Writing from a Place of Grief by John Sibley Williams

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

Though my poetry often varies in structure, setting, and narrative style, I cannot help but write about the themes that have haunted me since childhood. Love. Family. Grief. Emotional distance. Perhaps all authors, regardless of genre, are in some sense trying to better know their demons, their ghosts, all while exploring and perhaps even celebrating the fear that caused them. In my case, I’ve always been enthralled by the contrast of love and mortality, how the more we love the more we have to lose, and how different people react to highly charged emotional situations.

Extract: Gazore! by Will Hallewell

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

Today I have an extract from Will Hallewell's new children's book, Gazore!, to share with you. Read on for the extract and don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

Book Review: Thin Air by Michelle Paver

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

AD* | In 1935, young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain and one of mountaineering's biggest killers. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time - the 1907 Lyell Expedition.

Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and 'mountain sickness' at such high altitudes. Lyell became a classic British hero when he published his memoir, Bloody, But Unbowed, which regaled his heroism in the face of extreme odds. It is this book that will guide this new group to get to the very top.

As the team prepare for the epic climb, Pearce's unease about the expedition deepens. The only other survivor of the 1907 expedition, Charles Tennant, warns him off. He hints at dark things ahead and tells Pearce that, while five men lost their lives on the mountain, only four were laid to rest.

But Pearce is determined to go ahead and complete something that he has dreamed of his entire life. As they get higher and higher, and the oxygen levels drop, he starts to see dark things out of the corners of his eyes. As macabre mementoes of the earlier climbers turn up on the trail, Stephen starts to suspect that Charles Lyell's account of the tragedy was perhaps not the full story...

Interview: Jennifer Samson

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

The lovely Jennifer Samson has dropped into The Writing Greyhound today for a chat about her writing and her latest book Sin City!

Book Review: The Potion Diaries & Royal Tour by Amy Alward

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

It's two book reviews for the price of one today, as I share my thoughts on both The Potion Diaries and Royal Tour by Amy Alward. Keep on reading for the reviews!