In the beginning (Please welcome guest, Inez Kelley, author at Carina Press)

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IN THE BEGINNING…




Salome at Sunrise was never intended to be written. The story, I thought, ended with Myla by Moonlight. But those characters, they linger, whispering in your ear and prodding to you tell their tale.

When I finally gave in and decided to write Bryton’s story, something bothered me. He’d whispered he was a widower and that he could never love another. So I wondered who his heroine was. Salome burst into my mind in full living color, completely formed and individual. The first scene that appeared to me was breathtaking. It had this tremendous mountain vista, a dazzling sunrise that bled reds and oranges across a violet sky and a woman with tears shimmering in her eyes.

This scene is in the story SALOME AT SUNRISE, not in the beginning but about halfway through. Back in the beginning, I didn’t know who she was or why she was sad. Now I do. Can I show you what Salome shared with me?

“Kat was promised to another man. He died in battle before they could marry.”

There was no anger or disappointment in his tone, just simple acceptance. The blanket edge slipped and she tugged it higher to her chest, the move hiding her spinning thoughts. “Did it bother you she had a lover before you?”

“It would’ve bothered me a hell of lot more if she’d had a lover after me.” His indignation pushed against the damp air with swift heat. She stiffened and his hands gripped tighter. “Sorry. No, it didn’t bother me. How could I judge her when I was no innocent myself? We were a good match, she and I. We understood each other. We loved each other.”

Cottony fog clung to the ground, swirled around the trees and wrapped the last breaths of night in softness. Salome let her gaze drift to the shifting skies. The sun rose beyond the mountain ridge, spilling pale gold light into the fading gray. Streaks of red lined the sky, birthing blood of a new day. She drew the cool air deep into her lungs and relished the crisp tingle. Every muscle in her temporal human body cramped from her position but her heart rejoiced holding him, being held.

Her joy was tainted by his wife’s memory. Katina was everything she could never be to him. Mother to his child, companion for his life, music for his heart. Human. Salt swam across her vision and blurred the sunrise. The day was born beneath the shimmer of her tears.



You tell me, could you have left that story untold? I couldn’t. I didn’t.

Salome at Sunrise

June 21st from Carina Press.

~Inez Kelley

http://inezkelley.com/