Muse Food – Life Will Find A Way

By Cynthia Sax on September 28, 2026

If life is at all possible in a place, there will be a creature or plant or microbe or other being living there.

Moss grows on rocks in the middle of the rapids. A house spider lives in an otherwise sterile office. Microbes live their tiny lives on space stations. Heck, there are microbes on our faces right now (in our skin microbiome).

Our characters are never truly alone. And there’s always activity happening around them.

Topics: Muse Food | Comments Off on Muse Food – Life Will Find A Way

Muse Food – Lighting And Setting The Mood

By Cynthia Sax on January 12, 2026

As anyone in a wintery climate will tell you, lighting influences our moods.

Currently, in my part of the world, there are fewer hours of daylight. And this causes big issues like depression, increase in suicide rates, overall grumpiness.

Lighting in our stories sets the mood also.

A scene set at night, in the darkness, automatically becomes more dangerous and mysterious than a scene set at noon, under a blazing sun.

Rain and gray clouds in a scene bring with them a sense of dreariness, of sadness.

A scene set in an office, under harsh fluorescent lights, is colder, less personal.

Lighting matters.

What is the lighting in the scene you’re currently writing or reading?

Topics: Muse Food | Comments Off on Muse Food – Lighting And Setting The Mood