Kol’s living her dream. Her gorgeous neighbor, Nick, promised to make her life brighter yet,
until something from her past threatens the entire world.
Today I am hosting a wonderful writer and fellow Breathless Press author, Sheri Velarde, writing as Kelly Ryan. With Halloween nearly upon us, her new release Salvation will get you in the mood. Let’s give her a warm welcome!
When I took it upon myself to write a romance story with zombies I got a little worried. Zombies don’t exactly bring about the loving feeling if you catch my drift. This was going to be a challenge, but I like challenges, that’s why I write!
So, first thing I had to do was figure out what my zombies were like, I knew that I wanted to do something different, something other than animated and rotting corpses. I had to put on my researchers hat. Ok, some of my main research was a short documentary on Netflix as my brother changed the oil in my car, but hey that still counts as research. An idea for my zombies began to unfold, something different but also something that allowed for a little bit of hope during the zombie apocalypse.
You see, the hope aspect was very important to me. I felt that there needed to be hope for my heroine and hero to have a chance at a real love outside of chaos. Sure, love when all hell is breaking loose is hot, but I wanted my characters to have a chance for something more. I guess that is just the hopeless romantic in me, I want the happily ever after even during the end of the world as we know it. Especially for Nick and Kol in this story. I really cared for them and they were so perfect for each other, that even as the author I was routing for them, even though I knew I controlled their destiny.
The result of all this research contemplation and hard work is a piece that I am very proud of, my novella “Salvation”. It is being released by Breathless Press on October 4th and I couldn’t be more excited. I kinda have a love for zombies now.
Here is a snippet from Salvation. Enjoy!
Not knowing why, not examining her actions or thinking about the consequences, Kol leaned forward and kissed Nick on the lips. She was very tentative at first, but when he put up no resistance, she deepened the kiss, parting his lips with her tongue, truly tasting him. She moved closer to him, turning and practically crawling onto his lap. As way of encouragement, Nick reached down and pushed his seat all the way back, giving Kol all the room she needed to continue her course of action. Needing no further invitation, she crawled onto him, straddling him, all the while never breaking their passionate kiss.
Once she was on top of him, Kol lost a little bit of her confidence, some of the self-doubt that had always followed her around began to work its way back into her psyche. Nick could clearly sense that something wrong, for he brought both his hands up to her face and held her gaze as he spoke to her.
“This is a traumatic time; we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. I don’t want to make matters worse for you. I only want to protect you, make you feel safe.”
“You do make me feel safe. Plus, I have wanted you since the moment that I laid eyes on you; I just don’t want to force you to do something out of pity or…” Kol trailed off, finding it impossible to put into words that she her fears that a man like Nick could ever want damaged goods like her.
Nick brought his lips slowly and deliberately back to hers and kissed her gently. “I wanted you when I first saw you move into the building. You are a gorgeous woman and if we had not seen those helicopters and planes from the roof of the building, I think you would have been spending the night in my bed. So trust me when I say, I am doing nothing out of pity here. Lust yes, pity no.”
You can purchase the full story here:
And be sure to check out the author on her home turf:
Website: http://sherivelarde.weebly.com/
Facebook: Sheri Velarde/Kelly Ryan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sher_V
Thanks for stopping by today. Now go grab a stiff one! 😉
Kirsten S. Blacketer 