Let’s see what I remember from this year… the grands are growing up and we got to spend time with them again – a week at the beach and Camp Granddar again, not to mention birthdays and just visiting. They’re already 9 and 4 – when did that happen??

Enjoyed more performances at Tanger again this year – Hades Town, And Juliet, Tina, Momma Mia and Hamilton! And took a short trip to New York – Got to see the Broadway Museum which was incredible – probably helped that I was with La Daughter who is a professional stage manager. Highest recs!  Also walked the whole Highline, where my nephew works!

No Christmas stocking to cross-stitch this year, but did get some work done – really good at keeping me from snacking in the evenings!

Had four new books published this year – Survivors, Growing the Change, Alien Embraces (My 50th book!!), Christmas Fare, as well as another audio book – Red Shoes.

Added some of my eBooks to paper again this year – Baked Goods, Decoding Corruption. Accounting for Evil, Beach House, Small Changes, and Country Doctor.

My thanks again to my Writer-2-Writer crew that helped with this process as well as other authors – check these out from Laura Browning, Linda Tiffin, and PK Corey!

Here’s hoping 2025 will be okay.

There’re some new books out recently you should check out!

Linda Sedgwick’s long-awaited sequel to Voyage of the SunRunner, Return of the SunRunner is now available.

Linda TIffin’s 3rd in the Whisper series – Whispers in the Wind came out in September!

and C.L. Hadyn’s latest Two Wishes will be out shortly.

You’ve met all these authors here before – I’ve worked with them formatting and editing. Feel like a proud Mama when I see them out!

And then there’s my 2023 Christmas Novella – Home for Christmas

The Family You Choose – book two in the Changing Heart series will go on pre-order today for release September 5!

Willa has a job and familial obligations. That’s all she needs. Her stint in the military cured her of needing or wanting a man in her life, other than her younger brother. However, this new assignment is intriguing, except maybe for the man assigned to train her.

Clint is happy with his new role now that he’s separated from the military. He’s with his friends, getting the job done under less hazardous conditions. Well, less hazardous until he meets the woman he needs to train for this new assignment.

Excerpt –

Willa Landers stepped out the shower and grabbed her towel. The water pressure had been almost adequate this morning. Unusual for this dump. She thought again about cutting off her long red hair, it was thick and drying it took forever, but she didn’t have the time or money to keep that up. This way she could wrap it in a bun and go. At least the place fit her budget and was private. Maybe no one else in the building was up. It wasn’t like she really knew any of them anyway. She’d had a good workout this morning. Saturdays gave her time at the gym that she couldn’t seem to carve out of the rest of the week.

She wasn’t lonely. No time for it and besides, she had Gavin. The people she worked with were enough for the most part. It wasn’t like she spent a lot of time alone here. Just at night.

Her job kept her on her feet more than being in an office, but not quite enough to feel like a real workout. As a security guard at Beaton Industries, Covington Plant, she got in the steps but keeping herself toned was important too.

She jerked when her cell phone buzzed. She had no plans today, other than laundry and housecleaning before she headed over to the rehab center. Please don’t be about Gavin. Looking down at the notice, her heart both slowed and sank. What would Dennis want today? Her supervisor wasn’t her favorite person to begin with. To mess up a Saturday was above and beyond. She forced a smile so her dickwad of a supervisor wouldn’t be able to hear how pissed she was.

“Everything okay, Dennis?”

“Good morning to you too. I need you to come in for a couple of hours.”

“Is there a problem?” She managed not to grit her teeth. “I’m not on the schedule for today.”

“I know. It’s for some special training. That new security group the bigwigs hired is going to put some software into beta testing for us.”

Willa shut her eyes, shaking her head. Today?

“We’re all going to have to take the training.” Dennis spoke again, his voice a little more insistent.

“On our days off?”

“I’ll expect you here in thirty.”

“Make it an hour. I just got back from the gym.”

“Nice. Keep those buns tight. An hour. Be here.” He broke the connection before she could respond, and Willa took a deep breath attempting to hold onto her temper. She liked her job, for the most part, but Dennis kept edging closer and closer to the line. She wasn’t the only female security guard. The bigwigs, as he called them, were great about diversity that way. However, the supervisors for all three shifts were male. One was a nice guy, David, married with kids, daughters, but the other two, Dennis and Greg, were less than ideal.

She better get moving.

Hearing the Change – Book 1 of the Changing Heart series on sale for $.99 to get you started!

(Check out all my $.99 books here!)

On sale for $.99 only until June 14!! Get it now…  Amazon

Varju thought he was the son of a blacksmith in a small Hungarian village and his father had named him Varju after the common crow. He also thought he would remain in the village until his dream of becoming a soldier in King Matthais Corvinus’ Black Army withered as he finally grew too old to serve…until a lone rider with dented armor and a lame horse changed all that.

Excerpt:

Buda, Summer of 1450

Matthais Corvinus, King of Hungary, stormed out of his council room and almost collided with one of his best warriors, Sir Alric Dahl, a Norseman who’d joined the Black Army as a mercenary and made Hungary his home. Rather than make his apologies he stormed, “I am heartily sick of politics, Alric, and most especially when the subject is my marriage to a woman I disliked upon first glimpse of her miniature. The marriage will take place this December, so I don’t imagine I will be in a very festive mood for Christmas. Mayhap you know of some entertainment I can lose myself in this evening?”

“Well, Your Majesty, there is a Rom kumpania that’s just arrived in Buda and has made camp a short ride away. This one is known for its good horseflesh, and I’m in need of a new mount. We could take in the music and dancing, and, maybe, you can have your palm read to see what your impending marriage will be like.”

“Pah, I already know what my marriage will be like. It will have all the warmth of an ice storm. Whoever said Neapolitan women were warm-blooded creatures never met my betrothed, Beatrice of Naples. But after burying two wives already, I would marry a gorgon if it gave me an heir. To my way of thinking, Beatrice’s worst feature is not her plain looks but the fact I’ve heard she does not value learning for learning’s sake. I doubt such a wife will give me a son that matches me in intelligence.”

Alric slapped him on the back and attempted to lighten his mood.

“Come, come Matthais. Enough dourness. If you aren’t interested in music, dancing or prognostication this evening, the Rom also have enticing women and strong drink.”

Bio –

C. L. Hadyn aka Cyn Hadyn, a career historian with Hungarian/Viking nomadic roots, loads up the gypsy wagon for the last time (hopefully) and heads to Greensboro, North Carolina, to follow her delusion of becoming a New York Times best-selling author. Yeah, sounds silly but it’s true. I’m a transplanted Yankee living way south of the Mason-Dixon Line despite its lack of decent Italian food. Uh, concerning the Italian food, I’d still sacrifice a small digit for authentic Italian cuisine a la Philly, Trenton, or New York.

Before settling down to write full time in the land of ‘bless your heart, and y’all’, I was a Special Operations (US Army and US Marines) military historian/archivist. Now I collect retirement checks and write paranormal, and historical romance. I guess my service with Army and Marine Special Operations left an indelible impression on my writing, because my characters, both male and female, are distinctly Spec Ops in their outlook. They leave no man behind, color outside the lines, and are very, very lethal. I’ve also pushed the envelope a little by including Erotica and BDSM and M/M romance. Which brings me to my latest books: The Cuckoo; Golden Hours Book 1: Fall Back, and Book 2: Spring Ahead; Book1 of the Trident Maritime Investigation series: Aurelia, and Book 2: Auric; Off Track; Bloodstock; The Danegeld, and Guarded Hearts, published by Decadent Publishing under the pseudonym C. L. Hadyn.

If you have a taste for History with a Twist, paranormal, or something more outré’, I would love to hear from you via gmail.com at clhadyn.writes2.

Check out other books by CL – Amazon