Look For Our Books Online at Your Favorite Book Seller

 

Update January 2025:  eXtasy Books (Devine Destinies) is no longer selling books directly from their web site. The flood of self-pubbed books online  has made it even more difficult for small publishers to compete and stay afloat in today's economy. Publisher Tina Haveman thought that selling books through the big online web sites alone would be the best thing to do at this time.

You can still find and buy our books at Amazon, B & N, Kobo, Smashwords, and other online book sellers. Until we get the links here updated, please search for our book titles at your favorite online book seller.

Every day is a struggle for writers. Please buy our works, subscribe to our Substacks, and donate to our individual causes whenever you're able. Thanks for understanding. --Cindy and Adrian Matthews

Here's our books' links at Amazon:

The series main page:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HQWP6VB?binding=kindle_edition&qid=1736809506&sr=1-23&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

Olivia's Escape
https://www.amazon.com/Olivias-Escape-BloodDark-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07MYL8TY2/ref=sr_1_21

Olivia's Return https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NCQSBX8

Olivia's Decision
https://www.amazon.com/Olivias-Decision-BloodDark-Book-3-ebook/dp/B07P8JKSG3/ref=sr_1_25

Fire On The Sands
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Sands-BloodDark-Book-4-ebook/dp/B07QBMBQ54/ref=sr_1_23

Here are our books' links at the publisher's site:

Olivia's Escape https://www.extasybooks.com/olivias-escape

Olivia's Return https://www.extasybooks.com/olivias-return

Olivia's Decision https://www.extasybooks.com/olivias-decision

Fire on the Sands https://www.extasybooks.com/fire-on-the-sands  

 

You can also check out our books at our author pages there:

https://www.extasybooks.com/cindy-a-matthews

https://www.extasybooks.com/adrian-j-matthews

The BloodDark Series is Without A Home

Yet again, we've lost another publisher. Desert Breeze Publishing is closing their doors after more than a decade. 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 our Desert Breeze Publishing titles (including Cindy's stand alone romance novels) please do so before June 30th. Check the gorgeous cover art (also going away soon) and synopses at her web site. of http://www.cynthianna.com.

We hope to find a new home for the BloodDark series--and continue writing adventure tales set in this universe--very soon. Your best wishes and prayers (and purchases) are very much appreciated during this stressful and sad time.

Purchase links to the four titles in the BloodDark series can be found  on the book pages to your right. Print and Kindle versions are available via Amazon. 

(Ironic, isn't it, for you to buy our books in those 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 novels, for example. It's called economic censorship, and you, the readers, are the biggest losers at the end of the day.)

Fire On The Sands Has Arrived!

Fire On The Sands
(Book 4 in The BloodDark Series, this story takes place in the era before the "Olivia Trilogy" of tales.)
http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/blooddark-book-four-fire-on-the-sand-epub/
Print version available at Amazon.

Airship Captain Adena Nightingale takes on a smuggling run - and gets more than she bargained for. Out on the frigid desert of BloodDark World's night side, she rescues Earthman Greg Cole, an escaped slave from a Pure Blood mine.

Greg wants to rescue his friend, kidnapped with him and held somewhere in the City of Night. Adena's okay with that, but she doesn't know something strange lurks in the Oculus Nightingale's cargo bay.

When they reach the City of Night all hell breaks loose. Adena, Greg, and the sentient brass parrot Mr. Phibuli find themselves caught up in the aftershocks of an ancient war - and they have their work cut out for them in order to survive.

Excerpt:

The open desert lay beyond the single track, the sand and gravel waste looking cold, dark and empty. The heat on Greg's back stopped as if a furnace door had shut. He trudged onward for another hundred paces or so, wondering what to do next. The desert seemed to suck at his soul. Greg shivered from fear more than from cold. Who knows what's out there? The wild creatures of this crazy world could be far worse than Earth.

A blazing barrel dropped from the sky, slamming into the sand and bursting a short distance away. Burning oil shot out in a spray and spattered on his legs. Greg jumped and howled as he beat at the stinging pain and tripped over a barrel stave as it skittered by, one end burning bright. Cursing the burns, Greg picked up the stave. With a last glance at the emptiness he turned and used the rudimentary torch to light his way across the uneven ground.

He skirted the area of the mining compound, trying to see past fires and roiling smoke to determine how the slaves were doing. Occasional yells and cries sounded over the roar of flames. Once an ogre bellowed, whether in pain or triumph, he couldn't tell.

Greg reached the foot of the crag. The locomotive whistle shrieked, the banshee sound making him cringe. He heard the sounds of the engine stirring to life, the heavy huff and puff of steam at work. Greg stopped.

What the heck do I do now? I know that damned city is back down the track. Do the silly beggars think they'll escape if they go back? Are they going the other way, and to what?

He hesitated, caught between exhaustion and the need to escape. The sounds of the locomotive increased in tempo, but decreased in volume. It's moving away. They're getting away without me. He sagged to his knees, feeling like giving up and letting the cold or any surviving ogres find and kill him.

A soft puttering sound impinged on his hearing. At first Greg put it down to the sound of blood surging in his head. The sound increased in volume. Weary beyond belief he raised his head and looked about, wondering if he heard an echo of the fast-retreating locomotive. Some quality of the sound made him stare upward.

A huge shape blotted out the stars above. The fires in the mining camp reflected off a long silver cylindrical form, and Greg could make out the glint of glass and metal fittings and an array of windows showing a dull ruddy light.

It's an airship! An honest-to-God airship!

Fire On The Sands is available now in e-formats from Desert Breeze Publishing and in print at Amazon.

Book 3, Olivia's Decision is now available

Now available, Book 3 in the BloodDark Series!

Olivia's Decision
http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/blooddark-book-three-olivias-decision-epub/
also available at Amazon.

 

Olivia's chance to prove herself as a spy hasn't gone well. She knows the handsome vampire Moreau is up to something. With the assistance of Kate and Mahvet, Olivia solves the mystery of the rogue Portal and Clan Alpha's illegal artwork sales, then escapes with the help of Valori, whose growing telekinetic powers prove frightening.

Hernando is hurt by Olivia's lie, but there's too much at stake to remain mad for long. Even Olivia learns to trust the Pure Bloods. They travel with the ruling council by airship to the Alphans' defensive weapon constructed with materials bought from billionaire Roland Grundfest. She senses the true invaders are Earthmen who've stolen BloodDark's technology for their own purposes. Olivia is torn between Earth and the world and peoples she's come to love. Will a climactic encounter in the desert decide Olivia's--and BloodDark's--fate once and for all?

Books 1 and 2, Olivia's Escape and Olivia's Return, are  available in e-book and print from Desert Breeze Publishing, Amazon and other fine online book 
sellers. 

An excerpt from Olivia's Decision:
 
Mahvet swung his arms at a control panel. Olivia dashed over just in time to stop his fist from connecting with it.

"Please, professor! Remember, they might have a security device set to alert them if anybody touches it."

He took a long breath and pulled back. "You're right. We should go now. I'm not sure I can hold back my desire to wreak vengeance against the sacrilege my kinsmen have committed."

She nodded. "Good idea. We leave the way we came in?"

"Or the way we came in." 

Olivia spun around at the sound of Moreau's smug, self-assured voice coming from the feasting hall's main entrance. "You!" she spat at him. "I should have known you were involved in this."

 "Hello, Olivia. Hello, Mahvet. I see you've discovered where we're keeping our insurance policy." With a casual toss of his blond hair over his shoulder, Moreau broke away from the pack and strode to her side. Olivia recognized his father and uncles among the Pure Bloods standing next to the large double doors, along with a half-dozen beefy Overseers. "Insurance policy is the correct term, isn't it?" 

"Probably. Who are you paying your premiums to? It wouldn't be Roland Grundfest by chance, would it?"

Moreau froze. His eyes narrowed. "How do you know the name?"

So, she had something on Golden Boy? She'd better make good use of it. She took a step toward him, hands on hips. "Dear ol' Roland? You could say Mr. Grundfest is a friend of mine. He invited us over for drinks at his palatial home in the Hamptons recently -- even flew us there in our very own jet."

Olivia bit her lip to keep from laughing. Poor Moreau furrowed his pale forehead, confused at her odd confession. It was obvious -- no one was supposed to know the Alphans had an exclusive deal running with a human businessman. Why did the Alphans think Grundfest wouldn't give their relationship away? The billionaire was known for his extravagant gestures and hot-headed temper tantrums. His often foolish antics and childish tweets moaning about his competitors made the news almost daily. The Alphans couldn't be so naïve as to believe Roland Grundfest could be trusted.

Ah, but Pure Bloods don't receive our newscasts or have access to the internet. They don't realize what a stupid deal they made with Grundfest. Should I enlighten them or let them suffer for it?

Keep your thoughts neutral, Olivia, Valori's voice instructed. I can't block all thoughts, all the time, particularly emotional ones. Stay with Moreau and the others. I'll be there soon.

"You and your family are a disgrace to Clan Alpha," Mahvet roared. He crossed the room to stand eye to eye with Moreau. "You sully our clan's sacred honor by selling our cherished relics, and for what? To accumulate useless wealth on another world?"

Moreau tossed his head back, his golden hair bouncing about his shoulders as he shook with laughter. "Better to have wealth on two worlds than nothing on one. Right, eh, Mahvet? You of all people should know how much we Alphans have struggled to get where we are today. The least of the clans on BloodDark in the dawning times -- the brunt of jokes as we crawled and scraped our way up from the bottom tiers of society to simply survive, but now..." His cobalt eyes glowed with pure arrogance. "We have the power. We have the ability to rule two worlds." 

Olivia's Decision is now available in e-formats at Desert Breeze Publishing:

http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/blooddark-book-three-olivias-decision-epub/

And in print and Kindle formats at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Olivias-Decision-BloodDark-Cindy-Matthews/dp/1682948846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503088992&sr=1-1&keywords=Olivia%27s+Decision+Cindy+Matthews

Olivia's Return--Coming February 2017

Olivia returns to Earth, then travels back to BloodDark, sacrificing herself to make both worlds safe from those who would do evil.

Olivia's Return
by Cindy A. Matthews and Adrian J. Matthews
Desert Breeze Publishing
Release date: February 2017 

It's good to return home--or is it? A year after Olivia Brown's abduction by vampiric aliens, she isn't sure where she belongs anymore. On Earth, she's told to forget her adventures and go to college. But evidence of wrongdoing by the Pure Bloods prompt fellow Resistance fighter Annara to concoct a plan to spy on Clan Alpha. Are the Alphans dealing with billionaire Roland Grundfest, a man willing to supply "vampire brides" for a price to serve their needs for fresh DNA on BloodDark?

To become a spy, Olivia must do more than dye her hair and change her clothing tastes--she must lie to both her parents and her Quadsang boyfriend, Hernando. A little white lie can't hurt, can it? Once again on BloodDark, Olivia realizes she needs friends like Valori, whose psychic powers can incapacitate hired killers. But will Olivia return to Earth ever again? 

Meet the Authors Questions

 We were recently asked some questions about our writing and our methods as writers. Here are our responses:

Are you a full-out plotter? Are you a "let's see what happens" pantser? Or do you think you fall somewhere in between? Describe your process in coming up with and executing a story idea.

Adrian says: I'm by nature a pantser. I will plot things out if necessary, like when I'm writing a murder mystery. I don't really have a process in coming up with a story idea. They come to me from out of the ether--in the middle of the night sometimes--and then I write the story idea down.

Cindy says: I have to admit to being a "let's see what happens" pantser. I've tried to be more methodical and plot things out in detail, but somehow the characters always take me by the hand and lead me down another path. They just start "talking" to me as I write the scene, and they tell me they're not going to do as I want them to do. (Very much like children, it seems!) I'm not sure I have a set process for coming up with story ideas, but I read quite widely and expose myself to a lot of different people and subjects as a freelance writer/editor, so I'm constantly being inundated with potential characters and stories. Once I get a feel for "a character who has a story that needs telling" I start to envision the opening scene with my main characters and allow myself to be taken on a ride from there.


**Where is the most interesting place you have ever traveled? If you haven't traveled much, where would you absolutely love to go?

Together we've traveled to several Civil War battlefields and sites, such as

Wilson's Creek in Missouri, Lookout Mountain/Chattanooga in Tennessee and Chickamauga and Kennesaw National Battlefields in Georgia. Recently, we stopped off at both the Gettysburg and Antietam National Battlefields. (Hint: Try not to tour both of these within 48 hours--there's way too much to see at each to do them justice.) We're hoping to return to both of them someday soon and visit other Civil War sites in Virginia and West Virginia as well.

We both used to do French and Indian War re-enactments, so we really enjoy touring historical places and speaking with others about the significance of what happened there and the historical personalities involved. When we were in England visiting Adrian's family, we enjoyed touring castles and other historical sites in County Norfolk.


**What have you never written about, but want to some day?

Adrian: I've had the idea for a SF story knocking around for years, but haven't got around to writing it beyond working up a few notes.

Cindy: I've always wanted to write a more "hard science fiction" novel about a near future that may or may not come about and the consequences of our actions in bringing such a world into existence. I'm not saying it would be Orwellian in tone, but it probably would be much more "serious" than anything I've been able to publish so far (in fiction at least).

**Describe for us how it felt the first time you actually completed a manuscript.

Adrian: Jubilant! There's nothing better for me as a writer than the moment when I type "The End."

Cindy: I think I was shocked the first time I completed a romantic-comedy novel. It had taken some time to write that first draft (as I had two very young daughters underfoot at the time) and my first thought was, "What do I do now?" Luckily, I joined a writer's group not too long after finishing that book, and I learned a lot about rewriting and polishing a manuscript for publication, so much so that I eventually sold the book, The Fixer-Uppers. (And it is still in print/e-print, too. You can read about it at my contemporary/fantasy romance persona's website www.cynthianna.com.) 

**Did you write stories or make up stories as a child? Do you remember what any of them were about? Tell us...

Adrian says: I did write a short story at age 8 or 9. It was about the pilot of a 1930's Grumman Goose seaplane who discovers pirate treasure in the South Seas. I can even remember the title - "Barry Linton's Treasure." I might just revisit the idea as a full YA novel one of these days, although the 80's TV series "Tales of the Gold Monkey" seems to have stolen my idea!

Cindy says: Oh, did I ever make up stories when I was a child! I remember my mother helped me write my first "picture book," which was a story about a dining table full of talking objects who came to life late at night… 

The salt and pepper shakers were characters, as was the butter in the butter dish and the sugar bowl, etc. I drew the pictures in blue ball-point, as I recall, on scrap paper, and my mom wrote the words of my story beside the pictures and bound the pages all together, and I then made proper cover for it. (I was about four or five years old, and we didn't learn to write until first grade way back when. We didn't even have to attend kindergarten!) 

I hope I can find the remnants of my first "book" someday in all the boxes of nostalgia I've inherited from my late mother, but I fear it's long been lost. Still, I am ever so proud to say I "wrote and illustrated" my own book before I even attended school.


**Consider the main character in the last book you had published with DBP. What was different or special about him or her?

Olivia is different from a lot of our other heroines because she's 1) a young adult (age 17 in the first book) and not a mature adult (as we both usually are drawn to write), and 2) she's a strong person who acts on the courage of her convictions. 

That's not say Olivia is a person without self-doubts--because all of us question our own motives from time to time--but Olivia is special in that she has the innocence of her childhood and the love of her family fresh in her mind when she faces the challenges of being abducted and taken to an alien world. Her bravery is genuine and not jaded by a long past that many older characters have. In other words, she hasn't grown overly cynical. 

Olivia feels free to take a moral stand and to do whatever is necessary to bring about change on BloodDark to help her new friends and her new love, Hernando, survive and thrive there. It's quite refreshing to write from the perspective of a young and positive heroine who has the energy and guts to tackle challenges without shying away from them.

**Do you have a favorite inspirational quote/scripture/poem that you feel motivates you?

Adrian:
I like this quote:
"We are all of us lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." --Oscar Wilde

Cindy: My favorite poem is "Success" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Its last stanza is particularly motivating:

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."

Be sure to check out our latest release, Olivia's Escape, from Desert Breeze Publishing!

Book 1: Olivia's Escape

Olivia's Escape 

by Cindy A. Matthews & Adrian J. Matthews

Book 1 in the BloodDark series and the first book in Olivia's trilogy (Olivia's Escape, Olivia's Return, Olivia's Decision) from Desert Breeze Publishing.
Available in print NOW at Amazon.com.

Olivia's Escape: Book 1 of the BloodDark Series

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Brown is abducted on her way home from a night out and wakes up to find herself imprisoned by a vampiric race in a dark city bathed in eternal night. Hernando, a handsome half-human slave, reveals what is intended for her - they want her blood for the upcoming festival. Together they escape, and find friends and allies in unexpected places.

Joining a resistance cell, they help plot a revolution and fall in love. Their group plans to take control of the Portal, a teleportation device that links Earth to the world of BloodDark. Getting into the City of Night is a challenge. A narrow window of opportunity opens - but what awaits them in the caverns located deep beneath the city?

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

Available NOW in print and ebook formats: http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/the-blooddark-series-book-one-olivias-escape-epub/

Print version:
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