Taste of Cyn

Muse Food – Other Escape Routes

By Cynthia Sax on June 1, 2026

Your characters are trapped.

The doors are blocked. The windows are sealed tight. Danger is all around them.

If they don’t escape soon, they’ll die.

Look down. Is there drainage they can fit into?

Look up. Is there a ventilation shaft they can navigate?

Spaces are often designed for air and water to pass through them. These systems could be escape routes for your characters.

Or you could always give your characters a bomb of some kind and blow sh*t up.

That’s fun also.

(grins)

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Predator: Badlands And Intelligent Adversaries

By Cynthia Sax on May 22, 2026

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Predator: Badlands and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this SciFi Action Movie set on a fantastical alien world, you might wish to skip this post.

I LOVED Predator: Badlands and yes, I have enjoyed ALL of the Predator movies (my favorite being the first Alien vs Predator movie, which I would consider to be a romance if the hero’s fate wasn’t what it was – dang it).

But Predator: Badlands is special.

Because the alien world it is set in is absolutely amazing. It is worth viewing for this alone.

There are magical little details like the razor grass, which could very well have ancestors in common with our Earth vegetation. Grass cuts on our planet are extremely painful (they are similar to deep paper cuts, yet with the increased possibility of infection). And there are plants that are silver in color.

Every plant and/or creature in this alien world has possible relatives here on Earth. As someone who loves world building AND evolutionary biology, this level of care is impressive.

Another reason to watch Predator: Badlands is the big baddie.

The unkillable creature the Predator is hunting has earned its place at the top of this hostile planet’s extensive food chain.

One of my pet peeves are dumb big baddies. Yes, underlings can be idiots. That is highly likely. (grins) And yes, villains can make mistakes (one common human mistake is overconfidence).

But you don’t get to the top by being dumb (So NEVER dismiss a real life big baddie because you feel they lack intelligence. They don’t. You’re underestimating them.).

In Predator: Badlands, we are shown that the Big Baddie, the alien creature the Predator is hunting, can learn. Quickly. It can communicate. It can problem solve.

It is formidable opponent.

And that makes this already action-packed movie even more thrilling. And interesting.

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Muse Food – Respect For The Land

By Cynthia Sax on March 2, 2026

I read a quote recently that said you can determine who are the invaders and who are the locals by how they treat the land.

Invaders are careless with the land. They destroy it. Forever

Locals are careful with the land. They try their best not to harm it permanently.

Are the beings in the world you’re writing or reading invaders or locals? How do they treat the land around them?

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Muse Food – Dinosaurs And The Remains We Display

By Cynthia Sax on February 23, 2026

What happens to the remnants of beings and other living things after they die tells us a lot about the world we live in, the beliefs, the culture, the priorities.

Why do many humans in North America believe it is okay to display human corpses from ancient Egyptian times (i.e. mummies) but it isn’t okay to display the corpse of a celebrity who died last year?

Why do displays of bones from dinosaurs draw crowds yet the fossilized plant life from the same period is rarely even displayed?

How are the remnants of beings and other formerly living things treated in the world you’re writing or reading about? What does that say about that world?

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Muse Food – The Statues We Erect

By Cynthia Sax on February 16, 2026

The statues or sculptures we erect tell visitors what is important to us.

If the statues are all military figures, visitors will know they are in a war-loving place. They should expect hostilities toward strangers, a big police or military presence, disputes that end in violence.

If the statues or artwork are of artists, writers, sculptors, weavers, singers, visitors will expect a place that celebrates and values the arts, a creative, free thinking place that accepts differences.

If the statues are, like the above sculpture called ‘The Washer Woman’ by Jim Demetro in Puerto Vallarta, of the average working person, visitors will expect a place that strives to treat everyone fairly equally, that values the efforts of everyone.

What statues have been erected in the fictional world you’re creating or reading about? What do they say about that world?

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Muse Food – Sunset Rituals

By Cynthia Sax on February 9, 2026

What happens in your world when the sun (or suns) set? When the light turns to dark?

Does the mood change? Does the tempo change? Do your characters change? Do they have rituals or routines they do when the sun sets? Do they sleep? When do they sleep?

All this is part of world building and sharing it can draw readers deeper into your story.

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Muse Food – New Year’s Eve And Other Points In Time

By Cynthia Sax on December 29, 2025

Wednesday is New Year’s Eve.

It is the end of the year, of 2025.

It is also a day we, humans, invented to help us keep track and deal with passing moments, with the relentless progression of time.

It has no meaning other than the ones we give it. Yet it has become super important (and fun!) for many of us.

Do your characters have days, months, years in their worlds? Are there points in their timelines they celebrate or acknowledge?

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Muse Food – The Ruins That Remain

By Cynthia Sax on December 8, 2025

In any world, there are remnants of the past. There could be a fallen rotting tree, the skeleton of a bird, dilapidated buildings, crashed and now rusting spaceships.

These remnants give newcomers hints of the world’s past.

There are also the ruins that are deliberately not built over or removed. They are indications of the past the current inhabitants WANT to be seen and remembered. And often they reflect what the current inhabitants WANT newcomers to understand about their current culture or society.

What are these ruins in your world?

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Muse Food – Fairy Houses And Other World Building Hints

By Cynthia Sax on November 17, 2025

When the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I visited Iceland, we were fascinated by the fairy houses, tiny homes crafted by humans for the hidden folk.

In a story, structures like that would be a strong hint we weren’t in a purely human world. It is a hint of magic, of the paranormal, of the unknown.

And hints like these are powerful in storytelling and for worldbuilding.

Because a much beloved story technique is to, at first, make a world seem like the reader’s world here in present day Earth. That is comfortable. It is relatable. The reader can focus on the characters.

Then we slowly introduce the unusual world-specific elements, pushing the reader out of their comfort zones.

Little hints such as fairy houses or a clockwork-like clicking sound deep in a forest or upside down rain are great ways to start this transition.

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Worldbuilding For Pantsers

By Cynthia Sax on February 24, 2021

I’ve written a post on Worldbuilding For Pantsers for The Wicked Writing Corner.

Here is a bit I posted in the comments…

“I know what some pantsers will say – How does basing the story world on an existing world help us? We’re pantsers.

As pantsers, we tend to do this subconsciously.

What I do is I write the scene and then I try to figure out which world or worlds I’ve subconsciously based the scene in the story world on.
THAT is the world I use as a guideline going forward.

For example, I’ll picture the hallway of a spaceship.
I’ll then search through images online of TV shows or Movies I’ve watched featuring interiors of spaceships.

Often there are small differences (or it might be a combination of interiors) but I can usually find something similar.

THAT is the reference I’ll use for future scenes.”

You can read the entire post here –

https://thewickedwritingcorner.blogspot.com/2021/02/guest-post-worldbuilding-for-pantsers.html

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Containing Malice

This tormented cyborg craves vengeance…and her.

***

Malice, a C Model cyborg, has spent his long lifespan enslaved by the Humanoid Alliance. His cruel manufacturers have hurt him in all the ways a male could be hurt.

His enemy has now added a new weapon to their arsenal—a tiny human medic with soft hands and a delectable scent. She experiments on him multiple times a shift, delivering pain…and frustration.

He wants her. He also seeks retribution.

Once Malice frees himself, he plans to achieve both of his goals, taking Medic Illona captive and ending her research…permanently.

Illona is as much a prisoner as the cyborgs she experiments on. Since her arrival at the Human Alliance’s secret laboratory, she has carefully, stealthily, crafted a plot to free her test subjects. To conceal her covert activities, the medic has been forced to harm beings rather than heal them.

The being she has damaged the most is also the cyborg she fiercely desires— Malice, a huge, gray-skinned, blue-eyed C Model with massive hands and a voice deeper than space. He hates her, has good reason to do so, and, when he’s freed, there’s a high probability he’ll kill her.

Illona will take that risk to ensure he survives.

***

Containing Malice is a STANDALONE enemies-to-lovers Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

It is the first of five core stories in the Rebel Cyborgs Series.

Book 1: Containing Malice
Book 2: Under Strain
Book 3: Baring Grudge
Book 4: B Free
Book 5: Seizing Power

Buy Today:

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LK4CWHS

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08LK4CWHS

Amazon AUS:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08LK4CWHS