Life in Amalie’s good books

This brilliant, US-based writer whose books are on the USA’s bestseller’s list, has crafted adventure and science fiction stories based on her own experience living as a child in St Helena, Piarco.

Returning home for the first time in ten years, Howard held a book signing event at Teddy’s Book Store, Gulf View Link Road, La Romaine, where a stream of book enthusiasts lined up to meet her on March 13 . Flashing her bright smile Howard signed her books and spoke with young students who approached her table.

The hard-cover books on display, Sea Monster, Alpha Goddess, Bloodspell, Oceanborn, Waterfell and The Almost Girl, with their colourful jackets were sure to catch the eyes of people in search of a “good book to read”.

One can take a dive into the deep blue sea in oceanic science fiction Waterfell. In this book an alien princess hides among normal humans, as she fights to save her species of oceans. Howard continues the storyline of Waterfell in a new book called Oceanborn. Here the enemy murders her family, threatening the future of her underwater kingdom. Her books which are available at Teddy’s bring to life vivid action-packed stories that Howard has become famous for.

The Almost Girl is about an independent soldier from a parallel universe who is thrown into an earthly mission that has her second guessing life as she knows it. Alpha Goddess’ is based on the Indian mythology. Howard writes about the chief characters of the age-old book the Ramayana. This book which is popular among Hindus and others the world over is based on the epic love story of Rama and Sita. Howard’s imaginative writings tells of Rama and Sita re-incarnated in the world today.

A sought-after novelist, Howard has enchanted young adult readers with her stories since 2011. Her first book Bloodspell

earned rave reviews, a spot on the Amazon bestseller list

and was named a Seventeen Magazine Summer Beach Read.

She is critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist for Waterfell, The Almost Girland Alpha Goddess, which was voted onto the prestigious Spring 2014 Kid’s Indie Next List by independent booksellers in the United States. New York Times bestselling author Colleen Houck touted the novel as, “a fiery, gripping twist on a timeless love story. Brilliantly dark and powerful.”

Howard spent most of her childhood days reading books. As a child she remembers running around barefoot, climbing mango trees in the hot tropical sunshine, dreaming of adventure. As she grew up she had a heap of compilations that she wanted to produce in books and this she was able to accomplish soon after settling down in the US.

The mother of three, lives in the Midwestern United States with her husband has travelled to 25 countries and has immersed herself into other cultures.

“Surfing with sharks and several tattoos later, I have traded in bungee jumping in China for writing the adventures instead,” she said.

As an author of colour and a proud supporter of diversity in fiction, Howard’s articles on multicultural fiction have appeared in The Portland Book Review and on the popular Diversity in YA blog.

An aspiring writer from a young age, Howard’s poem “The Candle,” written at age 12, was published in a University of Warwick journal while she was a student at the St Augustine Girls High School. At 15, she was a recipient of a Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Award (a global youth writing competition).

A Colby College graduate, she completed simultaneous honours theses in both French and International Studies, and graduated summa cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa. She also received a distinction in English Literature from the University of Cambridge (A-Levels) as well as a certificate in French Literature from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France. In her sojourn around the globe, she has worked as a research assistant, marketing representative, teen speaker and global sales executive.