For a newly published novelist, there’s no greater feeling than the excitement that comes of seeing your debut novel stocked in a bookstore. It was an amazing moment to see Gods of Avalon Road among the new Sci-fi and horror releases in Waterstones – my book among such great titles in the UK’s biggest bookstore chain.

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When I was twenty, I was in the midst of writing a children’s fantasy adventure story. One day after a university lecture I went into the Belfast branch of Waterstones with the aim of buying books similar to my story, both to hone my skills as a writer and to get an idea of fantasy publishers out there. Although I moved on to other writing projects and archived that particular story, the feeling of seeing my work in a bookstore never left me and became one of my ultimate goals. To go back into that same store nearly two decades later and see my book in the section where I had been browsing for inspiration, back when I was an aspiring writer, is truly a dream come true.

Posted by on November 17, 2019 in Biography, Novels and tagged , , , .

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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.

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