Today, I’m taking part in the blog tour for The Winter’s Sleep. I’m sharing a guest post written by the author with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the blog tour and to Monica Cafferky for writing her guest post!

Blurb:

A fast-paced thriller with a supernatural twist. The Winter’s Sleep takes the reader on a breath-taking ride from Leeds to the Yorkshire coast in a tale of ghosts, betrayal and fraud.

A handsome husband. A beautiful home. A job she loves.
Yet Brigid Raven is drowning in debts and there’s only one way out.
Fake her death and walk away from everything she’s struggled so hard to build.
Can she pull off her new identity? How will she survive on the run?
But Brigid has another secret. She can see the dead and now they won’t leave her alone.

Guest Post:

Trees and their inspiration for writing

Growing up, I lived opposite the Valley Gardens in Harrogate. On the edge of the park is the rambling Pine Woods, a green forest of Christmas trees, which stretches for 100 acres.

When I was small I visited the Pine Woods with my three older sisters, we played hide and seek in the trees. But from ten-years-old, I began exploring the vast, thick parkland with a friend. We spent hours in the woods every weekend making dens, hiding from the world.

Even then, I felt an affinity with the woods. It was so peaceful and I loved being in nature, by this time I’d developed a sixth-sense – I just ‘knew’ things. My mother always put this odd gift down to being born on Halloween, the night when the veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest.

On the morning my father died, in 1982, I woke up in the early hours and I knew that he’d passed away moments before. He’d had a heart attack six weeks earlier, even so, my 42-year-old father was supposed to be on the mend.

Unfortunately, I was right, as the house was in turmoil I was sent to stay with a family friend for a few days as my mother dealt with the sad business of death. The family friend had a garden with mature trees, I remember sitting under this oak crying but I wasn’t alone. I felt a ‘presence’ listening to me, which was comforting, and the ‘presence’ helped me to cope with the first few days of shock. I was 11 years old.

After years of writing about the unseen worlds as a journalist, interviewing psychics, seers and shamans, I now believe the oak tree’s spirit helped me to cope with my childhood bereavement. Many cultures believe that trees have a deity attached to them and these spirits can provide comfort and healing. 

In Finnish mythology this female tree spirit is called Mielikki and in Madagascar they’re the Rakapila. Closer to home, Celtic lore outlines many sacred trees all with spirits attached, these trees have various properties from acting as a portal to the underworld to providing protection.

When I was writing my novel The Winter’s Sleep, a ghost story set in Yorkshire, again I found myself connecting with trees. I went for long walks every morning with my little rescue dog in a local wood made up of Ash, Beech, Oak and Sycamore. As I meandered through the trees, I heard my characters talking to me, whispering the next part of their story. 

Sitting at my desk in my home in Yorkshire never brings the same strong connection, it only comes when I walk in the woods. The trees, somehow, act as inspiration and they seem to bring the characters to life in my imagination. I have good ideas for my journalism amongst the trees too.

Like all things, trees have an energy frequency and spending time in nature helps me to connect with their restorative qualities. If I’m honest, when I walk through the woods time slows down, it’s as if the outside world is out of reach and on pause. I like that feeling of disconnection, being immersed in the ethereal. 

As a writer, being able to slip into this place, sometimes called the in-between world, is so important. From this stillness comes ideas, the story, the characters. Everyone receives their inspiration in different ways, for me it comes when I’m disconnected from technology and out in the natural world.

Trees also ground me in the present, the here and now. There’s a name for this practice, the Japanese call it forest bathing or ‘Shinrin-Yoku’ and it’s becoming increasingly popular in the UK – even the National Trust now offers a beginner’s guide.

Trees give us so much, they oxygenate the air, prevent floods, provide food and shelter for animals and they’re beautiful – they deserve our love and respect. And if you’re lucky, and you take the time to stop and listen, you might hear the trees whispering their stories to you too.

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The Winter’s Sleep is available in paperback and eBook from Amazon and bookshops.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: