Valerie Howard is an American contemporary women's Christian fiction novelist, indie author, and writing-craft writer based in Maine. Her tagline, real women, tough issues, powerful God, is the working summary of a body of forty-five-plus published books across novels, novellas, biblical nonfiction, indie-author nonfiction, children's books, allegorical fiction, and small-church Christmas plays. She has been writing stories since the second grade, when she wrote The Mystery of the Missing Crayon, and her stated working goal is, in her own words, to bring people closer to Jesus one chapter at a time.
Her contemporary Christian novels and novella series take on real-world topics that other inspirational fiction often avoids: homelessness, unplanned pregnancy, family tragedy, childhood trauma, foster care, poverty, terminal cancer, and addiction. Titles include Deep Blue Sea (her debut, about a nurse caring for a difficult patient), Carry Me Home, In Spirit and Truth, the Christmas Town Christmas-novella line, and the Heart's Haven Christian-romance series. Her allegorical fiction and biblical nonfiction work in parallel with her contemporary line.
Her writing-craft reference books for indie Christian fiction writers and indie authors generally include Character Reactions from Head to Toe (a working reference for fiction writers covering visible physical responses to emotion in scene-level prose) and Helpful Adjectives for Fiction Writers (a working vocabulary reference of strong, specific adjectives organized for fast lookup at the desk). She also publishes shorter indie-author working guides for self-publishing Christian fiction authors.
