Cynthia Sax's Blog, page 6

Throwback Thursday – Doc’s Orders

Doc’s Orders deals with a newcomer-caused pandemic on a small alien planet.

It was written LONG before COVID-19 happened. But that timing wasn’t due to any Kralj-of-Dark-Thoughts-like abilities on my part.

(grins)

Pandemics occur. And they are often prompted by things like increasing populations and shifting climates.

And newcomers to a population.

The history of human travel is also, unfortunately, the history of pandemics. And this won’t change in space.

None of those other pandemics had a cyborg medic like Doc, however.

Doc’s Orders

She wants both sides of her cyborg—the medic AND the beast.

A fully functional cyborg is balanced. His machine half and his organic half work together to produce the perfect warrior.

Doc isn’t fully functional.

The G Model operates at the two extremes. When his machine is in complete control, he’s the logic-driven medic, saving lifespans. Once his organics take charge, he becomes the savage beast…and beings die.

Both sides of Doc want to be the first to claim his female.

Allinen is one of the few beings in her small settlement who wasn’t born with a fated mate. Determined to belong somewhere, she has crafted a plan to leave the planet.

That plan doesn’t involve a huge stormy-eyed male who alternates between cool seduction and out-of-control ravishment. Doc isn’t her fated mate. Allinen knows that. But his dual nature and forbidden embraces tempt her to forget forever and indulge in more immediate delights.

Neither side of Doc views their relationship as being temporary. Her conflicted cyborg is prepared to battle her family, her planet and death itself to keep her.

Buy Now:

Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Docs-Orders-Cyborg-Space-Exploration-ebook/dp/B07RML2WG1

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Docs-Orders-Cyborg-Space-Exploration-ebook/dp/B07RML2WG1

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Docs-Orders-Cyborg-Space-Exploration-ebook/dp/B07RML2WG1

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/docs-orders/id1463105812

Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/doc-s-orders

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/938342

If You Want The Butterflies…

(The chicken wire ‘domes’ over these marigolds stop the squirrels from happily digging up the plants. The Mafia Squirrels do that for ‘funsies’, taking out entire rows in one session and leaving the dying plants beside their trenches so I can see their handiwork. – eye roll)

I often repeat the saying, “If you want the butterflies, you have to feed the caterpillars.”

This is true for bees also, all types of bees, and other beneficial insects.

We have to create homes and supply food sources for them.

We do a few easy things in the Sax household to help facilitate this.

We leave some leaves on the ground for bees and other insects to overwinter in.

We have some perennial plants we try not to disturb very much. This allows bees to create safe homes around these plants.

(The yellow jackets, for example, build homes around the raspberry bushes.)

We also don’t plant or dig close to fences and other structures as these are great homes for bees also.

We don’t use herbicides or pesticides (these are outlawed in Toronto).

We plant extra vegetables and allow the caterpillars to eat some of those plants (or bits of the rose bushes).

We allow the dandelions to bloom. In our part of the universe, these are usually the first flowers to appear and the bumblebees LOVE them.

We also plant a lot of other bee and butterfly-friendly flowers like marigolds, zinnias and clover.

We’re having our best bee year ever in our neighborhood and I like to think all these actions contributed a little bit toward that.

(smiles)

Butterflies At The Singapore Airport

Singapore Changi Airport is one of the most beautiful airports in the world. The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I always ensure we take some time to explore it when we’re passing through.

My favorite part is the massive butterfly garden. There are SO MANY BUTTERFLIES, in every stage of development.

(smiles)

And their home is gorgeous. There’s a multifloor-high waterfall.

And huge trees.

It even smells wonderful!

The butterfly garden is FREE and visitors can spend as long as they want there. It is a great place to destress before or after a flight.

Muse Food – Add Some Spice

The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I love exploring the spice markets when we travel.

(This display was found in Dubai.)

When I cook, I tend to reach for the same spices again and again.

A visit to a spice market reminds me that there’s a vast assortment of spices available on this wonderful planet, spices I rarely or have never used.

I make it a goal to try at least one of those spices after each visit.

And that changes my cooking and my meals significantly. The new-to-me spice adds interest, another dimension to the food.

This is the same with writing and telling stories. There are words and cadence and sentence structure and other aspects that we can use to add interest and variety to our tales.

Try something new. Explore new-to-you writing lands.

(smiles)

Cynthia Sax Weekly Update – June 29

This beautiful fur ball (grins) was spotted in Mazatlan, Mexico.

The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I are enjoying the summer. He is playing a lot of pickleball. I’m doing a lot of gardening. The plants are growing. The bumblebees are buzzing. I’m thinking of future stories I’d love to write and hoping the world will allow those stories to be published.

Life is good.

(smiles)

Have a wonderful week, my friends. (big hugs) Dream happily of the future. Think of all the things you want to see or do, the cats you’d like to pet, the online friends you would love to chat with. There is a lot of light and joy left in this awesome universe. I wish for you to experience both!

***

Cyborg Sizzle Homeland Omnibus

Cyborgs will do anything to protect their Homeland.
* * *
The cyborgs have claimed their Homeland but that has come at a cost. As they reconcile with their pasts, they seek to manufacture happier futures with the females they’re destined to love and cherish forever.
This omnibus includes three stories in the Cyborg Sizzle series: Taking Vengeance, The Cyborg’s Secret Baby and Dark Arsenal.
All of these Cyborg Romances are set in a dark, gritty, often violent universe.

Taking Vengeance

The only force stronger than their hate is their love.
Vengeance hates all humans. They killed every being he ever cared about. When the huge C Model cyborg is told he’s genetically compatible with the enemy, he makes it his mission to capture the female and use her to expel all humans from his home planet.

The Cyborg’s Secret Baby

A fierce cyborg warrior and his curvy human female share a no-longer-so-little secret.
Stealth, a K Model cyborg, knows his passion for Zebrina, the commander’s human daughter, is forbidden, yet he can’t resist the curvy female. He craves her touch, cherishes her sounds of pleasure, would do anything to keep her safe.

Dark Arsenal

A cyborg warrior and a Rebel female’s first mission together might be their last.
Arsenal considers himself to be a disposable cyborg. He drifts from assignment to assignment, forming no connections to anything or anyone. When the cyborg council requires a warrior for a high-risk mission, Arsenal volunteers. He believes no one will miss him if he dies. He doesn’t realize he’s one female’s fantasy.

Buy Now:

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Cyborg-Homeland-Omnibus-Romance-Continuum-ebook/dp/B0DVQF51ZG

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyborg-Homeland-Omnibus-Romance-Continuum-ebook/dp/B0DVQF51ZG

Amazon AU:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Cyborg-Homeland-Omnibus-Romance-Continuum-ebook/dp/B0DVQF51ZG

Amazon Canada:

https://www.amazon.ca/Cyborg-Homeland-Omnibus-Romance-Continuum-ebook/dp/B0DVQF51ZG

Apple Books:

https://books.apple.com/us/book-series/cyborg-romance-continuum/id1488934279

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/cyborg-sizzle-homeland-omnibus

Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1700426

AI And Rereading Your Stories

There was drama in Romancelandia recently when some clearly AI-written stories were published with AI prompts left in them.

I write for myself first and foremost. I love writing the messy first drafts. That magic is what makes the rest of the process worth it (revisions, edits, proofreading, marketing, etc.).

But I can kind of, sort of, maybe understand why other writers would be tempted to use AI. Writer’s block is a very real thing. I suffered through it for a short while. And COVID unfortunately has damaged ALL of our brains. This damage has been very noticeable for writers.

What I don’t understand is…

Why weren’t these stories, at the very least, read by the writers before they were published?

My stars. I reread my stories a gazillion times before publishing them. I’m so worried about accidentally uploading a rough draft or having missing chapters or dealing with the many other things that could go wrong during the formatting/writing process.

Reread your final stories before you hit publish (or send them to Beta readers)!

Share The Joy

Recently, the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I donated my wedding dress to a charity shop.

This wedding dress was purchased second-hand from a consignment shop and our wedding occurred several decades of happiness ago. The dress is a classic, timeless style. I see similar dresses being wore by brides now.

The Dear Wonderful Hubby was the person who originally found it for me. It was everything I wanted in a dress. And I felt like a princess when I wore it.

I want another person to have that same joy, to feel beautiful, to experience that happiness.

(smiles)

Share your joy if you can. It shouldn’t diminish your happiness. It should expand it.

(big hugs)

Oh and we waited this long to donate the wedding dress because the Dear Wonderful Hubby didn’t think I truly wanted to let it go. He had seen how happy I was when I wore it and didn’t want me to lose that.

I won’t. My happiness has INCREASED, not decreased.

Throwback Thursday – Warlord’s Mercy

I love a great villain turned hero story. I also love surprises during the writing of my stories.

Warlord’s Mercy gives me both.

Because Tolui, the hero of Warlord’s Mercy, is the big baddie in the previous stories in the series. I was CERTAIN the Warlord brothers would defeat him…permanently.

I was surprised when Tolui not only survived but insisted on having his own romantic happy ever after.

(grins)

Tolui has a very strong sense of honor. It is unique to him but it exists. He also had to do some terrible things to protect the beings he cares about.

But he is more like the Warlord brothers than any of them realize.

I love him. Lea, his heroine, (eventually) loves him.

I suspect you’ll love him also.

(smiles)

Other Chameles view him as theenemy.

She sees the warrior hero he neverbelieved he could be.

* * *

Tolui is a Warlord in search of a planetto rule. He has been leading his fellow clones in a stealth battle, fightingfor both control of the Chamele sector and the right to exist. The brave warriorshe commands warrant respect, and they deserve the best.

That best isn’t the barren,dangerous terrain on Chamele 4. When Tolui crashes on that planet’s surface, he’sdetermined to leave it as soon as possible. The tiny human female rescuing himmight be as beautiful and as wild as the land she inhabits, but her flowingwords, trusting gaze, and enthralling submission won’t stop him from rejoiningthe war.

After many solar cycles of livingalone, Lea is overjoyed when a tall, scarred, muscular warrior falls from the sky.Her savage stranger is strong and severe, and he makes her feel safe, anemotion she hasn’t experienced in a long, long time.

He also insists they must part.Before they do, she’ll show him the splendor of her home, and she’ll enjoy hisbig form, collecting passionate moments she can revisit when she’s solitary oncemore.

Every additional moment Lea andTolui spend together increases the chance they’ll both die. Lea is being chasedby female-hating fiends. Tolui is being hunted by the best bounty hunters inthe universe. War will soon arrive on their threshold, and the blood spilledmight be their own.

Buy Now:

Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0886K65F9

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0886K65F9

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0886K65F9

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/warlords-mercy/id1511995733

Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/warlord-s-mercy-1

SmashWords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1020349

Yard/Garden Uses For Coffee Grounds

At least once a week, the Dear Wonderful Hubby goes to coffee shops en route to wherever else he’s going and he loads up the car with coffee grounds.

These are a FREE resource and we use them in a few ways.

We use them to bank the house. This improves the gradient, which in turn, decreases the risk of our basement flooding. And coffee grounds supposedly discourage mice, squirrels and some other unwanted visitors.

We sprinkle coffee grounds over the lawn once a year (usually before several days of rain). This is a free fertilizer and it also builds up the soil a bit.

And we, of course, use coffee grounds in compost. We add it to compost bins. And we also layer it over the leaves in the Fall/Autumn as we put the garden beds to rest. The coffee grounds add nitrogen and they help to keep the leaves from blowing away.

Queen Cable Car, Halong Bay, Vietnam

One of the paid things to do in Halong Bay, Vietnam is to take the Queen Cable Car. When the weather is right, it gives travelers great views of the city.

The weather was NOT right when the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I visited Halong Bay. It was rainy and and the views would have been…not great.

But we enjoyed watching the cable car operate! And that was free to do!