Yesterday, a friend mentioned how they were happy that over the weekend they had managed to finish a book they had been meaning to read several months ago. They had done this by not scrolling on social media, switched off their phone, and picked up the library book instead.
When it comes to my phone, I’m fairly disciplined about scrolling. I don’t tend to get sucked into social media for more than a few minutes at a time. I tend to check in for any updates and browse new posts, but I have a short attention span when it comes to ads, so if I’m not seeing posts by those I follow, I don’t get sucked into mindless scrolling.
It’s time for a change! Here’s my latest author photo. I needed something that suggested, yeah this is a spooky chick, lol. This pic strikes the balance between ‘ghost and psychological horror’ author and ‘experimental poet’. Or maybe I’m just telling myself that it does. Well, anyway, I have a tan. Plus, I look better in red lippy. Who doesn’t look better in red lippy? Hahaha!
Author branding is hard. As a multi-genre author, it’s sometimes challenging to meet all the requirements of my books. I write experimental poetry, but I also write urban fantasy, as well as ghost horror and psychological literary fiction. How to convey all that in one photo, or one logo, or one tagline, or one website? As my own publicist, I certainly do my best.
One month countdown until publication! Pseudologia Fantastica is my short story collection of stalkers and mythomaniacs. The genre is psychological literary fiction – different from my recent ghost horror books – but should still give you the creeps…
It’s still doing well at #85 in the Hot New Releases for Psychological literary fiction on Amazon UK from pre-orders. You can pre-order it until 20th June.
Here’s a sample from the first story, Leah as the Artist’s Muse, which was first published by Scarlet Leaf Review magazine.
Today I finished amending the parts of Pseudologia Fantastica with red pen comments from my editor, and I ordered another proof copy for one more round of checks. The changes were significant enough to merit another hard copy. My eyes definitely catch mistakes when I read them as paperback proof copies rather than e-proof versions.
Another proof in the post
I’m also in the midst of editing both the ebook and paperback versions of Midsummer Madness 2024: Bindweed Anthology. Running a creative writing publication is a lot of work, in addition to writing and publishing my own work (and having a day job, as well as young-child-wrangling) but helping other writers by giving them a platform for their writing is important to me.
Speaking of working on my own writing – my various WIPs have taken a slight backseat because of my forthcoming book and Bindweed, but I’m trying to keep chipping away where possible. Progress is slow though, but at least it hasn’t totally stalled. Quite the feat especially in the midst of GCSE exam season.
That’s all for now. Short, and sweet, as I’m saving my brain power for all of the above. Whew!
2024 isn’t even at the halfway point, and already it has been a rollercoaster for me. Thankfully, my writing has been a source of calm in my life, and family time has provided welcome respite from pretty much everything else that feels like chaos swirling in my head. I’m not one for melodrama, though as an introvert, my battery gets drained to pretty much zero quite easily – and much has happened already in five short months to drain it.
In February and March, I had a health scare and was in hospital. While this was happening, there were issues with our house. Work stressed added another layer onto the above and I found myself served a giant turd-sandwich.
Bad luck comes in threes, supposedly. I’m not particularly superstitious, but I’ve definitely met my quota for the year so far, I’d say. As an introvert I tend to try and save my energy and avoid social situations, as much as is humanly possible. Around the end of last year, while having an introspective moment, I decided that I would make an effort to be more extroverted and reach out to make new friends. I became friends with a new person, who seemed to be sad and lonely, and an interaction that led to me feeling sorry for this person became the starting point of our friendship when I invited my new friend for coffee.
Finally, some warmer weather here in Northern Ireland! It was 18°C today, practically balmy for this country. I love spring and summer, so my only gripe is that the nicer weather always seems to come hand-in-hand with GCSEs when I’m stuck indoors invigilating, instead of out in the park, or lounging on a picnic blanket on the beach.
Now is as good a time as any for a check-in, so I thought I’d share an update about all things literary, and generally about life.
It’s now less than two months until the publication of my second short story collection, Pseudologia Fantastica. Want to get an idea of what the collection is all about? Well, here’s a video of me reading the back cover blurb:
You can pre-order the Kindle eBook up until 20th June. I’m delighted that, thanks to the pre-orders already received, my collection has reached #28 in Hot New Releases for short stories. Check this out:
It also reached #50 in Hot New Releases for psychological literary fiction. Hooray!
I know this collection is psychological rather than ghost horror, as per my recently published books, but fear not. I am currently working on a new ghost horror novel set in London. Current novel WIP#7 is at about 41k words and will hopefully be finished next year. Fingers crossed!
It’s May already! I find it a little scary that we are getting close to the halfway point of 2024 already. Instead of focusing on time passing too quickly, I’d rather keep my fingers crossed for good weather. Do you ever take a moment to ground yourself in the present by noticing the little things around you? Flowers. A bird. Even a snail. Maybe having a young child who points these things out to me everyday helps, but it’s something I try to do by myself as well.
If you’re looking for a good spring read for Mayday, while you’re out enjoying the better weather, why not check out some of my Beltaine reads, and some by a variety of talented authors that my hubby and I publish in our Bindweed Anthologies (formerly Bindweed Magazine). Here’s a summary to help you decide:
Gods of Avalon Road is my debut novel set on Mayday. When friends Kerry and Gavin are tricked into a pagan ceremony on May 1st, they unwittingly resurrect ancient Celtic gods into modern day London. This book gets quite saucy with the pagan debauchery, so bear in mind that it’s strictly for over 18s!
Diabolical Dreamscapes is my strange and surreal short story collection. It opens with a bizarre and creepy story set in spring, Elsie’s Eternal Eden, that was previously published in The Crazy Oik in 2012.
Midsummer Madness 2022 and Midsummer Madness 2023 are two of the biannual Bindweed Anthologies that my hubby and I publish. They are published annually on June 21st, so look out for Midsummer Madness 2024 coming soon…
Lately I’ve noticed that my short story collection, Diabolical Dreamscapes, has been selling the best out of all my books. Of course, in terms of raw numbers, my novels The Blue Man and The Fairy Lights far outstrip any of my other books in terms of straight sales – but Diabolical Dreamscapes is my most consistent seller, of late. This got me thinking about why, which is what inspired today’s post.
I read this article in The Guardian on the topic, and tend to agree that it is too easy to dismiss the popularity of short story collections as simply down to people in today’s digital age having shorter attention spans; getting to know entirely new characters as well as dealing with a whole new plot, and often a change in POV takes concentration. Certainly more commitment than what would be required of some novels, I’d say.
If it isn’t a case of short story collections being quicker, or less taxing to read, then what?
I’m writing today’s post for all my Indie author friends out there in the writing community who have ever wavered, or given up on their writing. Recently I had brunch with a writer friend who has decided, for the foreseeable, to quit her writing. She also sells crocheted and hand-knitted clothes and toys at craft fairs, and feels they sell much better than her books. I asked my friend if she minded me writing about her story – keeping her info anonymous, of course, as per her wishes – and she agreed, in the interest of helping out the writing community.
My friend confided that she had only sold a handful of books last year; not enough to keep her motivated. She doesn’t do active promotion of her books, other than occasional posts on social media, and selling a few copies at fairs alongside her knitted/crocheted crafts.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post called motivation to write when it’s not about the money. I still pretty much feel the same way about writing as I did in that post two years ago: that my motivation comes from writing and sharing my stories with the world. My first drafts are always for me. If I thought about selling books at that stage, I might quickly get overwhelmed and lose my motivation.
Leilanie Stewart 