About Keli

For a long time, the only person who believed Keli Vice was a writer was her mother. Even after earning an English degree from UCLA, then working as an editor for a Los Angeles design magazine, in public relations in the music industry and as a copywriter and digital marketing consultant in the wine industry…it still took a fair amount of time for her to realize (and then to admit) that her mother was right. She WAS, in fact, a writer.

For all intents and purposes, she had been one for years. The writing might have been about interior design, or classic rock reissues, or why Pinot Noir should be chilled to 60° Farenheit before serving…but there was a lot of writing going on.

Because, like so many English majors before her, there were dozens of secret chapters—the product of stolen hours devoted to fiction over the years—that were furtively hidden away on her computer, patiently waiting for “someday” to arrive. In reality, her Malcolm-Gladwell-esque “10,000 hours of writing” had been underway for quite some time.

So now what?

Realizing that individual chapters did not a novel make, in 2015 Keli set out to complete a full manuscript of her latest story idea: Shift. The concept for Shift began as a daydream musing: what would happen if…(well, we don’t want to give the story away here). And, interestingly, it didn’t necessarily begin as a YA novel. As the voice of young Emily Westin took control of the narrative, it simply became one. Read an excerpt here.

Keli’s second manuscript is a Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction set in the Northern California wine industry—Behind Cellar Doors —and was chosen as a finalist in the 2017 PitchWars competition (available now for review).

Keli signed with Agent Jana Hanson of Metamorphosis Literary Agency in March of 2019. She is currently working on her third novel, Third Time’s a Charm, a Romantic Women’s Fiction story set on California’s Central Coast.

By day she runs a digital marketing consulting business catering to the Northern California wine industry.

When not glued to her computer, she is an avid reader, a birder, plays competitive tennis and leisurely golf, practices yoga, loves a glass of really excellent Pinot Noir, really wishes that books would offset em dashes with spaces on either side (AP style junkie), has finally tackled Clair de Lune on her baby grand, and abhors misplaced apostrophes, especially on Christmas card signatures. She lives in the heart of Sonoma County wine country with her husband, two amazing daughters, an adopted tabby and her beloved yellow lab Posey.

Affiliations:

Fun Facts About Keli:

  • If you put on music…Keli will dance. Literally, to anything—all night long. Alcohol not required. (Note this makes her a super fun wedding guest).
  • Favorite baseball player: SF Giants catcher Buster Posey (e.g. see dog’s name above)
  • When she was 22, she flew to Spain by herself to cover a furniture show in Valencia and completely and totally lost her voice. She spent six days gesturing to people.
  • She LOVES celebrating her birthday.
  • She is silently correcting your grammar. Always.
  • Her favorite place in the world is Cal Berkeley’s Lair of the Golden Bear family camp (which is weird, because she went to UCLA). Hubby’s fault.
  • She once fed wild dolphins* fish held between her teeth as they leaped up to grab them. (*Before this was no longer legal).
  • She can rap Iggy Azalea’s lyrics in “Fancy”.
  • She played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.
  • For instant happiness, just add hummingbirds, bubbles, bendy straws or honeybees.
  • Must love dogs.