Los Angeles, California (The Hollywood Times) 12/27/2020 – Kevin J. Howard is a world-renowned author/screenwriter with three published novels and twelve award-winning screenplays. He has three published novels: “Faithful Shadow”, “Precipice: The Beginning”, “Precipice: The Retrieval”. His published novels have won the Readers’ Favorite 5 Star Seal and “Precipice: The Beginning” won the Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal. His screenplays have been selected in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Calcutta, Florence, Glasgow, Kosice, London, Los Angeles, Mallorca, Moscow, New York, Paris, Pattaya, Prague, Rome, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Venezuela, Venice, and Warsaw. He also won the Vitruvian Award at the Da Vinci International Film Festival.
You took an 8-year hiatus from writing after your divorce and began writing in March. Why now?
My dad says: “if you want to make God laugh, tell him you have a plan”. I didn’t truly understand that until I was divorced in 2012. At the time, I was a stay-at-home father watching my two children while their mother worked. When she left suddenly, I was left without an income, or a car…just my house. I had to radically reinvent myself. It became difficult when my youngest son was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and my oldest son came out as transgender. I used those years to learn how to grow as a family, reading and teaching myself how to be the parent they needed. I took an 8-year hiatus from the world, not just writing. I removed myself from all forms of social media, retreated inside like the typical reclusive writer, and just focused on my family. Three years ago, everything changed when I met my fiancée. It felt as if the world became bright again. During those 8 years, I still wrote every day, but I set it aside. I’ve never been able to stop writing, I just wanted to, but I can’t. It’s something I have to do. So, when the pandemic started, I shifted my focus onto my writing. I used this time to edit my work and polish it. In the last eight months, I’ve completed two new screenplays. I’m not sure why now is the time, but my father always says the universe has a way of telling you you’re on the right path. Everything just lined up at the right time, so I took hold of the reins and let the horse run. I’m a writer, so I have to throw some interesting imagery at you.
2020 has been paved in gold for you. You have three published novels and twelve award-winning screenplays. Take us through your journey.
I knew I was a writer in the fifth grade after reading my first horror novel, Stephen King’s “It”. It was probably the most interesting book report the teacher ever had. I began writing a series of short stories that I handed out to the entire school. I would walk around JR. High with a journal, sitting out during P.E. to write. In the seventh grade, I wrote my first novel in pencil, completed at two hundred pages. I recently found it, but time has made the pencil blur and fade. At the age of twenty, I drove to Yellowstone to work in the park, part of a family tradition. While working there, I wrote a novel called “Resident of Bison”, but I set it aside. I once wrote an entire novel outline on register tape while working at a calendar kiosk in the mall. Just as a funny side note. When I moved to Seattle at the age of twenty-one, I completed the novel “Protector of the Emerald City”. I started my family in 2004 and wrote whenever I wasn’t changing diapers. In 2012, I self-published three of my novels to get my writing career going. I had an idea that I felt was meant more for the big screen than a novel, so I read a book on screenplay format and taught myself how to write screenplays. It took me three months to write my first screenplay, “Identical Opposites”, which was a finalist in the Las Vegas Film Festival and The Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2012. Then, as soon as my career was starting, a divorce happened. One thing I have realized is that a writer can never stop being a writer. I’ve actually tried, a few years ago when life became so difficult, I just wanted to turn my back on it, but I can’t. I HAVE to write, every single day. Even during the 8 years, I didn’t interact with the world, I still wrote and set it aside. When 2020 came and we were told to stay inside, I decided enough was enough. I did something I hadn’t done before: I invested in myself. I sent the three screenplays I’d recently edited out into the world.
“Faithful Shadow”, “Protector of the Emerald City” and “The Seedling” have been selected 166 times by film festivals in 21 countries! This year, I’ve also completed two television pilots for “The Seedling” and “Protector of the Emerald City”. I’m also writing two additional screenplays and I have seven completed novels that have not yet been published, but I’ll get there.
Tell us about The Retrieval.
The “Precipice” series are my most celebrated books, at least by the fans that have left feedback. The first book, “Precipice: The Beginning”, is about a father being sentenced to a Martian colony to oversee construction for the military. While on Mars, a series of massive cracks begin appearing across the surface of planet Earth. Reptilian creatures begin dragging people into the ground, capturing humans in giant cages. Travis, the main character, organizes an uprising to seize control of the Martian facility so he can return to Earth to save his family. “The Retrieval” takes place after Travis has taken control of the colony. Travis, and a select group of prisoners, take a supply ship back to Earth, coordinating with his wife and son to meet them at a certain location. While Travis and his team trek through space, Annie and her son Logan race across a devastated planet, picking up survivors along the way. Book three, “Precipice: The Return”, has been completed as well. It isn’t edited or published, but there is always next year! I’m very proud to say that “Precipice: The Beginning” won the silver medal in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards for horror.
Is there synergy in your published novels, “Faithful Shadow,” Precipice: The Retrieval,” and Precipice: The Beginning?
Unfortunately, every step so far in my writing career has been taken alone. I’ve tried to get an agent, but as every writer knows, summing up your work into a single page to get their attention isn’t easy. I have made several attempts to send query letters, but most of the time I just move onto the next project. Taking time to get an agent to notice is time I could be working on something. The good thing about being a writer is whether anyone wants to represent you or not, you just keep going. Even if no one enjoyed my work, I’d still have to keep writing. It’s incredibly frustrating at times because while writing one screenplay, the next one is swirling around in there and it can’t come out until you’re done with the current project.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Most of the time, my ideas just explode into being. Travel is the number one source of inspiration for me because I feel most receptive when I’m taking in a new environment. I wrote the novel “Faithful Shadow” while on vacation in Hawaii. I finished the book in 30 days. It just flowed out of me like I was possessed. Space is a huge source of inspiration as well, mostly because everything about it raises so many questions. The majority of my work is horror and thrillers, but science fiction will always be my favorite. My latest screenplay, “The Celestial Highway”, is my first science fiction screenplay sent out into the world and it’s doing great! My younger mind was influenced by the works of Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Ridley Scott, and especially Philip K. Dick. I remember seeing “Total Recall” when I was ten, a movie taken from Philip K. Dick’s story, and it just filled me with so many ideas. Music is another incredible source of inspiration. When I listen to a song, I can instantly see a coordinated fight scene or action sequence playing out in my mind. Music always does this to me. “The Seedling” grew from a song I was listening to while lying in bed at night, playing out in my mind with such beautiful harmony.
Tell us about the “Seeding.”
Ultimately, “The Seedling” is my love note to my fiancée. “The Seedling” came to me one night while listening to & John 19.41 from the soundtrack of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. The emotion within the violins conjured the burial scene at the end of my screenplay. I could see the main character, clear as day, sitting beside the grave of the woman he loves as the music plays, he’s heartbroken. Nothing registers beyond the pain of his loss. From that single image, the entire screenplay unfolded right before my eyes. The main character’s emotion and dialogue were written as if I were speaking to my fiancée. In fact, the very first time he sees her, their eyes meeting while she and the princess ride by on horses, is my exact feeling toward my fiancée. In the screenplay, Yolk, the main character, looks into her eyes and feels love well up inside him. One look and he just knows she’s the one. After my divorce, it took me several years to start dating again, but I felt no connection to anyone I met. Being a hopeless romantic, I decided that something as important as true love can’t be limited to a zip code. I signed up for every dating site around the world, eager to see the differences in culture and ideas. But after a while, the faces blur together, one passing by after the other. Then I saw Claire’s eyes. Once I looked into her eyes, I knew it was love. Three and a half years later and we’re getting married this coming June. Claire is a nurse in Manila and in every scene in the screenplay where Yolk longs to see her, how he runs for hours just to be with her for one more moment, are my feelings toward Claire. There is no greater foundation for a great story than love. I proposed to Claire just last year in Hong Kong Disneyland, a magical place for a magical moment.
Do you have a favorite screenplay?
All of my screenplays are a part of me, but only “Faithful Shadow” draws from my actual memories. Yellowstone National Park is more than just two million acres of amazing wilderness, it’s also part of who I am. My mother and father met while they were working there in their early twenties. Not only is my very existence owed to the park, but my sisters worked there as well. So, following family tradition, I drove to Yellowstone in the summer of 2000 to work for the season. Young people from countries all around the world working, and partying, in the woods. The car accident in the first ten pages was inspired by my very real car accident in the park. I rolled my car three times, went down a hill upside down into a tree. My seatbelt was broken and the airbag didn’t deploy, but I crawled out of the car without a single scratch. The tourists laid me down on the road, taking pictures of me while calling it a miracle, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Yellowstone is a place of magic and wonder, so I wanted to share that with the world. Throughout the whole screenplay, there are lots of fun stories and scenes pulled right out of real life. When the young employees go hot potting in the thermal pools, that’s taken from a story my father told me. The evacuation of the Old Faithful Inn is based on the real evacuation in 1988, which I incorporate into the screenplay. “Faithful Shadow” originally started out as a novel that I adapted into a screenplay last year. The novel, self-published in 2012, won the 5 Star Seal from Readers’ Favorite.
What work are you most proud of?
“Protector of the Emerald City” probably makes me the happiest with how well it’s doing. This story has been with me in so many forms for so long. As a novel, a television show, and now a screenplay. The concept has always been so much fun to me, at least how I visualize it. The sword fight on the decaying rooftop of a building in the underworld as it rains fire, the streets below packed with the damned standing motionless, is probably one of my favorite scenes. Michael, the archangel at the center of the story, who holds resentment against God while wandering aimlessly, is one of my favorite characters.
Despite his strength and wisdom, he just longs to be normal. Honestly, I’m incredibly proud that so many people around the world have enjoyed my work. There have been so many times in my past where I tried to walk away, turn my back on writing because sometimes you get tired of being rejected, but I can’t stop. To have people enjoy them, to know that the journey you’ve created for them puts a huge smile on their face, makes me incredibly happy. Doing what you love and making people happy…especially right now when we all need a reason to look ahead with hope, is the greatest joy.
Share your vision for 2021.
2021 is going to be an incredible year for many reasons. Most importantly, I plan to get married in June. My two screenplay pilots have had lots of interest from executives with MGM and Paramount to name a few. I’m finishing up two new screenplays that should be done in a few months, plus I have the sequel to “Protector of the Emerald City” all ready to go! The television series for “Protector of the Emerald City” is going to be fantastic, especially since I’ve completed the first season and outlined up to season four! I see this as just the beginning of a very long and exciting journey!
https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Howard/e/B008YXVR7U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Film Festival Placements since June of 2020
Festival Name “Screenplay” Current Placement
British Horror Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Nominee for Award
DaVinci Intl. Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Play Film Festival (Paris) “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
International Independent Film Awards – Fall Session “The Seedling” – Award
Winner
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Druk International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Mont. Blanc International Film Festival – Paris “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Crown Wood International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award
Winner
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award
Winner
Florence Film Awards “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Mindfield Film Festival • Albuquerque “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Tagore International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Mindfield Film Festival • Albuquerque “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award
Winner
London Independent Film Awards “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Twilight Tokyo Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Global India International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Twilight Tokyo Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
International Independent Film Awards – Fall Session “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Tagore International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Prague International Monthly Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
World Film Carnival – Singapore “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Pattaya International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Florence Film Awards “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Hollywood Gold Awards “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Crown Wood International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Tagore International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
CKF International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Golden Nugget International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award
Winner
Mont. Blanc International Film Festival – Paris “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Mindfield Film Festival • Albuquerque “Faithful Shadow” – Award Winner
Virgin Spring Cinefest “The Seedling” – Award Winner
Druk International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Award Winner
Mont. Blanc International Film Festival – Paris “Protector of the Emerald City” –
Award Winner
New York Cinematography AWARDS (NYCA) “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Venice Film Awards – Monthly Competition “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
DaVinci Intl. Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
Rome Independent Cinema Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Golden Nugget International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Finalist
European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA) “Protector of the Emerald City” –
Finalist
Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
Burning Love Screenplay Contest “The Seedling” – Finalist
Birmingham Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Finalist
Wallachia Int’l Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Finalist
TMFF – The Monthly Film Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Kosice International Monthly Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
New York Cinematography AWARDS (NYCA) “The Celestial Highway” – Finalist
DaVinci Intl. Film Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Lonely Wolf: London International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
Kosice International Monthly Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” –
Finalist
Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition “The Seedling” – Finalist
Screenplay Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
New York Movie Awards “The Seedling” – Finalist
European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA) “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
European Film Festival (Mainstream & Underground) “Faithful Shadow” – Finalist
European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA) “The Seedling” – Finalist
New York Cinematography AWARDS (NYCA) “The Seedling” – Finalist
Los Angeles Film & Script Festival “The Seedling” – Finalist
Austin After Dark Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Finalist
Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Semi-Finalist
Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” –
Semi-Finalist
HorrorFest International “Faithful Shadow” – Semi-Finalist
Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Semi-Finalist
Red Flight Pictures Screenplay Awards “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
Screenplay Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
Other Worlds Film Festival / Under Worlds Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Semi-Finalist
Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Semi-Finalist
Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
HorrorFest International “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
New York Cinematography AWARDS (NYCA) “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
Changing Face International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
WriteMovies Horror Award 2020 “Protector of the Emerald City” – Semi-Finalist
FilmQuest “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Hollywood Horrorfest “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Austria International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Silicon Beach Film Festival® “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Silicon Beach Film Festival® “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards “The Seedling” – Official Selection
FIVE CONTINENTS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL “The Seedling” – Official Selection
San Pedro International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Florence Film Awards “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Chandler International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Culver City Film Festival® “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Culver City Film Festival® “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Bloodstained Indie Film Festival: Sci-Fi Horror Action “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
New York City Horror Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Film & Screenplay Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Golden Earth Film Award “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Mile High Horror Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Austin Under the Stars Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Fright Night Film Fest “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Marina del Rey Film Festival® “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
San Pedro International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Austin Spotlight Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Golden Earth Film Award “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Austin Under the Stars Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
The Hague Global Cinema Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Venice Film Awards – Monthly Competition “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Rome Independent Prisma Awards “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Top Indie Film Awards “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Austin Spotlight Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
NIFF HOUSTON “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Austria International Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
East Europe International Film Festival – Warsaw Edition “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Silicon Beach Film Festival® “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Loudoun Arts Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Chandler International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
International Film Festival of Wales “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Genre Celebration Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Amsterdam World International Film Festival “The Celestial Highway” – Official Selection
Austin After Dark Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Top Indie Film Awards “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Marina del Rey Film Festival® “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Thinking Hat Fiction Challenge “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Script Summit “The Seedling” – Official Selection
World Cinema Milan “The Seedling” – Official Selection
FIFF-Filmstrip International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
East Europe International Film Festival – Warsaw Edition “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Rome Independent Prisma Awards “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Rome Independent Prisma Awards “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
HorrorHaus Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Marina del Rey Film Festival® “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Austin Spotlight Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Fright Night Film Fest “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Bloodstained Indie Film Festival: Sci-Fi Horror Action “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Culver City Film Festival® “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Culver City Film Festival® “The Celestial Highway” – Official Selection
Rome Independent Prisma Awards “The Celestial Highway” – Official Selection
Prague International Monthly Film Festival “The Celestial Highway” – Official Selection
Twin Falls SANDWICHES Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Global India International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Crown Wood International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Austin Under the Stars Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
The Massachusetts Independent Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Hollywood Horrorfest “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
World Cinema Milan “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
FIVE CONTINENTS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
East Europe International Film Festival – Warsaw Edition “The Seedling” – Official Selection
TMFF – The Monthly Film Festival “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
Austria International Film Festival “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes “The Seedling” – Official Selection
Venice Film Awards – Monthly Competition “Protector of the Emerald City” – Official Selection
Chandler International Film Festival “The Seedling” – Official Selection
International Film Festival of Wales “Faithful Shadow” – Official Selection
