August 1, 2025

Cover reveal! My next book will be released on 15th September 2025

The Buddha’s Bone duology is complete

It’s time to share my exciting news… The Buddha’s Bone series is now complete. Book 2 in the duology, The Wabi-sabi Doll, is now available for pre-order:

Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon CA

Want a freebie? Giveaway time!

To celebrate, I’m offering a giveaway. Who doesn’t love a freebie, right? All you need to do is:

1. Pre-order The Wabi-sabi Doll eBook

2. DM or email a screenshot as proof of your order

3. Include your name and postal address…

…and I’ll send you a signed paperback of The Buddha’s Bone!

You can DM me at:

Or, you can email me at: contact@leilaniestewart.com

Here’s the blurb for The Wabi-sabi Doll

After fourteen months of living in her home from home, Tottori, a town by the coast on the Sea of Japan, Londoner Kimberly Thatcher should have been settled in her job. She should have been happy with her new boyfriend Naoki. She should have been moving on with her life after traumatic events of the previous year had finally been buried. Or had they?

When her abusive ex-fiance, Carl, made an unwelcome return to Japan, in a seemingly picture-perfect new relationship, Kimberly found herself having to confront demons that she thought had been put to rest. Soon after Carl’s arrival, a mysterious Japanese doll appeared on her doorstep, and a fateful encounter with a sexy stranger, Shinichi, set her life on a different path.

What messages did the Wabi-sabi doll hold for her? Why did her life unravel as an obsessive fixation with the doll began? Would Kimberly’s dark past consume her, or would her soul-searching downward spiral end?

Posted by on August 1, 2025 in Books and tagged , , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 29, 2025

Diet books for summer reading

This summer, among other things, I’ve been focusing on my health. Travelling is always tricky for maintaining a low carb diet, particularly when raised cortisol from lack of sleep doesn’t help matters, and convenience foods tend to be high carb. Cortisol increases fat storage in the body, and high-carb convenience foods fuel glucose-burning. So, what can be done to counter all the holiday-mode foods?

In my case, some educational reading in the form of non-fiction weight management books, post-holiday. Recently I’ve read two. Here are my thoughts:

Continue reading →

Posted by on July 29, 2025 in Health: Keto diet and sugar addiction and tagged , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 25, 2025

Happy Christmas in July!

Happy Christmas in July! According to a friend, celebrating Christmas on the 25th of July is an American thing; I’ve never verified whether or not that’s the case, but it’s a fun celebration, which I actually prefer as July is far better than miserable, dreary December, here in Northern Ireland. So, come on fellow festive revellers on this side of the Atlantic…why not have some seasonal summer fun?

A Yule tree for Christmas?

Shopping for the perfect Yule tree

In December, I bought a potted tree for Yule. Nothing wrong with our usual plastic one, of course, but I’ve become rather green-fingered over the last five years or so, and thought a real miniature tree would be a lovely seasonal accompaniment to our house that would then join the other plants in the garden and continue its upward journey. Standing at just under a metre tall, it became the centrepiece of our Yuletide festive fun last year.

Continue reading →

Posted by on July 25, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 22, 2025

How to live forever in the age of technology

Timeless: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Is life really what it seems? It’s a question I asked myself recently, soon after scrolling mindlessly on my phone. Scrolling mindlessly isn’t something I do very much, except when I’m a bit under the weather. I’ve had a stubborn viral sinus cold that was probably picked up while travelling, and has made me too fuzzy-headed to feel productive reading and writing-wise. Anyway, rambling aside, I read an article about a completely AI-generated Instagram influencer who has millions of followers. Mia Zelu, if anyone cares to look her (it?) up. She is so realistic that she even has had marriage proposals, apparently.

AI generated or filters? How can you tell the difference?

Normally I feel quite savvy when it comes to spotting photos and videos that use filters, or AI. A lot of the people I follow on social media do. There are the obvious filters that stick cat whiskers on you, and there are any number of filters designed to make a person look younger/slimmer/smoother…. whatever you prefer. I have to admit, Mia Zelu’s Instagram videos looked so real that I honestly wouldn’t have known that she was an AI generated person if it wasn’t labelled in the account, which it is. To me, she appears as any real, but filtered, beautiful influencer otherwise appears on social media.

Continue reading →

Posted by on July 22, 2025 in Opinion, Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 18, 2025

Summer adventures – and some book promotion too

There’s nothing better for a reset than some sun and sea. This week, we took a ferry trip from Belfast over to Liverpool. My hubby (Joseph Robert) and I used to live in London nine years ago, so this was our first trip back to England since then, although Liverpool was a first for us both. Our little adventurer chose this particular trip as he wanted to go on the ferry. Prior to this trip, I had only ever been on the ferry from Stranraer to Belfast, which is only about a three hour journey. Being on the Irish Sea for a third of the day certainly gave a sense of scale in terms of how far places are within the UK. An airplane ride from Belfast to Liverpool would take about forty minutes, effectively over before the distances would have any time to register in my brain. Seeing Northern Ireland slowly disappear and Scotland, England, Wales and the Isle of Man come into view over the course of eight hours certainly emphasised to me the vastness of our planet, even in the microcosm of the UK.

Liverpool on one side of the Mersey and the Wirral on the other

Seeing my own country from the perspective of the sea also helped change my mindset about some things I’d been taking for granted. It’s easy to go about your everyday life without really appreciating the beauty of where you live because you’re too wrapped up in work, or general life.

Continue reading →

Posted by on July 18, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , , , .

1 Comment

July 12, 2025

School’s out for summer

Over here in Northern Ireland, primary and secondary schools finish for summer on the last Friday of June, this year being the 27th. I recall when I was working in secondary schools in London a decade ago (time flies!) that schools were still open until mid to late July, but it’s different here on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Eight weeks off with my little primary school adventurer might seem like a long time to plan activities, but we’re a like-minded pair, so it takes the exhaustion out of the decision-making. The only issue is, in between gallivanting all over the place on day trips, how to fit in some writing time? My own brain is the barrier for this hurdle, to be frank. I have had a stubborn sinus head cold and throat infection (have you wondered why I haven’t posted any talking videos lately?), which has zapped my mental power. The determination is there, but not the ability.

Oh well. A bit of writing-off time is good, right? Well, maybe. I wouldn’t say I’ve been a prolific writer over the past few years, but I have been consistent, so I’d call myself a steady writer, if that’s fair to say. Time off from the keyboard means time for ideas to swirl in a feverish-brain.

Besides, I’m in the midst of finalising the typeset manuscript for my forthcoming novel, the sequel to The Buddha’s Bone (cover reveal soon). That’s enough to be contending with in between nature walks and beachy picnics.

Well, for now, adventures – and for my body, some beachy recuperation time. I might not be posting as often as usual, but I’ll try to remember. In the meantime, happy heatwave!

Posted by on July 12, 2025 in Writing and tagged , , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 6, 2025

How many of my books are on the shelves at Belfast Central Library?

A few days ago while in Belfast city centre for book shopping (what’s new!) I decided to pop into Belfast Central Library. Have you ever been there? It’s a gorgeous building, built in 1888.

With my promo novel samples

Five of my books are available at Libraries NI, so I thought I’d see how many were on the shelves in ‘Ulster and Irish Heritage’ on the second floor.

It was great to see that only two novels – The Blue Man and The Fairy Lights – were available, meaning that the other three books were being borrowed. Since my Belfast Ghosts trilogy novels happen to be my most popular, both in terms of sales as well as borrows, there are multiple copies of them available through Libraries NI, which is why there were still copies of those particular books on the shelf. I checked into the libraries NI website later and was glad to see that my books have made it to libraries around the country. Hurray.

Posted by on July 6, 2025 in promotion, Reading and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

July 3, 2025

Do you judge a book by its cover? Check out my early cover designs

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been tinkering with the cover design for my forthcoming novel, the sequel for The Buddha’s Bone. I’m currently doing a proof read after making the amendments that my editor suggested, and since I find hard copies easier to read, I’ve printed another paperback. For the cover, I decided to use a design that I like, but won’t be using on the final published version, as it’s a bit too literary and not psychological enough. Rest assured you’ll be seeing all versions of the cover design in another post once it’s published.

Thinking of cover designs got me searching back through my Canva Pro drafts for old versions of my published books. It was fun perusing earlier cover ideas for my Belfast Ghosts trilogy, and recalling the reasons why I decided against using each one. Want to have a look? Here you go:

Despite the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, it’s pretty fair to say that everybody, in fact, does judge a book by its cover. As an indie author I don’t have a big PR team to promote my book: it’s up to me to design, as best I can, an attention grabbing cover. I’m happy with the final designs for The Blue Man, The Fairy Lights and Matthew’s Twin and the proof is in the pudding: all three have sold really well. Would they have sold as well if I had used the earlier versions that I eventually decided against? I’m pretty sure my sales wouldn’t have been as strong, as those covers weren’t as eye-catching, either on their own, or together in the trilogy. The colours weren’t as bold, making the titles fade more into the background rather than standing out. Graphics need to catch a customer’s eye in less than a second, I’d say; at least, that’s about how long it takes me to decide if a book looks interesting or not.

What do you think? What makes a book cover stand out? What factors about the design make you decide whether or not to stick it in your basket?

Posted by on July 3, 2025 in Books and tagged , , , , , , , .

5 Comments

June 30, 2025

Goodbye to another Belfast bookstore

Last week I was gutted when I found out that Self help Africa in Botanic was closing for trade. I have many happy memories of shopping there over the decades, back from when I was a student at Queen’s University Belfast, and it was known as War on Want.

Goodbye War on Want Botanic (Self help Africa)

After speaking to the management, I found out that the store was being made to close, despite turning over a profit, as all the shops on the same block were gradually succumbing to pressure to shut. I can only imagine that the whole block, full of charm and character, is set to be sold off and will probably become a bland block of swish,  apartments that are unaffordable for most. Such is the (shortsighted) way of things in the name of business. Hmph to that.

I will miss this bookstore very much

The last day of trading was Saturday 28 June, so as you can imagine, I went on several shopping trips there with my hubby and son over the past week. My summer reading pile would probably reach the ceiling now if I were to stack them all up.

If ever I win the lottery, I will open a bookstore and nobody will make me close it. We need books, culture, art…and community!

Goodbye to another Belfast bookstore, and may it be the last to shut.

Posted by on June 30, 2025 in Reading and tagged , , , .

5 Comments

June 24, 2025

How do you define success as a writer?

Ah, writing success! Doesn’t every author out there want a sea of eager readers waiting to snap up their book? Yes, of course they do. Wouldn’t that mean ‘success’? Of course it depends on what you consider a ‘sea’ of eager readers to be. A hundred readers? A thousand? Millions of readers?

It seems to me that there isn’t a consistent definition of success as a writer. It tends to be based on arbitrary factors, often on the commercial side of the business: how much money an author earns, or whether they can make a living from it or not. On the other hand, some writers view success as the ability to finish a book-length work. If we’re talking purely craft, it certainly can take years to write a novel-length book. My first novel took me five years to finish – longer than my university degree, which took three years. But is the length of time it takes to create a book, or the word count, a marker of success as a writer? What if no one reads that book because the author decides not to share it with the world? That was the certainly the case for my five-years-to-the-finish-line book; I decided it wasn’t good enough and archived it. Does that mean it doesn’t qualify as a success?

No, I wouldn’t say so. Yes, it is a success to finish a book, but my view of success as a writer would tend to incorporate more than solely the craft. A little dash of the commercial side is important too. I think that defining success as a writer would be more a balance of both, though maybe leaning more on the craft side. For me, the ability to write the story that you want to share with the world, and find an audience who want to read your work in addition, is how I would define success.

Posted by on June 24, 2025 in Writing and tagged , , .

Leave a comment