My last orphaned book has found a home at last

My last orphaned book (that lost its home at Desert Breeze Publishing when it closed its doors) has found a new home at Devine Destinies Books. If you've never read this contemporary romance set in the Texas Hill Country, then why not give it a try now?  ;-)

Preachin' to the Choir
http://www.devinedestinies.com/978-1-4874-2136-6-preachin-to-the-choir/
 
Jonathan could do nothing to stop his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can't believe the Lord would leave him with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed.

Kat, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels settled in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but it's predictable, unlike her life with her late husband. Kat concludes a happy, committed relationship with a male is impossible, so she makes peace with herself and with God. If nuns can live celibate, why can't she?

One Sunday, Jonathan spies a golden beam of light descending upon Kat while she is directing the choir. Why hasn’t he noticed how beautiful she was before? From here on out, Jonathan knows he’ll be preachin’ to the choir, but will Kat—and his congregation and their children—let him?

Read an excerpt at my blog by clicking here.

Click on the link on the bar above to read more about my contemporary releases.

Another Publisher Is Gone

My apologies for not posting sooner. I had every intention of posting excerpts from my two recent releases, but now there's no reason to. Sigh!

Yet again, we've lost another publisher. Desert Breeze Publishing is closing their doors. Amazon and the economy destroys millions of lives, and we "mid-list authors" are often left in the lurch. 

They're closing very quickly, so if you wish to buy any of my Desert Breeze Publishing titles (these include Adrian's and my young adult sci-fi BloodDark Series of 4 books now) please do so before June 30th. This includes my three stand alone novels written under my Cynthianna pen name as well. Check the gorgeous cover art (also going away soon) and synopses at my web sites of http://www.cynthianna.com and http://blooddarkbooks.blogspot.com

I'm heartbroken and feeling lost once again. I received the rights back to my novels from another publisher that folded and just recently had them re-published with Desert Breeze, a very professional small press. It's like losing a family member.

I will post the cover art here for my three romance novels that will soon be gone. (Unless you'd like to help me purchase the right to the cover art. I'm not  into "vanity publishing," but I do like the cover art and the artists did such a great job. Donations accepted at http://paypal.me/camatthews) Perhaps my books will be re-re-published again someday. I try to remain optimistic, but when publishers who have been around over a decade are folding/closing down, it's difficult.

The BloodDark series I hope will live on and increase in number. Be on the look out for them once we've secured a new home for them. Until then, please take care of your mid-list authors. Buy, read and review their books. You never know when it'll be too late to help them out with a sale or two or an encouraging words. Encouraging words can do wonders for a fragile author's ego.

P.S. Another publisher is gone. Ironic, isn't it, for you to buy our books in print/Kindle formats our publisher was dependent on the instrument of their--and so many small publishers'--deaths. But Amazon is a monopoly, and like all monopolies, their job is to put all competition out of business. Of course, once all competition is gone, they are free to publish or not publish as they see fit. They might not like science fiction or YA or romance novels, for example. It's called economic censorship, and you, the readers, are the biggest losers at the end of the day.

An excerpt from Preachin' to the Choir

Preachin' to the Choir
http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/preachin-to-the-choir-epub/

Jonathan could do nothing to stop his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can't believe the Lord would leave him with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed.

Kat, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels settled in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but it's predictable, unlike her life with her late husband. Kat concludes a happy, committed relationship with a male is impossible, so she makes peace with herself and with God. If nuns can live celibate, why can't she?

One Sunday, Jonathan spies a golden beam of light descending upon Kat while she is directing the choir. Why hasn’t he noticed how beautiful she was before? From here on out, Jonathan knows he’ll be preachin’ to the choir, but will Kat—and his congregation and their children—let him?

Also available in print at Amazon. 

An excerpt from Preachin' to the Choir... 

Kat pounced on the stack of sheet music he had brought to the lesson. "Um, would you like me to play the version you brought?" 

"Please do."

She sorted out the copy from the others and opened it across the music stand. "Sorry, but we need to switch places. I need to sit where you're sitting to play properly."

Jonathan stood and side-stepped over to the left to give her access to his stool. 

Kat flashed him a grin in gratitude and sat down without looking. Immediately she found herself deposited on her rear end.

"Ouch!" she cried, rubbing her bruised tailbone. "I missed." 

"You seem to be doing quite a bit of falling on your backside lately." Jonathan chuckled. Placing his large hands under her arms, he lifted her to her feet in one easy motion. "There you go. You all right?"

"I... I'm fine," she managed, taking a step back. The warmth of where his palms contacted her bare flesh lingered, sending tingles of awareness down her arms. "I just need to adjust the height a little."

Kat bent to twirl the stool to raise the seat. To her horror, it stuck.

Jonathan grimaced. "Did I break it? I apologize if I did."

She straightened slowly and shook her head. "Don't worry. It isn't broken. It probably needs to be greased a bit. Why don't we try relocating the bench?"

Jonathan removed the stool. Kat grabbed the bench and started dragging it into position. Without a word, both seated themselves side by side, thighs touching. 

Kat shuddered at the delicious sensation of Jonathan's near presence. This isn't the appropriate time or place for playing footsies, but wouldn't it be nice?

Swallowing hard, Kat focused her attention on the music. Just as she was about to turn to the first page over there came a small moan of wood, then snap! The wounded bench decided it couldn't handle their combined weight any longer as a back leg collapsed. The seat tilted left, throwing her against Jonathan's hard body as they tumbled to the floor.

Preachin' to the Choir is now available from Desert Breeze Publishing.

Two Fiction Releases in One Month

After a quiet time with no new releases, suddenly I have two fiction releases in one month. When it rains, it pours!  (And after a very dry summer, we actually got rain this week, too. Is that a good omen or what?) ;)

My husband and I have been waiting for about a year for the first book in our Young Adult-Science Fiction series, BloodDark, to be released from Desert Breeze Publishing, and here it is at last...

Olivia's Escape 
The BloodDark Series: Book 1
http://blooddarkbooks.blogspot.com 

by Cindy A. Matthews & Adrian J. Matthews

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Brown is abducted on her way home from a night out on the town and wakes up to find that she is imprisoned by a vampire-like race in a dark city bathed in eternal night. Hernando, a handsome half-human slave, reveals what is intended for her – the bloodsuckers want her blood for the upcoming festival. Together they plot an escape. 
 

 Joining a resistance cell, they help plot a revolution, and fall in love. Their group plans take control of the Portal, a teleportation device that links Earth with BloodDark. They plan to attack when the Pure Bloods go into hibernation in caverns located deep beneath the city. The Resistance fighters make it to the city only to find the Overseers, the Pure Bloods’ henchmen, are armed and waiting for them.

Will Olivia and Hernando survive the battle? And if she returns to Earth, will Olivia see Hernando ever again?

Available in ebook formats from Desert Breeze Publishing: http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/the-blooddark-series-book-one-olivias-escape-epub/ 

In print at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Olivias-Escape-BloodDark-Cindy-Matthews/dp/1682949303/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471490078&sr=1-2&keywords=olivia%27s+escape

My contemporary sweet-romance persona, Cynthianna, has a short story release from Devine Destinies Books.

 Hurricane Alley
(a contemporary short romance)
by Cynthianna
http://www.devinedestinies.com/hurricane-alley/
 
Sometimes only a hurricane can calm the storm in your heart.

When Elena’s car breaks down in a Carolina town, the big city saleswoman falls into the arms of a handsome singing auto mechanic named Jake who is more than he appears to be. Can two lost souls from two very different worlds find love and happiness together or will a storm blow them apart?






I hope you give my titles a look over and consider purchasing a copy. Feel free to leave a review of any of my books on Amazon and/or elsewhere, too. Thanks!

Special Moments That Inspire Love--Read My Sexy Saturday Excerpt

Welcome to another edition of My Sexy Saturday. This week's theme is "My Sexy Love" and is about those special moments that inspire romance. Well, for every couple in the universe there's going to be the one unique special moment that sparked their love for each other, isn't there? Think of all the zillions of possibilities! That's what makes the romance genre so much fun to read and write. ;)

Love wasn't even part of their game plans, so how did single mom Cassie and out-of-work Mike know they were destined for each other? What special moment inspired them to reach out and take a chance on love? Find out in this short excerpt from The Fixer-Uppers.

The Fixer-Uppers
www.devinedestinies.com/the-fixer-uppers

"An exceptional writer with a flair for humor." --Romance Reviews Today


Can a single mom find happiness on a blind date--or at least dinner with a male who can cut up his own food? Cassie and Mike believe they're "in like" not "in love." But when down-on-his-luck Mike is evicted, Cassie takes him into her home. Mike starts fixing everything from window screens to her two boys' broken hearts. Will Cassie let him fix hers?



Excerpt set up: Mike tries to stop Cassie from going on a date with another man. He finds her ironing her dress for the evening and does his best to convince her to stay home--with him.

Cassie felt warm all over. The room seemed to be swaying beneath her feet. She coughed to clear her suddenly dry throat.  “Yeah, it’s a nice robe.” The room began to spin as she breathed in deeply the masculine scent of him. “I don’t wear it around much since it has the tendency to slide off me at the most inconvenient times.” 

 

Mike’s lips lightly brushed against her earlobe. “Show me,” he whispered.

Cassie’s knees turned to liquid. She knew she had to get a grip on herself, turn the conversation around somehow. . . But she couldn’t. A moment later the acrid smell of burning cloth brought her back to reality.  “Mike?”

 

He nuzzled her earlobe again. “Hmm, yes?”

She opened one eye slowly. “I think we’ve ruined my dress.”

“I’ll get you a new one.” He took the iron from her and yanked the plug from the wall.

“What’ll I wear tonight then?” she moaned.

 He put the iron down and slowly turned her to face him.  “Remember? I like what you’ve got on now.” Pulling her closer, he gently kissed her lips. 

Find out more about Cassie and Mike's special moments in The Fixer-Uppers, available from Devine Destinies Books, Amazon, All Romance eBooks and wherever fine ebooks are sold!

 Have a great My Sexy Saturday blog hop!

http://mysexysaturday.blogspot.com

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My Sexy Saturday -- Sexy Duncan from Driving in England

The theme this week for My Sexy Saturday is "You're so sexy!" And who else fits the bill other than our handsome hero Duncan from our latest contemporary romance, Driving in England? I mean, Susannah certainly can't wait to see if the reality lives up to her wild and sexy dreams! ;-)

Driving in England 
http://www.devinedestinies.com/Driving-in-England/
 
by Cynthianna and  A J Matthews


Susannah travels to England to discover her boss’s relatives. Renowned genealogist Duncan realizes he’s the lost relative Susannah is seeking. They meet and can’t deny their attraction, but Duncan lies to protect his family’s reputation. Can Susannah pierce Duncan’s armor to find the loving man within?


An excerpt: 

He looked down at her hand on his arm. He slowed his breathing and willed himself not to act too impulsively. “You think it foolish a man of my age keeping a library of erotic literature to himself?”

“I don’t know. Do you think it’s foolish for a woman of my age to want to read a library of erotic literature.” They shared a laugh. Before he could utter a reply, her next words nearly floored him.

“I, uh, had quite an erotic dream about you the other night.”

She raised her face to his. Her words sent an endorphin rush through Duncan’s veins that made his ears tingle. His heart began to pump harder as he moved closer and stared at her flushed face and bright eyes for a long moment. “Really?”

“Oh, yes.” She reached out and took his hand, cupping it with slow deliberation around her left breast. “And I’d like to find out if the reality matches the dream.”

He felt the warmth of Susannah’s body through the cloth of her blouse and brassiere cup. Her nipple hardened against his palm. She licked her lips. Without further ado he leaned forward and kissed her, gently rolling her breast in his hand as he did so. Her response was eager. Susannah opened her lips, and he felt her tongue meet his. Passion burned in his veins as a genuine fear raced through his mind.

It’s been so long... Is it like riding a bicycle? Do you ever really forget how to make love to a desirable woman? Perhaps she will show me how—if I forget.
 

Driving in England is now available at Devine Destinies Books:
http://www.devinedestinies.com/Driving-in-England/

and soon wherever fine ebooks are sold! 

http://mysexysaturday.blogspot.com

Have a great My Sexy Saturday! 

Driving in England now available from Devine Destinies Books

It's a first! My husband and I wrote a book together, and here's an excerpt from it as well as the purchase link. Feel free to share the news with other readers of contemporary romance. Thank you!


Driving in England 
http://www.devinedestinies.com/Driving-in-England/
 
by Cynthianna and  A J Matthews

Susannah Koenig travels to England on an urgent mission to discover her boss’s relatives. Duncan Balfour, a renowned genealogist, doesn’t think he’d like to meet the woman who nags him online for help. Then he realizes he is the long lost relative Susannah’s boss is desperately searching for. Once the pair meet, they can’t deny their mutual attraction, but Duncan can’t help lying to her to protect his family’s reputation. Can Susannah pierce Duncan’s armor to find the loving man within and reveal the truth that could save a life?


From Chapter One, an excerpt from Driving in England:

“Oh. My. God.”

    Susannah Koenig smothered a laugh behind a hand, staring at the headline splashed across her laptop’s screen. Unfrocked Vicar Eaten by Lion! She couldn’t believe her eyes. That kind of thing only happened in the movies or on some poorly written sit-coms—not in real life—and most certainly not in some staid English village circa 1932.
    She rose from the sofa and walked away from the coffee table littered with the remains of half-eaten bagels, dusty genealogy volumes, and various papers she’d gathered over the past two weeks. There’s no way on earth I can tell the boss about his ancestor, the unfrocked vicar who was consumed by a large beast of prey. No way. I value my job too much.
    But what could she do? Harold Spalding paid her good money to graph out his family tree in minute detail. How could she avoid mentioning the former Reverend Titus Spalding, a man accused of sexual misconduct who was stupid enough to stick his head in a lion’s gaping jaws?
    “I can’t believe this.” She switched on the kitchen light and began automatically stacking dishes into the dishwasher. “Who in his right mind would knowingly walk into a lion’s cage at a circus to prove his innocence? In the twentieth century no less! The man was a first class idiot!”
    Shit! The sudden realization of the horrible revelation hit her hard in the stomach. She gulped and put down the dish she was stacking. I can’t tell Mr. Spalding that he had a complete lunatic for a grandfather. It’ll kill him.
    And then she’d be out of a job.
    A very good position with responsibility and prestige, one that she had slaved and suffered long enough to land... Women hit the glass ceiling in the good ol’ boy oil industry all the time, so Susannah felt rightfully proud of her accomplishment, even if it had taken many years and more than a few gray hairs. Nothing was going to stand in her way of keeping her job until they forced her into retirement. Nothing.
    “Damned if I do—damned if I don’t.” Susannah sighed. She could think of only one thing to get herself out of this dilemma. She needed help—professional help. She’d have to email that stuffy, stick-up-his-ass Duncan Balfour and ask for his assistance once again. Maybe the genealogist par excellence could find some other worthy tidbits of information about the crazy vicar, suggest some way to sweeten the news, to make it more palatable for her boss to swallow?
    “If I’m lucky, there might be two Reverend Titus Spaldings in England, and the boss is related to the more normal fella. Please, Lord, let that be the case!”
    Swallowing her pride, and a few dry crumbs of bagel, she headed back to her laptop to email the uptight Brit.
     
    Dear Mr. Balfour:
    I’m in need of your assistance. I’m working on a genealogy project on behalf of my employer, Harold Spalding, and may have discovered a link in his family tree to a Reverend Titus Spalding of Understrand, Norfolk County, England. As I recall reading online, you’re a resident of the area. Could you check your own and local sources to enlighten me as to the true character of this individual? Could his name have been confused with any others of same or similar name? Your help in the past has been most appreciated, and I thank you in advance for this undertaking.
    All the best,
    Susannah Koenig
     
    Tapping send, she glanced at the computer clock. Britain was six hours ahead of Texas, so Balfour would receive her missive first thing in the morning local time. Good enough. She’d check her email in the morning to see if the priggish academic felt her request for information worthy of an immediate reply.
    Give the devil his due, Balfour always replies in a timely manner with hard factual material, even if his tone is patronizing. But somehow, Susannah got the impression the man found addressing a lowly American amateur beneath his dignity. Hadn’t she paid his fees promptly? Hadn’t she been businesslike and fair in all her dealings with the man?
    Glass ceilings existed everywhere—in business, in genealogy circles, in life in general. In spite of the odds, she had marched forward, throwing herself against the walls of prejudice erected to keep women in their place, particularly women of a certain age as she had been labeled in the past few years. Her success had been hard won and all of her own doing. No silver spoons were ever placed in her mouth!
    Susannah rolled her eyes heavenwards as she rose from the sofa. Some people! It’s like they don’t know what it’s like to earn a living. Spalding Oilfield Solutions paid her good money, and the chance to advance offered by the boss’s interest in her family tree hobby had been too good to ignore. She headed back to the kitchen to finish filling the dishwasher and sighed. “I just wish I didn’t have to depend on some old-money, snobby jackass I’ve never met in the flesh to get me through this rough patch.”

Driving in England
http://www.devinedestinies.com/Driving-in-England/

now available at Devine Destinies Books.

Book Reviews For Your Holiday Shopping Consideration...

Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three brothers plus two upscale restaurants—does it equal a recipe for disaster?

In Bread and Butter we’re introduced to three brothers who love everything about food. Leo and Britt, only a year apart, have operated Winesap for over a decade in their aging, industrial hometown just outside of Philadelphia. It’s been hard work educating the local palate through trial and error, but at last they feel they’ve reached a nice balance with their established clientele and are financially successful. Britt, formerly in public relations, takes care of the front and keeps things running smoothly and tastefully, but he puts on his best face for a beautiful and sophisticated regular gourmand, Camille. Leo, a divorcee married to his job, takes care of the paperwork and makes sure his hardworking staff is happy, especially their capable chef Thea, a single mom. Unfortunately their flighty pastry chef Hector has become rather tired of their patrons’ favorite chocolate cake and has flown the coop.

Enter baby brother Harry. He returns home after years of graduate school, failed love affairs, and working in a restaurant on an island in Lake Michigan. Harry wants to start his own place to show off his epicurean tastes. Leasing a run-down building in an area on the cusp of being re-gentrified, Harry envisions a hip new eatery that will help his hometown make a comeback. Once Hector defects to work at Harry’s place and Britt is convinced his little brother’s idea isn’t as crazy as it seems and becomes a partner, the three brothers find themselves at odds—financially, creatively, and romantically. Can sibling rivalry ruin a fine dining experience?

Bread and Butter is jam-packed with the minutiae of the restaurant business, but it doesn’t come across as a Food Network documentary. Wildgen creates fragile but loveable characters who will inspire foodies to keep turning pages even while their hungry stomachs are rumbling.



  Secret of a Thousand Beauties by Mingmei Yip
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Scarlett O’Hara has nothing on Spring Swallow! This young heroine in 1930s China has to endure many tragedies, lost husbands, poverty, and hard work in order to survive. At the age of seventeen, she is forced into a ghost marriage—a marriage to a dead man she was promised to before both of them were born. She bravely runs away, but the choice she makes to leave her village is more than daring—it is dangerous. How will she fend for herself?

Spring Swallow meets another lost soul who takes her to a house on the side of a haunted mountain. There she becomes an apprentice to Aunty Peony, a cold and calculating master embroiderer with a dark past. She learns the “secrets of a thousand beauties” in the Su tradition of embroidery and experiences conflicts of jealousy and betrayal with the other “sisters” as they work on an embroidered painting to enter a competition. Spring Swallow’s walks on the mountain bring her to the notice of a young revolutionary, Shen Feng, and at last she feels she has found true love. But nothing is easy for Spring Swallow. She faces more challenges and disappointments as her lover goes off to follow his dream of a better China.

Rich in detail, the story feels like it takes place one hundred years or more earlier than the 1930s, as the characters are steeped in ancient superstitions and fear of ghost hauntings. The characterization of Spring Swallow as a capable young woman who follows her heart is its biggest draw and should please readers of women’s fiction.

View all my reviews

My Sexy Saturday Post from a W.I.P.

 

Deep in an English wood...

What's a W.I.P. you ask? Simply it's a "work in progress" and this time around I've decided to post seven sexy paragraphs from our current work in progress entitled Driving in England. I say "our" because this is story was written by me and my husband, the talented A.J. Matthews. Right now, it's tentatively scheduled for a January 2015 release from Devine Destinies, so if you like this excerpt more be coming soon! In the meantime, be sure to check out my other mainstream romantic fiction at www.cynthianna.com


A brief synopsis: Susannah, a woman of a certain age, travels to England on behalf of her boss, a rich oil tycoon, to do a little snooping into his family tree. What she doesn't count on is butting heads and then falling for the handsome genealogist Duncan Balfour. 

Excerpt set-up: Who says older lovers can't have as much fun as younger ones, especially when it's a warm day and an empty forest meadow beckons? ;)


Oh, my!” Susannah shot him a glance that covered his body from face to bulging pants. Her face looked pink. “We’re like a couple of teenagers.”

Duncan thought of something. “Let’s get past Norwich. Thetford’s not too far down the road.” 

“What’s in Thetford?”

“It’s not what’s in Thetford, it’s what’s around it.” When she looked blank he smiled. “Thetford Forest. There are a number of trails running through it. We can find one and be... private for a few minutes.”

She chuckled. “You wanna do it outside? Hmm, Duncan, what a naughty boy you are!” 

“But you like the idea?”

She nodded. “Oh, I like.”


Enjoy the rest of your Sexy Saturday blog hop!
http://mysexysaturday.blogspot.com