Susan C. Wilson's Blog

My publisher, Neem Tree Press, went into liquidation yesterday, 1 August 2025. For those who don't know, Neem Tree Press became an imprint of Unbound at the end of 2024. Subsequently, Unbound went into administration and a new company, Boundless, was formed. This has not survived.

It's been a difficult year on the professional and personal fronts, but I'm currently at work on my fourth novel, another Greek myth retelling. I'm looking for a new publisher for The House of Atreus trilogy. I'm also looking for an agent, something I should have done long ago.

When I have an update, I will post it here and on my website: www.susancwilson.com.

Thank you so much for reading and supporting my books. Your reviews have meant the world to me. If you still haven't read Clytemnestra's Bind or Helen's Judgement, you might consider borrowing them from your local library. I don't know whether I will see any of the royalties my books have earned for 2025, but I might receive a (very) modest payment from library borrowings, depending on where you live.

Snap up Clytemnestra's Bind and Helen's Judgement ebooks before 31 May for just £1.99 each. Offer ends at 23:59!

Follow next week's blog tour using the hashtag #HelensJudgement on social media and by checking out the following accounts and websites:

21 April 2025
X @LdLoz
manisbookcornerblog.wordpress.com

22 April 2025
X/IG @staceywh_17

23 April 2025
thestrawberrypost.wordpress.com
X/IG @sammiewyatt2

24 April 2025
IG @shazzierimmelzwaan

25 April 2025
IG @karla_bookishlife
IG @chaoticproductivity

26 April 2025
ramblingmads.uk

I'm grateful to everyone involved! Expect reposts on Instagram from
@SusanCWilsonAuthor, X from @BronzeAgeWummin, and @NeemTreePress on both platforms.

Listen to the Beside Reading Podcast's beautifully insightful discussion of Clytemnestra's Bind.

Visit podcast.

Achilles and Helen are two of the Ancient Greek bard Homer’s most complex characters, yet we moderns doggedly interpret them as shallow. Helen, whose adultery with Paris provided the casus belli for the Trojan War, is judged as a mirror-gazing, passive beauty. Achilles, meanwhile, is the warrior who, following a tiff with the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, storms off to his shelter and refuses to rejoin his brothers-in-arms.

Helen's Judgement offers a different perspective on both characters by remaining faithful to their oldest surviving versions: those of Homer’s Iliad.

I argue, in Historia Magazine, that we need to look to the Iliad, and the importance of Ancient Greek shame culture, to understand Helen and Achilles.

Read article.

Exclusively from Unbound: get Clytemnestra's Bind in paperback at 50% off, before the launch of Helen's Judgement!

Christmas is coming (groan), but the Unbound books sale might make things a little easier. If you haven't read it yet, you can pick up a copy of Clytemnestra's Bind.

Shop 3 for 2 books.

Delighted to see both books from The House of Atreus series featured in Love Reading's list of 'terrific books featuring Greek myths'.

I enjoyed this review of Helen's Judgement from Love Reading UK. Two comments in particular stand out for me:

'What a story! Epic in scale as it focuses on the Trojan war, this is also as intimate as can be as it spears Helen’s life and lays it bare'.

Epic and intimate - this is exactly how I like my historical fiction. It's what I love to read, and it's what I endeavour to write. I'm a huge admirer of Sigrid Undset and of Robert Graves' Claudius novels. These two writers give us the emotions, the personal lives, the family dramas. We get the bigger picture, too, the seismic events encroaching on the characters' worlds.

And this observation:

'Achilles looks back from the afterlife with an honest and thoughtful account.'

Modern audiences tend to misunderstand Homer's Achilles, viewing him through the lenses of much later times. No character in the Iliad is more honest or more thoughtful - granted, to a fault. As Achilles says in the 9th book, 'I hate that man like the very Gates of Death who says one thing but hides another in his heart.' He's not joking. He makes this comment after Agamemnon tries to lure him back to battle with a massive bribe. Helen's Judgement, in addition to exploring the title character's story, looks at Achilles' decision to step back from the war within the context of a heroic, shame culture.

Read the review and an excerpt from Helen's Judgement on the Love Reading website.

Helen's Judgement is now available to request on NetGalley as an advance review copy.

Advance Praise
“a historical view of a world that is dangerous, brutal, and always fascinating” Laura Shepperson, author of The Heroines and The Heir of Venus

“brings the troubled Late Bronze Age to life with searing clarity: an absolutely gripping read from first page to last” Mark Knowles, author of Jason

“cuts though the Iliad’s heroism to its underlying horror in a searing indictment of war and hubris that is both literary and lyrical” Lauren J. A. Bear, author of Medusa’s Sisters and Mother of Rome

“a multifaceted portrayal of a woman who has at times been blamed, idolized, and misunderstood for centuries” A.D. Rhine, authors of Horses of Fire and Daughters of Bronze