Leia Howard - Author

I hate describing characters appearances or details of a location. There are only so many ways you can say what someone looks like or provide the layout of building or street. I have finally given up on providing too many details, instead, I leave most to the readers imagination. For instance, I can describe a house providing detailed descriptions of the furniture and carpet of each room, the color of the walls and the placement of the windows. I can give the layout and lavish praise on the exterior trim. Or I can just say what type of house it is maybe point out a few key features. We, as readers, fill out the details in our own minds. I don't feel it necessary to describe what a Victorian home is, I treat the Victorian home as the descriptor. The reader is welcome to look up images of Victorian homes if they do not know what they look like. A picture is worth a thousand words and all. For characters, I am as vague as possible as well. For Gray, the main character of the Touch...

I live in Texas, which is the second largest state in America. We measure distance as time, which seems odd to many people. For instance, someone will ask me how far away a certain town is, and my reply could be "about four hours or so" or something similar. Texans tend to drive similar speeds so we all know how the time converts to distance. This holiday season, I will be driving all over Texas. Some family are about eleven hours away while other family is fourteen hours. I have friends that are much closer at six hours away. And yes, all of this driving and I am still in the state of Texas. As stated earlier, Texas is a fairly large state. This is a map showing places closer to Texas, miles wise, than one tip of Texas is to another tip. Not everyone celebrates Christmas, I can appreciate that. The holiday is not big in my family either. However, since my sibling and I are both university students, having Winter Break is what allows us to spend time together...

I enjoy world building the most of any part of the writing process. Coming up with geography, maps, borders, history, characters, etc. is very invigorating. However, my technical skills are not up to my imagination. You should see my poor attempts at drafting the new borders of the US, Canada, Mexico, and new country of the GT (Greater Tribal Council of the Americas) I created for the world of Touch of Gray. Paint, Photoshop, and the like are not my specialty, so I finally just printed off a blank outline of the North American continent and drew the countries by hand and filled them in with colored pencils. Low tech it is. For the 13-month calendar the GT uses, it was super easy to create. Each month has 28 days (except the last month of 29 days) and is named after a different animal. The days of the week are the same as ours though. As Gray ruminates in Out of Touch, the 13-month calendar makes more sense, honestly, being based on a lunar month cycle. I wonder how the comput...

Out of Touch (Touch of Gray - Book One) is available now on Amazon Kindle . Description:  Decades ago, psychics were exposed as a real phenomena. While many psychic abilities are unremarkable, some abilities are coveted by the US government. Seeing the US begin to persecute select citizens, the Greater Tribal Council of the Americas (GT) offered asylum to people deemed Psycepts, psychics or those with enhanced perception. The GT nation formed 150 years ago when the various native tribes of US territories, Canada , and Mexico banded together to fight the countries to a standstill. Now the GT nation comprises lands from central and western North America. The GT is the last hope many Psycepts have of living a regular life. Gray Graham is a touch clairvoyant living on one of the conservatorships that make up the GT. In exchange for residency and protection from the US, she agrees to help petitioners seeking answers about missing or departed family or friends. K...

From Chapter Three... When I first started memory reading, I was not able to last to the end of the final memory very often, no matter how peaceful the passing may have been. I had a mental block that made me fear becoming lost to the memories. Other times, I would try to read the heavy rope too far back from the knot, then be unable to last through the death memory. As I gained experience, the block dissolved, I lasted longer and now, only the most violent of deaths prevent me from seeing the memory to the end. I have improved being able to gauge how long I can last through the knot and have adjusted my grip on the memory timeline accordingly, usually I can read within a couple of days before death. Time between death and my readings does not diminish this. I have performed after death readings of people that have been gone for decades, even centuries. However, I do not do many of these readings as the petitioner does not have many sentimental objects to aid in my endeavor, nor a ...

This blog will be mostly writing tidbits, excerpts, process, and updates. I enjoy movies, television, books, music, etc. but I prefer Twitter for that. Forces me to keep my thoughts short and sweet. I am not much for pictures (despite them being worth a thousand words), thus why I am not on Insta, Snap, nor Tumblr. Now, for more writing details. The idea for the Touch of Gray world was borne of a long ago idea for an X-Men:Evolution fan fiction story focusing on Rogue. I never wrote that, but I created this full world of psychics (rather than mutants) fearing for their freedom in America and fleeing to a neighbouring country offering sanctuary. Canada may have been ideal, but I had the idea of an alternate history in which Native Americans/Alaskans and First Nation peoples joined together to form their own country. Even though 'owning' land is not a goal of most tribes I have come in contact with or researched, the idea of protecting the land is. So the tribes come to an agre...

From Chapter Nine... I performed my normal ritual on the table in my consultation corner. I used the time to quiet my mind. Trying to do a reading while feeling anxious was not helpful. The first and second fragments of shirt did not yield a clear lake. Instead, I was on a frozen block of ice with fog rising and swirling in the cold air and there were no memory threads to be found. My brain certainly had a dramatic way of translating the classic “ the reading/future is cloudy ” schtick of old. Quieting down my mind again, I continued. The impression from the third article of clothing, part of a shoe, was very faint, but I could capture one fleeting thought, “I’m glad that Marnie couldn’t come with me. She has little sailing experience and I’d feel awful if something happened to her. Damn squall. Psycept speaking, end of impression. I was not even able to get a glimpse of Marnie from the person’s mind. No prior memories arose, but I can say that the mind voice is male. I am sorry ...

Out of Touch, the first novella in my Touch of Gray series is now available on Amazon Kindle.  I've had the idea for the series in the back of my mind for many years.  But between work and school, I did not have the chance to write it. Earlier this year, I finally had the opportunity to sit down and write this world, and here is one of the results.  The second novella, Invisible Touch, will be forthcoming in Spring 2019. Out of Touch, description:  Decades ago, psychics were exposed as a real phenomena. While many psychic abilities are unremarkable, some abilities are coveted by the US government. Seeing the US begin to persecute select citizens, the Greater Tribal Council of the Americas (GT) offered asylum to people deemed Psycepts, psychics or those with enhanced perception. The GT nation formed 150 years ago when the various native tribes of US territories, Canada, and Mexico banded together to fight the countries to a standstill. Now the GT...

I am Leia Howard, author of the Touch of Gray series. Rather than create a Facebook page, I thought I would try blogging.  My posts will be divided between promoting my series and writing process in general.  There will also be a personal post or two tossed in.  As I become a more active blogger, I may post about writing workshops, appearances, editing or publishing services, and the like.  But for now, this is my small corner of the blogsphere. I live in Texas and am a full-time doctoral graduate student. Writing is my joy, but I do not expect to make a living from it.  This blog is not a place to advertise nor sell products, other than my own books. Thus I feel no need for a separate Disclaimer page. Touch of Gray is an Urban Fantasy series that takes place on an alternate earth where psychics are real, can be detected by DNA tests, and seek refuge in a country that will not force them to use their powers against their will. Comments are open for all an...