AN artist-cum-author whose creativity is fuelled by a rare type of schizophrenia has published her first book.

It has taken Stephanie Wesson three-and-a-half years to write Lupine Lights, attributable in part to the fact she has also illustrated it herself.

The heart of the book is bursting with bright, bold images of the characters that are more wolf than man.

But confidence, or the lack of it, also played a part, until the death of one of her peers at the Minerva Centre in Hexham gave her a jolt.

“When I first started writing, I didn’t have any confidence at all,” she said, “and certainly not when it came to publishing a book.

“But when Raymond passed away with cancer, it changed things You’ve really got to make the most of life and just go for it!”

Her fertile imagination is fed by schizotypal multiple personality disorder which, despite the fact both she and her mother were aware she was different from her earliest days, wasn’t diagnosed until she was 18.

Far from being cowed by it, she relishes the creativity it has blessed her with – the 300 plus characters that populate her head are the subjects of her book and paintings.

They just suddenly appear, she says, and she is simply the means of channelling them.

Lupine Lights is now available from Cogito Books in Hexham, Bellingham Garage and online from www.feedaread.com.