Woohoo! A big celebration this Beltaine weekend because I have exciting news… novel WIP #8 is finally done. Hurray!

For those who haven’t been following my writing progress lately, this manuscript draft is the sequel for The Buddha’s Bone, published in 2021. Originally I had intended this story of Kimberly, a Londoner who goes to Japan to teach English and ends up on a dark psychological journey of self-discovery, to be a standalone book. However, a handful of readers, enough to motivate me, wrote in their Amazon and Goodreads reviews that they wanted more of Kimberly’s story; particularly since it ended on a relatively happy note with her travelling back to London with her Japanese boyfriend, Naoki, to introduce him to her family for Christmas.

Well, no spoilers, but novel WIP #8 is a direct sequel, picking up in the New Year back in Japan after their trip to England. Do things work out for Kimberly? You’ll have to read it and find out.

I began writing novel WIP #8 in March 2023, alongside novel WIP #7, a ghost story set in London. Progress was slow on both because of writing them simultaneously, so in January this year, I made a decision to work solely on #8 and let #7 take a back seat for a while. Turns out that was a good decision, as otherwise I may not have had either finished in 2025.

The last novel I published was Matthew’s Twin in October 2023, so it will be a two year gap at least by the time this one is polished and ready for the world at large. For now, a one week breather and then I’ll have a final read through before printing a proof copy for my editor. More on that later.

Curious to see where I started on this particular bookish journey two years ago? Here’s my blog post when I was first tackling the chapter outlining: Planning a sequel isn’t easy.

Posted by on May 3, 2025 in 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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