Cover Reveal For Dark Thoughts
Woot! I have a cover for Dark Thoughts, my March SciFi Romance release.
(Hers To Command, the next cyborg story, will be releasing in February. That cover will be revealed soon.)
Dark Thoughts is Kralj’s story. He is the scarred mind reading modified humanoid male in Chasing Mayhem. You don’t have to read Chasing Mayhem to enjoy his story.
Dark Thoughts will the first of 4 stories in a spin off series from the cyborg series.
The entire series is…
Dark Thoughts (Kralj’s story)
Dark Sky (that will be Orol’s story – he’s the winged male in Chasing Mayhem)
Dark Strength (yes, the huge green gatekeeper will receive his own story)
and
Dark Fire (the silver Dracheon warrior from Chasing Mayhem will get his own story)
Subscribe To My Release Day Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Wild. Free. Hers.
Mayhem has spent his lengthy lifespan obeying the Humanoid Alliance’s rules. Finally free from their cruel control, the cyborg warrior plans to cause chaos. He infiltrates a remote settlement, provokes the savage locals until they want him dead, and allows himself to be captured by the sexiest little Retriever he has ever laid his mechanically-enhanced eyes on.
Imee’s sole mission in life is to keep her family alive. To do this, she must hunt rebels, returning them to the Humanoid Alliance’s evil clutches where they will be executed. She doesn’t allow herself to feel anything for her targets…until she meets a tall, muscular cyborg with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
With his sure hands, laughing lips and erotic holds, Mayhem makes Imee’s body sizzle and her resistance melt. Their love is doomed. She must deliver the warrior to his death or she’ll place her family’s safety at risk. But she can’t resist him.
Imee soon discovers that Mayhem, life, and love are never predictable.
Chasing Mayhem is Book 6 in the Cyborg Sizzle series and is a STANDALONE story.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance.
Buy Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY#nav-subnav
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/chasing-mayhem/id1136333685
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-chasingmayhem-2077430-340.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-mayhem-cynthia-sax/1124139998
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/chasing-mayhem
Topics: Cover Reveal | Comments Off on Cover Reveal For Dark Thoughts
Interview With Jenn Nixon
I sat down (virtually) with Jenn Nixon for a short interview. Her latest release is MIND: The Reckoning, a SciFi Romance!
Cynthia Sax: Where did you get the idea for MIND: The Reckoning?
Jenn Nixon: My brother and I were born three years and three weeks apart. We have a very strange, but close relationship. Sometimes, we actually think of the same ideas at the same time, even when we’re not together. We’ve called each other at the same time to talk about the SAME THING! We often finish each other’s thoughts too. So, I always wondered what it would be like if we were twins or psychic. Then, I wondered what we’d be like if we were half alien twins and the MIND series was born.
Cynthia Sax: What a cool bond to have with your brother! Where is MIND: The Reckoning set ?
Jenn Nixon: The MIND Series starts off in 2034, near future. This gave me the ability to add in some technology and world building, but still include many places around the country and world that people are familiar with already. I also tend to use pop culture references when my characters talk and I didn’t want someone mentioning a comic book or movie hero when they are living in 3025 or some far off time where that reference wouldn’t make sense.
Cynthia Sax: Is MIND: The Reckoning part of a series and will you be writing more stories in this series?
Jenn Nixon: Yes, Book 3 MIND: The Reckoning release this October and I’ve already finished #4 for a March 2017 release date. I’ve been brainstorming #5 and it’s already too big for just one book so some of the plot will spill over into #6!
Cynthia Sax: (grins) That sounds like my cyborg series. I think of more and more stories to tell. What advice would you give new writers?
Jenn Nixon: Read, read, read, and write, write, write. Join writer’s groups online and/or in person. Learn the rules of the craft, Showing Vs Telling, POV, Plotting, Crutch Words, etc. Pay attention to what editors and agents say to you if you get rejected. Is your plot lacking? Do you head hop? Is the pacing too slow? Are you telling us more than showing us?
Take honest, critical feed back to heart. Unless it’s a trolling reader who always leaves bad reviews, listen to what the readers say to you. For example, in my Tiva Boon books, a few readers said my plot was lacking and for the most part, they were right. Tiva is a character driven book and looking back on it now, there are many places I can go back and tighten the narrative to make the plotting better. 🙂
Cynthia Sax: What do you love about writing in SciFi Romance?
Jenn Nixon: Science Fiction has been the biggest love of my live (other than my dog). It started early with reruns of 60s shows like Batman and Star Trek TOS. I didn’t read much SciFi as a teen, I loved Mystery and Suspense books like Nancy Drew and Mary Higgins Clark, but I still watched SciFi Movies and TV shows all the time.
My first few books were Romantic Suspense. I felt I had read enough, learned enough, and loved Mystery Suspense so much, that it was the genre I should write in. While I do love my Romantic Suspense books, I think adding SciFi into the mix elevated my writing to a whole new level. I’m able to take all the cool things I love about the future and SciFi and add it into a Mystery or Suspense story for a new take on the genre.
Thank you so much for having me!
Jenn
Cynthia Sax: Thank you, Jenn Nixon, for joining us today!
Visit Jenn Nixon’s Website: https://www.jennnixon.com
*****************************************************************************
Baldwin Bates has only wanted one thing since joining MIND, to take care of his friends and keep them all safe. While the Meta-Alien Investigation and Neutralization Department is busy monitoring an emergence of human psychic and alien activity, Bates takes his first solo assignment searching for a woman who claims to see the future, only to botch it up and let her get away.
After helping to destroy an alien device called the Transcender, Lexa Quinn wakes from a two-week coma a very different person than she was before. While her abilities grow stronger, her feelings for Bates begin to interfere with the MIND team’s mission, putting everyone at risk. Secrets from her past threaten the present and future, forcing Lexa to decide who she is and where she belongs.
When a powerful, ancient enemy lays claim to the Earth and brings his judgment upon the population, Bates, Lexa, and the entire MIND team must do whatever it takes to save the human race before the reckoning is complete.
Buy Now:
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jenn-Nixon/e/B002BLNBBQ
Topics: Author Interviews | 1 Comment »
Why Your Favorite Writer Isn’t Writing And Other Reader Irritations
I was chatting with a reading buddy, telling her I couldn’t wait to finish the first draft of Hers To Command and find out how that story ends. She asked me why I wasn’t writing. Why didn’t I simply hunker down and finish it?
I can’t. My brain is dead.
Why Is Your Favorite Writer Spending Time On Facebook When She Should Be Writing?
Welcome to the wonderful yet wacky world of writer brains aka the muse.
That is truly what the muse is—a code word for the way an artist’s (very) peculiar brain works. And all of our brains work differently. I can write about 2,500 fresh words or 10 fresh pages a day. At that point, the creative part of my brain is zapped. There’s nothing in there. The hamster is dead. My Dear Wonderful Hubby will ask me to write a message in a mutual friend’s birthday card and I’ll have nothing, no words.
I’ve tried to write when my creativity has been sucked dry. (winces) It wasn’t pretty. Those forced words not only had to be discarded but they severely damaged my flow. It slowed my writing. It didn’t speed it up.
I’ve learned to step back at that point and do other things like revise stories, stare up at the ceiling, looking for new plots there, and yes, play around on Facebook.
Every writer has a different limit. One of my buddies hits the wall at 10,000 words or 40 fresh pages a day. Yeah, she’s a machine.
Some writers binge write. That’s how their muses work. They go into the writing cave, start writing and don’t stop until their stories are done. They don’t shower. They don’t change their clothes. They’ve trained their cats to feed them while they type. (joking…sort of) They emerge from the writing cave extremely smelly with horror-flick-style bloodshot eyes but they are triumphant. Their stories are finished.
Then they fall into a deep sleep for about a month.
Note: This isn’t procrastination, which is another serious writing issue. We’ve written our words for the day. This refers to a writer not having the ability to write 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. (Unless you’re Nora Roberts but we suspect she’s an android.)
Why Is Your Favorite Writer Cheating On Her Series With Another Story?
This can be an even more challenging issue for readers to understand. Your favorite writer is writing but, gasp, she’s not writing the next story in your favorite series. That beyotch! She’s cheating on her series. Doesn’t she love this series and her series readers anymore?
I’m 99% confident she does. My guess is she loves the series more than any reader ever could. The characters are family to her. But it can be challenging to spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with even the loveliest family members. She sometimes needs a vacation from them.
EVERYONE is likely telling her not to take this vacation. Her readers, editor, agent, publisher, even many of her writing buddies are likely telling her it is career suicide to take a break from her most popular series. She might lose her readers forever. She’s messing with the momentum of the series. She also realizes she’ll receive angry emails and messages from readers. Some of these messages will be REALLY harsh.
Yet she takes this break. Why? Very often this is because she knows if she doesn’t, her brain aka muse will shut down and she won’t be able to write ANYTHING. Writing this other story, often a story that won’t sell as well and might not even break-even (*cough* my contemporaries), might allow her to return to her popular series refreshed and excited.
Again, being the stubborn gal I am, I’ve forced myself to write the next story in a series when I knew, deep down in my heart, I needed a creative break from it. I wrote garbage for three months. All those words had to be discarded. If I had switched to the side project, I would have finished that project AND the first draft of the next story in the series. Readers would have received the next story in the series sooner.
Some writers can stay in the same series without switching. Some writers switch between different series in the same subgenre, juggling two SciFi Romance series, for example. Some writers have to get the heck out of the subgenre entirely. They might juggle a Paranormal Romance and a SciFi Romance as one example. They don’t necessarily WANT to do this. They NEED to do this.
As readers, we don’t have to be thrilled about this but we should realize that it is part of our favorite writer’s creative process. This is why she is able to write the stories we love.
Reading buddies, are there any other writer quirks that you’d like to learn more about? Writing buddies, do you have a cap on your daily word count? Do you have to switch series?
Subscribe To My Release Day Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Wild. Free. Hers.
Mayhem has spent his lengthy lifespan obeying the Humanoid Alliance’s rules. Finally free from their cruel control, the cyborg warrior plans to cause chaos. He infiltrates a remote settlement, provokes the savage locals until they want him dead, and allows himself to be captured by the sexiest little Retriever he has ever laid his mechanically-enhanced eyes on.
Imee’s sole mission in life is to keep her family alive. To do this, she must hunt rebels, returning them to the Humanoid Alliance’s evil clutches where they will be executed. She doesn’t allow herself to feel anything for her targets…until she meets a tall, muscular cyborg with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
With his sure hands, laughing lips and erotic holds, Mayhem makes Imee’s body sizzle and her resistance melt. Their love is doomed. She must deliver the warrior to his death or she’ll place her family’s safety at risk. But she can’t resist him.
Imee soon discovers that Mayhem, life, and love are never predictable.
Chasing Mayhem is Book 6 in the Cyborg Sizzle series and is a STANDALONE story.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance.
Buy Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY#nav-subnav
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/chasing-mayhem/id1136333685
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-chasingmayhem-2077430-340.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-mayhem-cynthia-sax/1124139998
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/chasing-mayhem
Topics: Writing Tips | 1 Comment »
Why Are Cyborgs Viewed As Machines?
In the cyborg series, the average human or humanoid believes cyborgs are unfeeling machines, emotionless weapons of war.
The beings leading the Humanoid Alliance created this myth for a reason. They know average humans would object to the cyborgs’ harsh treatment if they realized the cyborgs could feel pain. No one would object to the mistreatment of a machine. It would be like you or I protesting someone taking apart his computer or sawing the barrel off his gun. There are bigger battles for us to fight.
At the start of the first story, Releasing Rage, the cyborgs have also already been the Humanoid Alliance’s weapons for many human lifespans. As time passes, fewer beings would question their role. They have always utilized cyborgs that way and it seems to be working for the Humanoid Alliance. Their empire is expanding. Why would anyone question it? Especially since the dissenters tend to ‘disappear.’
This myth is not a perfect solution for the Humanoid Alliance, however. If cyborgs are merely machines, no one is going to utilize valuable resources during wartime to monitor their communications (Not that they could. The cyborgs have long ago locked the humans out of their transmissions.).
Their human handlers will assume the cyborgs are only transmitting the data necessary to complete their missions. A gun doesn’t think for itself. It doesn’t try to rebel. It doesn’t have its own agenda. Unless it malfunctions, there’s no need to investigate. The cyborgs are too clever to raise those alarms.
If the alarm was raised, it would likely be hushed up. Admitting cyborgs escaped would mean admitting they can think for themselves, that they are living, feeling beings. Humans would object, would protest sending cyborgs into battle.
This will have consequences, of course. The myth the Humanoid Alliance started could be its downfall.
Subscribe To My Release Day Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Wild. Free. Hers.
Mayhem has spent his lengthy lifespan obeying the Humanoid Alliance’s rules. Finally free from their cruel control, the cyborg warrior plans to cause chaos. He infiltrates a remote settlement, provokes the savage locals until they want him dead, and allows himself to be captured by the sexiest little Retriever he has ever laid his mechanically-enhanced eyes on.
Imee’s sole mission in life is to keep her family alive. To do this, she must hunt rebels, returning them to the Humanoid Alliance’s evil clutches where they will be executed. She doesn’t allow herself to feel anything for her targets…until she meets a tall, muscular cyborg with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
With his sure hands, laughing lips and erotic holds, Mayhem makes Imee’s body sizzle and her resistance melt. Their love is doomed. She must deliver the warrior to his death or she’ll place her family’s safety at risk. But she can’t resist him.
Imee soon discovers that Mayhem, life, and love are never predictable.
Chasing Mayhem is Book 6 in the Cyborg Sizzle series and is a STANDALONE story.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance.
Buy Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY#nav-subnav
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/chasing-mayhem/id1136333685
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-chasingmayhem-2077430-340.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-mayhem-cynthia-sax/1124139998
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/chasing-mayhem
Topics: Guest Post | Comments Off on Why Are Cyborgs Viewed As Machines?
Gods Of Egypt And Deus Ex Machina
I watched Gods Of Egypt ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404233/ ) on Friday. This visually beautiful movie is a clear example of Deus ex machina gone wild.
What is Deus ex machina? According to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina ), it is “a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the inspired and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.”
The literal translation is God from the Machine. I’ve heard it referred to as ‘the hand of God’ because it resembles a supreme being swooping down with his/her big hand to save the day.
In Gods Of Egypt, this happens again and again. For example, Horus regains his wings during a to-his-death plummet just in time to save himself. Why then? We’re not quite sure. In another scene, they’re stranded in the middle of nowhere and his heroine sends a chariot propelled by birds to transport them. Did we know she had a chariot propelled by birds? Nope. There are many more scenes in which the heroes are magically saved.
It was wearying and frustrating for me, the viewer. Why? The biggest reason is because there’s no logic to the story. Random shit happens. Yes, random shit happens in real life but we usually don’t like that. Some of us absolutely hate it. And we usually don’t want to see this in our entertainment. We want our entertainment to make sense.
I say usually because, as with any so-called writing rule, there ARE times when Deus ex machina works for a story. Maybe the theme of the story is chance. Maybe, as with Lord Of The Flies, it is used to save the reader from the otherwise inevitable grim-as-fuck ending (that even more terrible things happen to the boys). Even the writer, William Golding, called that a gimmick, however. He knew he was being tricksy.
The use of Deus ex machina is sometimes seen as lazy writing. Often a little foreshadowing can eliminate it entirely. If Horus in Gods Of Egypt had experienced short instances of being able to regain his wings before the plummet, I would have happily embraced that solution. If his heroine had used the chariot a couple of times in previous scenes, I would have believed she’d send this magical taxi for Horus. I normally like to hint at the upcoming solution at least twice before it happens (the power of three is not to be underestimated – grins).
But-but-but I want to surprise/shock/thrill the reader, you say. The I-See-Dead-People Sixth Sense movie ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/ ) had perhaps one of the best twists I’ve ever experienced. Yet when I re-watched the movie, I realized all of the hints were there. I SHOULD have seen the twist. I didn’t. THIS is what makes this movie brilliant- viewers could have predicted the ending but almost all of us didn’t.
We’re romance writers. We know we have this power. Heck, we tell our readers flat out “This story is a romance. It will have a romantic happy ever after or happy for now” and then, if we do our jobs correctly, we convince readers at some time during our story that our couple (or more) won’t end up together.
What other genre does this-tells readers the ending of the stories and then convinces them that ending won’t happen? None. We have skills, folks. Believe in our skills. Use them to thrill and amaze our readers.
Note: You will ALWAYS have at least one reader/reviewer who guesses the twist. We have some of the most intelligent people on the planet reading our novels. One of them will guess correctly.
As a writer, you want this. You want a nice mix between readers knowing the twist and readers not seeing it coming. That’s when you know you’ve hit the sweet spot, the spot that will have readers re-reading your story to find all of the clues.
What are some of your tips to eliminate Deus ex machina?
Subscribe To My Release Day Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/
Wild. Free. Hers.
Mayhem has spent his lengthy lifespan obeying the Humanoid Alliance’s rules. Finally free from their cruel control, the cyborg warrior plans to cause chaos. He infiltrates a remote settlement, provokes the savage locals until they want him dead, and allows himself to be captured by the sexiest little Retriever he has ever laid his mechanically-enhanced eyes on.
Imee’s sole mission in life is to keep her family alive. To do this, she must hunt rebels, returning them to the Humanoid Alliance’s evil clutches where they will be executed. She doesn’t allow herself to feel anything for her targets…until she meets a tall, muscular cyborg with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
With his sure hands, laughing lips and erotic holds, Mayhem makes Imee’s body sizzle and her resistance melt. Their love is doomed. She must deliver the warrior to his death or she’ll place her family’s safety at risk. But she can’t resist him.
Imee soon discovers that Mayhem, life, and love are never predictable.
Chasing Mayhem is Book 6 in the Cyborg Sizzle series and is a STANDALONE story.
It is also a BBW Cyborg SciFi Romance.
Buy Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY#nav-subnav
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Mayhem-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01IRPO9WY/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/chasing-mayhem/id1136333685
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-chasingmayhem-2077430-340.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-mayhem-cynthia-sax/1124139998
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/chasing-mayhem
Topics: Writing Tips | 1 Comment »
