Author Spotlight with Kiki Howell



Kiki Howell Bio:
Ever since she was young, Kiki Howell has loved to listen to a well-woven tale with real characters, inspired plots, and delightful resolutions. Kiki could spend hours lost in a book, and soon she knew that creating lives, loves, and losses with just words had to be the greatest thing that she could do. To that end, she pursued her study of literature and writing, earning a bachelor’s degree in English. She then followed in a Master’s program in Creative Writing.

“After a long break having my boys, I finally just had to write again. And, as soon as I gave the stories the space, they entered it. It’s both awesome and humbling to find the words in my mind become characters on a page and create their lives.”

She has now had over  twenty stories published between five different small presses.  She could not be more thrilled or grateful to see her creations polished and out in the real world. Please look around. Although, a bit of caution, most of her stories tend to hang out on the graphically sexy side of town.

Kiki resides in the Midwest with her incredibly handsome and talented, singer/songwriter husband and two children. When she is not writing, she is spending time with her family, reading, baking or knitting.

K.S.  Hello and welcome to the blog. I am very excited to have you here. Why don’t we start off with a small introduction? Tell us a little about yourself.

K.H. Hi Katie! I am excited to be here. I am a grateful wife with an amazingly supportive, crazy mother of teen boys into rough sports, paranormal erotic writer who loves to play in those genres and more, former English teacher but still avid reader, Feng Shui Practioner whose home needs its yearly cleansing, snowman collector and hopeful knitter who should stick to smaller projects than a sweater. I think that about covers it.

K.S.  Any interesting writing quirks or stories you would like to share with my readers?

K.H.  I can get stuck on one sentence for way too long trying to come up with not only just the appropriate words but also the correct layout of them to achieve a proper description. Should have mention in question number one that I am a perfectionist – a trait I battle daily.

K.S.  When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What sparked the desire to pen your first novel?

K.H. Really early in life. I have been an avid reader since I can remember. And, when I would get a new book, I would think how cool it would be to be able to write one myself. Somewhere along the line that idea grew. When I would read a story I didn’t quite like, I would close the book and rewrite it in my head. Of course you can see where I am going here. Eventually, around the end of high school I started venturing onto devising whole stories of my own creation and getting them on paper.

K.S.  What genre do you write?

K.H.  Mostly I stick with paranormal, erotic romances. I stick mainly to witches, having a thing about using sex magic :)  But, I do venture from time to time into ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc. Sometimes, I am lead to write historicals as well.

K.S.  What would you say has inspired you most in your writing career? Or, who is your favorite author and why?

K.H.  I am not sure really. I just seem to have this need to create. Sometimes this comes out in writing, sometimes crafts, sometimes drawing, etc. But, once I took a break from writing to raise my children, it was like I had so many stories built up in there that I couldn’t get them out fast enough. My story idea list is still far longer than I have time to write. I don’t really have a favorite author either. I am very eclectic in my reading, grabbing what interests me at the moment, or what I am sent to review! LOL

K.S.  What does your family think of your writing?

K.H.  Without my husband, I don’t know where I would be. He has been there supporting me, cheering for me, and picking me back up when thinks get rough ever step of the way. During that break from writing I mentioned, it was my husband who bought me a book of writing exercises to get me back into it again. Once I wrote my first two stories, he encouraged me to submit them. And when they both got contracted, it was my husband who said make writing your full time job.

K.S.  What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your book?

K.H.  *grins* With my current release, Torn Asunder, I learned that not all of my stories are going to just flow out of me faster than my fingers can type. This one was written in three stages: a short story, a novella and then into a novel. At each stage, everyone kept saying they wanted more. It never seemed to be done. So endings became new conflicts, and so on… If someone asks about a sequel, I might just lose it! LOL

K.S.  What inspired you to write your novel?

K.H.  I fell in love with Regency novels, given my English degree and my love of Jane Austin and Charles Dickens. Along the road, several inspired me, just by merit of being so wonderful, to brave trying my own. There is a lot of research involved. One that really got me, that I re-read like three times (and I don’t reread books) was Teresa Medeiros’, Cabot sister series, After  Midnight and The Vampire Who Loved Me. It was that wonderful mix of vampires and Regency England.  I got frustrated a few times along the road, always having to look up everything to see how it was done back then. At that time, I read the first in Hannah Howell’s Wherlocke series, If He’s Wicked, and I got inspired right back into the era.

K.S.  Can you tell us a little about your novel?

K.H. Blurb:
Aubrey Griffen is a witch whose true reasons for coming to London soon fall to the wayside when she catches the eye of Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalysbury.  He seduces her into a whirlwind romance until the lies and threats of his mother force her to flee to Triaill Brimuir, a secret island of her ancestors off the coast of Ireland. Edmund goes after her only to be hit by Aubrey’s confusion and anger when she magically transforms him into an elemental beast of her own creation. 

However, it is when Edmund’s lust mysteriously turns him back into a man that the couple are forced to deal with a family secret and untold of powers.  Now, Edmund must learn to shift himself into the beast in order to save her in a battle of black verses white magic.

Fraught with scenes of explicit intimacy, romantic spells and mystical shapeshifting, Torn Asunder is a unique blending of the age of manners with sexual magic.

K.S.  Where can we find your novel?

K.H.  You can purchase Torn asunder in eBook and Trade Paperback online at retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks, Smashwords, and Excessica Publishing .


K.S.  Do you have a website, fan site, or Blog that we can visit?

K.H. Yes I do. My website is www.kikihowell.com. My FaceBook Fan Page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kiki-Howell/22225069684?ref=mf. And I own the Authors By Authors blog http://authorsbyauthors.blogspot.com/.

K.S.  Do you have any closing advice to aspiring writers?

K.H.  It’s pretty simple and straightforward, but just to stay true to your voice when you are writing. Don’t let those critical voices get the better of you.

1 comment:

Kiki Howell - Author said...

Thanks for having me, Katie :)

About The Author

Katie Salidas is a USA Today bestselling author and RONE award winner known for her unique genre-blending style.

Since 2010 she's penned five bestselling book series: the Immortalis, Olde Town Pack, Little Werewolf, Chronicles of the Uprising, and the all-new Agents of A.S.S.E.T. series. As her not-so-secret alter ego, Rozlyn Sparks, she is a USA Today bestselling author of romance with a naughty side.

In her spare time Katie also produces and hosts a YouTube talk show; Spilling Ink. She also has a regular column on First Comics News where she explores writing from a nerdy perspective.