The hardest thing about writing fantasy is making the reactions of your protagonists ring true: as a writer, the challenge is to imagine, how would a normal human react to an abnormal situation? Gods of Avalon Road is an urban fantasy set in modern day London; the characters are everyday, people-next-door types.
One of my protagonists, Kerry, finds a 2000 year old golden artefact by the Thames. Since writing the novel, I have learned that mudlarks – people who scour the Thames for historical finds, or even treasure – need to have a permit to do so. If my main character Kerry were a real person, she would surely have been arrested for pocketing a valuable archaeological object from the Thames!
About Leilanie Stewart
Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes ghost and psychological horror, as well as experimental poetry. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry.
In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.
Leilanie Stewart 