Do you ever get imposter syndrome? Recently, I was out running errands in Belfast when a woman approached me and asked, “Are you that author? I think I’ve read one of your books.” I was caught a bit by surprise, but confirmed without knowing if she meant me or not (lol) that I am, indeed, an author. The reader then went on to say that she had read my book, The Blue Man, as it was one of the titles that came up at her book club when the group was focusing on local authors. I’m guessing that her book club was through Libraries NI, but I didn’t ask, as I found myself somewhat thrown for a loop at being recognised.
Situations like this don’t happen to me a lot; this is the second time in the past year, to put it in context, the other time being when I was shopping in Belfast city centre and was recognised by a follower of my social media. This latest occasion really gave me a moment of disconnect, a real feeling of imposter syndrome, and a sense of detachment from Leilanie Stewart the author and even from the success of my book, The Blue Man.
Moments like this keep me mindful of the fact that being an author means being in the public eye. On this occasion, I was looking rather scuzzy (devoid of makeup, with messy hair and wearing a dodgy old t-shirt with a curry stain, lol). I will have to make sure I look presentable next time, even when simply out and about so that I’m in ‘author mode’ and not caught unaware.
Anyway, I have recently finished a new ghost horror novel and I’m hoping it’ll be as well received by readers and considered as scary as The Blue Man. An author can hope!
Since I’m a one-woman writing and publishing team, which means I’m my own publicist too (hi and hello from both of us over here in Northern Ireland, lol) it’s time for some more shameless self promotion. Hey, an author has to keep the sales ticking along somehow, eh? I’m hoping that you’re a reader, or a potential reader of my books, and if not (yet!) then why not give them a try? They’re on Kindle Unlimited, if you subscribe, and if you’re a bit skint, then you can read them for free at any of the following libraries:
Here you can listen as I discuss my award-winning Belfast Ghosts trilogy on BBC Radio Ulster show The Ticket with host, Kathy Clugston. Book 1, The Blue Man won a Chill with a Book Premier Reader’s award in 2023 and Book 2, The Fairy Lights won an Author Shout ‘Recommended Read 2024’ award. But out of the series, Book 3, Matthew’s Twin is my personal favourite.
These three ghost novels are standalones, so you can read one of them, or all three, in any order you like.
Finally, after three years of writing my latest novel project, a ghost horror book set in London, I have finished the final draft. Hurray, yippee, whoopee, happy dance!
The reason that this novel draft took me so long to write was that I had several other projects on the go at the same time, so I hadn’t been focusing all my efforts on this one solely. I started writing it in May 2023, and during the three years, I finished and published short story collections Pseudologia Fantastica in June 2024, Love you to Death in February 2025 and novel The Wabi-sabi Doll in September 2025, in addition to reading and editing submissions for Bindweed Anthologies; so you can imagine how often I set it aside.
Better late than never, eh? I always print paperback copies of final drafts as I find it easier to spot mistakes than reading the manuscript on my computer; for this purpose I always use Lulu. Plus, the printed drafts make a nice edition to my bookshelf as a way of helping me remember the progression of my plot and characterisation before the polished book is ready for publication.
Speaking of publication – my goal with this book is to have it out on submission later in 2026. After five years of running my own indie imprint, Leilanie Stewart books, and building a readership for my ghost horror and psychological fiction books, I feel the need to come full circle again and find a traditional publisher; for this project in particular. Some of my earlier books were published by small press publishers, but I feel that my reach as an indie author has extended beyond the audience that those small press publishers could achieve for me (six of my self-published books far outstrip sales from two of my books published by small press publishers) and so I’m hoping, on the basis of that, to approach a mid-size publisher with my latest novel manuscript to hopefully continue to widen my readership.
That’s not to say I have given up on self-publishing. I still have several ISBNs from Nielsen to use on future books, and I don’t see publishing in limited terms of self-publishing versus traditional, the way some folks in publishing might, but rather a way of widening my audience and reaching more readers. Marketing is an ever evolving thing for me. Let’s see what happens.
In the meantime, you can check out my unboxing video below. Why do I keep the title under wraps? A personal tradition – or you could say a superstition. Besides, I like to do title and cover reveals at a later stage. Whatever happens, I’ll keep you posted.
A few days ago I received a review of The Wabi-sabi Doll from a reader in Canada, giving the best compliment I’ve had for a book in a while: that they thought the novel read like a true story and hoped that some of the events were fictional. I really gave my main character Kimberly a hard time in that novel, as I joked about with host Kathy Clugston on BBC Radio Ulster when I was discussing the plot of The Wabi-sabi Doll, so I can see why the reader hoped it was fictional, which of course it is.
As a writer, I strive for authenticity in my books, so I’m thrilled that a reader felt the novel read as though it was real. I lived in Japan a long time ago, so I needed to do a lot of research to keep everything up to date and realistic in the story. In non-fiction books, references will be cited at the end; not a requirement for fiction, but in The Wabi-sabi Doll, I decided to reference the sites I used for research as a thank you for the information.
Anyway, if you want to support a humble indie author, you can buy The Wabi-sabi Doll from the links below. Content warning for racism, miscarriage, references to sexual assault, misogyny and domestic abuse. But if you like dark psychological reads, you won’t be disappointed:
Both! These novels each feature May 1st in the plot. The Fairy Lights is set at Friar’s Bush graveyard in Stranmillis, Belfast, where there is a Hawthorne tree known as a ‘Maybush’ and according to local folklore, if you sit under this on May 1st, you will find yourself transported to the fairy realms. Gods of Avalon Road takes place during the six days of Beltane/Beltaine, after a pagan ritual on Mayday, which resurrects ancient Celtic gods into modern day London.
Tonight is also a full moon, making Mayday a double celebration. The moon is reaching its furthest point away from the earth (its apogee), hence the ‘micro’ aspect of the name. As for the ‘flower’ meaning? April flowers bring May flowers, of course.
Or she may put you in a book and kill you. At least this is what it says on my favourite writing mug. A colleague bought this for me during a work Secret Santa six years ago and it’s a firm favourite for my caffeine fix while I write.
Speaking of writing, did I mention my good news? I finally finished my ghost horror novel WIP after 3 on-and-off years, during which I had writer’s block not once, but twice. Yikes. Of course, while struggling with my writer’s block on this particular project, I stayed productive by finishing and publishing my second short story collection, Pseudologia Fantastica, my third short story collection, Love you to Death and my sixth novel, The Wabi-sabi Doll. I guess that’s the reason why I started writing ghost novel WIP #7 back in May 2023 and I have only just finished it in April 2026.
Now that I’ve finished ghost novel WIP#7, does that mean I’m taking a writing hiatus? Of course not! I always have a WIP on the go; my latest is novel WIP#11, which is a literary horror that I started in November 2025. I’m currently at 17k words, since I started writing this alongside finishing novel WIP#7, but now that it has my sole focus, I think my word count might jump considerably. Here’s hoping.
This week, a book delivery arrived for my creative writers. In case you don’t follow my blog regularly, I teach creative writing to secondary school students, running classes from September to April each academic year, with an end goal of publication in an anthology. I currently teach my creative writing classes as an enrichment course for sixth form (16-17 year olds) in a grammar school here in Northern Ireland where I live, and I previously taught creative writing to KS3 (12-13 year olds) and GCSE age pupils (15-16 year olds) on the gifted and talented registers at two schools in Battersea and Hammersmith in London, so all in all, I have been teaching creative writing classes for fifteen years.
Wow, now I feel old, lol.
My writing certificate after my poem was published in Poetry Now young writers anthology 1995
When I was 17 years old, I would have loved the opportunity to have participated in a creative writing class with an end goal of publication. Apart from one poem that was published in a nationwide anthology, none of my fiction was published while I was a teen. Indeed, I wasn’t taught how to structure a short story while I was at school either, since GCSE and A level English focus on analysing literary methods in literature rather than the craft of writing.
Nevertheless, I began writing a children’s sci-fi adventure novel when I was 12, chipping away at the first draft in dribs and drabs throughout my teens. I eventually tried to get it published while I was a university student (studying archaeology and palaeoecology, not creative writing or even English). Back then, I knew little about point of view and characterisation. My plot wasn’t clearly outlined and the ending fell flat. I had two beta readers, who weren’t editors or even writers, and both praised the manuscript as they didn’t want to dent my fledgling confidence. One beta reader was my aunt and the other was a family friend, and both women only read contemporary romance books on occasion; never children’s sci-fi adventure stories.
My article appeared inNova City magazine November 2004 issue
After one full manuscript request and a handful of rejections, I considered signing up to an online writing course, but I was equal parts naive and cautious and worried about being scammed out of several hundred pounds, so I cancelled my application. Fast forward a few years, and while I was teaching English in Japan, and writing non-fiction travel articles which were published in the now defunct Nova City magazine in Japan, I began to self-study creative writing using primarily the Chicago manual of style, as well as critically analysing novels I was reading, jotting pencil notes in margins and on sticky notes. It was a longer learning curve than if I had attended a creative writing course, but my writing began to improve.
Once my teaching contract ended, I relocated to the UK with my then boyfriend, now hubby (who I met in Japan while we were both teaching English), and we lived in Cambridge, where I joined a writing group, and getting critical feedback on my stories helped to improve my writing skills even more. I began to get my poetry and short fiction accepted for publication in magazines and anthologies in the UK and elsewhere worldwide, and my career progressed from there.
For the past decade and a half, I have been fortunate enough to do something I’m passionate about for my day profession. My life has revolved around creative writing since I was a girl, and I love the opportunity to share this with the next generation of writers and helping them to become published authors too. I can’t wait to see their faces when they hold copies of their published anthologies and celebrate being published authors at 17, and living the dream I would have loved at that age too. 😀
April in Japan is usually hanami season (cherry blossom viewing) and seeing all the pink blossoms blooming in Northern Ireland has left me feeling rather sentimental about the four years I spent over in Japan when I was teaching English as a second language.
What better way to take a trip down memory lane than to share a bit about my latest novel, The Wabi-sabi Doll, when I discussed it on BBC Radio Ulster show ‘The Ticket’. What does ‘wabi-sabi’ mean? Listen as I chat to host Kathy Clugston about what this Japanese word means, why I wrote a sequel for The Buddha’s Bone, and how my main character, Kimberly, has a tough journey in this psychological fiction duology set in Japan.
Time off writing (but my back catalogue is always there with a click…)
The thing about working in a school, as I do, is that all your holidays are fixed; you get a week off for Halloween, two weeks for Christmas, a week around Valentine’s Day, two weeks for Easter and seven weeks for summer.
I’m coming up to the end of my second week off work, and making the most of my time off by switching off. Aside from reading, which I always do for fun, I haven’t really been writing, for the simple reason that writing for me is work. Yes, it’s my passion – but it’s still work. A typical work day for me involves being in class or in the library; I teach creative writing to sixth form (16-17 year olds, for those folks elsewhere) and I manage the school library on a part-time basis. During my work day, I manage writing time on my lunch break and after school while my son is at his after school club. This system allows me to switch off from both day job work and writing in the evenings and at weekends during term time.
Since I get more holidays than if I worked a full-time job it wouldn’t be practical for me to have thirteen weeks off writing time, so taking time off writing is something that I have decided to do for only these two weeks of Easter break. Before the holiday, I was so busy reading the work of my creative writers, editing their work and giving feedback that I needed proper ‘switch off’ time from all kinds of writing and editing – even my own. I’m over 70,000 words of my latest ghost novel WIP, and very close to the finish line, so having the headspace to gear up for writing the ending has been really good. I think getting back to my draft with a fresh perspective next week will help the story to end with a bang, not a fizzle.
In the meantime, I have been busy spending my two week staycation having family day trips to do all the things we enjoy: nature hikes, fossil hunting, visiting museums and the local library. Ah, bliss.
This week, while off for Easter break, I had an opportunity to dress up as a medieval monk. Do I make a convincing medieval monk? Er, no. Apart from revealing my modern shoes under the monk robe (woops, anachronism!) only men were medieval monks, so that aspect is also inaccurate, but that didn’t stop me from having some fun. I’m a fan of all kinds of dress-up (look at all of my Halloween videos) but historical is particularly fun. To date, I have never had the chance to be in a historical reenactment, but if the opportunity was ever to arise, I’d jump at the chance.
Well, my historical acting leaves much room for improvement – I can’t help but be quite hammy and find it hard to be serious sometimes – but I assure you my historical horror novels are quite different. I try to be as accurate as I can with my research to give my books more authenticity. Even though I primarily write ghost stories, giving them a grounding with the archaeological details adds a level of realism that hopefully helps readers keep up the suspension of disbelief. Four of my books: Gods of Avalon Road, Diabolical Dreamscapes, Matthew’s Twin and Love you to Death, contain archaeological elements, if you’re interested.
Anyway, happy Easter weekend and if you’re in the UK or Ireland, hope you don’t get hit too hard by Storm Dave today.
Leilanie Stewart 