By The Silver Wind

Named as one of '50 Writers You Should Read Now' by The Guardian. From the award-winning author of The Rift, Nina Allan, The Silver Wind is a remarkable narrative exploring the nature of time itself. Martin Newland is fascinated by time. Watches and clocks are for him metaphorical time machines, a means of coming to terms with the past and voyaging into the future. But was his first timepiece a Smith, given to him on his fourteenth birthday, or the Longines he received four years later? Was it the small brass travelling clock unearthed in the run-down house for which he is to act as estate agent? And who is the maker of these time machines?

Shard is a gryfon with a great destiny, and desperate to stop a war. He is hampered on his path to peace by would-be allies, old enmities and grudges between clans of creatures, and the ever-looming threat of the fear mongering wyrms. Everyone believes that Shard is the legendary Summer King, that he alone can make the wyrms see reason and stop their violent marauding before more lives are sacrificed. But when he uses newfound powers to try communicating with their leader, he only ends up making things worse. When the wyrms make a surprising move by attacking where Shard least expects it, he knows he must be willing to sacrifice anything—and everything—to stop them once and for all.

Accompanies the exhibition "Silver wind: the arts of Sakai Hoitu (1761-1828)," presented at Japan Society Gallery, New York, September 29, 2012 - January 6, 2013.

Shard is a gryfon with a great destiny, and desperate to stop a war. He is hampered on his path to peace by would-be allies, old enmities and grudges between clans of creatures, and the ever-looming threat of the fear mongering wyrms.Everyone believes that Shard is the legendary Summer King, that he alone can make the wyrms see reason and stop their violent marauding before more lives are sacrificed. But when he uses newfound powers to try communicating with their leader, he only ends up making things worse.When the wyrms make a surprising move by attacking where Shard least expects it, he knows he must be willing to sacrifice anything--and everything--to stop them once and for all.

These twelve poems in which he intends to publish has been a coping mechanism for him. He recalls a song by Dan Behar, a Canadian musician, who sang these infamous lines: “I write poetry for myself. I write poetry for myself.” These poems take in the theme of a fight. These entities he intends to fight are the voices that would attack him daily (psychosis). The third poem in this collection tells of that fight Ali became obsessed with, which goes as follows: My sin is to conquer I shall conquer and conquer From high hill to low valley I shall conquer all the land.