Muse Food – The Ruins That Remain
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
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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Muse Food – Waterfalls And World Systems
Every planet, every civilization, every home runs on systems.
(And yes, a waterfall is part of a system, the planet’s magnificent water system.)
I think of systems as flows. The water from a melting glacier flows into a river. A new law flows from the political system to the communication system to the legal system. A story flows from an idea to a scene.
What are the systems in your story’s world?
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Muse Food – Cats, Butterflies And Being Hunted
The heroine is exploring a wild, nature-filled alien planet.
The tall grasses bend, moving against the wind. A twig snaps.
She’s being hunted.
She raises her gun, waiting, waiting, waiting.
A cute little kitten (or a butterfly or a bunny) emerges from the vegetation.
This creature purrs. He is small and he looks so soft.
Our heroine lets down her guard, not knowing she is encountering the most dangerous creature in the universe.
We expect hunters to LOOK like hunters. They are bigger, scarier, with sharp teeth or claws.
A cute harmless-looking yet extremely deadly threat would be a twist many readers (and characters) wouldn’t see coming.
(smiles)
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Muse Food – Glaciers And Unexpected Permanence
One of the (many) things that fascinate me about glaciers is they are crafted of ice and snow, which are usually transient, yet glaciers are semi-permanent entities.
The above is a glacier located in Iceland that was surrounded by greenish grass when we saw it.
Snow and ice usually melts and goes away. Especially in warmer part of the planets. It isn’t designed to stick around. We expect it to disappear.
Yet glaciers have survived for hundreds of thousands of years. Some glacier ice in Antarctica is almost a million years old. And if human activity hadn’t warmed the planet so dang much, glaciers would have survived for hundreds of thousands of years more.
What elements of your fictional world are transient? What elements are permanent? And are there some elements that we think SHOULD be transient yet are permanent?
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Muse Food – Icelandic Horses And The Creatures We Domesticate
Why did humans domesticate
horses and not moose
honeybees and not yellowjackets
bunnies and not rats?
The species beings choose to domesticate, to bring into or bring close to their homes, say a lot about those beings – what they value, what they are hoping to gain from the other species, their relationship with the rest of the world and more.
Which species have the characters in your worlds domesticated? Why were THOSE species chosen?
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Muse Food – What Is On The Flag?
(This flag was flying at an important historical site in Iceland.)
Countries have flags. Monarchies have flags. Sports teams have flags (or banners). When we were kids, a school assignment was to create our own personal flag.
Flags are important.
The images and words displayed on a flag symbolizes the values that person or entity wishes others to know about them.
The Ukraine flag, for example, is a band of blue over a band of yellow.
The band of blue represents the sky (which, in turn, represents things like freedom and endless opportunities).
The band of yellow represents wheat fields, a key crop for Ukraine. It relays that the country has its roots (pun intended – grins) in farming and agriculture. Feeding their people and others is important for Ukraine.
It is a single simple image yet it conveys so much.
What would be on the flag for the world in your story? What would be on your characters’ flags?
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Muse Food – Hong Kong And Trees
In any major city, we often see sites like this one in Hong Kong – a tree or plant growing where it seems impossible for it to grow, trying to reclaim part of the terrain.
This happens almost everywhere on Earth.
There are stories of nature reclaiming the land around Chernobyl, for example. And the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I often joke that the super aggressive vine in our yard would devour our home completely in less than a decade.
Life WILL take over a vacated spot. That life could be plants or insects or bacteria or…something else.
I remember that when I’m writing about deserted planets or outposts. Those places are unlikely to look exactly like they had looked when the last human or humanoid left. Other lifeforms will move in and the places will change.
Our stories should address that.
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Muse Food – Currency In The Seychelles And The Things We Value
The paper currency in the Seychelles is so beautiful (when not crumpled – grins) many travelers save the smaller denominations as souvenirs.
The images feature nature and landscapes.
And I thought it was great that locals and visitors are reminded of the importance of nature whenever they use the currency! Maybe it will cause them to think more intensely about their purchases and about how those purchases impact the environment around them.
Currency here on Earth and in our fictional worlds often reflect what that society values.
An authoritarian regime, for example, would have an image of the authority figure on their currency. A rock-loving society would have images of great rocks on their currency.
Sharing little details like the images on currency can deepen world building and draw readers more fully into our stories.
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Muse Food – Technology From The Olden Days
Someone gave the Dear Wonderful Hubby a CRT computer monitor to dispose of. We put it on the curb for electronics recycling.
A little girl walking to school with an adult was absolutely amazing by it. She chattered about it being SO big, about it being huggable, asked if people kept their toys in it. Her questions were adorable. And the adult patiently explained that it was a screen from ‘the olden days.’
The world you’re building in your stories will also have technology and other items from ‘the olden days.’ What happens to those items? Are they valued? Are they trashed? Are they ridiculed? Are they held up as examples of how the society has progressed?
How things from ‘the olden days’ are handled will relay a lot about your world.
***
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
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/claiming-cure-cynthia-sax/1145464760
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/claiming-cure
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1553992
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