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Writers Wanted: Hazardous Journey


WRITERS WANTED: Hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.

So legend has it, Sir Ernest Shackleton posted a similar advertisement in the London Times in his search for crew for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 aboard the Endurance and the Aurora.

According to Shackleton, over 5,000 potential recruits applied! Surely a sign of those times.

This call to arms resonates having penned the novel #ColdCOURAGE that tells the story of this epic tale of leadership, grit, determination, and loyalty but also in the sense of the writing journey too.


Having now authored 5 books, with number 4 and number 5 in the final stages before publication, I know from my experience that it can be a cold, long, lonely journey with little (or no) pay, sometimes hazardous, safe return, and success always in doubt.


Through my own writing journey, I clung on to the deeds of bravery, endurance, and resilience that these men went through as inspiration to keep going, forward, onward, always a little further.


In the ARGUS series, #OperationARGUS and #BikiniBRAVO, brave men and women who keep going to the end, no matter what, bravely & truly, boldly & rightly. Then to #GipsyMOTH and the #Aviatrix during the golden age of aviation - all of these people have the same common principle to keep going in the face of adversity, and that of the iconic saying Who Dares Wins.


"Should I?", "Shouldn't I?", "Am I good enough?", "Will anyone be even interested?" I have come to a different conclusion - I am doing this for me, for my family, as a legacy to leave behind, AND most of all to tell these stories that deserve to be told!

"I read somewhere that a mediocre draft is better than no manuscript at all." and that is very true. "You can't play the game without lacing up your boots." is how we put it when playing Rugby.

Shackleton knew that it was better to have tried and failed than to have never have tried at all. That is how I see my own writing journey, I admit that I am no Keats, I get better with each novel, but what I am is a storyteller and there are many stories, just like yours that need to, and deserve to be told.


I will keep on writing, and hope that you do too!



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Willy Mitchell is an indie author, writer, and storyteller. His first title was Operation ARGUS, and then the sequel Bikini BRAVO where a group of former Special Air Service operatives enter the dark and murky world of maskirovka and discover the lengths that some people will go for power and greed. Cold COURAGE tells the epic tale of Shackletons 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition and all that was happening in those extraordinary times. Book four, Northern ECHO is about to be released and tells the story of two boys growing up during the punk rock revolution in the north of England, and how a dark secret keeps them apart until the end. Mitchell's latest installment, about to be released at the end of 2020, is Gipsy MOTH about his Aunt Nikki, her friend, and fellow Aviatrix, Amy Johnson, and Amelia Earhart on the other side of the pond during the golden age of aviation.


Up next? SS Indigo is the story of an eclectic mix of guests mysteriously invited to a cruise on a luxury steamship around the Caribbean. The only thing they have in common is their lust for power, advancement, and wealth.

All of Mitchell's books so far are novels, works of fiction, blended with real events. For further information or how to buy his books, visit his author website:




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