Laurel Houck
At the age of six I wrote Crawls the Caterpillar with my fat yellow pencil. I've been writing ever since. I travel the world as a medical missionary and come home to my husband and our fur baby, Mabel. Intricate plots, multilayered characters, and endings that surprise are my fave. You'll most often find me with a cup of Kenyan tea...or a chocolate milkshake! Yum!
What’s your favorite thing to do to relax? Okay, so for a writer this is total cliché, but I love to read. Not just my own writing, but almost anything else in the world of fiction. Give me a book, a chair in the sun, and a glass of iced tea and my world is complete!
If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself? Listen to yourself. Don’t let others tell you the “reality” of what your life should be. Nurture your gifts. Don’t ever let go of your dreams. Believe that you can, and you will. Oh, and getting a pony? Yep, great idea.
For what are you grateful? I am grateful for the Lord, for life, and for love.
At what age were you the happiest? What triggered such joy? I am the happiest now—right now. I have love. My dreams are being realized. I can give back as I travel the world.
What is the number one lie you tell yourself? How is that working out? I will never be good enough. It’s a lost cause. Give up. It’s not working out at all, as the blessings in my life overflow!
Now about you as an author…What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult? I belonged to a book club as a child. The authors I read never became big names. But I still have those books, and the worlds they transported me to influenced the worlds I would someday create.
Did anyone in your life influence you or encouraged you to be a writer? My family encouraged me early on, but my guidance counselor in high school told me not to pursue a career in writing because unless I became a teacher it wouldn’t work. So I let fallow years go by. Then my husband encouraged me as I began again. He and my family have had my back through the many years of writing, rejections, and finally publishing. And over the years Scruffy, Blondie, and Mable respectively—sweet fur babies all—have been by my side. Literally.
What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite? I get really excited with a new idea. It’s like opening a shiny gift bag before all the tissue comes out. The anticipation. The potential. The excitement of imagination. I don’t even mind editing. Marketing my work and myself is my least favorite as I hate asking!
What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on? Tightening up description, as I love the sound and substance of words and the picture they paint. Less is more has never been my motto!
Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing? A computer, a cup of tea, and (when possible), an outdoor venue.
Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books? My favorite word is cerulean. How musical and magical! It’s in every book somewhere!
What have you learned the most from being in the writing business? I have learned that success doesn’t exist without rejection. That the business is fluid—once it has been mastered it changes. And that when one is a writer, nothing is as important as birthing that story.
What’s your favorite thing to do to relax? Okay, so for a writer this is total cliché, but I love to read. Not just my own writing, but almost anything else in the world of fiction. Give me a book, a chair in the sun, and a glass of iced tea and my world is complete!
If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself? Listen to yourself. Don’t let others tell you the “reality” of what your life should be. Nurture your gifts. Don’t ever let go of your dreams. Believe that you can, and you will. Oh, and getting a pony? Yep, great idea.
For what are you grateful? I am grateful for the Lord, for life, and for love.
At what age were you the happiest? What triggered such joy? I am the happiest now—right now. I have love. My dreams are being realized. I can give back as I travel the world.
What is the number one lie you tell yourself? How is that working out? I will never be good enough. It’s a lost cause. Give up. It’s not working out at all, as the blessings in my life overflow!
Now about you as an author…What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult? I belonged to a book club as a child. The authors I read never became big names. But I still have those books, and the worlds they transported me to influenced the worlds I would someday create.
Did anyone in your life influence you or encouraged you to be a writer? My family encouraged me early on, but my guidance counselor in high school told me not to pursue a career in writing because unless I became a teacher it wouldn’t work. So I let fallow years go by. Then my husband encouraged me as I began again. He and my family have had my back through the many years of writing, rejections, and finally publishing. And over the years Scruffy, Blondie, and Mable respectively—sweet fur babies all—have been by my side. Literally.
What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite? I get really excited with a new idea. It’s like opening a shiny gift bag before all the tissue comes out. The anticipation. The potential. The excitement of imagination. I don’t even mind editing. Marketing my work and myself is my least favorite as I hate asking!
What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on? Tightening up description, as I love the sound and substance of words and the picture they paint. Less is more has never been my motto!
Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing? A computer, a cup of tea, and (when possible), an outdoor venue.
Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books? My favorite word is cerulean. How musical and magical! It’s in every book somewhere!
What have you learned the most from being in the writing business? I have learned that success doesn’t exist without rejection. That the business is fluid—once it has been mastered it changes. And that when one is a writer, nothing is as important as birthing that story.
Tell us about your latest release:
The Girl With Chameleon Eyes, a YA paranormal romance, follows Summer’s ghostly journey to reconcile the unknown guilt on her soul before her seventeenth birthday when whe will be doomed to roam forever. Will love be enough to save her? And is that love coming through Preston or Kota? Or is she without hope?
A great blob of pain rises in my chest. I realize that I am now part of this family. I love them. They love me. Yet I’m still a ghost, still held hostage to something I once did, still clueless about how to be released from earth—and no longer sure I want to leave. It’s not like I have much of a choice. The ache in my heart intensifies.
How did you decide on your story plot? A young woman I know has eyes that truly change color—blue, gray, brown, green. I told her, “You have chameleon eyes.” And the story was born.
How did you choose your characters names and location for your story? The location is the small town where I formerly lived, and includes a local historical site. The female protagonist, Summer, has no memory and chooses a name that matches the season in which she materializes. The male main character, Kota, has specific meaning. But you have to read the book to discover it!
Do you have a favorite scene? Why? The final scene is my favorite. It exists outside the realm of the real world, and thus allowed me to infuse it with creativity, beauty, and other-worldly angst.
Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why? In some ways I do identify with Summer. She is imperfect, but not sure what needs to change. But she’s willing to put herself out there and do whatever is necessary, ultimately, to serve others instead of herself.
The Girl With Chameleon Eyes, a YA paranormal romance, follows Summer’s ghostly journey to reconcile the unknown guilt on her soul before her seventeenth birthday when whe will be doomed to roam forever. Will love be enough to save her? And is that love coming through Preston or Kota? Or is she without hope?
A great blob of pain rises in my chest. I realize that I am now part of this family. I love them. They love me. Yet I’m still a ghost, still held hostage to something I once did, still clueless about how to be released from earth—and no longer sure I want to leave. It’s not like I have much of a choice. The ache in my heart intensifies.
How did you decide on your story plot? A young woman I know has eyes that truly change color—blue, gray, brown, green. I told her, “You have chameleon eyes.” And the story was born.
How did you choose your characters names and location for your story? The location is the small town where I formerly lived, and includes a local historical site. The female protagonist, Summer, has no memory and chooses a name that matches the season in which she materializes. The male main character, Kota, has specific meaning. But you have to read the book to discover it!
Do you have a favorite scene? Why? The final scene is my favorite. It exists outside the realm of the real world, and thus allowed me to infuse it with creativity, beauty, and other-worldly angst.
Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why? In some ways I do identify with Summer. She is imperfect, but not sure what needs to change. But she’s willing to put herself out there and do whatever is necessary, ultimately, to serve others instead of herself.
