Heather Elizabeth King Builds Worlds and Wonder
By Megan Williams | Photos by Ashlee Glen
Dark fiction writer Heather Elizabeth King is a builder of worlds. The author of three book series with themes ranging from urban fantasy and horror to paranormal romance, she’s an expert at crafting captivating tales that hook a reader from the first page.
“When I first started my main series, I thought it was a cozy mystery. I’d submit to publishing houses and they’d say they like the characters, but it was too dark for their line. So my editor finally said, ‘I hate to tell you, but you write pretty dark,’” King laughed.
King admits that even her romance novels have a dark element to them.
“There’s typically some kind of supernatural element but, with romance, the goal or the main point of the story is the relationship and falling in love. The subplot, though, is there’s this scary thing happening and in the process they fall in love,” she explained. “With my horror or urban fantasy books, the main point is whatever scary thing is happening.”
King, a Long Island, New York, native relocated to Appomattox County when she was a teenager.
“Manhattan was an hour away,” she remembered. “As a kid, I thought everyone went to Broadway shows. I thought everyone had the ocean. On all levels it was a shock when we moved to Concord.”
After high school, King moved around a bit but returned to the area in 2007.
“It was a lot different then than it was when I moved here originally,” King said. “In the main series that I write, the story takes place in this area. Of course, I created a fake town under a different name, but it’s inspired by downtown Lynchburg. There is so much that inspired that whole series—everyday life at the community market, how much people in this town have joy when something new opens. Everyone feels like they own a little bit of Lynchburg.”
A self-proclaimed “major plotter”, King spends an incredible amount of time planning her books before ever putting pen to paper.
“I jot down all of the ideas that I get, but when it comes time to develop a story, I’ll come up with a mind map with the idea in the center and the who, what, where, and how around it. I build layers of questions that help me get a good foundation or idea of what’s happening,” she explained. “Then I’ll go and make a fully fleshed out outline. After that, I’ll write three chapters. Once I start writing, I can feel the story more. I can start to understand the characters and motivations better. If I don’t outline, I’ll write myself into a corner.”
King is a self-published author with books available for purchase online at Apple Books and Amazon, but also available at our local libraries.
“Initially when I was writing exclusively romance, it was such a different experience in terms of getting published,” she said.
“It’s a lot easier to be published as a romance author, even as a Black romance author.
But publishing horror fiction, you start hearing back from editors saying that, while they thought characters were good, they didn’t see a market for a Black heroine or for a lot of Black characters. That was really frustrating, which is why I decided to go independent.”
King admits that it is more work publishing independently. Where publishing houses will often take care of hiring editors and cover designers, King has to manage all of that work herself, on top of her full-time technical writing job. But at the end of the day, the process is worth it so she can write the stories she and other readers ultimately want to read.
“Before I’m an author, I’m a reader,” King concluded. “There are books I’d love to see more of. Now it’s gratifying to make sales and see that people are enjoying those stories and there is in fact a market for those stories.”
