We’re back for another stimulating and mildly inappropriate round of author interviews! This time, I’m welcoming Sheri Velarde – she’s a fellow author at Breathless Press, and also works with Secret Cravings Press. In addition to that, she’s an artist, jewelry-maker, rocker, and all-around badass. Today, I’m going to probe her mind in a variety of ways and hope that she doesn’t complain to our publisher afterward.
Welcome to my blog! First things first…Your real name is Sheri Velarde…or is it Kelly Ryan? WHO ARE YOU?!
Both! I originally took the name Kelly Ryan so that my grandmother didn’t accidently read my books and then read too much into the sex scenes. Even before she passed though I decided to let Sheri come out and play as well. Now mostly it just helps keep my sanity to have different names with my two different publishers.
I’ve always wondered if maintaining multiple identities qualifies us writers as insane. Anyway, you’re a self-identified paranormal writer. Most of our audience knows that I’m a pretty boring vanilla contemporary author, so I have to ask, what does that feel like?
I don’t think that writing anything is boring, writing is fun! I chose to start out writing paranormal romance because that is what I liked to read best and thought I might be good at it. Only difference being a paranormal writer is adding some extra bumps in the night. And the research can be pretty fun!
How do your paranormal ideas occur to you?
Mostly just in my own mind from years of reading about vampires, shifters and the like. Plus I am from the US southwest, which is a hotbed of paranormal myths and legends. Everything from ghosts, to skin walkers to aliens are said to have been here in New Mexico.
SKIN WALKERS – creepy! Have you ever had something actually paranormal happen to you in real life?
I have witnessed some unexplained events happen on tours of reported haunted places. I work in an area of Albuquerque that is pretty haunted, half the buildings in our Old Town are supposed to have ghosts and I have heard and seen some things move or what not that cannot be explained. I have also had some friends who truly believe in the skin walkers here in this area.
You’ve written non-paranormal pieces before, such as Lust, Sex and Tattoos from Secret Cravings Publishing, and your most recent Flirt from Breathless Press, Taking Pleasure Where You Can. What do you enjoy about non-paranormal writing?
I think it’s good to get out of my comfort zone. I mean every story can’t be about vampires and shifters. Well they could, but I wanted to explore other areas of romance and flex my writing muscles so to speak.
Taking Pleasure Where You Can is actually a historical piece set around World War II. Historical Romance is another genre I’ve never even attempted to broach. What was your favorite part about writing in the era of WWII? And what was the hardest part?
I loved doing the research for a historical piece. History fascinates me and I plan on doing more historical pieces in the future. My grandfather was in WWII so I loved learning more about that time and what he went through. That also made this a hard piece to write as I wanted to do the men and women who lives through this time justice. I wanted to be accurate and make my characters feel real, like people my grandfather would have known. That was a daunting task.
Speaking of daunting tasks, you write every single day, producing at least a novella a month. WOW. Sometimes I feel like I’m lucky if I write once a week. Can you give us a sneak peak of what your daily schedule looks like?
Well as I just signed up to go back to school, this is going to change. I still plan to write at least an hour a day though, probably in the evening. So my schedule is completely going to change, but here is my current one:
In the mornings I post blogs and do promoting. If I have to work the day job (which is 3-5 days a week and always on the weekends) I go to work. I try to read and keep up with stuff on my lunch hour. Then home to work until my fiancé gets off. Then some us time. If I don’t have to work, I still do my blogging and such in the morning. Run errands, exercise, cook a late lunch and then start writing around 4-7. Then cook dinner and maybe write a few more hours. I write better at night. So when I go back to school I have already blocked off 9-10 pm for writing. It will probably knock my production back to a project every 2-3 months, but that’s pretty respectable I think.
Respectable, INDEED! Not to mention enviable. Now, onto something completely different. Some of our readers might not know this, but you and I share something in common: JEWELRY-MAKING. I sold hemp jewelry for four years at my local farmer’s market, as well as chocolate chip cookie and sparse produce from my home garden. What do you sell and where?
I like to work a lot with jump rings and smaller beads. I make necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I also paint very cutesy paintings and write and draw my own mini comic books. I usually get tables at local comic cons to sell all of the above, though I recently started my own etsy store for those in between times when there are no comic cons. I am thinking of doing some other shows, but right now it’s primarily comic cons. I’m really just a huge nerd who loves going to them!
That is ridiculously awesome! I would visit you at a comic-con if I ever knew where one was. Now, it’s time for RAPID-FIRE CHOICES! Here we go:
Multi-color or Gray? Multi-color
Wooden swinging chair or trendy chaise lounge? Chaise lounge
Burritos or Pad Thai? Pad Thai (which is funny for a girl from New Mexico! Lol)
Erotic Romance or Erotica? Erotic Romance
M/M or M/M/F? Both? With some F/F thrown in for fun? [Ember’s Note: EXCELLENT RESPONSE]
Spanking or Gagging? Spanking
Queen or Slayer? Slayer
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK ROMANCE TITLE GAME! I’ll start off a potential title, you make the rest!
Steps to My Heart
When the Pain Left, I Began to Live Again
Coming on Fast
Rules For Seduction
Inner Turmoil, Outer Calm
This was fun, wasn’t it SheriKellyRyanVelarde? Thanks for dropping by – it was an honor to have you on my blog today, and keep pumping out those words! You are an inspiration!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 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 cyrptozoologist 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.
Check out her Facebook page here.
Find the Flirt Taking Pleasure Where You Can from Breathless Press here.
