Who is Keith Houghton?
I’m English. An Englishman. Made in England. I’d get it tattooed on my rump, but I’m scared of needles.
People on the Continent mistakenly think I’m Swedish or Dutch. Sometimes German. My passport says I’m British. A citizen of the UK. Some Americans hear my English accent and think I’m Scottish. Is it any wonder why I spend half my life wondering who the heck I am?
Some facts I am clear of: I’m middle-aged. Probably less years ahead than behind. I’m
losing hair. What remains is slowly succumbing to the grey. That which is lost huddles in the plughole like a damp rodent. My joints ache. I broke a collarbone when I was 19 and it has a nasty habit of reminding me how silly it was to try and leap over a refuse can with more alcohol in my veins than hemoglobin. My eyesight is going. I keep looking for it, but it’s sneaky. My skin sags in places – namely anywhere I’m standing. And the smile lines around my eyes no longer think it’s funny.
Aside from that, I am a proud father, giggling grampa, weary master and lucky lover. Proud because I have raised fantastic children who display all the attributes of 
being fine Human Beings – so I did something right somewhere. Giggling because I am one of those silly ‘let’s play monster’ gramps who love acting the fool with my beautiful granddaughters. Weary because I run around like a demented fool on the tail of my beastly Cairn Terrier, Jake – the mutt with 666 tattooed behind his doggie ear. Lucky because somehow I managed to attract (and keep) the most wonderful and wise woman a man could ever hope to have. I walk in her shadow – mostly because sunlight burns.
What interests you?
Mostly the kind of stuff other people don’t find interesting. On the inside, I’m a bit of a geek. All that is missing are the bottle-bottom eyeglasses and the buck teeth. But I’m sure they’ll make an appearance before I hit 50.
I like tinkering around on my computer. Maybe too much. I like teaching myself new stuff 
- like webpage coding. Told you I was a geek. I like a challenge – such as writing a novel in a whole new genre I’ve never done before. I also play the occasional computer game and run a popular online gaming community. Pass me those glasses.
I’d like to say I’m interested in world affairs, but I’d rather graze on the side lines. Politics doesn’t particularly float my boat. I’m concerned about the state of the planet. I do my recycling bit. But I’m not interested in strapping myself to a tree of ramming a Japanese whaling boat. But my thoughts are with those that do.
Where Does Your Love For Writing Come From?
I must have been nine or ten. Maybe a little younger. I got hooked on Enid Blyton’s Famous Five mystery novels. I can’t recall exactly how it came about, but I remember being in bed, under the covers with a book and a torch, night after night, avidly reading the adventures of four plucky English kids, a dog and lashings of ginger beer. People say I have a vivid imagination – so reading stories is like watching a Technicolor movie to me. Enid opened up my eyes to storytelling.
Then my Dad took me to see the movies Star Wars and Close Encounters at the cinema on the same day in ’77. I was 11. Impressionable. Hooked. Those two films alone, seen back-to-back by a wide-eyed, curly-haired eleven-year-old, were the catalyst catapulting me from Enid’s safe arms to the rough-and-ready realms of science fiction.
I went on a book rampage. I loved it. Sci-Fi spoke to me in volumes. In my language. Exotic, descriptive, fascinating. I couldn’t get enough. I started collecting certain authors I liked: Larry Niven, Harry Harrison, Alan Dean Foster, Robert Heinlein, Ben Bova, Piers Anthony … amassing over 500 paperbacks in the following 5 years.
One thing I noticed right from the start was that I mentally edited as I read. I used to think ‘I wouldn’t have said it that way’ or ‘this bit would feel better here’ or ‘now why didn’t he use this word instead of that?’. Pretty soon I got the bug to write. I remember thinking ‘I can do this’ and so I did.
I hammered out a full-length fantasy novel on an old Remington typewriter and a collection of hard-hitting sci-fi shorts before I was 18. In and around family life, I penned 
three further science fiction novels as I trundled through my 20′s – ‘Hisk’, ‘Orb’ and ‘Uth’. My 30′s saw me put together three comedy stage plays and several spec scripts, including one for the hit TV show Doctor Who. Recently, I’ve turned to a life of crime (writing) and am more focused on contemporary thrillers than far-fetched fantasies.
5 Loves Vs 5 Hates
- Love my Family | Hate people who don’t (not my family, theirs).
- Love chocolate, even the word itself | Hate quiche in any language.
- Love rock music | Hate modern-day trancy dancy synthesized stuff with no melody.
- Love vacationing | Hate coming back to work, bills and 259 ansa-messages.
- Love my Dog when he’s cute and cuddly | Hate my Dog when he’s possessed by evil.
What Does The Future Hold?
If I knew that I’d be psychic. And if I was psychic I’d be making a heck of a lot more money than I am selling eBooks!
Concerning my writing, I think I’ve found my niche. I’m comfortable writing crime thrillers and see myself doing that, at least in the short term. At some point I may write a sequel to ‘Uth’ or some other wacky science fiction extravaganza. But right now I have a series of edge-of-the-seat thrillers planned, following a central character – rather like Lee Child with his Jack Reacher, only more punchy and less serious.
Concerning my home life, I’m happy being a dad, grampa and lover. I’m looking forward to seeing my granddaughters blossom. I want them to have a successful author as a granddad. I think the future’s looking rosy, I really do.
Safely stuck in middle age, Keith lives happily with his partner Lynn and their crazy Cairn Terrier Jake. In and around playing computer games and bashing out zany story ideas, he spends most of his spare time pulling hair out of the plughole.
