I’d like to welcome Valerie Ullmer, author of Unwrapped (An Unexpected Novella) to my blog today.
RW: Tell us about yourself, your family, where you
live, etc.
VU: I started writing
full-time in 2010 when I realized that writing was exactly what I wanted to do
with my life. I published my first book in July of 2016. I live with my husband
of 20 years and our black lab mix, Maddie, the love of our lives. We live in
Denver, Colorado.
RW: How many hours a day do you spend writing?
VU: I usually write 4-6
hours a day, but that includes outlining. I spend way too much time on the
internet and designing book covers, but I always go back to writing.
RW: Why did you decide to write? When did you
submit your first manuscript and what genre was it?
VU: I loved reading
romance from high school. And while I loved each book I read, I couldn’t help
but think about how I would have written it differently or changed the
characters a little bit here or there. I studied writing for several years
before I realized the best teacher is just to write. And that is what I did.
RW: Who are your favorite authors? Who influenced
your writing?
VU: My favorite authors
fluctuate. I started off with Harlequin romances but then moved to authors such
as Lori Foster and Gena Showalter. For the last couple of years, I’ve been
devouring M/M or the gay romance genre. I don’t have a favorite author, or even
favorite books. I love them all.
RW: Who are your favorite characters among the
books you’ve written?
VU: Although all my
characters are my favorite, I love one’s that I’ve written who have an inner
strength that comes out when they want to fight for something or someone they
love. Liv from my Dark Assassins series. Ara also.
RW: What makes a good book? A great romance? Is
humor important in fiction and why?
VU: Characters. Characters
make the book. I don’t have to like the character in the first few chapters and
I hate when they act out of, well, character, but I love characters who grow
and change as the story goes along.
RW: How much does reader feedback matter to you? Do
your fans’ comments and letters influence you in any way? Do you have a
favorite comment or question from a reader?
VU: I love when readers
contact me and let me know that they liked or hated the book. Constructive
criticism is wonderful, but it doesn’t influence how I write my books or what
the characters do in the story. When a reader tells me that they loved the
characters in a book, it makes my day.
RW: Tell us about your latest book. What motivated
the story? Where did the idea come from? What genre is it? Does it cross over
to other genres? If so, what are they?
VU: Unwrapped is a
novella following my first in the series, Unexpected. Jack and Adam have been
friends since college and while Adam has been open as bisexual since then, Jack
has dated exclusively women. When Jack confesses that he’s in love with Adam,
they try to build a life together. Unwrapped opens at a point in their
relationship where Jack is unable to come out and declare Adam as his partner
and he drives Adam away. As Jack works to build back the relationship he can’t
live without, he proves to himself and Adam that he can be out and happy with
Adam.
The idea came from the idea that not all
relationships, while wanting a HEA, are sometimes bumpy at the beginning. It is
a gay contemporary romance.
RW: What book for you has been the easiest to
write? The hardest? The most fun?
VU: Easiest was the
Unexpected book. The hardest was Xander (A Dark Assassins Book Three). I couldn’t
come up with a heroine who matched Xander and what he needed, but after months
of free writing, it finally came together.
RW: What is the single most important part of
writing for you?
VU: Conflict. If I don’t
have great conflict in a story, I have no story and I have to trash the idea.
Unwrapped
(An Unexpected Novella)
The Plot
Friends to lovers.
Jack does what he’s always
done to protect himself. He allows fear to take over and as a result, he pushes
Adam away. When Adam finally leaves, Jack understands that if he loves Adam as
much as he claims, he needs to change before Adam can risk his heart again.
Lovers to forever.
Adam understands why Jack’s
kept his feelings secret, but after being ignored one too many times, he leaves.
But Jack won’t give up and when he proves to Adam how much he wants their
relationship to work, can Adam risk his heart to the one man he’s loved all
over again?
How will Jack and Adam
find their happily-ever-after during the season of miracles?
An Excerpt:
Jack paused before
he asked the question that could break him.
“Do you…truly want
out of our relationship?”
He could hear Adam
breathing on the other line and held his own as he waited for Adam to answer. Jack
understood entirely in that moment what he’d put Adam through over the past few
months, probably the last few years. He would completely understand if Adam
didn’t want to continue being hurt. Jack’s own feelings aside, he would accept
Adam’s decision because if he felt he couldn’t continue with Jack, Jack would
let him go and wish him all the happiness in the world. Or he hoped he could.
“No, but it hurts
to be ignored.”
Jack breathed a
sigh of relief. He needed to change, or he would lose Adam.
“I’m going to make
it up to you. I want to prove to you I can change and by Christmas if you don’t
believe I have…then I’ll let you go.”
“Is that what you
want?”
“No. I can’t
imagine loving anyone but you. And while we’re apart, I’m going find a
therapist to work on my issues. There’s something holding me back from exactly
who I want to be and be with, and I need help to find out what that is.”
There was a choked
sound on the other line before Adam grew silent.
“I know I’m fucked
up and the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt you, but that’s exactly what I
did. I can’t get past my own mind, so I need some help. This time, I won’t take
you for granted.”
“Are you afraid to
admit your sexuality?”
“I suppose I am. Adam,
although it looked as though I slept with a lot of women, there’ve only been a
few. Mainly it was camouflage. But I felt like I found myself the first time I
kissed you. I knew then I was gay, and you are the only man I will ever want.”
Adam sighed. “You’re
being surprisingly open about this.”
“The moment I
heard the door shut and I realized you left… It was the worst moment of my
life. I could take seeing my father every day and listen to his bullshit, but I
never want to feel what I felt when you left. And knowing I drove you to leave
makes it worse. So much worse.”
Valerie Ullmer
Bio
Valerie writes paranormal
and contemporary M/F and M/M erotic romances. She lives in Denver, Colorado
with her wonderfully supportive husband and their funny and wise black lab. She’s
addicted to coffee, crime shows, and reading and writing character-driven romances.
Book
Links:
Contact
Valerie At:
Website
& Blog: http://www.valerieullmer.com
Amazon
Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/valerieullmer
Thank you for having me, Rochelle!!
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