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
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.
A snowstorm on New Year’s Eve brought bear shifters Ellie and AJ together but a secret threatens to tear them apart. When Ellie is in danger, will AJ find her in time?
Bear shifter Ellie Ortiz’s nightmare boss, Tabatha, stole Ellie’s clients then left her stranded at a hotel during a snowstorm. Ellie is tired, hungry, and mad beyond belief. The last person she wants to run into is AJ Shepherd, the man responsible for her brother’s death, but there he is, sitting right next to her in the hotel bar. Even worse, she discovers that AJ is not as cold and heartless as she once thought.
A new job puts Ellie in contact with AJ every day and things get… complicated. When Ellie ends up at the heart of a reporter’s plot to prove the existence of shifters, she and AJ must work together to fight their way to freedom. The survival of shifters everywhere depends on it.
Image description – a picnic table sits in the forest. On top of the table is a coffee cup on a saucer, and an e reader. Pictured on the e reader is the book cover for Bear’s Dream which features a man and a woman embracing. Below the couple is an image of a bear walking through the forest.
Excerpt:
“You’re pretty amazing. I hope you know that.”
Ellie’s cheeks got hot at the compliment. She popped the last bite of cherry pie into her mouth to keep from saying something stupid and gushy back to him.
The opening chords to R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” played and spotlights hit the screen behind the stage. Colored lights all around the courtyard lit up in time with the music. She and AJ stood and cheered with the rest of the crowd. The drum beat and guitar notes of every song reached out to fire up the courtyard. The music washed over her and she forgot for a moment every other care she had as the light show dazzled her.
After the show ended, they both agreed it was time to call it a day and head back to the hotel room. AJ made some chamomile tea in the coffeepot and she sat down next to him on the sofa. They were halfway into an episode of The Twilight Zone when he turned to her. “Thanks for looking out for me today, and getting me into the woods so I could shift out my injuries. I would’ve hated to have passed out and been forced to go to a hospital by some well-meaning regular.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
He brushed a curl from her face. She didn’t back away. His lips brushed hers, softly, as if he just meant a sweet, gentle kiss, but his grip on her hips was anything but gentle. If only their circumstances were different, then she could kiss him all night long if she wanted to. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from leaning into the kiss. Guilt and desire went to war inside her mind and he drew back, as if he understood.
“Night, Ellie.” His hands were gone from her body but his voice rumbled around her, reaching for her.
“See you in the morning.” She stood up and walked down the hallway, refusing to look back.
What is wrong with me? Kissing him was not okay!
The quilt and soft sheets on the bed made a nice nest for her to hide inside while she forced herself to think about anything except for AJ and how he’d touched her with more tenderness than any man ever had. Including Darien.
More about the story:Inspiration for Bear’s Dream (Haven Forest Resort book 1):
Aiden “AJ” Shepherd and his brother Greg were both a small part of Bear’s Edge (Stranger Creatures book 2) and the characters stayed on my mind. Eventually I decided that the Shepherd brothers needed their own series, so I had the brothers open up a shifter resort in the Haven Forest Resort series.
One of my favorite parts to write in the story was when AJ and Ellie escape captivity and seek sanctuary in a small library. Libraries have always seemed to be so much more than just a place with books to borrow. Libraries are safe places. They are places to let the imagination run free. Within the buildings full of books and helpful librarians, there are computers, connections to jobs, lifelines to help, opportunities for learning, and endless wonderful possibilities.
After a looong illness, I’m hard at work on Haven Forest Resort book 2. Each book in the series features a different couple on their journey to happily ever after. I’m also working on book 5 in my Stranger Creatures series as well as poetry, essays, and short stories for various magazines and anthologies.
A tragically attractive vampire, a hunky wolf-man and a skeptical but susceptible career gal. What could possibly go wrong?
Bianca Sorenson understands obsession. Her phenomenally successful Vamp magazine feeds the popular fascination with the undead. The city is full of fanatics who want to believe vampires are real. Bianca knows that’s a fantasy. Then a blond, blue-eyed blood drinker walks into her office looking for a model’s job and turns her universe upside down. Jim Bush hasn’t been a vampire for long, but his terrible history and seductive hunger undermine Bianca’s single-minded ambition and her cherished self-control.
Trying to escape from Jim’s disturbing influence, she collides with a shaggy giant of a man whose mere presence inspires irresistible lust. When Zack Kane reveals that he’s a wolf shifter and claims Bianca as his mate, she finds herself on the horns of a supernatural dilemma. How can she resolve her feelings for her two mutually hostile lovers while defusing a city-wide conflict between the vampire clique and the werewolf pack?
Fans of Twilight: get ready for a wilder ride than you ever imagined!
Image description
graphic is of a woman standing in between two men. The man on the left looks like a wolf. The man on the right looks vampirish. Behind them people is a view of the city at night. Written on the graphic are the words – Fangs, Fur, and the Single Girl. Only 99 cents between now and Halloween.
Excerpt:
The shock of separation drove black spikes of pain into her temples. She opened her eyes, gasping for breath. Motes of red swam in her vision. She twisted around to look at him, in wonder and terror.
“Sorry.” He shrugged. “I didn’t know how else to convince you.”
“You’re—you’re the real thing, aren’t you?” Bianca thought her chest would burst. “Nosferatu. Undead.” She rubbed at her throbbing forehead. “But it can’t be! I never believed…”
“Believe,” he whispered, almost inaudible. Then all at once was back in his chair, leaving her heart slamming against her ribs. He smiled at her, that wide open, country-boy smile. Bianca worked to catch her breath, to calm herself to some semblance of normalcy.
It wasn’t possible. Vampires were a fiction, a legend. They were creatures of fantasy and nightmare. For some reason even she didn’t comprehend, the notion of vampires tapped into something fundamental in the human imagination. She personally knew dozens, maybe hundreds, of people who desperately wanted vampires to be real. These people, and others like them, fueled the engine of her success. However, even the most obsessed, the ones who caught and ate flies and slept in coffins in their cellars, knew the truth.
And now, here, that truth was being challenged.
He read her doubts, in her mind or on her face. He disappeared suddenly, then reappeared at her side with a glass of water. “Looks like you could use this.” Another blink and he was back where he started, smiling at her across the desk. The water was there, at her elbow, proof that she hadn’t been hallucinating. She took a sip and stopped fighting the evidence of her senses. It wasn’t possible that he was a vampire. But it was true.
“Are you very ancient?” she asked, finally. The question sounded absurd. What was she doing, continuing the interview?
Jim laughed, wholeheartedly this time.
“I’m twenty four. Or I was, that night six years ago at the frat party, when somebody’s girlfriend’s sister turned me. I admit that I was drunk. Barbara had just told me that she wanted a commitment, and I knew I wasn’t ready. I told her I loved her, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy her. So I went off, got plastered, and the next thing I knew I was in bed with this slutty-looking brunette who had very sharp teeth.” Bianca couldn’t help giggling. His tale was such a contrast to the mythology that she marketed.
“And then? What happened next? What about Barbara?”
Jim’s face grew shadowed. “Look, I don’t really want to talk about it. Not now, at least. Not here. Can we go somewhere quiet and dark for a drink?”
“You can drink? I mean, besides—well, you know.”
“Sure. I can’t eat solid food, though. It’s awful, because my senses are exceptionally acute. I can smell a juicy steak grilling half a block away. Pure torture.” He sighed. “Anyway, what about the job? Do you still think that I’m unqualified, Ms. Sorenson?”
Bianca took note of the challenge in his voice. Her body still trembled at the proximity of an honest-to-goodness creature of the night, but her mind was working overtime. How could she best use him to further her goals? To expand her vampiric empire? His photos were far too raw for her audience. Could he project the same level of intensity in a less extreme scene? And what about his co-models? Could he elicit the same sort of rapturous response from them that she had seen in Barbara’s face? Without actually taking them, of course?
She imagined herself in the woman’s position, offering her throat to those vicious fangs. The notion was seductive. She had just been given a taste. To give in completely to that kind of power—to be overwhelmed, consumed by an unnatural hunger… She’d scoffed before, but now she understood the temptation.
Bianca had always felt like the boss, even as a lower-than-dirt intern at Harper’s while she was still a student. She’d always wanted the power, never considered letting go. Now the thought of offering herself to this creature made her damp with desire. A wave of dizziness swept over her, followed by a surge of fear. This guy was dangerous. He was a threat to Bianca’s essential self. She wasn’t all that concerned that he’d kill her. No, she was afraid he’d somehow erase her, turn her into some craven, submissive creature begging to be bled. Like all those silly girls who snapped up her magazine as soon as it hit the stands.
A word from author Lisabet Sarai about soul mates (plural):
The notion of finding one’s soul mate—the one individual in the universe whom you’re destined to love—is possibly the most fundamental romance trope. I can understand the appeal of this concept. It’s both reassuring and thrilling to imagine a lover perfectly attuned to your needs, your ideal complement and companion, a person who makes you whole and vice versa.
I find it hard to write stories about soul mates, though. I’m always aware that reality is much messier than romantic fantasy. Mostly I create contemporary stories where the relationships are realistically complicated. My heroines are frequently unsure about their own feelings. Sometimes they’re attracted to more than one person, in different ways. That’s one reason my back list contains so many ménage tales, I think, to save my heroines from having to choose whom they should love!
Paranormal romance frees me from the constraints of realism. In a world infused with magic, I can suspend disbelief about forever-after perfect matings. Magic imposes structure and symmetry on the tale. Perfect love may be kindled by enchantment, or may reflect age-old connections. Old souls, old lovers, may meet again in a new life. A quest, a struggle against evil forces, may bind two characters together for eternity.
In paranormal erotic romance, you can recognize your soul mate by the transcendent and irrational lust he inspires. The author doesn’t need to explain the attraction; it’s magic, a given.
What happens, though, when more than one character feels like the One? That’s the situation in my new paranormal erotic romance Fangs, Fur and the Single Girl. My heroine Bianca is a hard-headed businesswoman, supremely self-controlled and immune to flights of fancy. When she succumbs to temptation and offers her blood to an emotionally wounded vampire, though, she finds herself bound to him, both physically and psychically. Meanwhile, she encounters a shy but potent wolf shifter whose scent overwhelms her with desire. Each of them wants to claim her. Each of them feels “right”.
Is it possible to have more than one soul mate? Read Fangs, Fur and the Single Girl and find out!
Lisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
The Magic of Us – a Moms Who Write poetry anthology, is now available!
The Magic of Us is the fourth book in the Of Us series. I am excited to have two poems, (The Highway and Steel Meets the Rushing River), in this anthology full of beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting, and magical poems.
The Moms Who Write group will be donating 100% of the book proceeds to support families impacted by the Maui fires.
“Founded in 2016 by a group of doulas, midwives, and other passionate birth advocates, The Pacific Birth Collective is an organization devoted to educating and advocating for birth and wellness choices across the Hawaiian islands. They support those in the island community through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Right now, PBC is run entirely by volunteers, though they are in the process of becoming a non-profit.” PBC has done a great deal of relief work for those impacted by the Maui fires, and Moms Who Write wants to support them in that effort. When you purchase The Magic of Us, 100% of the book proceeds go to the PBC’s Maui fire relief work. If you would like to make a larger donation, you can find the information on how to do so HERE.
who lived inside rooms/tombs of concrete and steel
He could have used weapons to gain compliance, needlessly
and society wouldn’t have blinked
Nobody would have said a word
But he kept his weapons holstered
and kept his voice kind because
marking time behind iron bars
doesn’t make a person not a person
Fast forward to what he knew already
Undeniable research compiles, burgeoning behind
politicians’ closed doors
The suppressed data shows clearly
that jails don’t always, or even overwhelmingly
house the guilty
There is justice for all who can afford it
especially for those who fit the approved majority demographic
But even when guilt is the reason,
cruelty by those with all the power
is still condoned or ignored
Just a few keep their weapons holstered
and keep their voices kind
and it’s those few I try to remember
in this world where the greed-infested part of humanity
reigns over all that they survey
There are a handful of fireflies in the void
Not enough but enough
to cut through the darkness
This poem, rant, essay, whatever it is, is about how, even though raising a hand or voice or leverage against the defenseless might not have consequences for those in power, there are those who remain a light in the darkness. It’s those fireflies in the night we need to follow and to teach our children to be and become until the sky is smokeless fire and the judges and politicians have no choice but to listen and enforce the laws that protect those who need protecting.
Image Description: a large Jack O’Lantern with slugs crawling in and out of its face.
This macabre short poem was inspired by a previous Halloween’s Jack O’Lantern that got invaded by hungry slugs. I’ve been working on some dystopian and horror short stories and flash fiction lately. The flash fiction is the hardest challenge for me. Trying to create a whole story in a thousand words or less has caused me to fill many pages of my composition notebook with beginnings that have no end because I couldn’t quite figure out how to set the world without going into so much detail. Poetry comes as easy to me as breathing. The whole poem doesn’t magically come out of my head completed, but I often have an image or a story in my mind’s eye, and I work backwards to say what I want to say without describing the message in terms that are too obvious and concrete.
Check out Kate Hill’s Halloween giveaway contest! Books featuring vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, and other strange and exciting creatures are featured all October long on Kate Hill’s Halloween Page. Bear’s Dream (book 1 in my Haven Forest Resort series) will be featured on October 21, 2023. Check out the link below to for an excerpt of Bear’s Dream and to read about one of my fun fall traditions.
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.
Christina Lynn Lambert 