A young woman can dream, can’t she?

When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an author. My dream came true when I was still quite young - I published my first book at the age of 12, and yet another book aimed at young readers just five years later, in 1981. My experiences as a schoolchild who also happened to be an author taught me a lesson in realism: few people can support themselves by writing books in Finland, so you have to have another job.

I ended up studying Finnish literature as my main subject. And one thing was for sure: I didn't want to be a teacher. So I didn't even set foot in the Department of Finnish Language. The combination of subjects I studied was impractical: I had theatre studies and theoretical philosophy as subsidiary subjects, and spiced things up with a few study points’ worth of communication.

As I read the assigned literary classics for my courses, my own little scribbles started to seem insignificant. What was to become of me? Studying was fun, and writing my master's thesis was the most gratifying task of all. But I had to make a living, too. So after graduation, I accepted the first job that had even the remotest connection to my education, as the manager for the Tapiola Choir.

After work, I would relax by reading. I systematically immersed myself in new feminist crime literature. I wondered why detective stories with professional female protagonists weren't being written in Finland, the supposed model country for equality. As for literature studies, I also noticed that there was an aching void where Finnish women crime novel authors were concerned. Would I be the one to write the first licentiate thesis on the subject? The University gave it the green light. I rolled up my researcher’s sleeves.

Swept away by writing

My original plan was to conduct research from a historical point of view: I would study what kinds of crime novels Finnish women writers had written. I also had a political agenda: I wanted to bring forward works that had been underestimated. For example, why wasn't Eeva Tenhunen considered a classic author? Little by little, my research focused in on her works, and in the end I decided to study three in particular: Mustat kalat ('The Black Fish'), Nuku hyvin, Punahilkka ('Sleep Tight, Little Red Riding Hood') and Kuolema sukupuussa ('A Death in the Family Tree'). I focused on their intertextuality and orientation towards the genre.

However, I kept asking myself where the first Finnish fictional female police officer was. Biology got to me, too: I succumbed to baby fever, got pregnant and stayed home to take care of my child. Because I had had a temporary job, I didn't have work to get back to after my maternity leave. I was still interested in doing research, but I also wanted to try to write a crime novel myself. It was even more fun than writing academic texts had been. When they decided to publish the manuscript for Ensimmäinen murhani ('My First Murder'), I already had in mind the rough outline for two more.

The early 1990s was a busy time in my life. My sons were born in 1991 and 1994, Ensimmäinen murhani was published in 1993, after which I published a novel a year, and my licentiate thesis was approved in 1995. I no longer applied for jobs because my writing career was underway. I never wrote the doctoral thesis. But if at some point fiction it lets me down, I might return to doing research.