My garden tip today is not to trim your fruit trees too late in the season. Do it no later than December. We waited too late and ended up cutting off the blooms from our trees and had no fruit that year. In our defense this is our first house and it came with fruit trees and we’ve never had our own fruit trees before.

After that year of rest, we had lots of blooms.

And if you’re interested in flowers, and livein a dry area, I suggest pansies and sweet Alyssum. I live in the Central Valley of California and they do well here. I had to sprinkle slug killer on my pansies as you can see in the above photo since they slugs were eating up my pansies but the sweet Alyssum did fine. I suggest using a slug killer that is nontoxic to children and pets like Iron phosphate – Completely disrupts their digestive system and adds iron into the soil while it’s at it.

Now on to my next favorite subject, writing…..

When writing a series, it is all about the what ifs…
When I decided to write Matrix Crystal Hunters I planned on a science fiction romance set on another planet. It would be a desert planet.
I also had to figure out the what ifs…
What if… a team from Earth had fought a wormhole and landed on a planet and they were sick from radiation poisoning and their fuel exhausted?
What if… their team’s geologist, (I decided on Maya), heard of a crystal that would multiply energy.
What if… harnessing the energy of these crystals was the only way to go back to Earth?
What if… a native of the planet fell madly in love with our heroine (I named him Vach) and decided to creep into her tent late one night…
And she brained him with a frying pan.

Okay, I know that sounds bad, but you’ll have to read the book to see why it works out.
After I finished, I kept revising the story.
That’s what writers do, they can’t leave their stories alone and have to keep fiddling with it.
I went over my finished manuscript until I feel it is polished within an inch of its life.

After the first story was published, the characters kept talking…
And I kept writing.
Book two came out, Matrix Crystal Christmas. It’s made up of two short stories. It wasn’t originally supposed to be about Christmas, but the Christmas season was coming up and I thought I’d add some Christmas elements to the last chapter of each story.

In Crystal Flower Christmas: Vach and Maya are on a mission to undam the Laonooco River for the drought stricken region. As heartache fractures their marriage, will the gift of a crystal flower mend their relationship or break it beyond repair?

In Crystal Clear Christmas: Plague has struck the village of Zama and the citizens blame the only human left on Zenevieva, Maya. Will Vach make the ultimate sacrifice to save his wife?
I actually thought I was done with Maya and Vach, but then their son wanted his own book and I wrote Matrix Crystal River.

It was the first time I wrote a shy character. Most of the women I write about don’t have a shy bone in their bodies. The stories theme is also a bit different.
What if… the humans came back after twenty years, and their greedy Earth government wanted the matrix crystals to exploit?
What if… their geologist though talented in finding and shaping crystals was painfully shy and sensitive?
What if… River Namaste wanted her and wouldn’t let anything, or anyone get in his way?
River’s story was published late in 2016.
Aha, I thought I am done.
And then, Vach and Maya’s daughter is poking me in the shoulder and told me it was her turn.
Okay, fine. I wrote the next book, Matrix Crystal Rebels, and it was just published 12-19-2017. So just a month ago.
Again, the ‘what ifs’ are a bit different.
What if…Earth geologist Steen’s mission is to look and act like a Zeeman, so he can locate matrix crystals.
What if… Steen’s deception fails, and the only one willing to help him is Rain Namaste? (Maya and Vach’s daughter?)
What if… Steen doesn’t realize he’s fallen in love with the lovely redhead until someone tries to claim her on Hymeneal Night?
What will he do then?
Ah, am I done now? We shall see…

Matrix Crystal Rebels

Excerpt:
“Mom.” Rain waved at Maya. “Someone is here to see you.”
“Oh?” With one last swat at her clothes, Maya marched over.
“He says he’s a merchant.” Rain gestured at Steen.
Maya scanned his attire and snorted. “Tell your commander, nice try.”
His stomach dropped. “Huh? What did I do wrong?”
“Whoever coached you was misguided. For one thing, your clothes are the wrong type. Merchants don’t wear rough weave.” Maya rubbed the fabric of his sleeve between her thumb and forefinger. “That’s for peasants. Too fine a weave would be clan, so you’d have to find something in-between.” She stared at his eyes a moment. “Are those contacts?”
He rubbed his eyelids. “Implants. I can tolerate the bright sun with them.”
She gave a nod. “You’ll need it here. Nice touch with the hair, by the way.”
He fingered a braid. “At least I did something right.”
“It’s a little long for so many braids. And the skin tone… Is that a skin dye?” She stared at his face.
“DNA treatments.”
“How about the Zeeman dual belly buttons?”
Steen pulled up his shirt.
“Wow. Which is fake?”
“The top.” He handed her his tote. “I brought a gift for you.”
She cocked her head to the side and sighed. Taking the tote, she nodded toward the house. “Will you come in for some tea?”
“Yes, thank you.” He bowed low, hiding a smile.
Maya led the way up on the porch. He did what she did, removing his shoes, washing his feet in the basin then pulling on a pair of house slippers she handed him.
“Nice. You invoked guest privilege,” Rain said in his ear. “Mother is human but practices the ways of the Zeeman.”
“I know.” He smirked at her.
With a reluctant expression, Maya held the door open for him. “Tea won’t be but a moment.”
“Goddess tea.” He bowed again.
“Of course.” Maya disappeared into the kitchen.
Rain showed him the dining table. “My father and brother probably won’t be as nice as my mom.”
He sat on the richly carved black ironwood chair next to Rain. “You’re an attractive young female. Maybe I should have said I came here to woo you?”
Interest lit her gaze. “And then you’d have to answer a lot of questions from both my parents. We take wooing very seriously here in Zama.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Matrix Crystal Hunters: https://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-Hunters-Book-Crystals-ebook/dp/B00FJ10W26/
Matrix Crystal Christmas: https://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-Christmas-Crystals-Book-ebook/dp/B00GJCNBAY/
Matrix Crystal River: https://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-River-Crystals-Three-ebook/dp/B01MDOHI70/
Matrix Crystal Rebels: https://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-Rebels-Book-Four-ebook/dp/B078HL6113/
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Find Janice Seagraves’s on:
Her website: https://janice-seagraves.org/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Janice-Seagraves-Author-117551164948239/
And on Twitter: https://twitter.com/janiceseagraves
Janice’s Amazon page, where you can see all her books: https://www.amazon.com/Janice-Seagraves/e/B0056D223Y/
Janice’s Smashwords page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Ladyjanice

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Janice’s Prize is a sighed paperback book, science fiction romance, Matrix Crystal River. The winner will be be chosen on where you live. Because of the high cost of shipping, the winner will have to live in the USA or Canada for me to be able to ship a book to them. Please leave a comment about where you live, your email, why you love to garden, and what is your favorite genre.