琉璃神社 resident Lee Kaiser, writer of contemporary women鈥檚 fiction intrigue, has released her second novel, Towers of the Hungry Ghosts.

The story starts in the Okanagan and then moves to a haunted castle in Romania next door to the former real-life fortress of Count Vlad Tepes, known to readers as Count Dracula.

A retired Okanagan journalist, she moved here in 1994 and reported for various publications including the Peachland Signal, the Penticton Herald, the 琉璃神社 Daily Courier, the Oliver Chronicle and the 琉璃神社.

She sets her novels in locations around the world such as India, Nepal, and Europe.

After retiring in 2006, it was her volunteer work with India鈥檚 street dogs that inspired her to fictionalize some of her past and present travels.

鈥淢y non-stop travel on a shoestring in the 鈥�70s and 鈥�80s has been the fodder for my stories. And little did I know those retro photos would one day be featured on my author website. Not only was I not a novelist yet, but the Internet hadn鈥檛 been invented,鈥� Kaiser said.

In her youth, Kaiser travelled and worked as a journalist in Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Mexico, which she describes as unglamourous and low-paying jobs one finds on the spot to finance an onward journey. 鈥淥ne could get by on practically nothing back then if you were willing to put up with questionable public toilets and inevitable detours. My bed for the night was sometimes the back of a truck going over a mountain pass, or a beach, or an overgrown median along a freeway.鈥�

鈥淎fter my winter in India caring for India鈥檚 street dogs, I started to write as therapy to clear the severe trauma of that experience,鈥� Kaiser recalled.

鈥淎t the same time, I was reading about a real-life 19th-century Russian explorer who had discovered a scroll in Tibet that placed Jesus in India during his childhood.

鈥淭hose two experiences morphed into my first novel, Sutra of the Pearl, about an Okanagan travel writer searching for a lost scroll in India.

鈥淎 writer just never knows when or where the idea for a novel will hit.

鈥淢y second novel, Towers of the Hungry Ghosts, set in modern-day Transylvania, came after I read Bram Stoker鈥檚 Dracula and was blown away by how riveting the tale still was almost 150 years later.鈥�

Both novels are on the shelves at 琉璃神社鈥檚 Mosaic Books and Indigo Chapters or can be ordered online from Amazon or any book retailer.

Kaiser was recently at Indigo for a book launching held Sept. 30.

Towers of the Hungry Ghosts is book two in the Paths Unknown Series about women adventurers.

Seven years after her ex-lover disappears, the novel鈥檚 protagonist, Paula, inherits the vast fortune and ruined Romanian castle of the famous painter.

Moving into a medieval castle would blow anyone鈥檚 mind, but reclusive Paula doesn鈥檛 want her mind changed let alone blown.

Her reluctance quickly dissolves when ominous happenings on her new island convince her Goran is still alive and trying to make contact.

Despite the castle鈥檚 dark past as an insane asylum, she digs in to transform the dank space into a gallery of his most precious murals.

Whether it鈥檚 criminals, ghosts, or a vengeful mad artist at work, Paula鈥檚 friends fear she won鈥檛 survive long enough to find out.