Author of the suspenseful, paranormal romances in my Stranger Creatures series. Also writing poetry, science fiction, and fiction. Sharing info about new book releases by different authors, poems, contests, and more
Image description – a photo of part of a forest that has been destroyed in preparation for a building project that will overtake land once filled by old trees and streams. A piece of destruction equipment sits behind a path in a wooded area that has been cleared of trees.
At the moment, nowhere feels safe from the imminent threat of data centers and overdevelopment. Beautiful, old trees and creeks and streams are being destroyed at an alarming rate to make way for things corporate overlords are trying to convince us that we need. City and county planners know that people don’t want these monstrosities but somehow, approval gets pushed through. Money has a lot to do with that process, I’m sure.
Money and greed play a large role in overdevelopment of land without proper infrastructure to withstand all the new homes and businesses. The money, though, is something most of us will never see. We work and pay taxes, and yet, those in political power seem determined to keep the majority of the money paid into the system for themselves. They toss the majority of us mere scraps and tell us to work harder, blaming us for their hoarding of resources that should have been shared. Sharing money was the original agreement, the promise, after all.
Taxes were meant to be shared for things that benefit us all. Data centers are the personification of greed and hoarding behavior. The centers collect our personal data, to be utilized in ways that maximize profits for the corporate overlords. The centers drink massive amounts of water and drain the power grid, offering us common people nothing in return, and yet, the hideous warehouses are multiplying everywhere, because the uber wealthy benefit from these monstrosities.
The monoliths that seek to box people into a perimeter of ever-dwindling opportunity must fall to make way for a system that benefits the land and allows people to thrive instead of living under the constant threat of manufactured scarcity.
Hawk’s Heart (Stranger Creatures book 5) is finally finished! I had a couple of unexpected health issues, followed by some unexpected inspiration for a couple of short dystopian science fiction stories, as well as a ton of poetry, but I’m happy to say Hawk’s Heart is with my publisher and editor now, and will be available soon!
About Hawk’s Heart:
Interior designer and empathic psy, Jordan Hayes, is overworked and stressed out. With her best friend and business partner, Val, away on her honeymoon and their office manager out on medical leave, work is piling up into a nearly unmanageable mess. Even worse, her ex is blackmailing her with a cryptic threat about exposing the fact that she’s an empathic psy. Jordan has never met anyone with abilities like hers until she crosses paths with a sexy, scarred, and seemingly cold-hearted man who is intent on bursting her bubble of safety.
Nobody’s ever accused empathic psy and hawk shifter, Luke Daniels, of being a cinnamon roll but he’s not as cold and mean as he appears. Life has made him guarded, but when he meets interior designer Jordan, he falls fast and hard for the kind, beautiful psy. But would she ever want a guy like him?
An entrepreneur attempting to create an indestructible empire of greed has his sights set on Jordan, convinced she’s an easy target. Jordan and Luke will have to put everything on the line to survive and save the lives of dozens of captives. Will the bond growing between the two of them get severed or will they win the fight against everyone and everything standing in their way?
Short excerpt:
Luke was a rare hawk shifter, which came with an unusual capability. People in the shifter community seemed to look upon shifters who could become something in between shifter and human with a mixture of fear, awe, and mistrust. Would Jordan be afraid of him? Would she even want him knowing who he was and what he could become? For more than a few nights?
For reasons he couldn’t explain, he didn’t want to jump into an arrangement where he and Jordan both had a little fun and agreed to walk away. He didn’t know if he could walk away from her. And that was a problem.
Hawk’s Heart will be available soon, but in the meantime, you can get caught up on the rest of the series. The best part? Each book can stand alone because each story in my Stranger Creatures series features a different couple on their road to happily-ever-after.
Welcome to the town of Great Oaks, where the road to love is full of strange and wonderful surprises.
Wolf’s Challenge (Stranger Creatures book 1)
When Sydney left Seattle two years ago, she was scared, traumatized, and done with men for good. Now, she has a good job, a hobby that’s fast becoming a second career, and best of all, she’s adopted a little girl named Angel. Life is good and Sydney’s not about to let charming lawyer Derrick mess that up, no matter how sexy he is, or how sweet he seems.
Things aren’t always as they appear in the town of Great Oaks, Virginia. Derrick isn’t the ladies’ man Sydney thinks he is, but he does have a few secrets, such as his ability to transform into a powerful wolf at will.
Can Derrick convince Sydney to give him a chance, something more than her elusive maybe? More importantly, should he? He’s still trying to forgive himself for being at the wheel during the accident that killed his son.
A troubled woman running from her guilty conscience has Sydney and Derrick in her crosshairs, and she’ll do whatever it takes to win her game. Will Sydney and Derrick survive long enough to be together?
Excerpt:
“We’ll meet soon to discuss progress.” The rich, deep tone of his voice filled the room and surrounded her like a favorite song. He looked straight at her. His bloodshot, blue-gray eyes were unlike any color she had ever mixed with her watercolors or oil paints. While she was trying to decide which shades of gray she could mix with the blue, Derrick had finished talking. She’d been in Sydneyland, mixing paint colors and listening to the timbre of his voice like it was a background song.
“Uh, what? Sorry.” Her cheeks got hot at being caught not paying attention, though he would never need to know why her mind had drifted.
He laughed, the sound beautiful and…kind of rusty. “We’ll plan on meeting up again soon to discuss progress,” he told her.
Meet? Soon? The man made her break out into a sweat when she had to talk with him. She liked him, didn’t want to like him, and hated making small talk with people she didn’t know well. Ignoring him when they were running would be simple, but business meetings were different, especially if they weren’t as mercifully short as the one she’d just endured. Sydney chided herself for being so silly. Derrick was merely a ridiculously attractive man with whom she would be meeting about purely professional matters. Why couldn’t she make herself feel like it was no big deal? Why did the universe want to make things difficult? Can’t anything ever be easy?
She nodded and politely showed him the door.
“It was nice to see you again, Sydney.” His voice made her knees weak. Clearly, something was wrong with her. They could handle business by e-mail. She could send him files. Yet, she wanted to hear the sound of his voice again. Soon.
Bear’s Edge (book 2):
A boss can’t date her employee—simple as that. No matter how much Shayla wants to unravel a few of Grant’s mysteries and take her friendship with the shy, sarcastic man to the next level, she’s determined to keep her fantasies of him to herself.
After bear shifter Grant lost his girlfriend and three best friends in a fire, he did his best to shut himself off from everyone around him. Falling for Shayla wasn’t part of his plan, but after a kiss that leaves them both speechless and hungry for more, Grant can’t keep his desire for his boss under wraps any longer.
When things between the two of them get hotter than he could have imagined, Grant wonders if some of his darker desires will be too much for Shayla or will she embrace the needs he’s kept hidden for so long?
An obnoxious reporter and Shayla’s bitter ex have teamed up to chase down conspiracy theories that could destroy Shayla’s business and worse, put her life in danger. To find their happily ever after, Shayla and Grant will have to trust in each other and find a way to crush all the obstacles standing in their way.
Excerpt:
What is it about Grant? Looking at the man beside her was no hardship; that was for damn sure. He had the tall, broad body of a heavyweight UFC fighter, but he never used his size to intimidate the people around him. Shayla wanted to sweep his wavy, slightly shaggy dark hair out of his gorgeous brown eyes. His dark hair and eyes complemented his bronze skin. He was hot, in a serious, dangerous kind of way. But in the two and a half years he had worked for her, she had hardly learned anything about him.
The waitress at the popular nature-themed restaurant, the Greenhouse Effect, showed them to their table. The plants growing around all the walls and columns made the place look like a wild garden. The smell of lavender and jasmine mixed with the delicious scents drifting from the kitchen. She tried not to drool, but breakfast seemed like eons ago. Shayla sat next to Sydney and across from Grant. A too-tall centerpiece of yellow-and-purple flowers blocked most of her view. Being short occasionally sucked. Grant moved the centerpiece to the side and gave her a shy smile. His smile made her want answers, among other things.
Grant the mystery man—a delicious mystery Shayla would like to unravel, piece by piece, layer by layer. Ah, but I can’t. I’m his boss. In a different lifetime, if we didn’t have the whole boss-employee obstacle going on…. No harm in looking, though, just a little, since he sat so close. She promised herself to keep her thoughts G-rated—okay, maybe PG-13. Grant had a talent with numbers and paid attention to detail. Also, he was a little shy and standoffish to a lot of people when it came to anything other than work. Shayla wondered where he sometimes went in his head, because, every now and then, his smile slipped from his face, just for a second, before being replaced with one a little harder. None of my business, she reminded herself.
She had really wanted to hug him this morning after seeing him so frustrated but decided it might be wiser and more appropriate to show him there were a few people on his side. Seeing him break things and try to be all strong and humorous about it made Shayla want to unravel the Grant mystery even more. It kind of hurt to watch him pretending to be fine, but all she could offer him was lunch and good conversation. Hopefully, Mr. Strong and Silent—Sydney called him that sometimes, although never to his face—knew Shayla and Sydney cared. And Shayla did care. Because he’s a friend. Just a friend.
Grant raised his soda in a toast. “To things not being worse,” he announced with a rueful half smile. “And, uh”—he cleared his throat—“to good company.” He nodded at Sydney, and when he met Shayla’s gaze, he held it. In his dark eyes, she saw hunger, wide-open desire, and about a million other things she couldn’t puzzle out. Grant looked at her that way sometimes, and she did her best to ignore it. He might have a small crush on her, or he could have a thing for petite, small-breasted girls possessing a great fashion sense.
Shayla forced a smile as they toasted, pretending she wasn’t experiencing several different kinds of inappropriate thoughts and feelings for a sexy, complicated man who was her employee and also her friend. She needed to behave and remember things could never go any further than a panty-melting gaze.
Tiger’s Last Chance (book 3):
An investigation into missing shifters leads Detective Nikki Jackson to the discovery of a radical political group’s horrifying plot for dominance. Traitors are embedded within the very organizations meant to keep shifters safe. As the list of people she can trust dwindles, she calls on private investigator Sean Whitman to help her unravel a web of deceit.
As Nikki and Sean fight for survival, his fear of losing her could become a reality. Will he get one last chance to show her he loves her?
Excerpt:
For the briefest moment, Nikki felt the depth to which Sean might be capable of pushing her. His kiss was crushing and brutal. His tongue pushed past her lips and his grip in her hair tightened. If desire were a vine, it would have wrapped itself around her veins and encased her heart. The heat between them flooded her. There was a sweetness, too, in his kiss, and the sweetness made her burn hotter.
A polite cough from inside the waiting car put a quick end to things. Sean pulled away and met her gaze. No words, but she got the message. She wasn’t alone. Comfort and friendship; he’d probably meant the kiss to comfort her and had gotten carried away in the heat of the moment. He’d carried her away with him, and she wanted to take him so much further into the unknown.
With each second, each step towards the waiting car, she tried to find reasons and more reasons to ignore her growing attraction to Sean. The number one reason to forget about the kiss they’d shared—relationships were trouble. She had plenty of other amazing things in her life, including her career, her volunteer work, and her band, even though the band rarely played anywhere because the members had trouble aligning their schedules. She didn’t need a man. Besides, he was probably still messed up over Sydney. Also, he was a regular. Or mostly regular. Not to mention he lived over a thousand miles away in Texas. She should tell him the kiss was a mistake. One look at him and she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. The kiss they shared had been anything but a mistake.
Coyote’s Vow (book 4):
A brutal experiment left Kylie Claremont with telekinetic abilities and she wants answers. The position she’s offered as a liaison between Shifters United and the Psy Guild will give her the chance to find the elusive research company that disappeared after experimenting on her. The only thing standing in her way is an arrogant coyote shifter who is convinced that Kylie is a threat to shifters. She never expected to fall for the gruff, mistrusting man.
Coyote shifter Trevor Ryland will never trust the psy. Still, he knows the time has come to strengthen the tentative alliance between shifters and psy. He fully intends to ignore his attraction to the beautiful psy liaison, but he’d never forgive himself if something happened to her. His plan to protect Kylie from afar is wrecked when they’re forced to work together. She could be his mate but Trevor can’t let that happen. The struggle to deny his need for the one woman with the power to destroy him gets harder every day.
Trevor and Kylie uncover a web of greed and deceit during their search for a travelling research group. They’ll have to work fast and fight hard to stop the CEO’s latest plans or shifters and psy everywhere will suffer.
Excerpt:
Kylie’s strength and fire as well as her obvious intelligence appealed to Trevor on a level he couldn’t describe. I can’t be with her. His reminder to himself lacked certainty. As soon as his time watching out for her came to an end, he’d get her out of his mind. Until then, how hard could it be to ignore his attraction to her? He was strong. He’d been on countless dangerous missions for the Shifter Enforcement Army and Shifters United. He’d been injured, lost team members, been down roads of grief and sadness that seemed to have no end, but he’d survived. A pretty woman with a smart mouth and intensely beautiful brown eyes wouldn’t be his downfall. He could handle occasionally working with Kylie. He could handle having a massive crush on her and he could ignore the fantasies of her that liked to invade his dreams. He would be fine. Everything would be fine.
You can visit my amazon author page for buy links and to learn more about the books in my Stranger Creatures series and my Haven Forest Resort series. Both series are also available at other e-book sellers like Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iBooks, Google Books, and Kobo.
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The marketing director for the department of Everything is Fine
cuts out the disconnected, the supposed blight
Anything and anyone that deviates from the flavorless version of their ideal
must be eliminated from the glossy brochures that assure
shareholders along with obedient pitchfork and torch raisers
that the conditions under the rule
of the United Corporations are great and getting greater
Newscasters for the grifting enterprise
smile and take the bribes
They tell us to be quiet about the violence
but silence is a slow death
and being cooked alive on the low setting is no longer enough of a reason
to keep on being
an ant
marching to the tune of a song called “comply or die”
Time for the pieces to connect into a picture that can’t be denied
The song changes
The wind carries our words
and shifts the tides
A broken toilet, disconnected from the plumbing system and separated from any place it could be useful, is forced to occupy a space where people passing by become angry that the scenery is marred, yet nobody moves it- because we can’t be late to work, because we don’t have the right equipment to lift and move something so heavy, because alone, we don’t have the resources to fix the problem.
The current system was designed to be an obstacle to any type of progress that doesn’t benefit the wealthy donors who have purchased politicians’ favor. This system is only workable when we are merely individuals, trying to exist and endure, but when we step together and organize, we become something the system of oppression can’t survive
Discover exciting books in several romance genres, including contemporary, romantasy, paranormal, historical, and more, in C.L. Cannon’s Romance Book Fair!
Go to https://fictionatlas.com/romancefair/ and enter for your chance to win a Kindle Fire, a One More Chapter mug, and a one-month Audible gift card. The book fair is open from September 14 through November 3rd, 2025.
I’m so excited for my steamy paranormal romance, Coyote’s Vow, to be a part of N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Beach Reads Bookish Event. Open Internationally. Runs July 17 – July 31, 2025. Winner will be drawn on August 1, 2025. Check out all the wonderful books by some fantastic authors and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card:
I’m thrilled to have The Wind is the Only Thing (a collection of four poems) featured in the anthology, The Heart of Us. This anthology is a collection of poems and stories by women and mothers about the joys, pain, and revelations of love. To love takes strength and courage, and the journey makes us who we are.
Image description – image is a pale pink graphic. On the right is the book cover for The Heart of Us. It features the outline of a woman’s face. Her hair is created by love-related words and a rose graphic. On the left side are the words “as women, mothers, and storytellers, we live from the heart, and it shows in every word we share. These pages hold our joy and our sorrow, our victories and defeats, our laughter and our tears. Each piece is a reflection of what it means to live, feel, and grow with heart. This is the heart of us.”
The Heart of Us- a moms who write anthology is available on Amazon and all proceeds go to the American Heart Association.
Keep reading for the two possible endings to this poem
Ending 1 –
Past the threshold
no trail awaits
The stars can’t breach the canopy of leaves
A chorus of vines wrap around me
I’m a present for everything that stings
Venom lessons leach into blood, muscle, and bone,
Wolves wait and rabbits
scream
Over the crickets’ wicked laugh
I hear the stream
whispering
that the forest doesn’t go on forever
The music is gone
so I write my own
Ending 2-
When I cross the threshold
leaves swallow me, doing their best to hide me
from things that steal and sting
Whisper of the stream
guides me
off the path
through briars that cut into my leaves
piercing muscle, clawing at hope
but the sound still calls
I hide from spiders and walk with snakes
through the rain
over places where the earth
split
Stars and fireflies stay true
And the night’s butterfly takes me through the last miles
to the heart
the symphony
the beginning
of everything
Image description – a photo of somewhat barren trees at the edge of a forest. The sky is overcast, and a layer of fog gives the trees a hazy appearance.
Why two endings for the poem?
After I wrote the beginning of the poem, I started thinking of two possible endings- one more sinister and one with a more joyous outcome. I remembered reading those Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid and thought, why not have two endings to this poem?
A song, a promise, a path- hidden except for the first few steps- could be a trap, waiting to ensnare any who dare to enter. Will the price to move past the trees be cuts so deep that souls and bones need to be pulled back together with a needle and thread? Or is the hint of the hauntingly beautiful song a prelude to something wonderful?
The threads binding our souls and bones remember the agony of past lessons, yet the stitches come alive with curiosity. In stillness we dissolve. Beyond the tree line, we find reasons.
drank the corporate-issued devotion-to-policy brew
or chose a regular cup of coffee and steeled themselves to slog through
another day of being under the eye and thumb of
cameras and software packages designed to report
each word
each keystroke
to measure productivity, to predict loyalty
to the almighty company
Corporate mission statements decorate walls and computer screens
Remember:
Positive attitudes only
Daily emails politely warn
that questions come with a penalty
When bodies drop under the weight of unattainable goals
and crack like stones
No blood left to squeeze
The boss with the broom sweeps the old dust out
so the doors can welcome in
younger faces ready to bleed for a company
that will demand the impossible
then sweep away the broken pieces
with a broom
Image description – photograph of high-rise businesses overlooking a rocky section of the James River
About the poem:
As rights for workers and conditions for workplace safety continue to erode, the reality hits hard that lawmakers are not coming to help workers. Nobody in politics is coming to provide actually legislative help because their pockets are being lined for staying silent. Since nobody in power is coming to help, it’s up to us to set a precedent, to draw lines, to set limits, and to be loud and obnoxious when we can if subtle strategies and quiet subterfuge fails. Otherwise, the spineless, manipulative, ass-kissers who have sold their souls for the privilege of serving their corporate overlords will continue to perpetrate wage theft, require unattainable goals, tout unrealistic expectations, discriminate both overtly and covertly, and cause unsafe and/or inhumane working conditions.
Christina Lynn Lambert 