M.Kay Howell

M. Kay Howell’s background in high level corporate management hardly prepared her to undertake the tremendous research and investigative tasks involved in the writing of Surviving Justice. Nor did the fact that she had raised seven children and had hosted nearly two hundred foster children give her any insight into the world of corruption and intrigue she encountered in the story. In short, she was in new territory, a fact that both terrorized and titillated her writing genes. Up to that time Kay had written adventurous children’s chapter books and prize winning memoir essays.

Kay had donated her children’s chapter book series, The Lost Babies, to a local jail. Her feelings were that many of the inmates in that jail were parents, and possibly at a reading level where the children’s stories would intrigue them. Shortly a female inmate approached Kay. After reading the children’s stories the inmate felt that Kay was someone whom she could trust to fairly recount her story. Kay read all the media reports on the case, searched the internet, and obtained the courtroom video tape files from the hearings and actual trials –all one hundred and twenty six hours of them. After watching the tapes three times in their entirety, she was hooked. Kay found that the story was fascinating, and an example of pure injustice in the American penal and court systems. She agreed to proceed with the project. The end product, Surviving Justice took over five years to research and write.

Kay has been published in various statewide author newsletters with her how-to articles on writing related issues. Her interest in chronicling personal history has led her to help form and lead two active writing groups.

Kay and her husband winter in the Las Vegas area and summer in the Pacific Northwest, where they live on the Columbia River with their two tiny Yorkies, Angus and Lili. Go to her website: Eagletreebooks.com to learn more about her writings.