COMING SOON from SHERI VELARDE

It's an honor today to present SHERI VELARDE (who also writes as KELLY RYAN) as a Guest Host. Her newest release LOOTED releases 10/18/14!!!

Well a big thank you to the lovely and very gracious Mia for letting me stop by today!! Thanks doll, you’re the best!

Today I thought I would write a little bit about writing and my biggest support of my writing, my wonderful fiancé William. It has been a difficult year for me health, day job, and personally and I don’t know if I would have kept writing if not for him. Writing is a pretty demanding profession, one that takes a lot of time and commitment and does not always have a huge payback in the beginning. There’s a lot of rejection that often comes with writing and without a personal cheerleader or two in your corner, well it can be daunting to continue at time, especially when the rest of your life keeps trying to get in the way.

Well this past year has been one of those years where it really took outside cheering to keep me going, enter William. From the moment we started dating he was always very encouraging of my writing. As times began to get tough and my confidence began to wane, he was the first one there to tell me I was a good writer and not to give up. When family, a terrible day job, and more threatened to get in the way, he helped me figure out more time to write and always encouraged me to keep going.

When I had to change editors at one house and rejection seemed to be my fate, he told me to just dust myself off and submit elsewhere. He always tells me not to give up and to keep pursuing my dream. In fact one of his dreams is to be the one who works outside the home and to allow me to write and make art full time. That would be such a dream come true for me, but something that I had never verbalized, but as it turns out it is his dream for me too.

School and work life permitting, William has even become one of my beta readers. Looted, is the first story of mine that he ever beta read for me. I bounced most of the ideas off of him too during the writing process. He thought that combining my love of mythology with a modern day art heist mystery would be a great idea. I must say that I agree with him as Looted is one of my favorite stories to date and it is the first in the series Gods Behaving Badly. And to think I was about to stop writing if not for my own personal cheerleader pushing me to keep at it. I just hope every writer is as lucky as I am in their cheering departments!

Blurb:

Sophia longs for the days when she was worshipped as a goddess and celebrated for her glory. Now she hides in plain sight and does what she must to keep the lifestyle she is accustomed. She has never been close to discovery until one New York City Detective, Bruce Stoker, enters the picture. Now all that she is and has done could come out into the open and destroy everything. She should disappear, but there is something different about this man that draws her to him.

Detective Bruce Stoker has never had an unsolved case, but there is something different about these art heists. Money is taken, but art is given to museums. Strange. If he can find the beautiful woman who seems to be the common link, then everything should be simple. That is what he thought at least until he met the gorgeous suspect in question.

Excerpt

Bruce sat in the lounge. Another night, another expensive bar. He didn’t think his NYPD salary would take much more of this side investigation, but he knew that he was on the right track. Now he just needed to find his mystery beauty, then the real investigation could begin. He had sent out feelers to every host of the finer bars, restaurants and hotels in town, hoping to find a woman to match the description he had. Needless to say there were a lot of gorgeous women in Manhattan and he had spent more time and money than he cared to think about chasing models and actresses.

This was his last tip and his wallet thanked him. If this didn’t pan out, well then back to the drawing board. The fellows back at the station were already making fun of him for searching for a “Model Ring of Thieves,” but they all also knew his hunches always paid off. Could this be the first time he was actually wrong?

Suddenly he felt a hot tingle running down his spine, something more than his “spidey sense” the guys joked about. This was a first. His entire being seemed to be heating up from the inside. It was not unpleasant, but it certainly left him feeling confused. He turned around and saw her walking into the lounge. He had seen the best-looking women Manhattan had to offer over the past few weeks, but none of them could compare to this creature. As he stared, she turned toward him and gave a start, a look of surprise quickly passing over her face before she resumed her beautiful perfection. This was the woman he had been searching for.

Bio:

Sheri Velarde, who sometimes uses the pen name Kelly Ryan, lives in New Mexico and grew up with a fascination for all things that "go bump in the night", so it is no wonder that she turned to writing paranormal romance. In her spare time, she fancies herself a cryptozoologist and loves to paranormal related outings, searching for things that might not really exist. She is an avid exerciser and gets some of her best ideas while on runs. She also has a bit of a wild side, which only leads to inspiration for her writing.

Being an avid reader since an early age, she has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She has been writing all her life, but only recently started to actually try to pursue her dream of writing for a living.

She is constantly putting out new material, so it is best to keep up with her on her website.

Kelly/Sheri is a multi-published author; you can keep up to date with all things Kelly Ryan/Sheri Velarde at: www.sherivelarde.weebly.com or on Facebook at Sheri Velarde/Kelly Ryan.