Deb E. Howell
LightNews LightNews
banner
deb.deberelene.com
Deb E. Howell
@deb.deberelene.com
1.5K followers 1.6K following 910 posts
Writer, mum, general dog's body at work & around home. 🇳🇿📚🐴🎶
https://linktr.ee/DebEHowell
Leftie. Hopeless idealist. Boring AF Middle-aged Cis-Het White Woman (BUFFER).
Also on: https://mastoart.social/@debehowell
Not looking for random DMs.
Posts Replies Media Videos
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 14th January '26: Current
#BookSky #FantasyBooks #RoyalRoad
www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
“There’s more,” he said as she released it, allowing him to open up an internal page. “Your brother—” “Half-brother,” Llew and Jonas corrected in unison. Rowan paused. “Oh. Kay. Uhm.” He looked back down at the page, giving it a shake, as if that would make it fill in such omissions. “The Magician, Braph, seems to be developing a close bond with our current president. It says here, he’s handed over his nephew, a Syakaran child—” “Joelin.” Jonas’s voice sounded breathless.
January 14, 2026 at 9:12 PM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 13th Jan: Reflex
I didn't have "tentacle", unless I'd gone for 'arm', I guess. So going full dramatic today.
#BookSky #PukaPuka #RoyalRoad #Fantasy
“Tell them to get the knife out of Llew,” Jonas said to Rowan, who relayed the message in a loud, clear voice. Gaemil had donned leather gloves and was trying to wrench Llew’s fingers from Anya. He shifted focus long enough to pull the knife free and toss it aside, then returned to his earlier task. “It’s the Aenuk reflex. You can’t break that hold. Only Karlani might.” Jonas looked to Karlani. Karlani screwed up her face. “I’m not touching a dead Aenuk.” Anya tried to peel Llew’s fingers back and let go an involuntary moan. “It stings. It’s burning,” she whimpered. “Do it!” Gaemil yelled at Karlani. “No.” Karlani folded her arms.
January 13, 2026 at 8:42 AM
deb.deberelene.com
Playing #WIPSnips for 11th January 2026: Climb
Jonas having a bit of a crisis …
#PukaPuka #BookSky
For that, he did walk, with only a light weight on his crutch, to the steps up to the porch, then used the house wall to help steady his balance as he climbed. He leaned the crutch against the wall, untucked his singlet, pulled it over his head, and placed it beside a stack of small towels. He poured from the ewer freshly refilled at the end of the previous night, dug his hands into the water, and splashed it on his face, gasping at the cold. He rubbed his hands up and down his cheeks and peered at himself in the pockmarked mirror on the wall. “Who are you?” he asked.
January 12, 2026 at 4:08 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 21st December: Silver
Oh, go on, then, let's return to Guardians & Guides because we can, even if it barely exists as a WIP. Next year …
You can lock this one away as a character description, @vimesart.bsky.social 😜 Though he's minor (shh, don't let him hear me say that).
🇳🇿📚 #SpecFicNZ
“I haven't seen you in weeks.” Zane turned to face her full-on, filling her small dancing space with his hulking presence. “Of course not. I don't get invited to your fancy palace parties.” Anaïs rolled her shoulders as a shiver ran down her spine. Zane was a fine specimen, for certain, with defined muscles, a lavender kilt adorned with a broad, decorative belt playing host to a variety of purely ornamental weapons, including a silver stiletto that was meant to suggest he expected to win in a fight with a werewolf, and several strands of glass and carnelian around his neck, but she wasn't quite certain a spine tingle was in order. For one thing, werewolves either no longer existed or never existed at all. Besides, she was tired, and annoyed her solitary dance had been interrupted. “Oh, they're not— Well, yes, they are rather fancy. But I've been coming here. You haven't.”
December 22, 2025 at 3:15 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips December 20th: Default.
I haven't used 'default', so I've gone it vibe in terms what what's 'normal'.
The viewing aperture at the barracks entrance slid open, revealing feminine eyes. Braph didn’t usually enter through the front, so he didn’t know if the haunted, fearful look was normal for a guard at that gate, neither did he much care. “Open the gate, or I will do it for you.” The slider began to shut as the guard yelled, “It’s him!”
December 21, 2025 at 2:51 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips for December 19th is: High

Been waiting for this one. And I'm going to stick with my Guardians & Guides WIP (Bk 1:The Wolf & The Source) for this one, because it is fun.

#BookSky #FantasySeries #IndieWriter 🇳🇿📚
“What is it?” A voice on the edge of Ekon's hearing intruded his dreams. Or maybe he was still dreaming. Highly likely, as a shiver ran through him, failing to dislodge a shimmering chill settled in his bones. “W— woo— Wulf. Ruff ruff. Wolf!” “You're making that up.” “N— Well, yes. Yes, I am. It just came to me.” “That's how it works, innit? Things just come out of your mouth. And mine. It just is.” “It is Magic.” “Blessed be the work of Magic.” Three voices. Very close. Ekon cracked an eyelid. Three tiny lizards with wings flitted about his nose. That was how big they were, too. About the same as the tip of his nose.
December 19, 2025 at 8:55 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 18th December: Request
I felt like switching things up be sharing a snippet from my next series, Guardians & Guides, of which I have only written 4.5 chapters & won't write more until I complete the Deadly Touch series.
#FantasyBooks 🇳🇿📚 #Fantasy #Booksky #GuardiansAndGuides
“Oh. That's a shame. Especially at our age. You know.” He hooked a shoulder up, about as awkward a move as one could expect from totally-self-assured-life-will-always-work-out Zane. “Did you see Aaryn and Jazmeetha have hooked up? And Brem and Edwald.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “You should dance with someone. Me, for instance. I mean, you don't have to, but I happen to be free at the moment, which, as you know, is not a condition likely to continue for long, and I would accept your request.” He lifted his chin, rested a hand on a hip and let the other hang almost casually in a I-can- easily-deny-it, showing-off-my-wares splay, then relaxed into an I-haven't-really-given-up sag. “If you happen to ask, that is.”
December 18, 2025 at 8:25 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 17th December: I didn't have "Clay", so I just went with "Dirt".

#FantasySeries #RoyalRoad

www.royalroad.com/fiction/42601
“But you would agree it had to be done.” “Probably. Maybe. I don’t know.” Jonas scowled. “But not like that. You should’ve done it yourself.” Braph smirked. “I couldn’t have done that in front of his mother. She‘d kill me.” He shifted his balance, looking far too comfortable in Llew’s opinion. “Truth be told, I thought Llew could drain his powers. You said she knew how.” Llew stood and brushed dirt from her trouser seat. “Yeah, I know. But I don’t know if I would survive it.” Jonas glared at her. “You never said—”
December 17, 2025 at 9:14 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips Dec 16th: Moist. I've used to twice in this WIP, so far.

It's not spoilery (for those who've read Warrior's Touch) to know that Jonas isn't at his best in the earliest chapters of Magician's Touch …

novelizing.com/f/healer-s-t...

#FantasyBooks #SpecFicNZ 🇳🇿📚 #FreeBookSky #BookSky
Having had little food or water over the previous days, Jonas was soon dry retching until his body seemed too tired to try anymore. He rolled back, his eyes gaunt and streaming, his skin pale and moist, and his hands trembling, his breath shallow and fast.
December 16, 2025 at 9:44 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 15th December: Blanket.

It's a long snip, but it's a bit fun.
#FantasyBooks #FantasySeries #RomanticFantasy #IndieWriter 🇳🇿📚 #SpecFicNZ

novelizing.com/f/healer-s-t...
he’d been out of sorts since that day at the farm when he’d admitted his failing strength. Where was his head at right now? Squeak, thud. Tormented, was he? “I’m still a man, Llew.” “I know,” she scoffed. She’d never said any different. And why would she think otherwise? No matter what he thought, he was still Jonas, even without his Syakaran power, even without his leg. Oh … Now even that kiss made some sense. “Is that what this is about? You needing to prove you’re still a man? You don’t need to prove it to me. Do you need to make some sort of show of proof to yourself?” She continued to swing her legs, though no longer aggressive enough to hit the wall. And Jonas continued to look at her out the corner of his eye. “Go on, then.” Llew hitched the blanket, showing a little more leg, even as she pulled the edge across her body, ensuring she was covered. He half turned again, eyebrow raised. “Show me what a man you are.” Any hint of humor left his face though and he turned away.
December 15, 2025 at 9:44 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips: 14th December: Line
#FantasySeries 🇳🇿📚 #RomanticFantasy #FantasyBooks

www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
Truth be told, Jonas would prefer to never see his brother again, but … “Braph won’t permit me to live without provin’ himself against me. I don’t plan to seek him out, but I can’t guarantee he won’t come lookin’ for me.” Rowan glanced at his sister. “Kind of funny how your advantages seem to have driven a wedge through your family. No one has it all together, I guess.” Rowan closed his notebook and slipped it and the prosthetic leg into the tote bag. “I mean, here the world has the gifts of Karan strength and Aenuk healing and all we can do is line them up and tell them to kill each other. Sure, the Aenuk healing is dangerous, but I feel like if it was harnessed the right way … Never thought it was right, them being locked up, conscripted to the army before they’re even born. They are people after all.”
December 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips: Control
“By the time he reaches his adolescence you will want to have assured his loyalty.” Doubt twitched Kadesh’s features. Subduing and keeping Aenuks was a lesser challenge. Turhmos might have several years to develop security measures to keep a Syakaran under control, but Braph still considered behavioral measures more effective when you were physically under-powered. He’d learned much by observing Aris’s command over Jonas through the years. “Raise the boy as your own, and in a few years, you’ll have a super talented soldier. A bodyguard, deeply loyal to you alone.” There it was. Kadesh now looked upon Joelin with a hunger to harness that power for himself.
December 13, 2025 at 9:40 PM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 1st December: Belong
#pukapuka #FantasyRomanceBooks #IndieWriter #IndieAuthor
On the left is the cover for Magician's Touch by Deb E Howell. A young woman stand with one hand reaching up to the leaves of a tree, her other hand resting on the shoulder of a man crouched in front of her. The man holds a knife in one hand and a crystal in the other. On the right is text from the book: Home. Where was home for them, now? Jonas shifted slightly and Llew sat up, scrubbed her face with her hands. Her throat ached and her eyes felt raw. She didn’t belong anywhere. Home. The only place that seemed to fit the word was Merrid and Ard’s farm. Nowhere else had Llew felt safe since— Well, since her father had disappeared. Maybe even since her mother had left. Although, in her father’s sober moments, she had missed her mother less.
December 1, 2025 at 3:26 AM
deb.deberelene.com
"I knew I was in for a wild ride."
Book Review: The Outsiders of Orkland by Kenneth Feller (SpecFicNZ member)

specfic.nz/2025/10/17/r... #pukapuka
Cover for Kennth Feller's The Outsiders Orkland. A n ork looks directly at the viewer. In the foreground is a valley carved by an ancient river. Trees line each side. Two figures stand in the centre, one pointing off to the side.
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 22nd November: Crystal
Utterly spoilt for choice with this one, given my magic system.
#FantasyBook #FantasyStories 🇳🇿📚
Rowan picked up a leg and flicked it with a finger to make it swing on the joint. “Smooth. I’d have no idea how to create something so perfect so small.” The light glinted off something dark and round, and Llew’s revulsion was overpowered by her need to look closer. Almost of its own accord, her hand reached out and picked up the tiny crystal; such a deep purple it was black except under direct light. Her mother’s blood had created red crystals. Llew’s own blood had generated deep red, and later purple crystals, when she’d become pregnant. “His son must be letting him bleed him,” she said. “This must be from Immortal blood.” “He’s more powerful than ever,” Jonas murmured.
November 23, 2025 at 3:38 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips for 21st November: Direction
Novel text beside the image of a man crouched to attend to an open fire: He returned home and went straight to his workshop and woke half a dozen spider-like flying automatons and one by one he directed them into his ‘goop’ cabinet, had them inject their proboscis down the narrow air hole in a rubber stopper and fill their back-mounted globes with the coagulation. With a focused thought, he raised his I-am-not-Karan barrier again, and instructed one of the metallic creatures to seek Kara, then duplicated that instruction to the rest, and added the command to inject the goop, then he stepped from his workshop, walked down the hallway and opened his front door wide. The automatons whirred out into the street, tasted the air for a few seconds, and then headed off in the general direction of Quaver. “It must be much like watching your children leave home for the first time,” Nilv spoke behind Braph. “Perhaps.”
November 22, 2025 at 3:53 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 17th November: Spend

#FantasyStories #FantasyBooks #Romantasy #RomanticFantasy
I learned to love him once before, Orinia had said when Jonas inquired after her feelings for Braph. Learning to love. Was that happy? He’d once done the same with Kierra. Learned. He would like to think they succeeded. He had been happy enough. Had Orinia been happy? He didn’t know. More importantly in this moment: what answer did Llew need him to give? Did she need to spend energy distressed, or would it be better to believe her mother happy with Braph? If Orinia truly was happy with Braph, she likely wouldn’t take too kindly to Llew and Jonas turning up to kill him. It didn’t feel a whole lot like there was a right answer here. “She looked happy,” he said, remembering the lingering kiss between Orinia and Braph. She had watched him leave the room like a woman well-versed in love. A woman whose hero had come for her.
November 18, 2025 at 1:10 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips for 16th Nov: Run.

Shorter one today. Hopefully punchy. If you can cope with my WIP prose, I have been sharing on Royal Road (because I've very slow, so I need chapter-by-chapter dopamine, or something): www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...

#Romantasy #FantasyRomance #RomanticFantasy
Turhmos may have been right to fight for the lives of Aenuks, but not so they could live in their cages. Cages Merrid and Ard had worked to free them from. He had denied Llew the opportunity to run from Brurun to fight for her freedom with a full-strength Jonas at her side. He’d believed that no matter how strong he was, he couldn’t stand up to an entire nation. And here he was, broken and weak, planning to stand against two.
November 17, 2025 at 6:29 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips Hopefully this one isn't too long, but it felt like the best out-of-context snip, even though there are a few series-specific terms …

www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
Jonas searched the kitchen cabinets first. There were cooking oils and vinegars – malt, white, and cider – but nothing to dull the brain. Nothing in the wardrobe. The chest at the foot of the bed proved to be merely a repository for bed linen. He stood for a few moments, leaning into his crutch. Where else? Perhaps Ard had drunk in private, avoiding Merrid’s disapproval, and kept a stash in a shed. Jonas opened the front door, coming face-to-face with the reality before him. Llew sat at the foot of a tree, blood seeping from her for him, bearing the violent messages coming from the Taither tree alone. The others were gathering around her as the day progressed toward evening, trying to lift the mood, engaging in chatter and adding wood to the bonfire, helping Elka and Lyneth with dinner preparation. Llew sat alone with hands strung up, one pressed to the tree, the other held so the Gravinator could work, her eyes closed, her expressions rotating through bearing the pain with gritted teeth and suffering through sobs. And Jonas had been thinking of seeking oblivion, abandoning her entirely. What an ass … arse. Llew deserved better. He allowed himself a moment of self-flagellation, then resolved to be the better man he’d promised he’d be. Maybe not quite what Llew deserved, but the best he could give her.
November 16, 2025 at 4:49 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips This one is very fresh in the WIP.
Note: MC heals by draining life when touching something (or someone) else living.

From this ongoing tale I'm very slow at adding to:
www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
The distraction cost her. A sword sunk through her side. Before the pain fully registered, she gripped the blade and yanked it further into her, slicing her own hands and pulling the soldier off balance, grabbed his wrist. He bellowed under her burning grasp and died before she could pull the blade free. Ripping the blade free from flesh healed around it hurt far more than the blade sinking in. She flung it aside and hurled herself at another soldier, finding more flesh, healed her wound and kept draining. She pulled a knife to defend against further attack, finding more flesh when she could. She wasn’t confident in her ability to deliver a killing blow with a blade. Draining life required no skill.
September 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM
deb.deberelene.com
I helped with a thing! And it's now live!
Awards for Aotearoan/Pasifika writers in the Speculative Fiction genres (Fantasy, SciFi, Horror, etc). Open to works published in 2025 (open till the end of the year).
tepaetawhitiawards.nz 📚🇳🇿
July 17, 2025 at 7:50 AM
deb.deberelene.com
I have a Wrath snippet for #SFFChat!
I'm never sure how much fun these are out of context.
Realization dawned. He’d let slip to that officer last night that Orinia’s blood was a cure. A cold anxiety gripped him. A cure, for someone she loved. Not the cure. Damned his own hubris. He’d told them. But he hadn’t told them not to kill her. Imbeciles! He picked up an empty bucket and hurled it across the garden. Pointless. But he felt fractionally better. He checked the crystal on his wrist again. Too risky. He clicked it out and replaced it with one from his pocket. Glancing at the simmering sap, he surmised he would be back before it burned, and stalked from the garden. Let Quaver feel his wrath and never cross him again.
June 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
deb.deberelene.com
Some 16 yrs ago, I wanted to write a romantic couple with a bit of a Romeo & Juliet vibe, I guess we could call them enemies-to-lovers. Around children, work, & pets, I have finally nearly finished, & been sharing over at:
www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
Some people might find it enjoyable.
“So who are these unkillables?” She was imagining some sort of thick-skinned creature, with a hide so tough normal steel would sooner bend than pierce it. Or maybe... “Aenuks.” The word meant nothing to her and she frowned. He glanced over at her. “The healers.” Llew stared into the darkness of the forest and forced herself to start breathing again. “Wh— who?” She looked back at him, her face a mask of innocent curiosity. “Aenuks,” he repeated. “They’re a race of folk from Turhmos. I’m a Quaven soldier, and Turhmos and Quaver have been at war for centuries. Turhmos boosts their army using Aenuks. They can heal themselves from flesh wounds and as medics, well, a bunch of Aenuks can heal almost anythin’.” “Almost anything?” “Except this.” He twisted the knife, sending a flash of moonlight along its blade. “Wounds inflicted on an Aenuk with this blade heal at the same rate they would on any person. A fatal wound from this is a fatal wound for anyone.” “Oh.” Until a couple of days ago, she had always assumed she could die like anyone else, despite her ability to heal. A day or two of thinking otherwise shouldn’t have made it so hard to accept once more. But it did. She wanted to get up and run away from the knife that could kill her and her body involuntarily withdrew from it. She wrapped her arms around her middle. “You wanted to know about the knife. What did you expect I did with it? Use it to make daisy chains? It’s a knife. Its purpose is to kill. And the Aenuks I kill are bad folk.”
June 7, 2025 at 8:25 AM
deb.deberelene.com
Mwahaha. Gave me a giggle.
#WIPsnips for May the 4th is: Force
Text from WIP Magician's Touch (Book 3 in the Deadly Touch series) “What about my terms? Everyone seems to think I bleed for fun! It’s not fun. The needles hurt! Yes, I heal, but I still feel. I do it for you because you’re you. I can’t do it for everybody. I’m not a—” Hot tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Her body remembered being strapped in a chair, mechanical spiders crawling on her, extracting blood, while she was forced to drain the lives of children just like her. “I’m not some sack of blood you Kara can just … just …” She lost the words as her mind caught up with the rest of her.
May 5, 2025 at 12:51 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WipSnips for 30th April fits quite well with my next WIP, of which I've written a few chapters. It has a "talking" (inside the MC's head) amulet …

I don't use "Explode", but I do use "Kaboom". I think that vibes (o:
#pukapuka
~Kaboom.~ “Uhm.” Anaïs didn’t like the sound of that. ~I know. I didn’t like it, either. I wouldn’t recommend removing me, ever. You’re a conduit for power now. Your human body alone can’t handle it, so here I am to control and direct it for you. Isn’t that fortuitous? Just imagine if I hadn’t figured out how to call to you, or you’d been too dim to follow my summons.~ “What’s that, dear?” Anaïs’s mummeh asked. She was crouched before Theas, trying to coax more words and giggles from him with a glass bauble on a string. “Oh, nothing.” Anaïs sighed. Could there be anything worse than never having a moment alone ever again? ~Oh, great. Thanks. I’ve just been born in this form and immediately made to feel a burden? What about me? I’m never going to know what it’s like to be alone. Is it good? Tell me. What am I missing out on? What great aloneness am I keeping you from?~ Hearing my own thoughts, for a start. ~Well, they’re nothing to write home about. I can filter them for you. Make sure you only get the worthwhile ones.~ No, thanks. Feel free to filter them for your own benefit, though. I’m quite happy for you to keep out of my thoughts. ~Then don’t think so loud.~
May 1, 2025 at 1:47 AM