Kevin J. Howard Author/Screenwriter

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, Athens, Bucharest, Calcutta, Florence, Glasgow, Jaipur, Kosice, London, Los Angeles, Mallorca, Moscow, New York, Oaxaca, Paris, Pattaya, Prague, Rome, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Venezuela, Venice and Warsaw. He won the Vitruvian Award at the Da Vinci International Film Festival. Two of my screenplays are semi-finalists in Rhode Island, which is an Academy Award Qualifying event. I’ve received excellent coverage from the Atlanta Screenplay Awards, the Chicago Screenplay Awards, and the New York Screenplay Awards. I received 175 film festival placements in 2020 in 23 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, South America and the United States.

PVM: 2020 was an outstanding year for you as a screenplay writer. Let’s delve into your work. Tell us about Faithful Shadow.

The evacuation of the Old Faithful Inn is based off the real evacuation in 1988, which I incorporate into the screenplay. It’s an incredibly magical place for me and my entire family. I almost died when I was working in the park, but I walked away from the accident without a scratch. Just more proof that Yellowstone is a place for miracles. “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. While working within the park, I spent every day off hiking. Yellowstone is so large that only a small percentage of tourists ever walk off the main path. I started to think, that with a park so massive, what a perfect location for my story. I think the best elements of horror can be found in the most every day, or unusual place. So many millions of tourists visit Yellowstone, so many people can relate to the park. Much of the employee conversation, the places they spend their rime, are all places I spent my time as an employee there.

PVM: Have any of your screenplays been drawn from personal experiences?

Faithful Shadow is probably the one screenplay that has actual stories and memories from my life. 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 did not 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 Seedling is also taken from my personal experiences in a way, because the screenplay was written with my fiancé in mind. I like to think of the screenplay as my love letter to her, because the story is centered around a man that will travel any distance to be with the only woman that matters. Love is the best source of inspiration.

PVM: Where did you draw your inspiration for Precipice: The Beginning?

Precipice: The Beginning came to me as all of my screenplays and novel do: out of nowhere! It just hit me like a bolt of lightning. The story of a father doing everything he can to get back to his family, even if it means travelling from Mars to Earth, is something I can relate to. I just put myself in Travis’ shoes. A father stranded so far from his family as the Earth is torn apart by unexplained sinkholes, then reptilian creatures begin crawling up to pull people below. Despite the obvious reasons for people to root for Travis and his family, it seems most people loved the character named Dasher. A man with a life of constant bad luck, a loser with a heart of gold that shines through once the world falls apart. He rescues an infant off the highway, carrying her through a wasteland full of monsters. I think people find him to be someone they can all empathize with. The emotion of each character is very relatable, true to form for what they’re going through. When writing for Anne, a mother protecting her only son as she travels across a ruined country, her intense love for her child’s safety was what I would feel having been in her shoes.

PVM: You are now adapting your books, “Protector of the Emerald City, The Seedling, and the Precipice, series into shows. What led you to this project?

Turning my novels into one hour shows allows me to elongate the character development without the need to trim it down for a feature. I can share my true vision with the audience, letting them experience the footage that I’ve seen so often in my mind. It excites me to share this vision, to let the audience wait for the next episode with anticipation. For “Protector of the Emerald City”, I have four seasons within my mind and the first season almost completely written. “The Seedling”, which is a fantasy/drama, has two seasons outlined. “Precipice” will have three to four seasons as of right now, with the first season almost completed. What truly excites me, is that unlike having to wait in line for a movie or spend a lot of money, is that anyone would be able to watch it stream right in their home. To bring my work to the public, right to their very living rooms with just a flick of a switch, would be truly wonderful. “The Protector”, which is the name of the show adapted from “Protector of the Emerald City”, will have numerous seasons. It’s one of my favorite shows, because I like to think of Michael as my biblical Wolverine, moving through history battling demons and other monsters. “The Protector” is going to be a great series!

PVM: How have you evolved as a writer? What is your advice for beginners?

I have completely evolved as a writer. I’ve taken all my original screenplays, edited them to the point where I’ve basically rewritten them, and I can’t believe how terrible they were. At least in my new opinion. Experience and everyday life, trial and errors that have shaped me into who I am now, is why my work is winning awards. I couldn’t have sharpened my work to where it is without the life experiences I’ve had. It’s hard to explain, but I can see so much more depth to my characters. I think much of my own life has taught me to be empathetic, to look at the world from another person’s point of view, and that brings life into each character. It makes the dialogue more realistic and not so generic.

For aspiring writers, I can only offer two pieces of advice: never give up and develop a thick skin! I have received so many rejections in my career I could use them to cover my house with, but your style, much like your cells, changes over time. I took most of my old work and edited them, surprised by how bad they were, in my new opinion. Just remember that every failure is still a step closer, because you adapt to the criticism, take it in and use it to shape your work until it’s something that receives only praise. Never give up on your passion if you truly believe you’re a writer. I myself have no training. I didn’t get a college degree, or take any kind of writing courses. I just know that the stories inside me need to be told. So, I read a single book on formatting, taught myself to write a screenplay, and now I have almost 180 film festival placements in 25 countries! Just remember that all you need is a dream to follow and the strength to see it through. Because a writing career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. As for how to get started, it’s so different for every writer. Networking is probably the best way to get your work into the right hands. Websites like Roadmap Writers and Stage32. They can use FilmFreeway to enter film festivals to get their work into the right hands. I think it’s a good idea to join writer groups on Facebook or Linkedin too. Often times they’ll have discussion that can really help new writers.

PVM: Tell us about your new comedy screenplay. Was it difficult to switch gears from sci-fi to comedy?

My new comedy, The Moron, is different from everything I’ve ever written. Like with all of my screenplays, I had to tap into a specific character type to make the language and actions authentic, so you can imagine it was quite difficult being as inappropriate as possible. The main character is exactly as the title suggests, and it’s difficult to like him, but my screenplay shows that even the worst person can be of vital importance. In other words, he comes through in the most unusual and despicable way, but it still saves the day. I don’t feel that I’m giving away the ending, because no one could guess how someone like him could ever complete such a task. It was actually pretty easy to shift gears. I’ve written a screenplay in almost every genre now and they all feel natural. Much like our own personality, I enjoy humor, horror, science fiction, thrillers and so on. Anything and everything, because I write whatever comes to me at the moment. In fact, my next screenplay, Black and Gold, is about the first female drum major in a rich southern California high school in the 80’s.

PVM: Will 2021 be your best year professionally? What can we expect to see from you?

I honestly believe that 2021 will be my best year. My latest screenplay, The Moron, feels like it’s going to open some whole new doors for me. I’m also working on a drama that has always been on my mind for a long time, something about a father and son having to travel together after a falling out. It’s different from all of my previous work, but I have to write what comes to me. I’m currently writing a science fiction feature about a new kind of super hero and another horror feature. I’ll submit each new screenplay I complete to a select few film festivals or screenwriting competitions. Primarily, my main goal is to secure representation to get my screenplays to the public. I feel that I’ve gone about as far as I can on my own, so it’s time to stand up and let my work speak for itself. I’ll be spending the next year shifting my focus from screenplays to television, mostly because several executives from large production companies have expressed great interest in my pilots. I’m hoping to find an agent so I can get my award-winning work to everyone! Having my work seen by such a wide audience would be a true dream come true.

https://www.authorkevinhoward.com/film-festival-placement

Commercial for Faithful Shadow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cUDGJ1Aq_k&t=2s

https://www.authorkevinhoward.com/