Steve Griffin's Blog, page 6

Swift – The Story of a Witch: Cover Reveal

Today I���m revealing the cover of my forthcoming book, Swift ��� The Story of a Witch. It���s a prequel novella to The Secret of the Tirthas fantasy-adventure series and it���s��� pretty different to most of what I���ve written so far.

Here���s a few facts about it:

– at just over 100 pages, it���s my shortest book yet ��� but that doesn���t mean it won���t pack a powerful punch!

– it takes place 130 years before Lizzie moves to Rowan Cottage with her mum in The City of Light (Book ...

The Magical Garden that inspired The Secret of the Tirthas

At the heart of my adventure mystery series, The Secret of the Tirthas, is a magical ���garden of hedged rooms���, buried deep in the English countryside. What a lot of people don���t know is that the garden was inspired by a real garden in Herefordshire, owned for a while by my wife���s parents.

Designed and built by a former resident, the one-acre plot had 26 hedged and bordered rooms, filled with fountains and sculptures and themed around special places on the planet ��� as well...

Catching a glimpse

I’ve just released a Box Set of The Secret of the Tirthas, my adventure mystery series for ages 11+. Over the next week or two I’m planning a few posts about the people and places that inspired me to write it. Today, I want to focus on Kashi, or Varanasi, the first portal that Lizzie discovers in her garden.

Of all the things that impressed me most about Kashi, it was the ordinary people going down to the river each day and dropping off the final step, or ghat, into the broad, flowing rive...

The Secret of the Tirthas Box Set available now!

FOR THE FIRST TIME ��� TOGETHER IN ONE BOX SET ��� ALL 5 BOOKS OF THE SECRET OF THE TIRTHAS!

What would you do if you inherited a garden full of magical portals ��� only to find a killer was using them?

NOW ��� TOGETHER IN ONE BOX SET ��� ALL 5 BOOKS OF THE SECRET OF THE TIRTHAS!

The Secret of the Tirthas follows the thrilling adventures of Lizzie Jones as she explores a garden in a remote corner of England that hides mysterious portals, or tirthas, to exotic places all over the wor...

The Best Ghost Mystery Stories

So you don’t want to sleep tonight, do you?

My final list of books that I’ve prepared for Shepherd.com is the best ghost mystery stories.

Why I love horror stories

We try and pretend the world is not mysterious, in the vague hope of exerting some control over our lives. But that’s a doomed endeavour. Everything will always slip away from our grasp, plummeting into a chasm that we can only fill with two human responses: awe or terror. Sometimes – perhaps most often – both.

This i...

The best books with nature poems

Is spring filling you with inspiration and making you want to discover some of the best books with nature poems? Then this post is for you!

I began writing poetry in my twenties when I was doing environmental studies at Stirling University. At the weekends I often went hillwalking in the Scottish Highlands with friends. Inspired by the majestic scenery, I picked up a copy of Wordsworth and began reading poetry for the first time since my English degree. Soon after, I began to write my own poe...

The best books with portals for children and young adults

I was asked by the people at new book recommendation site Shepherd to share my favourite books on things I’m passionate and write about. As many of you will know, The Secret of the Tirthas is about Lizzie Jones, a teenager who inherits a magical ‘garden of rooms’ deep in the Herefordshire countryside and then discovers each of the rooms has a portal to a special place on the planet.

I always thought it would be great if you could step outside your back door and travel instantaneously to ...

Photos that Inspired Books

Alice and the Devil

Photos have a big impact on my writing. Often, they can inspire a scene that inspires a whole book. This picture of my son looking across a landscape has morphed into the opening scene of my current work in progress, Alice and the Devil, the third book in The Ghosts of Alice series.

Shortly after I took it, I set it as my wallpaper on my laptop. It was a few weeks before it began working its magic on me. Initially I had an idea for a wholly different book, a piece o...

My Year in Writing

So where am I at with the writing, you ask? (You didn’t? Click away now, no one will notice.)

2021 Review

2021 has been a big year for my writing. It was the first year I had a bestseller and the first year I sold over 2,000 copies of one book (nearing 2,500 now). The average book sells 250 copies according to my Gurus, Prophets and Market Analysts (Google), so I’m very happy.

So what was the book? It was the first in my Ghosts of Alice series, The Boy in the Burgundy Hood. It’s bee...

Wishing you a peaceful, happy Christmas!

The Christmas tree is up in the Griffin house and the boys are writing their lists for Santa! (Yes, it’s true, we’ve somehow managed to keep them believing in Father Christmas despite them becoming cynical about pretty much everything else in the world. I have no idea how, but I guess it’s something to do with believing what you want to believe…)

So here’s a quick post to wish you as much happiness as possible throughout this festive season��and to hope you leap any��hurdles that might co...