Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to jmelliott.substack.com

J. M. Elliott

J. M. Elliott

Home
Of Wind and Wolves (Book 1)
The Problematic Pen
Warden Tree Press
Glenshee
Contact
The Library
Newsletters
About
Welcome
from one independent reader to another
 • J. M. Elliott
Polish your Prose, Perfect Your Pages
Professional Editing and Design That Honors Your Voice—and Your Budget
 • J. M. Elliott
Life after horse showing
Glenshee is a newsletter about life with horses after retiring from competition and finding happiness embracing my own path on a farm in the Hudson…
 • J. M. Elliott
Introducing Warden Tree Press
An independent publisher of obscure histories, both fictional and factual.
 • J. M. Elliott
Contents
On the Scythian steppe, where history becomes legend and Greek forces encroach, a young Sarmatian warrior must kill to wed—or defy the warrior’s rite…
 • J. M. Elliott
Most Popular
View all
Block Quotes and Pull Quotes
 • J. M. Elliott
Metaphors are not microaggressions
 • J. M. Elliott
That’s just, like, your opinion, man
 • J. M. Elliott
Herodotus vindicated again
 • J. M. Elliott

Recent posts

View all
Happy New Year
Thanks for sticking around
 • J. M. Elliott
The Ointment Trials
Testing My Homemade "Prescription" Skin Remedy
 • J. M. Elliott
The Sad Garden, Part 3
The Greenhouse Experiment
 • J. M. Elliott
Goodreads Giveaway: Of Wind and Wolves
An epic, poetic journey into the ancient world that early reviewers are raving about. A must-read for lovers of deep history. Win 1 of 100 copies!
 • J. M. Elliott

Essays

View all
Must Fiction Writers Be Fiction Readers?
Breaking the #1 Rule of Writing
 • J. M. Elliott
The Wasteland, the Wounded King, and the Grail Quest (Repost)
The power of compassion to heal wounds great and small
 • J. M. Elliott
Books Aren't Finished Yet
They remain as important as ever
 • J. M. Elliott
Canned Hunts and Jungle Law
Why all the orchestration in the world just isn't enough
 • J. M. Elliott
Is Sympathy a Form of Fear?
On sympathy vs. pity and how they influence literature
 • J. M. Elliott
Herodotus vindicated again
Ancient Scythian quivers contained leather made from human skin
 • J. M. Elliott
Are Book Blurbs Bullshit?
On the pointlessness of printing hyperbolic flattery on book covers
 • J. M. Elliott
You want to turn your passion into a profession?
On going pro, and what it means to write “for yourself”
 • J. M. Elliott
Sycamore Gap Tree on Hadrian's Wall Path cut down
Saying goodbye to an iconic natural landmark
 • J. M. Elliott
Solidarity with Humanity
A few thoughts on the WGA and AI
 • J. M. Elliott
On the folk origins of the Sarmatians
And the question of being "tamed"
 • J. M. Elliott
How not to be a poser
Mimesis, counter-mimesis, and René Girard's Deceit, Desire & the Novel
 • J. M. Elliott

Warden Tree Press

View all
Of Wind and Wolves is Out Today!
It's finally here!
 • J. M. Elliott
4:55
Of Wind and Wolves is available for preorder
One month until publication!
 • J. M. Elliott
Introducing Warden Tree Press
An independent publisher of obscure histories, both fictional and factual.
 • J. M. Elliott
Favorite Things
Forgotten Books
Weird Old Book Finder
Project Gutenberg
Community
Historical Novel Society

Scythians

View all
Introducing a New Map
Tools can also be beautiful
 • J. M. Elliott
Herodotus vindicated again
Ancient Scythian quivers contained leather made from human skin
 • J. M. Elliott
On the folk origins of the Sarmatians
And the question of being "tamed"
 • J. M. Elliott
Mystical swords, mangled limbs, and mulch temples
On the mystery of Scythian Ares
 • J. M. Elliott
The Werewolf: Misunderstood monster
From hero to horror
 • J. M. Elliott
Anacharsis, Barbarian Philosopher
The Scythian sage on the virtues inherent in wild creatures
 • J. M. Elliott
The Great Amazon Breast Question
Did they or didn't they, and why it matters to us...
 • J. M. Elliott
Taurica, last refuge of the Cimmerians
The Ancient Geography of Ukraine: The Crimea
 • J. M. Elliott
Character Names
A guide to understanding character names in Of Wind and Wolves
 • J. M. Elliott
Pragmatism
Justin (Marcus Junianus Justinus): Praise for the justice of Scythians and the consequences of a simpler life
 • J. M. Elliott
Leuke, Island of Heroes
The Ancient Geography of Ukraine: Snake Island
 • J. M. Elliott
Borysthenes, Underworld River
Ancient Geography of Ukraine: The Dnieper River
 • J. M. Elliott

Editing & Design

View all
Designing My Book
Of Wind and Wolves in Print
 • J. M. Elliott
Polish your Prose, Perfect Your Pages
Professional Editing and Design That Honors Your Voice—and Your Budget
 • J. M. Elliott
Metaphors are not microaggressions
What happens when the speech police come for the writer's toolkit?
 • J. M. Elliott
Block Quotes and Pull Quotes
A brief tutorial
 • J. M. Elliott
That’s just, like, your opinion, man
On meeting the 100 subscriber milestone, among other stuff...
 • J. M. Elliott

Glenshee

View all
The Ointment Trials
Testing My Homemade "Prescription" Skin Remedy
 • J. M. Elliott
The Sad Garden, Part 3
The Greenhouse Experiment
 • J. M. Elliott
I Finally Broke Down
And got a shop-vac to clean my house
 • J. M. Elliott
Transitioning to Spring Pasture
Letting nature take its course
 • J. M. Elliott
Ash and Elm
Spring is when I take inventory of all the plants and trees after the winter in the course of doing cleanup around the farm.
 • J. M. Elliott

Reviews

View all
Take Me There Is Here
Yay! Plus, more unboxing!
 • J. M. Elliott
How not to be a poser
Mimesis, counter-mimesis, and René Girard's Deceit, Desire & the Novel
 • J. M. Elliott
A Writing Book to Skip
I can't get these hours back, but maybe you can save them
 • J. M. Elliott
My Top Books on Writing, Part 2
less about craft, more about substance
 • J. M. Elliott
My Top Five Books on Craft
some writing guides have proved more useful than others
 • J. M. Elliott
Old Thiess, A Livonian Werewolf
A review
 • J. M. Elliott
Recommendations
View all 23
SCRIBBLER -- A PORTAL TO FICTION
SCRIBBLER -- A PORTAL TO FICTION
Ben Woestenburg
XPress Book Box
XPress Book Box
Winston Malone
Long Ago & Far Away
Long Ago & Far Away
Lausanne Davis Carpenter
Before I Forget . .
Before I Forget . .
James Ron
Strange New Worlds
Strange New Worlds
John Coon
J. M. Elliott
J. M. Elliott
Straight talk about indie fiction and publishing, pro tips for fellow writers on editing and design, and some stuff about ancient history and mythology—including my debut novel, Of Wind and Wolves, set among the ancient Scythian horsemen of the steppes.

Unfiltered Fiction

View all
Isenhart
Good intentions haunt an elderly peasant couple as they struggle to reckon with a good deed gone wrong.
 • J. M. Elliott
Dark Ages
Poem by J.M. Elliott
 • J. M. Elliott
The Fuller
The mysterious circumstances surrounding a friend's death leave a man searching for answers until an unlikely visitor appears at his shop.
 • J. M. Elliott
Strife
Poem by J.M. Elliott
 • J. M. Elliott
Untasted
Poem by J.M. Elliott
 • J. M. Elliott
© 2026 J. M. Elliott · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Codestin Search App Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture