Kiki Howell's been Torn Assunder!

Welcome today to our Guest Author, Kiki Howell!  And a big congrats on the release of her first full-length novel, Torn Assunder.


Kiki Howell has always loved to listen to a well-woven tale with real characters, inspired plots, and delightful resolutions. She could spend hours lost in a book, and soon knew that creating lives, loves, and losses with just words had to be the greatest thing that she could do. 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.


When asked where she finds her inspiration Kiki responded: 

I love Regency romances, and challenged myself to write one. Adding paranormal elements just seemed appropriate, as Regency England always seemed like a magical time to live in to me – that is if you were a member of the upper ten thousand. All the genres for Torn Asunder just started to tumble together after that – paranormal, historical, suspense, erotic romance. I hope readers will enjoy the whirlwind of them I have created.

As you all know, some authors like to get the feel of a soundtrack going on to set the mood of their story.  For Kiki she sometimes listens to music.  'If I do, it is usually Hemi Sync, where music is blended with frequencies that guide your brain into focused states of consciousness. My favorite is “Baroque Garden for Concentration.”

Intense, right?

Ok, so on with the good stuff....  Here is a sneak into Kiki's upcoming release --

Torn Asunder

Kiki Howell spins a wonderful tale of passion, magic, betrayal, and a love that conquers all. Enjoy."  ~NY Times Bestselling Author, Hannah Howell


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.




Genres: Historical (Regency), Paranormal (Witches & Shifters), Erotic Romance
Adult Content Warnings: Explicit Graphic Language, Violence




Novel Coming January 2011 in eBook and Trade Paperback online at all major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks, etc.



So, Kiki, in this crazy world of writing we know that authors are always working on something new -- what do you have in the works right now?

I went to Salem, MA this past summer. One of those trips I just felt called to take. While I was there a story idea came to me as I had hoped. Right now, the first draft of my Salem novel, Hidden Salem, is done and I am working on the rewrites.

Do you have an excerpt from your book that you’d like to share?

I would love to.

Excerpt: 




The roses, elegant in their refinement, fell from one another with little grace as she undid the paper around them. Staggering back a few steps until her back met with the wall, she slid down to the floor letting the wrapping and flowers fall where they may. Aubrey wrapped her arms tightly around her midsection. Her chest ached more with each beat of her heart as she swallowed hard, blinked away the mistiness over her eyes, and remembered.

It had been the beginning of the season, a bit over a fortnight ago, when she first encountered Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalysbury. Although she rolled her eyes still at the title, she felt impelled to live through it all again--through the days of fantasy in which she had allowed herself to participate. Love at first sight didn't always give way to rational thinking. It did, however, make possible even the wavering delusions of believing impossible dreams could come true. She had just come to London to live with Lord and Lady Sanderly, her cousins who had paid for her travels under the guise of giving a poor relation of marriageable age a chance to find a good husband.

Whereas, the truth of the matter was, she was a relation who had shown a great aptitude for learning of the magical powers she had inherited. The good Lord and Lady, while holding the public title of Earl and Countess, were actually descendants of one of the notorious Pendle witches. They were to teach her to harness and utilize her innate talents in secret while flaunting her about from various parties and balls in the public eye.

She recalled with a weak smile the first ball Lord and Lady Sanderly had thrown to immerse her into proper society. At the time, she had consciously gripped her hands before her waist to resist fidgeting while trying hard to fix to memory all of the titles of those to whom she was being introduced. Her level of discomfort had increased, however, as an unsettled awareness of someone in the room, a haunting premonition of sorts, had made her heart race and her mouth dry. She had paid mind to ignore the successive shivers which rushed the length of her spine until they pooled as heat in her tightening stomach.

Reminded she was holding her breath only when forced to speak, her ribs had begun to ache. When a chill more pervasive that any she had ever known even in the drafty county cottage she had been raised in permeated her shoulders, she had turned in the direction of the source, and her eyes had met with a man standing just across the room looking back at her. She had immediately felt challenged to not look away from the gaze of his dark eyes. They radiated a raw energy unlike anything she had ever encountered before even among those with her own esoteric abilities.

A connection was made. Her heart beat at a frantic, uneven pace like a horse racing over shoddy roads. At the same time, a vague forewarning had made her break out in a glistening of sweat while she fought the urge to escape as well the need to move toward the man. She had given merit to her reactions based only on the fact she had captured the glance of an aristocratic gentleman with a lady in a lavish satin gown on his arm of obviously higher circumstances.

Engrossed in his fine manners, she watched as his hand removed the one holding onto him from his arm with a slight nod of his head. The lady in return had given him a slight curtsy but glorious smile before turning back to her other acquaintances which Aubrey recognized to be a duke and duchess she had recently met. His tempestuous form fit in posh attire spun on the heel of his expensive footwear to find her again with his haunted and hungry eyes. He seemed an odd mix of rugged and refined. She had felt the thrill and danger of being pursued by a beast which lurked inside of the man.

Who would you say is/was your biggest inspiration and why?

I can never answer this question as all the reading I have done over the course of my life, all of the various, brilliant authors who write in the genres of romance, paranormal, historical, and erotica brought me to writing Torn Asunder little by little. I did have a dream come true with this novel though. For years I have read and loved the historicals of NY Times Bestselling Author, Hannah Howell (last name is a coincidence LOL). Having her not only read something I wrote, but to also give me a cover quote…well, sometimes I still need to pinch myself when I see the cover.

What do you find to be the hardest thing about creating your stories?

Never feeling like they are done. I have a touch of a perfectionist in me that I fight daily. Okay, so I am doing the opposite of exaggerating there! I always say I am a Type-B Wanna-Be! So, it is hard to come to the point of feeling the story is complete, as good as it could be. Torn Asunder, though, was the worst show of this ever. It took me over a year to write this one, as I first wrote it as a novella of about twenty thousand words. Over the year I walked away and came back to it several times until it ended up almost an eighty thousand word novel.


From all of the books you have written do you have a favorite character?


I really love my hero in this one, Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalysbury. *sighs* He is just all a hero should be for me, including having magic and shapeshifting abilities. He is just one of those guys who will risk everything, do anything, and face anyone to have the woman he loves in his arms.

And readers always want to know, what are you reading right now?

I am reviewing a not-yet-released novel for Suspense Magazine. I review mainly their Urban Fantasies and Paranormal Suspense/Mystery books. It is soooo cool to receive books in the mail months before they come out sometimes, and then later see it on the New Release shelves at Borders after I have already read and reviewed it. 

Wow!  How exciting!  Thank you so much for sharing your new release with us.  I wish you much success.  And if you would like to learn more about Kiki and her work, please visit her on her website:




Kiki Howell ~where love is a mystical thing~
Please visit http://www.kikihowell.com/ to see all available titles!