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
Two of my poems (Lipstick and Four Pockets) will be featured in the Not Ghosts, but Spirits volume III anthology! This beautiful anthology was edited by Emily Perkovich and published by Querencia Press.
Not Ghosts, but Spirits v. III includes work by women, queer, trans, and nonbinary folx.
Image description: Image is of the Not Ghosts, but Spirits volume III book cover which features the top of a person’s head. The individual has long magenta hair, pretty false eyelashes, and lovely rainbow eyeshadow.
Steamy paranormal romance Coyote’s Vow (Stranger Creatures book 4) is on sale for $1.99 USD on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo through October 15, 2023! Each book in the series features a different couple in their fight for a happily-ever-after. Coyote’s Vow is Trevor and Kylie’s story.
Image Description: Image is of Coyote’s Vow book cover featuring a red headed man and a dark-haired woman embracing. They are surrounded by misty woods. There is a reddish-brown coyote at the mouth of the forest.
Blurb:
Kylie Claremont wants answers. She was the victim of a brutal experiment that caused her to develop telekinetic abilities. 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 and bring them to justice. The only thing standing in her way is an arrogant coyote shifter who is convinced that Kylie is a threat to shifters and shouldn’t be allowed to be a part of Shifters United. 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:
Who is she? Trevor tried not to stare at the woman sitting across from Shifters United President Matt Blackwell but damn, she was beautiful. Her long, black hair had a purple, glossy tint. Intricate tattoos wound around her arms and lower legs. He wanted to run his fingers along the ink lines of every single tattoo. Her skin looked so smooth and touchable. Bitable too. Nope. Not appropriate. Not at all. He forced his descending coyote fangs to recede.
Blackwell didn’t introduce Trevor to the mystery woman, though, and that sent his curiosity into caution mode. The purple-haired beauty gave him a wary look before glancing back down at the computer tablet in her hand. Right. Business. Trevor had obviously interrupted a meeting. He’d stopped by Matt Blackwell’s hotel room to drop off a folder full of intel and surveillance photos. He needed to find an excuse to stay and talk to the woman with lovely dark brown eyes.
“Thanks for taking care of the research,” Blackwell gave him a nod. “Set the info on my desk and I’ll take a look before the meeting tonight.”
Trevor walked past the mystery woman and set the folder full of information on the small desk beside the coffee table. He stole another, longer glance at the woman. Her nails were painted indigo blue. His favorite color. The tattoos winding around her arms seemed to be in motion, encircling her in their safety. Weird trick of the light. Had to be. He rubbed his eyes. Blinked. The tattoos went still. The woman smelled amazing, like wildflowers after the rain, but she didn’t smell like a shifter. Didn’t mean she wasn’t one.
Scent blockers made it easy for shifters to mask their unique scent, to a degree. The blockers also did a fairly good job at hiding other smells shifters could detect, like fear, desire, and rage. Even so, Trevor could almost always detect hints of the slightly rancid, faint garbage aroma of the blockers, no matter what brand or what home recipe a person used. Coyote shifters could pick up on smells most other shifters couldn’t.
What is the woman with the willowy tattoos? Was she a threat to Blackwell? Maybe a rabbit shifter? Rabbit shifters were the only animal shifters who carried no animal scent, but their eyes…. Not a specific color, just a look. Plus, they usually liked to flash their double rows of horrifying sharp teeth upon meeting other shifters. Just for a flex. The rabbits could be mean when bothered unnecessarily, but mostly, they were pretty decent. The woman caught him looking again and gave him a little half smile. Her pretty eyes with long, thick lashes were definitely not the strange eyes of a rabbit shifter.
“I’ll see you later, Trevor.” Blackwell gave him a pointed stare.
“You’re alright here?”
“I’m fine. I have Nathan,” Blackwell gestured to his giant assistant and body guard who was seated in a chair in the kitchenette, reading a book.
No code phrases were used, and Trevor didn’t detect any signs of distress from the mountain lion shifter or his bear shifter assistant. Trevor nodded. Apparently, Blackwell had no intention of introducing him to the woman sitting with him. Nathan, grinned at Trevor, like he knew something. Fine, Nathan could keep his secret. But Trevor would get information, one way or another.
A little more about the characters from Coyote’s Vow:
Trevor Ryland was a minor character in Wolf’s Challenge (Stranger Creatures book 1) and in Tiger’s Last Chance (Stranger Creatures book 3). The gruff coyote shifter really needed his own story.
Trevor has a cat named Chessie who likes to leave him gifts of half-eaten mice and birds under his pillow. Kylie has several tattoos. One of her favorites is of a tree with strange red flowers— a reminder of the tree that marked the beginning of a hiking trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains where she used to camp with her parents as a child. Most of Kylie’s tattoos are in color because colors feel like music to her.
Before I had the wild idea to write a book, I worked in a few different fields. I was in sales for a while, and after I finished college, I worked as a case manager. When my children were little, I was a personal trainer and running coach. During the evenings, when I was supposed to be studying for another fitness training certification, I started writing a story. Finally, I gave in and acknowledged that writing is what I’m meant to do. I love creating imperfect but determined characters who find the courage to love and the strength to survive in a world where there are no guarantees. My stories include a fair amount of sarcasm, suspense, steam, and violence. When I’m not writing, I enjoy spending time outside and finding ways to avoid cooking. I live in beautiful Virginia with my husband, two teenagers, a sweet, hairy monster of a dog, and two devious cats.
If you’d like to follow me on social media for my latest book information and excerpts, poems, contest info, book recommendations, and other fun stuff, you can find me at:
Image description – image is of a chain link fence which has shrubbery, trees, and some small violet flowers growing through the fence.
Fences tell lies about safety. They are built to hide the parts of life beyond a beautiful view that might not fit the aesthetic. Fences softly blunt the truth about how things keep going despite the desire to stop and stay in the moment. The metal walls give the impression that the things beyond are part of some other reality, and we’re either trapped outside or safely inside the place we want to be. The flowers and vines that grow through the links in the fence are the veins that connect the division.
Tia is there to remind him that even an alpha wolf’s broken spirit can heal.
Blurb:
I’m a powerful and respected Alpha, but the wolf Mette covets my leadership. I’m injured when my conniving enemy challenges me.
After losing my pack and nearly my life, I go to lick my wounds in the human world, but my beloved mate Tia knows that a wolf’s broken spirit can heal, and there is only one true leader of our pack.
Note: Caleb is a very short werewolf action romance story with a mild heat level, moderate violence, and a HEA. This Romantic Moments story is the perfect length for a lunch break, before bed, or any time you want a quick, romantic read.
Excerpt:
Reaching the village, Tia shouted to the nearest wolf to bring the healer.
Finally we made it to our cabin where I collapsed on our bed. Tia brought a cup of water and lifted my head to help me drink. Gazing at her, I realized how much I loved her and how much of a risk she’d taken by becoming my mate.
An aggressive howl echoed from the clearing near our cabin. This wasn’t just any howl, but one of challenge for leadership of our pack.
Tia’s horrified, furious gaze met mine and she whispered, “Mette.” Then she snarled through clenched teeth. “The coward!”
I’d only known real fear at one other time in my life—the day Tia and I had been attacked by hunters and she’d been lost. My fear now mingled with regret. I’d promised her a happy life, but we were about to lose it and there was nothing I could do about it.
Drawing a long breath, I painfully pushed myself to a sitting position.
“You don’t actually intend to fight him?” Tia demanded.
Kate Hill is a vegetarian New Englander who loves writing romantic fantasies. When she’s not working on her books, Kate enjoys reading, working out, watching horror movies, and researching vampires and Viking history. She runs the Compelling Beasts Blog that is dedicated to antagonists, antiheroes, and paranormal creatures. Kate also writes as Saloni Quinby.
Romance and romance novels have evolved tremendously in the past several decades. The choices are almost overwhelming. I can now read about shapeshifters, monsters, and aliens finding love and there are varying degrees of spice in available novels too. Women’s rights and romance novels have come a long way in the last hundred years and I can’t wait to see the progress we make in the next ten or twenty years.
The romance novels of my parents and grandparents’ generation were revolutionary at that time because they were written expressly for women and gave the female characters a major voice, something that was fairly lacking back then. Love and happy endings were the staples of the romance genre. Romance novels became a safe space for women to escape into since the reality of relationships was often one-sided— women were expected to listen and do as they were told and were required to play a lesser, supporting role to magnify and emotionally support their husbands. Romance books were looked at as frivolous nonsense by those who didn’t know any better, leaving women free to sneak away into moments of stolen peace to read tales of men who possessed masterful skills in the bedroom and treated the women they loved like queens.
Romance novels have evolved as women’s rights have evolved. In the United States and many other countries in western culture, there are no longer rules barring women from seeking education in any field we wish to study. Women can now manage our own finances, hold managerial positions at work, and even own and operate entire companies. Having a life partner is no longer a requirement to ensure our survival. In keeping with the changes to society, romance novel heroes and heroines have changed. Women are able to be an equal decision-making partner in a relationship and determine for ourselves what we want from a partner, both in the bedroom and in general.
I love creating heroines who discover their strength and resilience as they fight to withstand the devastating things life throws at them. My novels contain a ton of suspense, because I discovered how much fun it is to create twists and turns and terrifying situations where the characters must fight their way to safety. It’s a lot of fun making the characters work together when they are trying so hard to stay away from each other and fight their feelings.
Scary rabbits and other strange creatures:
When I was writing my first book a few years ago, my oldest daughter who was about ten at the time, was reading Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe. She loved the Bunnicula books so much that she asked me to write a scary rabbit into my series. So, for my daughter, I created the rabbit shifters which are viewed by the other shapeshifters with a mix of awe and fear.
The rabbit shifters can appear as harmless rabbits but they can also morph into bony fur-covered skeleton looking creatures with teeth like a bear trap and fur full of projectile needles. Though the rabbit shifters look scary, they’re usually pretty decent people. They don’t like to be touched by anyone while in rabbit form and won’t hesitate to get mean about it. They also like to play pranks. They are the deadliest of all kinds of shapeshifters and usually use their skills to protect shifters and regular humans. In their rabbit form, rabbit shifters are incredibly vulnerable but become a deadly force to be reckoned with when they shift into their secondary, more terrifying form. Sometimes we all have to be a little scary or loud in order to be heard and our fierceness can take people by surprise.
For my Stranger Creatures series and Haven Forest Resort series, the other shapeshifters I created were predatory animals like bears, wolves, and tigers. Instead of the typical structure of a pack with an alpha and all others being bound to follow one specific leader and submit to the his will, I wrote the shifters in my stories as having no hierarchical structure. The alpha or pack leader of each group is usually an older woman who provides guidance and advice as well as some tough love when necessary.
An important part of being a shapeshifter in the worlds I created is taking care of the environment since the shifters need land to be able to run free in their animal form. Shapeshifters have become a part of the force that works to keep greedy land developers from tearing down countless forests and fields or filling in every creek and stream just to build strip malls and more luxury homes. The town of Great Oaks, where most of the stories in my Stranger Creatures series take place, was once a factory town that became desolate and forgotten when the factories closed. When shifters began to see the potential of the town by renovating the existing buildings and creating a community where shifters could live without worry that all of their parks and land would be destroyed, the town began to thrive and grow to become a desirable spot for shifters and other strange creatures.
The one strange creature I haven’t written about yet is mermaids. I have always loved the water and try to go to the beach or the river whenever possible. I like to canoe, swim, or just sit on the shore or the wide flat rocks protruding from the river, and read. When I was a little kid, I used to wish on my birthday candles every year that I could become a mermaid but I’ll have to settle for one day writing about the beautiful strange creatures of the ocean.
If you’d like to follow me on social media for my latest book information and excerpts, poems, contest info, book recommendations, and other fun stuff, you can find me at:
Looking for a fresh start, Sara Woods takes a job as a news reporter in a small town. Her first assignment for the Ralston Courier is to investigate a string of deaths, all young women, all her age. To deal with chronic back pain, she goes to the Goldstone Clinic, a local healing center with a strange reputation. As local doctor Rick Paulsen teaches Sara how to access hidden energy skills and reveal secrets from her past, police officer Brendon watches Sara’s every move. The deeper she digs into the Goldstone, the harder it is to deny links to the paranormal. Can she figure out what is going on and who to trust before it’s too late?
Excerpt
The waiter brought the souvlaki and more bread. After he left, I leaned forward and put my elbows on the table. “So what’s going on here? Why did you call me?”
Rick’s blue eyes dissected me. “Because there’s something unusual about you.”
Oh, please. That was as bad as ‘What’s your sign, baby?’ “Do I seem naive enough to fall for that line?”
“Not really.” He speared a chunk of lamb and dipped it in the creamy cucumber sauce. “That doesn’t make it any less true. And I think you really care about Lily Kimball, and what happened to her.”
“Then you believe something ‘happened.’” Remembering his outburst at the hospital, I added, “You think she was killed by someone. You even know who.” I watched his face for reaction.
“I suspect. I don’t know.” He took a long drink of water, as if he were trying to swallow something unpalatable.
“But you haven’t gone to the police.” He shook his head. “Why not?”
He started to answer and then Athena swept over, wanting to make sure everything was to her dear doctor’s satisfaction. She effused with grand passion about how wonderful Rick Paulsen was, as a medical professional and as a man, her praise transparently designed to convince me, as his dinner partner and potential life mate, of his worth. He squirmed as she continued, but seemed loath to interrupt her. Once we had assured her that everything was delightful, she withdrew at last, to
observe from behind the cash register.
When he didn’t answer my last question, I asked again. “Why haven’t you gone to the police?”
“You don’t understand. The police won’t be any help in this matter.”
“They’re investigating her death—”
“They’re not investigating her death! They’re just going through the motions until everyone forgets about her and they can toss her file in a cabinet, never to be seen again!” He slapped his fork onto the table, a flush of anger suffusing his face, all the way to the tips of his ears. “Just like the others.”
Alana Lorens has been a published writer for more than forty years, while working as a pizza maker, a floral designer, a journalist and a family law attorney. Currently a resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the aging hippie loves her time in the smoky blue mountains.
She writes romance and suspense as Alana Lorens, and sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal mystery as Lyndi Alexander. One of her novellas, THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE, is set in the city of Asheville during the old Bele Chere festival. She is the author of the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyers series, which draws on her 25 years as a family law attorney in the state of Pennsylvania. One of the causes close to her heart came from those years as well–the fight against domestic violence. She volunteered for many years at women’s shelters and provided free legal services to women and children in need.
She lives with her daughter on the autism spectrum, who is the youngest of her seven children, and she is ruled by three crotchety old cats, and six kittens of various ages.
Image description – image is of a rainbow obscured by hazy, thick clouds.
Could the same disastrous event that destroys everything we’ve ever know also be the start of a new, better way of life? When the smoke begins to clear in the aftermath of something unexpected, sometimes there’s a moment where possibilities are shown, where rebuilding seems like a bridge to a better future, and a muted ray of hope is shining in a new strange way.
Image description – image is of a downed tree branch on the surface of the Swift Creek Reservoir. There is a duck and a turtle on the branch. There are green leaves in the foreground and the water in the reservoir is calm.
Image description – metallic looking tree frog sitting on a dirty reddish orange surface.
What if all the old, forgotten power substations, satellite dishes, and discarded appliances grew roots and strange flowers whose seeds blew into the wind, causing a transformation that began to change every living thing?
During a walk in the woods, I saw some strange looking plants near an old transmission tower and wondered what would happen if metal and electricity combined in sentience to entwine with organic beings.
Image description – image is of a bridge in Richmond, Viginia. The river below the bridge is choppy and there are rocks and parts of an old brick building sticking up out of the water. The sky is bright and blue with some puffy clouds. Parts of Richmond City are visible in the background behind the bridge.
This picture was taken a few years ago at Belle Isle in Richmond, Virginia. When I wrote this poem, I was thinking about how, often, the most stoic, quiet people are full of life underneath. The city is full of nature trying to be and become. Underneath the skyscrapers and asphalt streets, there is water, rivers, streams, steadily moving, waiting. The bridge moves between the outside and the inside or above and below and brings possibilities to life.
Christina Lynn Lambert 