Martial arts experience leads to YA fantasy novel
Judy Christie Shreveport Times
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Susan M. Watts is VP of finance for a local oil and gas company by day, a martial arts instructor by night, a triathlete on weekends— and has found time to release “The Jade Amulet,” her debut YA fantasy novel written under the pen name of Michelle Allums.
Susan M. Watts
Watts, who lives in Bossier Parish, has owned and operated Ark-La-Tex Taekwondo since 2000, and it consistently ranks as one of the top 10 schools in the nation by the U.S. Karate Alliance and produces national and world champions. She has trained in martial arts for more than 40 years, taught for more than 35 years and is president of the U.S. Karate Alliance Hall of Fame.
She is a 7th degree black belt in TKD and 6th degree black belt in Okinawan Kenpo and has won five black belt women’s grand championship fighting titles, as well as numerous other world and national titles—and weaves this into her writing practice and story.
“My martial arts training has helped instill the value of meeting goals and putting the work in to get something right,” Watts said. “I have spent a lot of time on my story learning the craft in order to produce a quality reading experience. This is the same as working on the basics in martial arts in order to excel in competition. In martial arts, students learn katas, which are a set series of techniques against imaginary opponents… I basically applied that same methodology to my writing... This process requires a lot of patience and fortitude.”
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"The Jade Amulet" by Michelle Allums, also known as Susan Watts.
The plot of “The Jade Amulet”
Devastated by the sudden death of her cherished grandfather, 17-year-old martial arts champion Sam clings to memories and the amulet he told her to protect. Lost without Grandpa, Sam meets up with her eccentric great-aunt Betsy, whose wild stories and warnings lead Sam to believe the old lady is losing her mind. But when Sam is nearly kidnapped and the amulet almost stolen, she realizes Betsy might be telling the truth. Stunned, Sam learns Grandpa belonged to a demon-hunting society, part of a magical world she had no idea existed. Sam, it turns out, is a Nephilim, a descendant of angels—and demons want her dead. And the amulet? It has mysterious powers stronger than she or anyone else could have imagined and both human and otherworldly beings will do anything to obtain it.
The novel is available as an e-book and in paperback from Amazon.
More about the author
Watts, writing as Allums, has qualified this year to compete with Team USA in the 2024 Aquabike and Aquathon (1,000 meter swim, then 5K run) championships. She serves on the board for the Youth Enrichment Program and is past-president of the board of directors for the Ark-La-Tex Petroleum Accountants Society. You may reach her at
michelleallumsauthor@gmail.com. Her website:
www.michelleallums.com.
Columnist Judy Christie is the author of 18 books, including “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society,” now in its fifth printing in trade paperback. Co-authored with Lisa Wingate, it is the true sequel to Wingate’s bestselling novel “Before We Were Yours.” For more about Christie, see
www.judychristie.com or visit her on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.
