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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Muse Food – Fruit And Being The First
When the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I travel, we encounter many new-to-us edible fruits, vegetables and other foods.
We also encounter many new-to-us fruits and vegetation that would kill us or make us very ill if we consumed them.
And often, there isn’t much visible difference between the two groups.
So how did we, humans, figure out what we could eat or couldn’t eat?
Trial and error.
If the first person to eat the fruit or vegetation (or fish or animal or insect) died or became very ill, the rest of our ancestors knew not to consume it.
Yep, our current food system was built on that level of sacrifice.
I remember that when worldbuilding in my stories. A character wouldn’t arrive at a new-to-them place and know instinctively what was safe to eat or drink. They would have to be told or have a device that tested food and beverage or some other means of determining that.
Or they risk dying.
***
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Drift Would
A cyborg and a spy fly into danger.
***
Drift is one of the best pilots in existence, and he has been assigned a perilous mission.
The G Model cyborg must fly to a distant planet, locate the sector-destroying superweapon the enemy is projected to be developing there, and obliterate that threat to the universe.
When Drift arrives at his destination and meets with an informant, he’s distracted by a mysterious human female seated in the shadows. She’s Drift’s genetic match, and she is the one being he’s destined to care for, claim, and protect.
She’s also a liar and a thief. And she might be working with the enemy.
Trusting her could kill him and everyone he cares about.
Liar. Thief. Seductress. Saboteur. Roshini has been called all of those things. And she has earned each label. She’s done some terrible things to safeguard the beings she loves.
A gray-eyed cyborg warrior with nimble hands and a shared need for speed won’t stop her high-risk activities.
She’ll sacrifice everything, including her lifespan, to complete her self-appointed top-secret assignment.
***
Drift Would is a standalone, enemies-to-lovers, Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a cyborg who loves to break speed records, a human spy with a talent for changing her appearance, and a foe intent on killing them both.
Pre-Order Today:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Drift-Would-Dauntless-Cyborgs-Book-ebook/dp/B0CSJQC36S
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/drift-would/id6476230561
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drift-would-cynthia-sax/1144659255
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drift-would
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1508730
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Muse Food – Horses And Cars
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I spotted this horse and buggy tied to a light pole in a Walmart parking lot.
The contrast between this older mode of transportation and the surrounding cars was awesome.
One culture rejected additional technological ‘advances’, stopping at the horse and buggy stage, and the other culture continued to change as technology changed.
Neither decision was bad or good. It was merely different.
This can be a great way to build our worlds also. One world could have stopped ‘advancing’ at a certain point. Maybe they have cars but they don’t have spaceships. Or they have rejected computer-like devices. Or they have banned any material not naturally found on their planet.
The possibilities are only limited by our imaginations!
***
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Strike Zone
A cyborg devoted to duty…and to her.
***
While attending a party, Kesser, the daughter of her planet’s leader, witnesses the abduction of her best friend and her best friend’s mate.
She’s determined to rescue them. Preferably without fracturing the fragile peace agreement her mom has crafted with the abductors’ planet.
The only issue is…she has never participated in a retrieval mission.
Searching for assistance, she approaches the mate’s guard. The male, with his big broad shoulders and deep growly voice, affects her like no other being ever has.
Kesser wants him. She trusts him. And she requires his stealth combat skills.
Desperately.
Strike is no guard. The D Model cyborg has been sent to the sector to discreetly investigate a potential planet-destroying situation.
When a curvy human female with big brown eyes requests his help with a rescue, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. She’s his genetic match, the one being he was manufactured to protect.
She’s also traveling to the next planet he has to search. He plans to claim his female while he fulfills his responsibilities to his kind.
Neither Strike nor Kesser realizes the dangers facing them are far greater than they imagine. Their enemies are converging, and one failed mission could doom the entire universe.
***
Strike Zone is a standalone, mistaken-identity, Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a cyborg warrior with a finely honed sense of honor, a human support being taking on her first dangerous mission, and an evil that threatens everyone in existence.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Amazon Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/Strike-Zone-Romance-Dauntless-Cyborgs-ebook/dp/B0CL5QZBQ8/
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/strike-zone/id6469583228
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strike-zone-cynthia-sax/1144231998
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/strike-zone-13
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1466811
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Muse Food – The Trails We Leave
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I spotted these condensation trails in the blue sky. They were left by some sort of aircraft.
It made me think about all the trails we leave all around us – footprints in the sand, cologne in the air, warm spots where we’ve been sitting, etc.
Beings in our stories would leave those trails also. There would be little signs they were in a place. That’s super cool and might be something we consider adding to our stories.
***
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Intrepid Encounter
Cyborg vs. Valkyrie
Blood will be spilled and hearts will be captured.
Intrepid and his crew on the Dauntless guard the border to the cyborg sector. The D Model cyborg captain has dedicated his lifespan to protecting their homeland. He’ll do anything to secure the space and keep his brethren safe.
That includes confronting a Valkyrie intent on vengeance.
The female warrior is beautiful, brave, strong…and Intrepid’s genetic match. She’s the one being he is fated to claim. Her voice causes his circuits to hum. Her touch produces a passion he struggles to control.
But if he has to stop her…permanently…to protect his kind, he will make that sacrifice.
Olrun has been tracking the whereabouts of a one-of-a-kind object. The stolen item is critical to the safety of her Valkyrie sisters, and she’ll do anything to retrieve it.
That includes waging war on a tall, broad-shouldered cyborg warrior sporting brilliant-blue eyes and grimly set lips.
The male might…just might…have battle skills matching her own. And that excites the immortal fighter. She craves his rough handling, his punishing embrace, his stern words.
But Olrun’s desire for the cyborg won’t distract her from achieving her goal. She will shield her fellow Valkyries from danger, even if that means ending Intrepid’s lifespan in the process.
Intrepid Encounter is an enemies-to-lovers Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a protective cyborg, a vengeful Valkyrie, and a destiny neither of them can predict.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/intrepid-encounter/id6450374920
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/intrepid-encounter-cynthia-sax/1143664740
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/intrepid-encounter
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1409350
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Muse Food – Boxing Day
Today is Boxing Day in my corner of the world. Historically, Boxing Day was a day to box up leftovers and small gifts to give to charity.
One of the (many) things I consider when building a world is…
How do the beings in that world carry their stuff?
We all have stuff. A warrior has weapons. A medic has medical supplies. A chef has cooking supplies and equipment.
How do they carry that stuff? Do they have wooden crates or cardboard boxes or leather packs or holsters or pockets or…?
It should be practical. The material should, ideally, be abundant on their planet. And it should reflect who the being is or hopes to be.
***
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Intrepid Encounter
Cyborg vs. Valkyrie
Blood will be spilled and hearts will be captured.
Intrepid and his crew on the Dauntless guard the border to the cyborg sector. The D Model cyborg captain has dedicated his lifespan to protecting their homeland. He’ll do anything to secure the space and keep his brethren safe.
That includes confronting a Valkyrie intent on vengeance.
The female warrior is beautiful, brave, strong…and Intrepid’s genetic match. She’s the one being he is fated to claim. Her voice causes his circuits to hum. Her touch produces a passion he struggles to control.
But if he has to stop her…permanently…to protect his kind, he will make that sacrifice.
Olrun has been tracking the whereabouts of a one-of-a-kind object. The stolen item is critical to the safety of her Valkyrie sisters, and she’ll do anything to retrieve it.
That includes waging war on a tall, broad-shouldered cyborg warrior sporting brilliant-blue eyes and grimly set lips.
The male might…just might…have battle skills matching her own. And that excites the immortal fighter. She craves his rough handling, his punishing embrace, his stern words.
But Olrun’s desire for the cyborg won’t distract her from achieving her goal. She will shield her fellow Valkyries from danger, even if that means ending Intrepid’s lifespan in the process.
Intrepid Encounter is an enemies-to-lovers Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a protective cyborg, a vengeful Valkyrie, and a destiny neither of them can predict.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/intrepid-encounter/id6450374920
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/intrepid-encounter-cynthia-sax/1143664740
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/intrepid-encounter
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1409350
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Muse Food – The Resources Characters Have
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I were trekking around Saint Lucia when we spotted this collection of plastic bottles in the water.
An innovative fisherperson had designed a float from empty plastic bottles, a ‘resource’ everyone on Earth now has in abundance.
We use the resources we have. I try to remember that when building a world or crafting a scene.
If the character is surrounded by trees, they’ll likely craft their home out of wood, for example. If they’re a warrior, they’d likely pry an object out of a rock with their dagger, a tool they already have. If their food rations come in containers, they’d likely use those empty containers to store their gear.
We use what we have if that is all possible. That is true on Earth. And it is true in stories.
***
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Intrepid Encounter
Cyborg vs. Valkyrie
Blood will be spilled and hearts will be captured.
Intrepid and his crew on the Dauntless guard the border to the cyborg sector. The D Model cyborg captain has dedicated his lifespan to protecting their homeland. He’ll do anything to secure the space and keep his brethren safe.
That includes confronting a Valkyrie intent on vengeance.
The female warrior is beautiful, brave, strong…and Intrepid’s genetic match. She’s the one being he is fated to claim. Her voice causes his circuits to hum. Her touch produces a passion he struggles to control.
But if he has to stop her…permanently…to protect his kind, he will make that sacrifice.
Olrun has been tracking the whereabouts of a one-of-a-kind object. The stolen item is critical to the safety of her Valkyrie sisters, and she’ll do anything to retrieve it.
That includes waging war on a tall, broad-shouldered cyborg warrior sporting brilliant-blue eyes and grimly set lips.
The male might…just might…have battle skills matching her own. And that excites the immortal fighter. She craves his rough handling, his punishing embrace, his stern words.
But Olrun’s desire for the cyborg won’t distract her from achieving her goal. She will shield her fellow Valkyries from danger, even if that means ending Intrepid’s lifespan in the process.
Intrepid Encounter is an enemies-to-lovers Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a protective cyborg, a vengeful Valkyrie, and a destiny neither of them can predict.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Intrepid-Encounter-SciFi-Cyborg-Romance-ebook/dp/B0C8BN96D1
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/intrepid-encounter/id6450374920
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/intrepid-encounter-cynthia-sax/1143664740
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/intrepid-encounter
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/1409350
Topics: Muse Food | Comments Off on Muse Food – The Resources Characters Have
