Debbie Howell
| Website | https://deberelene.com |
| https://www.facebook.com/deberelene |
After never quite being able to conclude a short story in her schooling years, Deb put aside the arts to study science at university and then take up several admin roles in the working world (yes, putting that Zoology degree to work... hmm). During a stint of temping, she took up pen and paper (literally!) to entertain herself during a particularly boring role and began work on what would morph into her debut novel: a fantasy-romance tale, Healer's Touch. Along the way, she self-taught via mostly online resources, grew a human, joined the Dunedin Writers Workshop, even presided over it for a year while growing a second human, and bought the farm (but didn't kick the bucket... actually, may have once or twice; still breathing, anyway)--actually a small farm near Waitati.
Deb was lucky enough to stumble upon small UK-based publisher Kristell Ink (an imprint of Grimbold Books) just as she was finishing up Healer's Touch and has now published two books with them (HT & Warrior's Touch), and is working on the final book in the trilogy, Magician's Touch.
Genre:
Skills:
- Fantasy
Branch:
Otago/Southland
Location:
Dunedin
Publications:
Healer's Touch
The Young Riders meet The Vampire Diaries in this tale of brother versus brother and blood-magic set in a gaslamp fantasy world. Book 1 in the Deadly Touch Trilogy.
Llew has a gift. Her body heals itself from any injury, at a cost to anyone nearby.
Llew’s father disappeared when she was eleven, leaving her orphaned, as far as she knew.
Since then, Llew has learned to survive the streets of the gold-mining town of Cheer – full of opportunistic men and desperation. It’s a hard existence made tougher when her so-called friend accuses Llew of murder, sending her to the gallows.
Llew’s Aenuk ability to absorb life means she doesn’t stay dead for long, but she does leave a trail of death behind her.
Escaping the hangman’s noose sees Llew fall into the hands of Jonas: the man with the knife and the Karan power to kill Llew’s kind. If Llew can nurture the attraction he has to her, maybe she can keep that knife from her heart.
But lurking in the shadows is Jonas’s half-brother, Braph: the man who has learned to combine Aenuk and Karan powers into infinite and addictive magical potential.
Healer's Touch is a fantasy novel flavored with a wild west setting, steampunk-like technology, enough romance to draw you in, horror to keep you hooked, and just enough sex to keep things spicy.
Warrior's Touch
Once upon a time, the last Immortal lost his powers to an Aenuk Healer and her tree. Nine hundred years later, he learns that an Immortal child is going to be born, and with it, the chance to regain his lost magic...
The Kara and Aenuk races have been enemies for centuries, but for Llew and Jonas, love won out. Now Llew faces an uncertain future: one nation wants her to breed their future army, and the other wants her dead. Her Healing talent also means she is feared - and the child she carries makes her a target.
Jonas has returned to his people, but he is torn. The woman he loves is being kept away from him, his superiors want him to carry on his bloodline with an appropriate mate, and he's being expected to fit back into a role he doesn't want. He is meant to be a hero, but the only champion he wants to be is Llew's and their child - a child who might change everything.
But for their enemy to regain his powers, Llew's child must die; and in order to retain them, every Aenuk must be destroyed.
In Warrior’s Touch, loyalties will be tested, lives torn apart and magics rejoined.