While doing a spring clean today I found my first writing certificate from when I was a kid. It was fun to take a trip down memory lane especially since my writing career has come full circle and I now teach creative writing to teens in secondary education.
I started writing when I was a young child growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and this was the first time I was published in a young writers’ anthology called ‘Write and Shine’ from Poetry Now. Really fun to have rediscovered that old certificate 31 years later…aww!
Feeling a bit philosophical today, folks, and gearing up for a day of writing as I’m near the finish line of my latest novel draft that has been 3 years in the making (in between a load of other literary projects, plus real life, of course).
Sometimes you have to remind yourself of how far you have come in order to keep going. Lots of things about my writing and publishing journey keep me motivated to write more books, but since my last novel, The Wabi-sabi Doll, was my biggest flop so far in my 16 years of being a published author (sniff…) I have needed to remind myself of my successful books, the reasons why I write (for myself, but also for my readers) and of what I hope to achieve next on my literary journey.
Stay motivated, friends, whatever you are doing today!
Yesterday at 2.45pm the Spring Equinox arrived. Hurray! Winter really felt like the longest slog, so I’m glad to see my least favourite season fall behind for another year.
Today is World Poetry Day, and to celebrate jointly with the first day of Ostara, I thought I’d share a couple of spring-themed poems from my collection, Toebirds & Woodlice. Here I am reading ‘Convolvulus Arvensis’ and ‘The Frivolous Earth’.
The first day of spring over here in Northern Ireland was surprisingly warm, reaching 14°C; positively balmy compared to recent temps. As shown in the photo above, I always seize the moment to get some vitamin D whenever I can and there’s no better way to do that than to bask in the sun. I’ve heard that the weather is going to take a dip next week, and there may be snow showers. Oh well. I’ll enjoy it then while it lasts.
A lot of national holidays this week in three countries that are important to me: St. Patrick’s Day (Ireland, 17 March), Mother’s Day (UK, 15 March) and White Day (Japan, 14 March).
Check it out on IMDB
Today, of course, is St. Patrick’s Day. My hubby, son and I had good intentions to go and watch some live trad music but, alas, Ireland’s only kung fu movie got in the way and tempted us to stay home. Have you ever watched Fatal Deviation? If not, then you must. This gem of a martial arts movie is set in Trim, Co. Meath and is an Irish martial arts extravaganza. I’m a huge kung fu fan; you may or may not know that aside from being a big Bruce Lee fan, I also love all kinds of kung fu movies whether low budget or blockbuster. Don’t miss Ireland’s answer to Bruce Lee! (The mad monk is my favourite, lol).
On Sunday 15th March, we celebrated Mother’s Day with dinner out and my son surprised me with a lovely card complete with a teabag treat…aww.
On Saturday 14th March, it was White Day in Japan. To explain this for those folks reading who have never been to Japan, Valentine’s Day over there is when women make a proposal to men they like by giving him chocolates; he then either accepts or rejects her proposal on White Day by giving her white chocolates (acceptance) or cookies (rejection). My hubby and I met over in Japan while we were both teaching English for rival schools in a kind of Montague-Capulet-esque scenario. We’ve celebrated Japanese style Valentine’s Day and White Day ever since (and yes, I do receive white chocolates, thank you very much!).
How lucky are we to have a second month in a row with a Friday the 13th? Such a delight doesn’t often happen, so I’ve decided to run a 24 hour sale for four of my horror books, just to give you a treat to celebrate the spooky start to the weekend. All of these books will be only $0.99 if you shop on Amazon dot com:
The Blue Man, Book 1 in my Belfast Ghosts trilogy.
Feel free to grab yourself a bargain while the sale lasts, and if you like what you read, please do leave a review on Goodreads, Waterstones, Amazon etc.
Happy World Book Day and Happy World Obesity Day! As an author and an avid keto dieter, I’d love to share with you my novels that feature fat-shaming and body horror as part of the plot. Fat shaming is a topic close to my heart since, back in 2020, I had clinical obesity with a BMI of 31. By following a strict keto diet combined with intermittent fasting, I am currently 3 and a half stone (20 kgs/ 48lbs) lighter than I was in 2020. I keep the weight gain off by eating a mostly low carb diet and I’ve been off chocolate and baked goods permanently since December 2022. But this doesn’t mean I don’t struggle, and so weight gain and body image issues are topics that I explore in my books.
Matthew’s Twin, book 3 of my Belfast Ghosts trilogy, sees main character Matthew fat-shamed by his girlfriend Sonya, because of his large abdomen. But, all is not as it seems in this body horror novel.
In The Blue Man, book 1 of my Belfast Ghosts trilogy, Sabrina feels insecure about what her best frenemy, Megan, might think of her two stone weight gain, as Megan is judgemental about the girls in their friendship circle who are larger in size.
The Buddha’s Bone is a psychological novel featuring Kimberly, an English teacher in Japan who makes derogatory remarks about her roommate’s larger size.
Obviously the weight issue aspects of my books listed above are tangential to the main plots, so whether you’re celebrating one of these events today, both, or neither, my books are still worth checking out if you’re a fan of ghost horror or psychological fiction.
Recently I went for coffee with a friend and among many things, we chatted about how we’re both weird. In my opinion there are two categories of ‘weird’: eccentric-weird and deviant-weird. My friend and I decided that we fall into the former category of eccentric-weird. We’re socially-acceptable weird, the kind that is creative and a bit offbeat, but generally fits in. It also happens that we’re both published authors, and that got me thinking about whether being a weirdo is good for creative writing.
I’ve always been considered a weirdo. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been called weird, and artsy, and a day-dreamer. At school I was often in trouble for doodling pictures of UFOs on my jotters instead of doing my schoolwork and it got so bad at one stage that my parents were called in for a meeting and I was assessed for my literacy and numeracy to see if I needed to go into the special needs class. Only when forced to focus during an on-the-spot test did I finally do the work and at that point my teacher realised that my problem is not with my academic ability, but with the fact that I prefer the world inside my head than the real one. Lol.
Don’t all weirdos feel the same way? We’re the creative minds, the ones who think outside the box. Eccentric weirdos are the makers and doers who come up with new and innovative ways of looking at things. I’ve never been normal; I can’t even pretend to be anything other than weird. In real life I’m a bit ‘marmite’ in that I either attract (some) or repel (quite a few) people; not that I care too much about that.
Yes, it seems to me that being a weirdo helps creative writing. Name me one fiction author who is normal and I think that’ll be a first, ha ha.
I’ve blogged a couple of times about the positive impact of social media for authors, in terms of book marketing, but in today’s post, I’m going to look at the impact on writing time, not marketing time.
In case you’re confused, writing and marketing are completely separate aspects of the book publishing journey. Both are equally important, if you wish to be a published author. As a person, I’m quite an introvert. I have a limited amount of social energy and after expending it, I need to recharge in solitude for a long time. If given a choice about whether to go out to a party or stay home, I would rather choose home. As an author, it’s hard to market your books if, like me, you are an introvert. I don’t tend to seek out live events such as book fairs or signing events very much, preferring to put more resources into selling books online instead. This is for a few reasons, not just my introverted nature: doing book fairs and signing events as an indie author means that I need to keep a ready supply of copies to sell, and I just don’t have the space; I’ve also found that I make more in royalties from online sales than I do in profit from buying my books at an author discounted rate and selling them at full retail price. Plus, in between having a full time day job and managing childcare, that leaves only weekends free to do book fairs, and I’d rather spend my free time with my family instead.
Happy Valentine’s Day horror lovers…or should I say, Valloween? Today I’m going to share with you my special recipe for how to make super easy keto chocolates that you will love so much, you might just devour all of them in one go. Here, I’ve made mine shaped as hearts, skulls and gravestones to match my collection of ghost stories for Valentine’s Day, Love you to Death, but you can use whatever shape of silicon moulds that your sweet, spooky wee heart desires. Ready to get chocolatey? Here goes:
Ingredients – you’ll need:
Cacao buttons
100% cocoa powder
Honey
Peanut butter
Silicon moulds
Leilanie’s spookily slimline chocolate recipe:
Melt 20 cacao buttons in a milk pan (takes about 30 seconds on high heat).
Turn off the heat and add half a teaspoon of cocoa powder. You can add more if you prefer your chocolates very bitter.
Add half a teaspoon of honey (or a full teaspoon of you want your chocolates to be very sweet).
Mix in a heaped teaspoon of peanut butter for taste and texture (optional, but I like it).
Put the mixture in your silicon moulds and leave to set for 15 mins at room temp or 5-10 mins in the fridge, if you can’t wait to devour your treats.
Easy peasy! Enjoy your low carb Valentine’s Day chocolate treats minus the guilty conscience!
Hey, horror lovers! What a treat we get this week to have Friday the 13th followed by Valentine’s Day. The last time Friday the 13th went hand in hand with Valentine’s Day was back in 2015. That was so many moons ago. In fact, for me, an entirely different world. Back then my hubby and I were living in London. My debut poetry collection, A Model Archaeologist, was undergoing final edits by my editor, Les Robinson at Eyewear Publishing, before being launched in June 2015 at the Rugby Tavern in Holborn, London, as part of the 20/20 collection of upcoming poets. In fact, I wasn’t even a novelist at that point, as that was four years before my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road had even been published by Blossom Spring Publishing, which happened in October 2019.
Ah, how time flies!
Back in 2015, I couldn’t have foreseen how my career as a psychological horror novelist would unfold. As of February 2015, I only had 4 short horror stories under my belt: 2 under a pseudonym in Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine and in Sex and Murder Magazine (I will probably republish these at some point in a collection), 1 under my own name in Blood Moon Rising Magazine, and another that I self-published as a novella. The latter two, The Woman and the Stiff, and Zombie Reflux have been re-published in my collection of strange and macabre short stories, Diabolical Dreamscapes.
Fast forward from February 2015 to February 2026, and I am the proud author of six ghost books and psychological horror titles that are perfect for this Friday the 13th and Valloween holiday combo. How perfect, since there won’t be another Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th in February for another six years, so here are my six books to help you celebrate:
Gods of Avalon Road, my debut novel, is an occult urban fantasy book with plenty of pagan debauchery and ritual sacrifice.
All three novels in my award-winning Belfast Ghosts trilogy – The Blue Man, The Fairy Lights and Matthew’s Twin – have elements of dysfunctional paranormal romance, perfect for Valloween.
Love you to Death, Ghost stories for Valentine’s Day, contains 8 short tales of creepy romance, featuring lonely-hearts who are often unaware that the recipient of their amorous affections are, in fact, ghosts.
In Diabolical Dreamscapes, a few of the tales feature bizarre romantic liaisons between ghosts, the undead, or the disturbed living and the unwitting deceased. Yep, er, cue graphic scene in ‘Zombie Reflux’…
Anyway, thanks for joining me on my horror author trip down memory lane. Whether you celebrate Friday the 13th and/or Valentine’s Day, I hope you have a disturbingly delicious couple of days, as there won’t be another horror combo like this again until February 2032.
Leilanie Stewart 