Our Aidan puts pen to paper

Aidan Reid , a Cloughmills thriller writer has released his second novel, Sigil. inbm27-16s

Now living in South America, Aidan Reid (33) still has family in the village and has never forgotten is roots drawing his childhood experiences into his latest novel.

Aidan explained: “I’m originally from Cloughmills, however I moved to Dublin to attend University. I’ve lived in South America for two of the last three years. I’ve been writing for as long as I could pick up a pen, but decided to take a stab at the novel writing when I was 22.

“Despite having travelled to over 30 countries, it’s the people I grew up with in Cloughmills that has given me most ammo for creating stories. I was always a black sheep growing up. I was shy and introverted and found it hard to make friends. Instead, I was observant and although the characters in Sigil are fictional a lot of the experiences are drawn from my own childhood growing up in Cloughmills.”

Also a freelance blogger, Aidan’s love for writing started thanks to father and St Brigid’s School.

“Staff at the school always encouraged us to be creative when it came to story telling. I loved those classes and before my eleven-plus exam had written hundreds of short stories that I shared with my friends - sadly long since lost!

“My dad, Seamus Reid, was a Dunloy man and passed away in 2007. He was one of my earliest inspirations to start writing. He did a few short stories for the BBC on Radio which gave me the license to dream big. Unfortunately he passed away before I published my first book, although he read the first few chapters of Pathfinders and approved it which gave me real comfort.”

Although not in Cloughmills often, Aidan still calls the village home, he added: “I always call when in Ireland and just love visiting my mother, relatives and most of my childhood friends who are still there.”

* Aidan’s first book Pathfinders explores the themes of lucid dreaming and what lies hidden in the darkest corners of our mind. It is a scifi thriller and was released in February. It took him 10 years to finish.

Meanwhile, his second book, Sigil is a ‘mystery-thriller’ based in a fictional village in Northern Ireland and involves a suicide. The parish priest suspects foul play and soon discovers a secret plot that suggests that the man was murdered. The race is on to find a killer in a village where everyone is a suspect. It was released on June 23 and is available in paperback and digital format.

Both Aidan’s books are available on Amazon.