I know, troche I know, I know. I’ve been the absolute WORST blogger the past week and a half.

I’ve just been SO incredibly busy! Life has been getting crazy and I’m just trying to keep up as much as I possibly can. I’m working hard, spending time with my boyfriend and my friends, going to book events and most importantly: I’m trying to finish my novel.

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve written the first draft of a novel called The Awakened. It is a young adult science fiction, with a touch of romance. I was watching The Walking Dead one day when I was kind of sassy and said something along the lines of “Why didn’t they just nuke all the zombies?” Of course, that brought up so much and that sparked the interest for my novel. I finished it about a month ago and have been working as hard as I can to edit it and get it out to my beta readers! I’m hoping by the end of August, I’ll have a solid manuscript to shop around to agents.

That being said, editing is SO not fun. I cant’ wait to be a “real” author one day and have an editor to help me all the time. I’ve had my super awesome cousin helping me and she’s seriously been SO invaluable to me but god, it is a TON of work. Its frustrating, tiring, and sometimes I feel like I’m going to give up but I love this novel and I love to write and I’m determined.

So to apologize for the fact that I’ve just been massively MIA on this blog, I decided that I would share a little excerpt from my novel. First, lets get a synopsis going so you guys have a little background of what this novel is about:

Zoey Valentine is living a normal life in New York City. She reads, goes to baseball games with her dad, goes dancing with her best friend Madison and avoiding the bane of her existence and her next door neighbor, Ash. Then the virus hits, wiping out a third of the population. Everyone is scared, but it only gets worse when the bodies start disappearing and reappearing as the awakened. They’re like zombies, but smarter, quicker, meaner, and they are only focused on one thing: their hunger for human flesh. Now Zoey is on the run, away from New York City, hoping to find a place of safety, away from the virus and away from the monsters that are chasing her. 

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The part that I’m about to share is this: Zoey has been having nightmares, nightmares of the awakened. She wakes up one night and turns to the last person she ever expects to find solace in: Ash Matthews.

“Can you…” I squirmed uncontrollably, hardly believing what I was about to ask him. “Can you stay here, with me?”

 

His eyebrow raised in confusion. “I’m not going anywhere.” I didn’t answer, just lifted up the blanket and scooted over, not meeting his eyes. “Oh. Oh!” It had dawned on him, finally.

 

The next few seconds were like the longest seconds of my life. When I felt the bed sink down from his weight, and the warmth of his body under the covers with me, I felt like letting out a sigh of relief. I didn’t though, of course, just scooted down to lay down, my back to Ash. His hand crept across the blankets before meeting mine. I jerked back, before letting his fingers intertwine with mine. The sound of deep breaths met my ears a moment later, and I fell asleep, my hand clutched in Ash’s.

 

The next time I woke, it was morning, and I felt warm. No, I felt hot, stifling. I noted that the blanket was not wrapped around me but there was a solid presence against my back. I opened my eyes slowly, and looked over my shoulder, finding Ash pressed tight against me, his chest rising and falling with each breath. He didn’t move, except to wrap his arm tighter around my waist. His hand was still, impossibly, intertwined with mine. I traced circles in his palm with the pad of my thumb. I was afraid to move or breathe. I didn’t want to break the spell that was cast over the two of us, that made it okay for us to sleep like that.

 

I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, before I heard a hitch in his breathing and his grip loosened. I froze, and then slowly looked over my shoulder again. Ash’s eyes were open, drowsy with sleep. He yawned widely and then looked down at me, his hand rested gently on my hip. His eyes widened when he realized how close we were and he pulled away.

 

“Shit, sorry, Zoey,” he said, pulling his hand away from my bare hip. Why the hell did I sleep with in just a tank top and my underwear? Why didn’t I exercise more restraint while having St. Joseph’s star quarterback in my bed? “I didn’t mean to…”

 

“It’s fine,” I said, stiffly, pulling the blanket up over my legs. “Can you maybe just…get out of my bed? Please?”

 

He ran a hand through his messy hair and I saw the slight shadow along his chin and jawline. I suddenly had the urge to run my hands across it, to feel the roughness of his skin. I leaned forward, our faces so close. He looked surprised, his sleepy eyes wide. My hand lifted to his face, as if it had a mind of its own, and I found myself cupping his cheek in my palm. Ash was incredibly still, waiting to see what I would do.

 

My entire body was shaking, and I moved myself closer, pressing my lips tight against his before pulling back, shocked at my own movements. Ash watched me in shock, his breath coming out quickly before he darted forward and captured me back in a forceful kiss. I gasped, and fell backward, my arms out in a shield. “No, don’t…don’t do that,” I said, scrambling away from him.

 

Ash was still on the bed, his hair ruffled, and his eyes wide in surprise, his lips red from the pressure. “Zoey…”

 

“No, just don’t…” I said, grabbing shorts from a drawer and pulling them over my underwear. “Don’t kiss me.”

 

He sat back, rubbing his brow, looking perplexed. “Okay, I won’t kiss you.”

 

I was still trembling. “Good. Great.” I spun on my heel and practically ran out of the room, doing the best I could to hide my flaming face as I went.

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The fact that you guys have very little context in this passage makes me kind of happy and hopefully makes you guys excited to read this! Let me know what you think!