Deb E. Howell
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deb.deberelene.com
Deb E. Howell
@deb.deberelene.com
1.4K followers 1.6K following 860 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.
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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
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 28th April: Talk
From the Deadly Touch fantasy series: www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
Braph placed the partial hand on the bench near his son, who snatched it up to attach the remaining fingers. “You will be a god among men, and your mother and I your heralds,” Braph said. “We will show the world the gifts great power can bring to those who follow, and I see no reason why we couldn’t end the rift between Turhmos and Quaver once and for all.” “Like heroes.” Two words and the glint of an eye reminded Braph he was talking to a child. How fleeting these moments of true camaraderie could be. “Exactly like.” Braph flashed a shallow smile and turned back to his designs.
April 28, 2025 at 10:42 AM
deb.deberelene.com
The school holidays have kept me busy, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share a snippet for this prompt (o: Better late than never?
#WIPSnips: Wolf
Looking forward to diving into this WIP in the next couple of months. I sense fun ahead.
Ekon sauntered along the dusty track between forest and sand dunes, thumbs hooked behind belt, lips curved in a satisfied grin, sandals scuffing the occasional stone, and kilt swinging softly about his thighs while his mind replayed sensations of skin-on-skin and exploratory kisses. The sun’s warmth and the cloudless sky cemented his mood. Life was good. A grizzled, old wolf emerged from between two trees, morphed and unfurled into human form and matched step beside Ekon. Life was less good when Uncle Abasi showed up like this. Not the nakedness—no, that was acceptable—but turning up here and now was clearly designed to shatter Ekon's mood.
April 27, 2025 at 4:15 AM
deb.deberelene.com
Ream is a platform like Patreon but specifically for books. This week (at least) several books have been set as free reads, so it's a great tie to check out the platform & see if it's for you as a reader.
readers.reamstories.com/raid
#booksky #books #FreeBooks
An advertising image showing a range of book covers. The main advertising message is: Free Books April 21-28 at reamraid.com
April 23, 2025 at 3:15 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPsnips Apr 7th: Supply

Braph making friends, as always.

On #RoyalRoad at: www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
“What is the cure, Mister Vastergaard?” Braph sat up, gave the officer a narrow-eyed smirk. Thought he could rattle Braph with little irritations, did he? He gave a lazy blink and set about explaining. “What you need to do is, within hours of infection, pair the Karan up with a willing Aenuk who will supply blood to inject into the Karan, and then the Karan can use the resulting magic to defeat the micro-organism themselves. It has to be within hours, though. After that, the infection is too far spread to be reversed.” “So all our infected Kara are condemned?” The officer glanced Orinia’s way, his gaze pausing on Orin before returning to Braph. Braph simply held that gaze. He had, after all, already stipulated the blood donor be willing. “Balance, Captain—?”
April 8, 2025 at 12:37 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#FantasyIndiesApril 5th: Snippet: Scenery

Uh oh …
Where were Orin and Orinia? They’d all returned to the garden after breakfast, but it hadn’t been long before Orinia had chafed for a change in scenery and Orin had declared himself bored. For once, he’d been more keen to join Orinia on a walk than continue helping his father, the novelty evidently wearing thin. That was a couple of hours past now. Walking itself would bore the child, surely.
April 6, 2025 at 4:10 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 5th April: Count

Llew's had a fun time and really loves the world building I did for her …

#Fantasy #Romantasy #RoyalRoad

www.royalroad.com/fiction/4260...
“It means she’s seen the other side, too many times,” said Jonas. “You’ve … been dead?” Rowan asked. “But how …?” Elka spoke quietly. “Well, let’s see.” Llew brought up her hands to count off her fingers. “I’ve been cut by a bottle, hanged – which I think accounted for three times. I’ve been killed in a fight, had my heart filled with arrows—”
April 5, 2025 at 8:47 AM
deb.deberelene.com
Sorry for spoilers … look away (quick!) if you actually read my stuff!

#WIPsnips 4th April: Laugh
#Writersky #Booksky 📚🇳🇿
“If that was a joke, it was the worst.” Llew pushed herself to stand as Alvaro crouched and gathered Karlani in his arms. “I know. I’m so sorry. I mean, we knew you’d live.” “And Jonas would be on the ground!” Llew’s anger heated her core and filled her with the urge to hit someone as a full accounting of the situation took shape, yet somehow Jonas found the situation funny as he hissed out a single laugh. “We train for years to face the Aenuk reflex. If you get the chance, remind Karlani she’s just a pup. She ain’t got no business messin’ with Aenuks, especially Llew. She’s lucky she’s alive.” Alvaro paled and swallowed. “We didn’t … I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
April 4, 2025 at 8:25 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPsnips Apr 3rd: Official
While the invitation to this meeting had been cordial, Braph had little doubt Kadesh didn’t know what box to put Braph in: friend, foe, or nuisance. Braph had lived in Turhmos for many years without calling attention to himself, but somehow word of Orinia’s existence had leaked and they’d come for her. He had kept developing his designs without her, thriving on the relative anonymity he found in this country, but when Turhmos believed he was keeping knowledge from them, they took his arm with his magic device on it. While Braph was certainly miffed at that, it wasn’t exactly easy to uplift his entire household and all his contraptions within. He would rather develop a professional relationship than be at war with the country in which he had chosen to live. Besides, his new hand was officially better than his old, and he would never have considered constructing it if it hadn’t been for the swift strike of Colonel Salmen’s cleaver.
April 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
deb.deberelene.com
As April 2nd wraps up here in Aotearoa, here's my #WIPsnips for today's prompt: scene. There's a little bit of #FoundFamily going on in #Magician'sTouch It's not all smooth sailing, though, of course.
He met her gaze, keeping his palm on the tree. “Oh, I’m staying.” Llew smiled and held out her hand to shake his. “Welcome to the team,” she said when he accepted the gesture. “My name’s Llew, by the way.” “Sam.” “Will the rest of your … countrymen join us?” “We pledged to join you.” He glanced at Jonas, briefly enough he perhaps hoped Llew wouldn’t notice, but she did detect a darkening of his demeanor. “Loyalty to me is loyalty to him. You don’t get one without the other.” “You know what he did?” “Yes.” Jonas had also made mistakes. “Lunch!” One of the Turhmos soldiers called from the homestead, and the farm settled into a scene of domesticity, with everyone finding somewhere to sit or stand to eat.
April 2, 2025 at 9:38 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips April 1st: Trick
Funnily enough, this snippet comes from the chapter that dropped on Royal Road today … www.royalroad.com/fiction/1067...
#RoyalRoad
“That smells so good,” Orin leaned over the pot, then pulled back as the hot steam engulfed his face. “Ooh, hot. But it just smells so good. It’s making me hungry.” “You’re always hungry,” Braph said, assessing the boil and dialing down the gas. He’d calculated he’d get a couple of pints of syrup from the full pot after several hours of boiling. He didn’t want syrup, though. More than likely, he was going to end up with something resembling hard toffee. He didn’t want that, either, despite what Orin might say. The final trick would be in attaining something the same size and shape as his blood crystals to fit his device. It wouldn’t be simple, he knew that. He’d spent years learning how blood behaved under various heat and pressure conditions. He had little doubt tree sap would behave quite differently. But what was the point in sticking with what he knew?
April 1, 2025 at 10:09 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 31st March: Appreciate
#WriteSky #FreeFiction
A snigger escaped Llew. Everything about the man on the cover was bigger than real life, except the tattoo, which merely sat upon his pectoral muscle, rather than sweeping around his ribcage. His jaw was large and square, his biceps round, his thighs straining his trousers. It wasn’t the Jonas she knew. Well, the hair and the beard growth matched pretty well, actually. That would be how Elka recognized him. Llew snorted again. “I thought you might appreciate that. I suppose you don’t need to look strong when you simply are. Syakaran strength doesn’t seem to be worn the same way a regular strongman might. Please, eat.” Raena indicated the food and Llew didn’t hesitate – she was starving. She placed the book on top of a stack of others, hesitated, lifted it again, and the book beneath and swapped their places. She suspected Jonas wouldn’t welcome seeing it there.
April 1, 2025 at 12:46 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 30th: Lonely
I've only used "lonely" once, and it's in a terribly spoilery scene, so I've gone with "Alone".
“I thought maybe you weren’t wantin’ to be, uh, alone alone,” Jonas said as he reached Llew. “Depends how much talking you want me to do.” Jonas shrugged. “You don’t gotta talk. Don’t even have to listen, if you don’t want to. I don’t have much to say. Just thought … Well, maybe you wanted to be alone … in company.” Llew smiled. “That’d be nice.”
March 30, 2025 at 11:03 AM
deb.deberelene.com
#WIPSnips 30th March: Touch

A little exposition about a world-building rule established in book 1 … (MC) Llew is not my biggest fan.
Damn the Aenuk-Karan barrier. If he was almost anyone else, Llew could have healed him by now with a simple touch. It was stupid. The world needed Jonas to wade in and put the wrong things right. It needed Llew to be able to heal him.
March 30, 2025 at 4:54 AM