University in London, he wrote a novel in Icelandic titled HRÍMLAND that would one day become SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS.
Icelandic publishers rejected the manuscript, as marketing fantasy to adults was a relatively unknown variable in the local market. He self-published HRÍMLAND in 2014, later translating the novel himself into English and submitting it to Gollancz during an open submission period.
Nearly two years later, after the editors had gone through roughly two thousand manuscripts, HRÍMLAND was chosen from the slush pile for publication as SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS (pub. 2019) along with its sequel, THE STORM BENEATH A MIDNIGHT SUN (pub. 2022). Both novels were picked up by Titan Books for the US market.
After this, Alexander re-translated the heavily edited and finished books back into Icelandic, with SHADOWS OF THE SHORT DAYS published by Forlagið in 2020 and THE STORM BENEATH A MIDNIGHT SUN to be published in 2022.
Unforeseen are the paths a novel can take.
While going through this process, Alexander wrote VÆTTIR, a literary SFF novel. Written in Icelandic and published by Benedikt in 2018, it has been translated by the author into English and is currently seeking an English market publisher