FEARLESS FRIDAY
Please join me in welcoming Valerie Ullmer. She fearlessly dove into a writing career. Read her story.
In 2010,
after working for close to twenty years in various office jobs that I hated or
bored me to death, I was laid off. Of
course, at first you freak out because you have just lost your job, and I was
no different. I couldn’t stop thinking
about what I was supposed to do.
But an
idea kept playing over and over in my head.
Since my early twenties, the idea of becoming a writer appealed to me. There are a lot of writing resources, but
back when I was first thinking about it, there seemed to be rules upon rules
upon rules that made me think that writing was formulaic and not natural or
creative.
And then I
came across advice that I understood and perfectly from the moment I heard
it. In order to learn how to write…you
write. You just write.
From that
moment on, I realized the only way I could write a book was to write a
book. And the first one was horrendous,
but I got through it and loved every moment of it and it encouraged me to try
again. I did study structure and
character arcs as I went, but writing everything from writing prompts to short
stories and working my way up to novels was the greatest teacher I could have
ever had.
Being laid
off was the greatest thing that ever happened to me and it taught me that
sometimes, life has something different planned for you.
My newest
release, Fall for You, will be released in the boxed set, All You Need is Love,
available now.
Blurb
Ethan Sutton had come to the stunning revelation that he’d fallen
in love with his best friend, Sebastian Young. Although friends
since childhood, Ethan vowed to keep his feelings for Sebastian under wraps and
live the rest of his life with this one secret between them rather than risk a
lifelong connection and never see him again. But when they move into
their own apartment at the start of their third year of college, can Ethan keep
his feelings from showing when they live so close together?
Sebastian Young had an epiphany about Ethan at the end of last
year and arranged for the shared apartment he’d found over the summer to be
closer to Ethan and see if a relationship could develop between
them. But as they settle into their lives in a new place with such
close quarters, ex-girlfriends, nosy downstairs neighbors, and Sebastian’s own
doubts, their relationship could be in jeopardy before it even begins.
Can two best friends admit their feelings and fall in love?
Ethan
realized falling in love with his best friend had been easy. Keeping his feelings a secret from Sebastian
as they move into a one-bedroom loft and deal with decisions from their past
might prove a bit more difficult.
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Excerpt
Sebastian
beamed at him and managed to quickly change the subject. “Ready to see our new place?”
Ethan
nodded. He felt a loss when Sebastian
squeezed his hand once before he let go.
Sebastian opened the driver’s side door and Ethan copied the movement on
his side, wondering if he would survive living in a space with Sebastian and be
able to keep his feelings locked down deep inside.
“Let’s
get our stuff after. I want you to see
it first.” Sebastian’s excitement made
Ethan smile.
Sebastian
reached for Ethan’s arm and led him to the side entrance of the modern building
Ethan hadn’t noticed before. Ethan was
surprised when Sebastian kept his warm hand on his arm, underneath his grey
tee, skin on skin. As Sebastian turned
to shoot him a smile of reassurance, walking backward toward the door, Ethan
couldn’t help but noticed how the blue of Sebastian’s tee brought out the hazel
of his eyes. Thinking that he might have
been staring a little too long, he glanced down and back up at Sebastian, who
still smiled at him.
Reaching
back to open the door, Sebastian moved his hand out of the way in time to avoid
the door that was pushed open from the inside.
Darting his gaze to the opened door, Ethan barely contained his groan
when he spotted the pretty blonde exiting the building.
Well,
it was good while it lasted.
She was
exactly Sebastian’s type. Blonde,
slender, and wearing a tight white tank and shorts. He knew Sebastian wouldn’t pass up the
opportunity to flirt with her.
Ethan
tried to pull his arm from Sebastian’s grip, wanting to go inside and avoid the
inevitable, but found himself trapped when she turned and smiled at
Sebastian. With a quick glance to see
what Ethan had been looking at, Sebastian turned back to Ethan and raised a
brow.
“Hi, I’m
Sarah.”
Ethan
was stunned silent when Sebastian gave her a quick nod in greeting and dragged
Ethan through the door and up the short flight of stairs. With one last glance behind him to make sure
Ethan hadn’t bolted, Sebastian unlocked the door to their flat.
“What?”
“That
was the first time I’ve witnessed you not flirt with a woman. And she was blonde.”
Sebastian
laughed and shook his head, opening the door.
“I’m partial to dark hair and olive skin.”
“Since
when?” Ethan blurted.
Sebastian’s
smile grew wider. He turned and walked
inside the flat, leaving Ethan to follow.
As if on
autopilot, Ethan walked in behind Sebastian, keeping his eyes on his wide
shoulders, waiting silently to see what he would say.
“After
Amber, and others that came before her, I realized that I needed some time
alone to think about who I want to be with.
I’ve figured out a lot of things after I quit serial dating.”
His
words, while doing nothing to clear up why he hadn’t flirted with Sarah
downstairs, struck him as sincere and completely serious. His heart beat hard and his hands went numb,
unable to stop his thoughts from presuming that Sebastian felt more for him
than friendship. And as quickly as
they’d come, he dismissed his crazy notions that Sebastian would fall in love
with him after all their years of friendship.
About
Valerie
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.
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