Mystery writer Barbara Fister shares her notes at her attendance at the Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian Crime Fiction Symposium at UCLA (May 20 -21). Here is a tidbit that snagged my attention (among others):

Next, Claus Elholm Andersen of UCLA (but about to move to Finland to teach at the University of Helsinki) gave a talk on “Myth, Mystery, and the Millennium Trilogy.” He looked at the way Larsson’s story has been told in competing narratives. The author’s father, who legally owns the rights to the books, promotes the books as commercial properties, but has also made some changes. The doctor character in The Girl Who Played with Fire was named after a physician friend, Anders Jakobsson, but when the namesake disagreed with the father over Eva Gabrielsson’s claim to the estate, the father instructed the publisher to change the character’s name to Jonasson.

Other nuggets include the significance of religion in Scandinavian crime fiction and guess what? The two sequels in the Millennium Trilogy were originally filmed for TV (that explains a lot of the complaints). The whole article is worth a read as it contains inside info on stuff so if you’re interested go and take a look and this is just day one of her notes. Very insightful and thank you Barbara for sharing. Update: Part Two of Barbara’s notes on the conference here.