Dear reader,
Congratulations on being selected to join the most elusive magical guild in all of Hirathorn. Welcome to the world of the Dreamstalkers! I am very excited to share the story of Bea Grimspuddle – and an owl named Pip – with you.
You are due to embark on a journey from the wild, stormy moors of Thunderheart to the magical mage-city of Silvervein, and to do so you must board the Night Train; a huge old steam locomotive which is even more mysterious than it first appears…
I’ve been lucky enough to experience some epic train journeys over the years. As a teenager I went backpacking around Europe and Morocco, and traveled entirely by train, boat or on foot for three months. I took many sleeper trains. Some of my favourite train journeys from that time included the trains through Transylvania, and into the Atlas Mountains. Years later I also traveled on the Arctic Circle Train through Sweden, which took about 18 hours. During these travels I wrote in my notebooks, and felt sure that I would write about a fictional, fantastical train one day.
Dreamstalkers is also inspired by my love of wild places, animal companionship, mountains, and the intricately crafted worlds of dance and theatre. It is borne of my own strange experiences in the night-world; nightmares featuring eerie music, sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming. It is about finding your place in a potentially overwhelming world, learning to trust, finding your voice – and finding true friends to adventure alongside. It has been quite an adventure to write, and I very much hope you enjoy reading it, too.
Sarah Driver
I am supremely stoked that my sixth book is publishing with Farshore on February 1st 2024! That’s less than two months away. It’s a fantasy-adventure story, and here’s a blurb.
In a world of vanishing dreams and rampaging nightmares, twelve-year-old Bea lives with her mother Ula and her owl Pip in a cottage on the wild moors, at the former settlement of Thunderheart Tor. Thunderheart has now become an official Abandonment — everyone is leaving. The cause is the affliction of nightmares sweeping across the lands. Then the mysterious Night Train steams onto the moors, bringing a stranger fighting to keep his human form. Bea is flung into a far away adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers, skilled warriors and performers who must go to work each night inside the dreams of the powerful.
It has been an amazing experience working with the brilliant team at Farshore to turn another spark into a story. You can pre-order the book here.
