It’s the one year publishing anniversary of Book 3 in my ‘Belfast Ghosts’ series, Matthew’s Twin. It was released on 20th October 2023 and completed the trilogy.
If you think that’s the end of my stint of ghost books, however, think again. I’m close to completion of the final draft of a ghost story collection due to be released in early 2025, and I’m also around 53k words into the first draft of a ghostly novel that also has a good dose of witchcraft.
But, back to Matthew’s Twin! If you like vengeful ghosts and murderous witches, then you should check out the final book in my Belfast Ghosts trilogy. It’s a good Halloween read that will leave you feeling rather disturbed…
It’s starting to feel quite Halloweeny! The weather has taken a much colder turn over here in Northern Ireland, though I’m enjoying all the gorgeous autumn colours. Taking a dander (walk) through crunchy autumnal leaves is very restorative.
Halloween 365! (With writing is my sanity tee)
This week, my fellow horror-loving bestie texted me a photo of my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road, in the Halloween display at Belfast Central Library. Never one to pass up a spooky book display, I decided to head on over to the city centre to check it out for myself, while doing a spot of spooky shopping.
Spooky booky! (Like my Halloween T-shirt?)
Btw, there were lots of people in the library; I simply took photos and filmed the video in a way that didn’t show people between the shelves or at tables to respect their privacy. Central Library is a busy, thriving community library in Belfast. Hurray!
Like my Halloween T-shirt? Can I mention again for the hundred-millionth time that I love Halloween, just in case you missed that little piece of Leilanie trivia? Although I wear my multitude of Halloween leggings, T-shirts and dresses all year round, Samhain is the socially acceptable time of year for me to parade around in my witchy cosplay with barely a second glance.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I don’t have a lot of news other than I’m still chipping away at my three WIPs, still teaching creative writing, whittling down my spooky TBR pile and writing to you, dear reader.
Is book marketing easy for an author? Again, I’m going to say, not for most.
So, how can you help, dear reader?
Supporting authors is pretty simple, really. Here’s my top 10 tips for easy ways to support an author:
Pre-order their books. This boosts the sales ranking for their book on launch day, which gives it more visibility.
Buy their books. Same reason as above, plus you’ll make the author’s day.
Read their books on KU. If you have a subscription, it’s part of your plan, and they’ll get paid for the page reads.
Recommend their books. Word of mouth goes a long way.
Share their posts. Even when people are scrolling quickly through their feed, a book image will stick in their mind and they might just decide to buy it.
Follow their social media. That way you’ll get all their latest book alerts, or find out about any discount promos on their back titles.
Write book reviews. More reviews helps readers decide if a book is for them – or not (latter point steers the wrong readers away from the chances of bad reviews).
Leave ratings. This boosts visibility, helping to put their book in the path of the right readers.
Attend their book events. Chatting to an author about their books, even if you are just browsing not buying, is motivation for them to keep writing. Authors need to know they have an audience.
Borrow their books from libraries. It’s free for you, and the author still gets paid (in a similar way to getting page reads on Kindle Unlimited). Plus, you’re supporting your local library in a time of funding cuts and closures. Win-win for author, reader and library!
This month I’m back to teaching creative writing. It’s a new venture that coincided with the new moon on 2nd October. If ever there was a time for new beginnings, fresh starts and the potential for growth, as per new moon symbolism, this would be it for me.
I’m running the classes for 6th form at the grammar school where I work as part of their enrichment sessions. It’s good to be back to running creative writing classes after eight years. I previously held classes at two schools in London: Battersea Park School (now Harris Academy, Battersea) and Sacred Heart High School, covering all of the usual basics such as point of view, characterisation and plot, as well as chapter planning for longer works. With both groups, the end goal was producing an anthology to showcase their work.
This time around will be quite similar, except I’ll be giving them more homework assignments too, especially to help keep them focused on producing word counts targets each week and working to deadlines. It’s all part of the writing process for any author, as we know.
Anyway, getting back to teaching creative writing has meant that some other things are taking a temporary backseat: in this case, Bindweed Anthologies. After the last creative writing group at Sacred Heart High School finished in 2016, I started up Bindweed, so it’s fun to bring things full circle again by starting up a new creative writing class. It’s great to be able to help others with their literary life, in addition to managing my own writing. Plus, on a personal note, it’s lovely to engage my brain again by balancing the literary needs of others. There are a mix of creative types in the class: poets, non-fiction bloggers, one screen-play writer and the rest being a mix of short story authors and novelists-in-the-making. Planning writing activities to meet the needs of all is a welcome challenge that shakes off the dust-bunnies in my brain.
The countdown to Halloween is on, now that it’s October. It’s my favourite themed season; what horror author wouldn’t love all things Samhain?
Coffee and writing time with a ghost for inspiration
Writing-wise, I’m still making progress with all three of my WIPs. I’m two thirds done with the first draft of each. Lots of coffee helps. I’m planning to have the ghostly short story collection ready for publication in 2025, and hoping to have both novel drafts finished by the middle of next year too.
Writing research
I found an interesting spooky booky for the season that has been helping with writing research, especially since two out of my three WIPs are ghost stories. This gem, pictured above, covers murders solved by psychics, or cases where ghosts present evidence themselves. Fascinating stuff if you’re into the paranormal – as I am.
Spooky Skinnybones hanging on the Halloween tree
What else provides writing inspiration while I’m chipping away at my various projects? The Halloween decorations are up, and help to keep me focused on all-things-horror. This skeleton decoration was something I got from a fellow poet at the Free Verse Fair in London. The little dude has since dubbed it ‘Spooky Skinnybones’ and it takes pride of place hanging by its neck from the Halloween tree, lol.
Ready to watch Beetlejuice 2
My hubby, son and I also went to see Beetlejuice 2 recently. Watching horror helps to keep general spooky themes floating through my head as disembodied phantoms, so I tend to watch scary films regularly. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve watched all of the horror movies available on Netflix, lol. Pictured above is The Avenue cinema in Belfast, with all the home comforts of sofa, ottoman and a full menu to order. Can’t beat a burger and large glass of red while watching a film.
Anyway, that’s all for now. As we near the end of 2024, I can say that my writing plan for this year is on track, as expected. Phew!
The other day, my phone decided to pop up a memory. It was taken a number of years ago, when I was pregnant with my son and reading through the final draft of my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road. I always print the final drafts as a proof copy using Lulu, as I find book form easier to read than an e-copy on my laptop. You can see the photo here, on the left.
Anyway, the photo inspired today’s topic: how do children affect writing time? A trip down memory lane got me thinking about how I have managed to make time for writing with a youngster and minimal child support. It isn’t easy when you have a dependent, but it isn’t impossible either. I’d like to share my experience with you, and offer tips to help – whether you’re a parent, or considering becoming one – writing and children can coexist quite harmoniously; believe it or not!
Gratuitous self-promo post, why not? To celebrate autumn and the start of the spooky season, I’m running a Kindle countdown sale on all of my ghostly eBooks. For this week only, four of my books are just 99p. You can grab a discount copy from the following:
Mabon is here! It’s officially autumn, though today here in Northern Ireland the weather is actually quite lovely and warm. Best of both worlds for me, since summer is my favourite season, though Halloween is my favourite themed time of year.
Enjoying the autumn colours in my pumpkin cardi
Hey, did any of you get to see the super moon on 17th/18th September? Well, I didn’t. Despite living on a hill, there is a lot of light pollution in my area because of tall buildings, which sadly prevented me from seeing the aurora earlier this year, though this wouldn’t have prevented me from seeing the moon. I went out in my front garden after dark, and out the back too on both the 17th and 18th, and couldn’t see the moon anywhere, though the stars were lovely.
I love autumn. Halloween is my favourite themed season, as I love the spooky season, and I also enjoy all the autumn colours. We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather here in Northern Ireland so I can’t complain.
A few days ago, a reader began to binge-read Diabolical Dreamscapes. They found my book through sponsored ads, which I was able to see through the dashboard, and they read the whole collection in two days flat. Hurray! Or maybe not. After that, the anonymous reader left a 2 star rating. Not a review; they didn’t explain why they didn’t like it. They simply left a rating.
The thing about readers is that, just as they are strangers to me, I am also a stranger to them. They find one of my books through advertising, give it a go, and leave their thoughts via a rating or a review. Whether good or bad, I value their feedback as it’s objective – they don’t know me at all and are therefore expressing an opinion on my book, rather than making a personal point. Of course I’d love for everyone to like my work; but that isn’t realistic. Nothing is universally popular.
Nevertheless, I’d be lying if I said that negative reviews have no effect on me. So much time and effort goes into writing and producing a book. Here are a few things that help me when a negative rating or review lands on one of my books:
Apart from Halloween, this is my second favourite themed time of year. What horror lover wouldn’t want to ritually watch Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th? Yep, my hubby and I will be enjoying some rioja out of our Halloween-themed skull glasses later and watching tragic Jason, and his creepy mum, Mrs Voorhees.
But, that’s all for the grownups. What about for the kids? You want to know some fun Friday the 13th superstitions from my childhood? Alright then, here we go:
Leilanie Stewart 