Taste of Cyn

IF And Having A Support System

By Cynthia Sax on January 24, 2025

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about IF and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this film, you might wish to skip this post.

I didn’t have any interest in watching IF. A film about imaginary friends didn’t appeal to me.

I am one of six kids and I am also an extreme introvert. As a child, I certainly wasn’t inventing more people to spend time with. (grins)

But IF was playing on repeat on the cruise ship’s movie channel and…I got sucked in.

THREE times.

Because, stars, this movie was AWESOME. I laughed my a$$ off. AND I cried so hard.

The film could be interpreted in a variety of ways. I viewed it as an exploration of the importance of support systems.

We need them. Even if it means inventing imaginary support systems and beings.

And when we lose them, that could be through the death of a support being or growing up and getting too busy to maintain or believe in our support systems, it impacts us. Greatly.

The characters in our stories need support systems also. Sure, they might go it alone for a few scenes. But they eventually need to either establish a new support system or touch base with an existing one.

Because we, humans, need support systems. Even if they are all in our minds.

***

Claiming Cure

A proud cyborg medic meets his human match.

***

Cyra has tasks to complete before she dies.

There are patients to heal, a dangerous mission to undertake, and a world to save. She doesn’t have time to entertain uninvited guests.

Especially one coldhearted cyborg medic who thinks he’s better than her.

The male might be breathtakingly handsome. His sternly set lips might be extremely kissable. And his touch might draw out a passion she didn’t think she was capable of feeling.

But he’s also a distraction, one that might doom millions of innocent beings to a painful, horrible death.

Cure isn’t emotionless. He feels…greatly. Listening to that malfunction has caused other beings pain and suffering in the past.

He refuses to allow his desires to cloud his judgment now.

His resolve is tested when he’s forced to associate with the most provoking, alluring medic in the universe.

Cyra is his genetic match, the one being in the universe he is fated to protect, touch, claim. She’s clever and beautiful, and the need to hold her almost downs his systems.

But now is not the time to indulge his great wanting.

Cure has an assignment to complete.

If he fails to accomplish his goals, everyone he cares for, including his human female, will die.

***

Claiming Cure is a standalone Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

It features two skilled medics determined to ignore the toe-curling attraction between them, a perilous impossible mission, and foes seeking to ensure they never heal another being ever again.

Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC

Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Claiming-Cure-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0D26MWGKC

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/claiming-cure/id6499055867

Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/claiming-cure

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1553992

Topics: Movie Reviews | Comments Off on IF And Having A Support System

Something Borrowed And To Be Continued

By Cynthia Sax on August 7, 2020

I finally watched the 2011 romantic comedy Something Borrowed this week. This movie is based on an Emily Giffin book with the same title.

I resisted watching this movie and reading this book based on the premise – A woman falls in love with her best friend’s fiancé. Yes, ouch. There are only two outcomes I can predict with that premise – either the woman ends up broken hearted or a close friendship ends. I like happy endings and neither of those outcomes are happy.

I won’t talk about that in this post. What I wanted to talk about is the ending. Don’t worry. This will be fairly spoiler-free.

The ending is a Romance Novel sexy brother ending amplified.

In what I call a sexy brother series (other writers have other names for this type of series), every story has a couple (or more) with their own romantic happy ever after BUT another intriguing character or couple (or more) is also introduced in their story.

Seasoned Romance Novel readers such as myself (and I suspect you) know that character or couple (or more) will have their own story told next or soon after. This is often implied rather than outright stated.

Why isn’t it outright stated?

Because a gazillion things could prevent that next story from being published. And if the next story isn’t ever published, making a too obvious link between the two stories will hurt our enjoyment of the first story. I can’t recommend to buddies a book 1 that needs a book 2 if the book 2 will never be published.

The odds of a next movie being produced are even lower than the odds of a next book being published. Yet Something Borrowed ends with a very strong link to the next movie, a movie that 9 years later hasn’t happened and likely will never happen.

The link might have been forgivable if it hadn’t been for the message they placed at the end of the movie – To Be Continued…

These three words took away my ability to think of Something Borrowed as a completed story or film. There was no doubt left in my mind. I had watched only a portion of the story.

It was frustrating and completely unnecessary and is a great lesson for writers everywhere. Unless we are certain there will be a next story, we should think carefully before strongly linking stories.

Note: I now self-publish all my stories which means, barring any huge disasters, I’m in complete control over my next stories. I can talk about Power’s story because, if there is any life left in my 40-something currently-relatively-healthy form at all a year from now, Power’s story WILL be written and, soon after that, released.

I still prefer that my stories stand on their own as I know not all heroes or heroines or premises appeal to all reading buddies. And hey, things happen.

***

Subscribe To My Monthly Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/

Testing Truth

A fun-loving cyborg gets serious about love.

***

Truth lives each moment as though it were his last. The cyborg warrior rushes into danger, teases beings he shouldn’t provoke, accepts every call of adventure he encounters.

When a prissy little human princess floats into the Rebel structure Truth is occupying, seeking a mercenary to assist her and her unusual entourage, he volunteers to be her warrior. She claims their assignment is dangerous, warns him he might not survive the task.

That is exactly the type of fun he has been seeking.

Princess Nanette of the planet Royaume must rescue her estranged brother from an enemy prison ship. That is her duty, and she has been trained to always place the needs of her planet and her subjects before her own. Nancy doesn’t have the freedom to indulge her passions for a certain dark-haired, gray-skinned cyborg. Not permanently and not publicly.

But she is unable to resist the warrior. Truth, with his laughing eyes, smiling lips, and rough hands, tempts her as no one else ever has. He could be her one fleeting act of rebellion before she’s matched with the powerful ruler her planet requires.

If they survive their current mission.

Their love is doomed. Their lifespans are at risk. This cyborg and his princess will need the help of every ally they have if they wish to see another sunrise.

Pre-order Now:

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Amazon AUS:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Apple Books:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/testing-truth/id1520415369

B&N:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/testing-truth-cynthia-sax/1137237855

Kobo: