We’re on the other side of the solstice now, but the nights are still long, the days are still short and the shadows dark. The veil between the living and the dead is traditionally thin on the solstice as it is on Samhain. Can you tell I’m pining for Halloween? How did you guess, lol.
Here’s a short, spooky excerpt from my Christmas ghost novel, The Fairy Lights. What happens when you fall in love with the ghost haunting your house? In Aisling’s case, a kiss from beyond:
Romance with a ghost – an excerpt from my Christmas ghost novel, The Fairy Lights
You can grab a copy of The Fairy Lights here, if you fancy some fantastical yuletide fun that is more metaphysical than spooky:
If you like a little spectral loving, get ready for some more ethereal~corporeal romance coming your way in 2025. Love you to Death, my ghost story collection for Valentine’s Day, will have plenty of paranormal liaisons between the living and the dead. No necrophilia needed…only ectoplasm orgasms, lol. The question remains: how does a living human get it on with a spectre? Find out on 1st February 2025…
It’s the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, so we can look forward to longer hours of daylight as the sun returns to the world from tomorrow. To celebrate, I thought I’d share the cover reveal for my forthcoming book: Love you to Death.
It’s a collection of Valentine’s Day ghost stories of approximately 52K words and 195 pages. Here’s the blurb:
Love you to death: ghost stories for Valentine’s Day
Do you love ghost stories? Of course you do. Do you love romance? Who wouldn’t? What if the love stories were between the living and the recently deceased; or even with the ghosts of those dead for thousands of years…
From the disturbing imagination of Leilanie Stewart, author of the award-winning Belfast Ghosts trilogy, comes eight new spine-tingling tales of ghostly romance. These original and previously unpublished tales of affairs that blend the ethereal and the corporeal, all set on or around Valentine’s Day, will satisfy your morbid curiosity for paranormal liaisons on the most amorous day of the year.
But the question remains: if bonds can exist between those in the world of the living and ones who walk among the dead, could such romance really Love you to Death?
If you want to hear a sample reading from Love you to Death, here’s an excerpt from the first story, White Day Whispers:
Yule, here is the Northern hemisphere, was officially at 9.20am this morning, but it was so rainy that we couldn’t see dawn because of the rain clouds. Ha ha, typical temperamental winter weather. Since Yule is our big festive celebration, we’ll be celebrating indoors today by lighting candles and having a huge seasonal feast. This is also the day when we do our family Secret Santa and the kiddo gets prezzies – one a day for the twelve days of Yule – up until New Year’s Day, delivered by either mummy or daddy Santa (yes, I wear the beard too. Why not?) Hurray!
We’re getting closer to Yule, and that means things are starting to feel more festive. As a fan of all things paranormal, here’s my recommendation for books to fill your stocking with. Amanda Sheridan’s fantastic Rapid Eye Movement quadrilogy is a paranormal suspense series with a good dose of romance that will keep you turning the pages over the holiday season. Here are links to buy the series:
Books for your stocking: Rapid Eye Movement quadrilogy by Amanda Sheridan
Today is the date of the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, a celebration in honour of the god of agriculture, Saturn. It was traditionally celebrated on 17th December, though in medieval times was apparently celebrated around 23rd to coincide with the solstice.
Anyway, Saturnalia and the Solstice both celebrate light returning to the world at the darkest time of year. What better way to enjoy the long, dark nights than with a page-turning book series with a dash of steamy romance just for some sizzle…
Why are ghost stories more popular at Christmas than Halloween?
Why are ghost stories more popular at Christmas than Halloween?
It’s a serious question. I’m legitimately asking. This isn’t a ploy to get more engagement (though, that would be nice, lol).
As a ghost horror author, my sales tend to double towards the end of November, rather than at Halloween, which makes me curious.
I’ve Googled it and the results are mixed. What do you guys think? Anyone got any theories?
Since we’re on the topic, apart from my Christmas ghost novel, The Fairy Lights, which is entirely set at Yuletide, another of my books features a grim chapter set at Christmas. Here’s a sample reading from Matthew’s Twin:
What happens to starving soldiers trapped in a castle at Christmas time?
Who is the mysterious man claiming to be Matthew’s long lost Twin? What about the ghostly soldiers, sinister witch and visions of a past life in medieval Ireland, 700 years ago?
Matthew’s Twin is standalone Book 3 of my Belfast Ghosts trilogy.
It has been a long time since I’ve posted a health update. I’ve been so focused on my literary career this year, both writing-wise (Pseudologia Fantastica published in June and another story collection just finished) and day-job-wise (I started teaching creative writing again at the start of October after an 8 year hiatus and this month I started a new part-time library position) that I haven’t posted any dietary updates. Consider this one long overdue.
December2019:Before I did the keto diet
How’s the keto diet going for me? Long story short, it isn’t. If you follow my posts, you’ll recall this one back in January 2024 setting out my diet goals for this year. Losing 2 stone? Nope. I haven’t managed to stick to either low-carb or keto this year and I have actually gained 4lbs since January, rather than losing 28lbs. Shall I laugh at my New Year 2024 goal, which has gone up in smoke? Why bother?
I haven’t completely neglected my health; with the exception of 2 weeks of illness, I have attended all of my early evening yoga classes.
The countdown to the holiday season is on, starting with Saturnalia on the 17th, Yule on the 21st and of course Christmas on the 25th. What would Christmas be without a ghost story? I heard recently that sales of ghost books are actually higher at Christmas than at Halloween, something which was admittedly a revelation. Who would’ve thought?
Well, I suppose that explains why The Fairy Lights has been the most popular book out of my Belfast Ghosts trilogy for the past two years in a row, with sales peaking towards the end of November and in December each year.
The Fairy Lights: The ghost of Christmas that never was is standalone Book 2 of the series, an ideal seasonal read that Yule not be disappointed with (cheesy pun intended 😅).
Has it been my most popular book overall? Nope. I’ll be doing a book summary for 2024 towards the end of this month to wrap up the surprises and expectations of my publishing journey this year, and to share any marketing tidbits I’ve learned, so you can check in for that later, if you’re interested.
Is it really December? Where did this year go? Anyway, more of that later. I’ll blog about all my New Year’s resolutions that I didn’t achieve (lol) towards the end of 2024.
Shopping in a Krampus wonderland
Today I kicked off the start of the holiday season minus the sentimentality with a trip to the Devil’s Fayre: the Krampus market at Voodoo Belfast. There were stalls selling occult jewellery, alternative festive gifts, seasonal baked goods and more and it was great to browse for some horror-themed prezzies.
At the weekend I posted a reel on all of my social media channels for #sentimentalsaturday sharing a trip down memory lane to when I was living in Japan.
Between 2003 and 2007, I taught English in Tottori, Northwestern Japan, and during that time I had 3 travel articles published in Nova City Magazine (2004-2006).
I rediscovered these nostalgic gems while tidying and they’re now enjoying pride of place on the bookshelf.
The short articles are of my impressions on living in Japan (picture 2) and my favourite Japanese writing kanji character (picture 4).
When I first moved to Japan, I didn’t speak any Japanese other than a few emergency phrases. While living there, I got myself a tutor and studied for the Level 3 Japanese proficiency test, and took this exam at Kobe University in December 2006. My Japanese conversational skills were quite good for a time, after living there for 4 years, but sadly I forget a lot of what I learned as I no longer have an opportunity to practise, apart from watching anime on occasion.
On a happy note, I met my lovely fellow author hubby in Japan – he was also teaching English – and at some point, we hope to visit our old haunts and bring our little adventurer with us. It’s really just a case of getting our savings together for such a trip!
This month, my Kindle app notified me that I just passed a silver reading achievement. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know there was any such Kindle challenge, but it was fun to find out that I’m close to gold, nonetheless. Although I prefer reading paperbacks, eBooks are undoubtedly more convenient. For me, I tend to mostly read my Kindle books in bed, or out and about whenever I have a moment to spare. So far this year, I have read 44 Kindle books, but I’ll do a proper update towards the end of 2024.
My new part-time library position has definitely helped keep my reading goals on track. It’s good to model reading in front of library users. Books are important, and I’m a firm believer in making time for reading, rather than leaving it to a free moment. My TBR pile of paperbacks on the coffee table at home (with expandable bookends, lol) is not whittling down in size as I keep buying more books. What can I say? I’m as much of a bookworm as I am a writer.
So, what am I reading this month? Halloween is over, but you wouldn’t know it from my current selection. Ghost horror, supernatural and psychological are top of my list at the moment. I’ve started reading ‘Home before Dark’ and ‘Whispers in the Sand’, but the others are next on my TBR so I’ve included them here. Apart from Riley Sager, which is a library borrow, I bought the others.
Here’s a video celebrating autumn, and all the beauty of Mabon. Halloween is over, but the autumn colours are still here.
The temperature has really dropped here in Northern Ireland, though we have managed to avoid snow, unlike some photos that friends in England have shared on social media. I’m sure that will change over the next few days though as snow is certainly forecast.
My fiction books and autumn colours
Last Saturday we went to the Santa parade in Belfast, which was at the little guy’s request. Apart from that we haven’t been personally getting into the whole festive spirit just yet. I know that a lot of people, and a lot of businesses, get their Christmas trees and decorations up from mid-November onwards, but for my family personally, once Halloween is over, we leave the generic autumnal decorations and door wreath in place until the 1st of December when we get ready for Yule. It’s still Mabon for a while longer!
Santa and Mrs Claus coming to town in Belfast city centre
