Her Grace, Lady Heidi, Duchess of Kneale

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Fifty Things about Her Grace that aren't true || hkneale at iinet dot net dot au

"What I like about Kneale’s writing is that she executes it well." --Paul Mannering, "Asif!"

"You've got an energetic voice, and a good sense of humor..." --Miss Snark

Past Projects

Daughter of a Lady
Mary wasn't sure what to expect with her arranged marriage to the foreign Lord Jonan. While she knew all the things a Lady should know-- running a house and managing the staff, she was ill-prepared for the political intrigue that threatened her new husband's reign and even his life. While Mary learns, the hard way, how to deal with deception from inside, it is the threat that comes from the outside that forces her to choose between the father that raised her and the husband she married.

Let Sleeping Gods Lie
Eahn, apprentice priest to the goddess Lilami, has almost got a handle on his life. He administers to the people of the valley, avoids a girl who has a crush on him and prepares for his upcoming Majority ceremony. But the peace of the valley is threatened with the arrival of the foreigner named Pod and the strange god Urunathe he brings with him. Can Eahn and Lilami drive off Urunathe before he completely turns the hearts of the people and keep their own integrity and values intact or will he lure away all of Lilami's followers, an act which could very well mean the end of Lilami?

Current Projects

Of The Dark
When village maid Adrastea receives a proposal of marriage from Mor-Lath, God of the Dark, she does what any sensible daughter of the Light would do.
She says no. If only he wasn't making it so hard for her...

The Cat Came Back
When graduate student Lucy Campeon lands the perfect job of cat-nanny to Beaker, the beloved pet of the dying Mrs Andine, she feels her financial worries are over. When the old lady dies, leaving her whole fortune to the cat, Lucy's job, as well as the jobs of the whole staff, are also secure for the rest of Beaker's natural life.
Alas, Beaker soon perishes at the hands of Mrs Andine's bitter and greedy relatives. Unable to prove murder (which would negate the chances of the relatives inheriting), Lucy replaces Beaker with another cat. Just how far will the relatives go to get their hands on the money, and just how many cats will Lucy replace before she can prove that "Beaker" was indeed murdered?

Future Projects

Almost an Empress
Bathsheba is a woman of good family connections, strong intelligence and proven fertility, which, in the eyes of the young Emperor, would make him an ideal wife, only after she bears him an heir. But Bathsheba is not a woman to be set aside while the Emperor's brothers attempt to seize the throne.
Who says she can't have it for herself?

Savark
In the 1930's the sorcerer Savark and his brothers find it very easy to hide their skills behind the facade of technology. But when several powerful artifacts are stolen from them, they learn that they are not the only ones with power. Their enemy, known only as The Penultimate, seeks the most powerful object of all--Savark himself, and not just for his power...

Random Items of
Professional Development

Graduated 1996 from the University of Utah, BA in Film Studies, minor Music
First Fiction Publication: "As the Sky Erupts in Brilliant Fire..." - Satorian, 1989
First Non-Fiction Publication: "Netiquette" - Clules Noobie Magazine, January 1994
Taught creative writing (as well as other things) in the early 1990's.
Online since 1988. Really.
Member Online Writing Workshop since... oh, whenever it started
Charter Member of Stromatolights
That other item you wanted to know...? Well, I can't remember what it was.

Interesting Links

Miss Snark
Evil Editor
The Rejecter
Jenny Rappaport, Agent
Kristin Nelson, Agent
Anna Genoese, Editor
The Online Writing Workshop)
More to follow when I can be bothered adding them.

When She Was Young(-er), Her Grace wanted to be a/n:

  • Opera singer
  • Astronomer
  • Schoolteacher
  • Author
  • Musician
  • Composer
  • Doctor
  • Geneticist
  • Filmmaker
  • Mother
Guess which ones she chose.

Bio

     Heidi Wessman Kneale was born some time ago (it isn't polite to ask a lady's age) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, where she pretty much spent most of her childhood. She attended a rather nasty elementary school, a junior high that wasn't much better, and a high school whose student body, for all their musical and theatrical talent, were a rather dull bunch.
     After escaping from the rather homogenous culture of her high school via graduation, she found that there was a bigger and better world out there. Thank goodness for University, where she could study what she wanted, when she wanted, and she could sit all by herself at lunch without any of the other students pointing and laughing.
     She discovered she was a Trekkie, a closet Goth, a really good convention planner, a really bad geneticist and a really skilled writer and composer.
     Indulging in that wild spark of life that leads humans to travel to the stars, she threw herself into a life of amazing self-discovery that continues to this day.
     To further her adventures, she moved to Australia where she writes books as wraises babies.
     Any further info will have to be personally solicited.