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 HOT ANTHOLOGIES TIARA GIVEAWAY (ENDS 12/31)
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THE HIGHLANDER IS ALL THAT TIARA GIVEAWAY (ENDS 12/31)
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#New #Release #SciFi #Romance Matrix Crystal Rebels

I hope everyone had a wonderful and Merry Christmas. 

I first started my Matrix Crystal series as something of a lark. I was doing the Nanowrimo (National Novels Writer Month) and had been playing with the  idea of writing a science fiction. I had already wrote one science fiction (Alien Heart) so this shouldn't be too hard.

I had a dream about a woman who was a geologist  and she discovered a stone on a planet that could produce electricity. There was also a man who broke into her tent. I had to figure out how those two thing went together and started the story Matrix Crystal Hunters.

 

After that story was written, I wrote Matrix Crystal Christmas which continued with the adventure of Maya and Vach. 

 

The next book in the series was about their son River called Matrix Crystal River, which has the best cover ever.

 

And now, I am proud to announce the release of four book in the Matrix Crystal Series. The heroine is Vach and Maya's daughter Rain.

Matrix Crystal Rebels

Earth geologist Steen’s mission is to look and act like a Zeeman so he can locate matrix crystals. But when Steen’s deception fails, the beautiful Rain Namaste coaches him. He doesn’t realize he’s fallen in love with the lovely redhead until someone tries to claim her on Hymeneal Night.

Steen will do anything to get Rain back, but is he willing to take her as a Hymeneal bride for himself?

Excerpt:

“My brother,” She said without a beat. 

“Which one?” 

“Ah, now that would be telling.” She touched the side of her nose and added more clothes to the stack.“How much?” 

He went through the stack, muttering under his breath. “Fifty ducats.”

“That’s a little steep. These are used. I’ll give you thirty.”

The proprietor rested a hand on top of the stack. “You’ve got a big pile of clothes here. Forty.”

“It’s okay I’ve got it.” Steen dug into his pocket. This was for him after all.

“Steven, you don’t need to,” Rain said.

“Excellent.” The shop owner bowed and took the coins which he dropped into a carved box. He then bagged the clothing into several totes. “If any of these don’t fit, please feel free to bring them back.”

Rain frowned. “At a significant deduction on the exchange?”

“Of course, how else am I to make a profit?” He smiled, handing over both totes. “It was nice doing business with you.”

“Thank you. Steven, can you get the totes?”

Steen took the bags, surprised at how much they weighed. “Oof, heavy.”

“You’re a big guy, suck it up. We have more shops to visit.” Rain strolled out the door ahead of him.

“A little advice from a fellow male, she won’t be easy to woo,” the store owner told him. “Rain is a lovely young female, but she’s as difficult as her mother. Just ask Vach. Rain is like Maya, but more energetic. It’s like someone put way too much sweetener into her daily tea.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Steen followed Rain out the door.

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Kindle Edition:  https://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-Rebels-Book-Four-ebook/dp/B078HL6113/

New Year’s Resolutions: Fact and Myth ~ #LynnCrain #NewYearsResolutions #RB4Us

First, let me apologize for being a little late. I have to admit, I am horribly, horribly slow during the holidays. This year, I thought I had everything planned out to a T…but obviously I missed one…I promise to do better next year. So…did I just make a New Year’s resolution? Or is that just a promise? This month, I’m looking at this age old tradition and finding its roots.

We all know what New Year’s resolutions are…don’t we?

We’ve made them, we’ve broken them and we’ve circled around them because we don’t know quite what to do. Let’s start with a definition: A New Year’s resolution is a tradition where a person resolves to change an undesired behavior or trait to accomplish a personal goal or to improve their life. These are most common in the Western hemisphere but can be found in the Eastern part of the world as well.

Okay, so now we know what they are…but who started them?

It’s said that the ancient Babtlonians were the first people to make New Year’s resolutions over 4,000 years ago. They also were the first to hold New Year’s celebrations but their calendar did not have the year start until mid-March when the crops were planted.

Great…we know who started them but why were they started?

As with many things in the past, New Year’s resolutions had their beginnings in religion. For instance, Babylonians made promises to their gods at the beginning of planting season that they would pay their debts as well as return anything they borrowed. Romans began their year by making promises to their god Janus of a similar nature. For early Christians, New Year’s day because the traditional day to think about their past mistakes and resolve to be better in the future.

So now we know the hows and the why…but how many people stick with their resolutions?

According to popular statistics between 40-50% of Americans say they make New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, those same statistics say that only 8 percent of those are successful. And the crux of the issue is what that resolution may be. If the resolution is difficult, chances are you aren’t going to succeed. However, it has been noted that if your resolution is of a more common nature, nearly half of those are accomplished as the person who makes them is ten times more likely to fulfill their goal.

What are the most common New Year’s resolutions?

After perusing many, many, many statistical lists of top ten New Year’s resolutions, these seem to be the most common.

1.       Lose weight and get fit.

2.      Stop smoking.

3.      Learn and do something new.

4.      Get out of debt and save more money.

5.      Volunteer

6.      Spend more time with family.

7.      Be less stressed and more positive.

8.     Travel more.

9.      Improve career.

10.  Spend less time on trivia things such as social media.

So there it is…the whole New Year resolution thing in a nutshell. Being a writer means we plan and make plans, we set goals and we do our best to make sure those goals happen. Everyone holds the keys to their own destiny and it’s up to each of us to shape that destiny into everything we want it to be.

What about you? Are you pulling out the new planning calendar to set your resolutions and goals? I know I am…and one of those will be…to be on time more and conscious of that fact.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful upcoming New Year celebration…see you next time!

Lynn

HOLIDAY MOVIES FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE

It’s Christmas Eve and my turn to blog. When the festivities of Christmas day are over and you can breathe again, relax, take off your shoes, prop your feet up, have a glass of wine and watch holiday movies.

In an effort to help you choose which ones to watch, I’ve listed a few of my favorites. 

“She can’t cook.”

“She can’t cook?”

“No, but, oh, my, what a wife!”

If you’re like me and you love Christmas romance movies, you’ll recognize the above exchange. It comes at the end of one of my favorite romantic comedies, Christmas in Connecticut, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan.

 I discovered Christmas in Connecticut decades ago, before VCR’s. In those days, near Christmas, I would scour TV Guide to see when the movie was playing again and hope it wasn’t in the middle of the night. (Did I mention I’m a TV and movie junkie?) I now have it on DVD so I can watch any time I want. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses. I love the premise of this movie. Barbara is an independent, single career woman who lives in an apartment in New York. This is in 1945, mind you. She’s a writer for a women’s magazine. She can’t cook, but she writes a column about cooking and about her wonderful husband and baby and their farm in Connecticut. Of course, there is no husband, baby or farm. And Dennis Morgan, another favorite, plays a sailor, a war hero, who falls in love with her. Only he thinks she’s married. Quite racy for the time.

I grew up watching the romantic comedies of the Thirties, Forties and Fifties on late night TV. They inspired me to write romance. And for me the Christmas season is a treasure trove of romantic movies.

Holiday Affair with Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum, 1949, is another favorite. If you’ve never seen this movie, I urge you to find it if it’s available on DVD. It's also available for streaming. The movie usually plays several times near Christmas. Janet Leigh is breathtakingly beautiful and Robert Mitchum is macho, handsome and totally sexy. Even though Janet’s character is almost engaged to another man, Mitchum’s character makes no secret of the fact that he wants her. Another racy story for the time. Holiday Affair is a favorite of my husband’s too. This movie was remade as a TV movie in the Nineties. I like the new version also but it can’t hold a Christmas candle to the original.

Another movie that’s not a romance, but is high on my annual list is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase is endearing as a dad who just wants to have an old-fashioned Christmas. Anything and everything that could go wrong does. Through it all, Chevy retains the dream of a perfect holiday.

This next also isn’t a romance, but I have to mention it. My favorite movie version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the 1951 adaptation with Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Many critics rate this as the best of all A Christmas Carol movies. I like the Nineties version with George C. Scott too. I also have the book and treat myself to a reading of it every Christmas season.

How could I forget that perennial favorite, White Christmas? I know it’s corny, but the music is great, the movie is colorful and festive and it will make you smile and laugh. And it has a terrific romance.

Of course, there’s It’s a Wonderful Life. This movie about a man realizing he’s had a most wonderful life after all and has all he needs in front of him will make you cry and want to hug your loved ones a little harder.

Then there are all the Christmas romance movies on Lifetime and Hallmark. My husband, who has never read any of my novels or short stories, is a real sucker when it comes to romance movies, especially Christmas ones. We watch all the Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies together. My husband even cries at some of them. But he’ll deny this.

Because I love the Hallmark/Lifetime movies, I wrote a holiday romance, A Groom for Christmas, that is very much like those movies, with some intense love scenes. My book also touches on the things we hold dear about Christmas—family, rituals, love, joy. A Groom for Christmas is now on sale for 99 cents, a savings of $2.00.

 I’ve also written a new take on the classic Cinderella tale, A Cinderella Christmas, a fantasy filled with Christmas spirit, in more ways than one. And a fantasy take on the Snow White tale, Her Snow White Christmas (Snow Globe Magic Book 1). My newest Christmas story is a fun read called A Very Vegas Christmas (Gambling on Love Book 3)

So there you have it. My holiday viewing guide. What are some of your favorite Christmas movies?

Blurb for A Groom for Christmas:

Family pressure just might make her do something crazy...

When a young woman hires her hometown’s former bad boy to be her pretend fiancé for the holidays, she finds she can’t wrap up her feelings as easily as a Christmas gift.

New York jewelry designer Graceann Palmer has two days to find a fiancé to bring home to Pennsylvania for the holidays so her matchmaking mama will quit fixing her up with jerks. The Falcon, a motorcycle-riding, leather-clad former high school crush, helped her out once before. Maybe he'll do it again.

Jake Falco, man of many mysteries, is back in town on a mission—one the people of Spirit Lake most likely won't appreciate. When Graceann presents him with her crazy scheme, it gives him something he's always wanted—a chance to get to know Graceann. It also gives him the perfect opportunity to add fuel to his project of revenge.

But as Jake and Graceann grow closer, their engagement-of-convenience begins to feel like the real deal—until Jake’s secrets are revealed.

Can a relationship that began with lies and secrets bloom like a rare Christmas rose into happily-ever-after?

Amazon BN

Blurb for A Cinderella Christmas:

Jessica Gallo no longer believed in fairy tales or happy endings. And she certainly didn't believe she'd find her Prince Charming at Saks Fifth Avenue. Her Fairy Godmother thought differently.

Amazon BN iBooks

Blurb for Her Snow White Christmas:

A Christmas snow globe from a mysterious stranger swirls holiday magic for a sophisticated New York woman with a broken heart and a handsome Iraq War vet with a secret.

2016 Eppie winner Best Short Work

Amazon BN iBooks

Blurb for A Very Vegas Christmas:

An event planner in need of luck
A man with a secret
What happens in Vegas...

A Las Vegas event planner in need of luck meets a mysterious guy who might be her winning ticket. Will his secret split them apart?

Amazon BN iBooks

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Website

Mind Blowing Facts you (probably) didn't know about the Holidays #HappyHolidays #MerryChristmas #RB4U

Did you know that Jingle Bells was originally a song written for the Thanksgiving holiday? 

James Lord Pierpont, an organist from Savannah, Georgia, first performed a song he wrote, "The One Horse Open Sleigh," at his church's Thanksgiving concert. The song was re-published in 1857 and given the title of today.

Bonus fact: It's also the first song broadcast from space. On December 16, 1965, the Gemini 6 crew serenaded Mission Control after they reported seeing a "red-suited" astronaut.



This little-known fact sure surprised me! Did you know that Christmas wasn't always on December 25th? 
Though Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, there is no mention of December 25 in the Bible. (Most historians believe he was actually born in the spring.) It wasn't chosen as the official holiday until the 3rd Century. Some argue that the date was picked because it coincided with the pagan festival of Saturnalia, celebrating agricultural god Saturn with partying and gift-giving.

This one I already knew, but wonder if any of you did as well. :) The marketing geniuses over at Coca-Cola came up with the red suit for Santa Claus in an effort to tie their famous red and white logo with the tradition of Christmas. 
Well, Santa wore a variety of colorful suits through the years — including red, blue, white, and green — but legend has it that the popular image of his red coat came from a 1930s ad by Coca-Cola.

For more mind-blowing facts about Christmas and this wintery holiday season, check out this link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/18-mind-blowing-facts-about-the-holidays/ss-BBG1TzW?ocid=ems.msn.12102017

Dallas Creed -20 years later he's still as hot

Downstroke

It’s been twenty years since Charley Roper and Dallas Creed parted with great bitterness. In that time she’s made a career for herself with the FBI and private security and he’s been a country rock music icon…tumbled to the bottom and risen again. Now someone’s trying to kill him and Morgan Creed wants Charley to protect his brother and find out who’s after him. When they meet again after all this time it’s obvious the chemistry is still there, stronger than ever. They’re older but are they wiser? Caught up in the bitter wash of memories and the tension of a killer in stalking mode, Charley and Dallas begin a roller coaster ride that is emotional erotic and suspenseful. Is their love strong enough after twenty years to pull them back together?

Leave me a comment for a chance to win a copy of Hard Lovin'

So here I was, waiting for my first glimpse of the man on a stage since he and his pickup band played the Raccoon Saloon all those years ago. It was time to find out if I’d actually managed to wipe Dallas Creed out of my system. If bottling up my emotions and using other men to wipe away traces and memories of him had worked at all.

The night had a magical quality to it, a perfect Texas night with stars blinking against a black velvet sky. A very soft breeze stirred the air, chasing away the last heat of the day. The sense of expectancy in the outdoor concert facility was nearly palpable. Anticipation fairly zapped through the air like bolts of energy. I could even feel it myself, the kind of feeling you got on Christmas morning when you ran downstairs, or when you were right on the brink of the most outstanding orgasm you’d ever had. Seventy-five hundred people moved restlessly in their seats in front of me. An almost equal amount were spread out on the rise of the hill behind me, drinking and staring at the stage with binoculars, even though at the moment there was nothing to see. They were all waiting for the same thing.
The curtain was drawn across the stage, heightening the edge of expectancy. Especially for me, much as I hated to admit it. What was behind there? What was his band like now after they’d tasted success once and were back on top with him again?
I could feel the energy sizzling through the crowd. Well, why not? If nothing else, Dallas Creed had always had an electric presence. Add in the staging, his suck-my-tongue voice and the electricity of his music and you had a knockout winner.
The soft notes of a viola floated in the air from behind the curtain, joined immediately by violins, and I wondered what the hell? Violins? Then I realized it was a synthesizer. And obviously a damn good musician coaxing music from it. The sound that mimicked violins seemed to hold the audience in thrall, as if they were expectantly awaiting a grand moment. The music built and built as the magician behind the synthesizer added the full-throated sounds of woodwinds and the rich tones and powerful chords of an organ, swelling to a crescendo. The last note held and held and held, flowing out into the crowd, pulling at us as if to say, Wait for it, it’s coming.
Then I heard the familiar first downstroke of the rhythm guitars as they began the intro to the first song. The curtain drew back slowly to reveal the band onstage, the bass guitar and keyboards now adding their voices, the drums accenting them with a syncopated beat.
All sound ended abruptly and the crowd stilled for a breathless moment. The band launched into a rich intro to one of Dallas’ hits, an upbeat tune called Cowboys Get It Right, a song I realized the synthesizer had laid the foundation for. The spotlight came up and the man himself jogged onto the stage.
To my dismay, my traitorous heart tripped at the sight of him and an emotion I refused to name clogged my throat. Dallas Creed was definitely a lot older, forty-three to the twenty-three he’d been the last time I saw him in person. Newspaper photos had kept me up with his aging process, but no picture could do justice to the energy still radiating from this man. The energy that had drawn me to him in the first place.

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