Why do I use folk horror in my books? A fellow Belfast writer asked me this recently, and honestly I hadn’t thought about it before, as I primarily write ghost stories and psychological horror. She had a point though, as I do use elements of folk horror in most of my books. In The Blue Man, book 1 of my Belfast Ghosts series, beryl crystals sourced from the Mourne Mts (shown in the photo above and video below) are used for a folk ritual to exorcise the titular Blue Man, and folk horror elements also appear in books 2 and 3 of the Belfast Ghosts trilogy – The Fairy Lights and Matthew’s Twin – as well as Gods of Avalon Road (Pagan Mayday ceremony) and Love you to Death (scrying using obsidian).
Thanks to the fellow Belfast writer for raising such an interesting topic – and thanks to you for watching me swiping my hair and tears on such a windy beach walk while making the video, lol.
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.
Actually the opposite for me! I grew up in East Belfast, so I’m a city girl, but traditional practises and folklore fascinates me, and is always something I can’t stop researching. 😉
Leilanie Stewart 
We use what we know, so you were always going to use that folk horror. 🙂
Actually the opposite for me! I grew up in East Belfast, so I’m a city girl, but traditional practises and folklore fascinates me, and is always something I can’t stop researching. 😉
That’s close enough! 😊