I’m making good use of my 8 week summer holiday to do some writing research. As you might know from my other blog posts, I work in a grammar school in Northern Ireland and while school is out for summer, I have been a busy bee working on two novels simultaneously. Novel WIP#7 is a supernatural horror set in London. It was originally an unpublished short story that I wrote back in 2009, and now I have an idea to expand it onto a novel. Novel WIP#8 is the sequel to The Buddha’s Bone, which I am writing at reader request; basically enough readers contacted me to say that they wanted to know what happens next in Kimberly’s story, since things end on a positive note with her and Naoki. The sequel will pick up directly where the story left them in Japan.

The photo is me at Keats & Chapman bookstore in Belfast doing research for novel WIP#7. Can you believe I didn’t know that such a gem of a bookstore existed? I tend to shop in Waterstones, No Alibis and Books, Paper, Scissors in my hometown, so happening upon this fantastic store while on a shopping day out with my family was a treat. I’m doing research on witchcraft (spoiler alert!), a topic I know next to nothing about. But as a reader, I love learning new things. I found these two fabulous non-fiction books on the history of witchcraft, so I’ll be brushing up my historical knowledge on the topic soon.

Posted by on August 6, 2023 in Writing 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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