Dawn's Reading Nook: Welcome author Kelly Ryan and a HUGE GIVEAWAY

Please give a warm welcome to author Kelly Ryan and check out her newest book, Descending Into Madness, an Alice in Wonderland themed story for Breathless Press's August Birthday! And don't forget to enter their huge giveaway at the end of the post.

Now let's talk to Kelly and see what I had to ask her....

Can you please tell us about your latest/upcoming book(s)?

Descending Into Madness is a new take on the Alice in Wonderland story. But here Alice is all grown up and trying to adapt to living in a new reality after spending years locked in an asylum. Luckily Jon, her boss at the hat shop is there to help through it all.

How did you come with the idea for this story?

Well my publisher, Breathless Press, is having a whole celebration in August for their 5^th birthday and a collection of Wonderland themed stories are the centrepiece of the whole month, so naturally I wanted to give it a try and be part of it all. So the basic idea of Alice in Wonderland was already presented to me. I took the characters that I identify with the most, the Mad Hatter and Alice, and wove the story from there.

Who is your ultimate "book boy/girlfriend"? You know, that hottie you read about and drool over.

Aragorn aka Strider from Lord of the Rings. I always loved him. He was a gentle and reluctant hero. And after the movies came out with Viggo Mortenson, well the crush only deepened. How good was he in those movies? That was the Aragorn I fell for in the books.

Who is your Celebrity crush? And what would you do if you ever meet them?

Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston are my big celebrity crushes of late. I'd probably just talk their ears off about nerdy things if I met them. And I would definitely ask to get a pick with them so I could relive the moment over and over. And I think it would be fun to have them do the voicemail message on my phone. How cool would that be?

If you could collaborate with another author on a secret project, who would you pick to work with and why?

Well I have two choices. One if they could be living or dead, would be J.R.R. Tolkien. I have always loved the depth of his writing and I just feel that I could learn so much from him and his use of language.

If I am limited to living authors, I would say Stephen King. Another author that I love to read. I would like to learn from him, see what makes him tick as a writer and try to scrape a little of his knack for success off on me ;)

Now check out Descending Into Madness....

One moment Alice is locked up, her life over. Next she's in a new and confusing, yet wonderful world with her life just beginning.

Alice had always been different and for that she had been locked away and called crazy since she was a child. Just when she thinks that her life is over something wonderful happens. She enters a whole new world and discovers that this is where she has always been meant to be and she truly begins to live.

Teaser:

Pete had been right about at least one thing—the Crazy Fun Hat Shop was not something that anyone could miss. On a street full of other non-descript businesses, it looked like a circus had exploded in the middle of the street. Bright colors everywhere, and the store windows filled with some of the most magnificent hats she had ever seen. People were leaving with hatboxes under their arms as she saw more entering the shop. She better get in there and help. Mind problems or not, she should do her job.

As she hurried into the store, she was overwhelmed by the chaos of color that assaulted her eyes, yet she found it to be the most beautiful place she had ever seen in any dream or dimension. She was about to try on a beautiful feather concoction, when a frantic masculine voice called out from behind her, "Alice! Thank god! I am swamped! It's the week before the Kentucky Derby! You know that is the busiest time of year here! Hurry, get over here and check these customers out. There will be enough time for dress up later."

When she turned towards the voice that she knew to belong to Jon, her boss, she stopped dead in her tracks again. This time frozen by the sight of the handsomest man whom she could recall seeing anywhere standing behind the counter looking frazzled. His longish brown hair was all amiss, as if he had forgotten to comb it when he got up. His chocolate brown eyes were wide and slightly crazed, and his strong jaw was set and tense. She rushed toward him, remembering him a little, and knowing he was always kind to her. Once the customers were gone, she knew he would help her with the memory problem.

"Alice, thank the gods you finally made it! All these customers and I still have special orders to finish! Are you feeling all right? You've never been late before. I was frightened when I called Pete to check on you!" He said all of this in frantic fashion.

Meanwhile, Alice's breath caught in her throat as he gave her a quick hug. She scented a whiff of sweat. He smelled like a man, and the closeness to his toned body made her feel faint. She shook her head, knowing she needed to pull herself together and work—and figure out what was going on with her memory. She should definitely not be fantasizing about her boss.

Available at Publisher in many formats.
Author Bio:

Sheri Velarde, who also 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. She has recently been branching out into other genres of romance, including historical and contemporary, but her heart still lies in the realms of paranormal.

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, on her facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheri-VelardeKelly-Ryan and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sher_V.