Funny Pictures

Along with reading and writing, I love taking pictures. All I have is a point-and-shoot camera; nothing fancy.  We recently got back from a vacation to Chicago and Pittsburgh, where I took lots of pictures.  (Some were taken here in Southern California).

It looks like the cute little Mi-Tan figure is letting loose.  

McCormick?!  Making Adobo!!!  You are going too far.

I appreciate the artistry of this. 

Okay, Murray.  You've got my vote.

Simply gorgeous.

Bored on the flight, so I thought I'd roll back the clock a bit.  

Hmmm...  I wonder if the Sunmaid maid knew that I was on my way to Chicago to visit family.

Why, yes!  I do like looking at a breakfast platter before using the toilet.

An RV pulling an Airstream.  Pretty impressive.

Not your typical Pennsylvania Dutch barn art.

First shot at trying to find my rental car.  Not it.

Second attempt at trying to find my rental car.  Fail.

Third attempt to find my rental car. Winner!

Skip's watching...and waiting.  

Washington and Guyasuta looking intense.

I don't think the picture quite captures the nature of the "Screw You" green of this house.  

I always carry my camera with me, and you should, too.  You never know what you'll find.

The Mindy Project - What Went Wrong

Oh, Mindy.  This one stings a bit.

But I have to tell you that I also saw this coming.  Your first season was great! Your adventures in work, friendship, and the dating world were hilarious and poignant.  But then, you got the guy.  You got comfortable. Most of the humor surrounded your relationship and not much else.  We got bored. We stopped watching.

But you are so funny and so smart, Mindy Kaling. I hope you come back with something else. I'll give it a shot - I promise!!

Blacklist, You Are About to Lose Me

This is me, taking a hike.

But I don't want to do it.  I like the show's characters.  However, you need to stop thinking that you need to connect every single story line. Bad guy "flavor of the week" episodes are good on their own. Last week's episode - Quon Zang - had the wonderful potential to be creepy on it's own.The dead brides for dead grooms?  Creepy, yet enchanting.  However, Lizzy's search for her mom took too much screen time.  Who cares? Not me.

Get back to the stand alone stories. Get back to Red being scary for Red's sake, and not to hunt down a piece of hard drive or anything else like that.  You did great with getting Lizzy and Tom back together as she is at her most human when she is with him.

I'll be watching.  As long as it is interesting.

Grimm TV Show - The Moment You Lost Me

Okay. Squeaky the Squirrel hasn't much to do with Grimm.  I needed a picture, though.  He fit the bill.

If I could recall an exact moment when the show lost me, it was when he didn't listen to his aunt and stayed with Juliet.

Oh, Grimm.  You started out so strong. Nick was great.  So was the Monroe, Sgt. Wu, Adalin Shade, the aunt, and the mom.

But you got too soft.  Everyone starting feeling bad for Nick. Everyone became his friend.  That made it boring and saccharine.

You know what you should have done? You should have had Nick break things off with Juliet.  You should have made him hate himself for that.  You should have him alienate himself from Hank. You should have kept Captain Renard as a baddie, too.

You know who would have been a perfect antagonist to Nick Burkhardt?  Nick Burkhardt.  Nick could have hated being a Grimm.  He could have lived in his teardrop trailer while he defeated the bad guys who crossed his path. Maybe he could have accidentally killed some good guys, too.  He could have drunk his sorrows away while become a kick @ss Grimm.

You lost me when everyone began to love Nick. You could have kept me if you'd given me a reason to pity him.

You know how you could have closed the show? With him quitting police work and Grimming altogether.  He could have found a new girl to marry (who didn't know about his past), had a kid and secretly taught him/her the ways of Grimming. Then, for the final episode, have some bad guy come and kill him off.  But you know what? That version of Nick would have been okay with that.  He had it coming, and it was a relief.

Ah well.  It was a pretty good first half season.  Thanks for the entertainment.

Gotta Kill Some Characters

I'm Sorry...

But they have to go.

It took me a while to come to terms with that.  Two years, actually. If you are a reader of The Wolves, you might know the characters I am talking about.  

I write fiction, I know.  But as a reader, I know that the best fiction is the one that mirrors real life.  I'm not talking about werewolves, fairies, or monsters. I'm talking about the tragedies; the character building and demolishing that life delivers.  Some stuff we can't get recover from - not completely. We simply find a new way to walk through our lives.  

Other tragedies and heartbreak are necessary.  I think that women - and people in general - have a way of filling their hearts and minds with bullsh!t to make a relationship work.  Could be a work relationship, a romantic one, or a familial one.  I know that I've had a breakdown or two over doomed relationships.  I think that our minds and our hearts reach a breaking point, and we break down.  It is good, I believe. It gives us a chance to rebuild.  We can get rid of the bad stuff and keep the good stuff and move on.

Enough of my philosophical stuff.  Some characters you know will pass.  Some characters that you don't know of - yet - will pass, too.  

Hope you enjoy what's to come!

Cyndia Rios-Myers

To Kill or Not to Kill...The Writer's Question

So, I am currently editing a very long novel that is not yet complete.  I'm actually on the fence about whether or not to kill off some characters.

Why? Well, because, that's what writers do.  Not everything can be puppies and rainbows.  What novel am I talking about?  Well, here's a hint:

Excited?  Me too!!!

Cyndia Rios-Myers

Eff You, You, and You, Too - What I WISH I Could Say to Internet Trolls

I've bought and sold houses twice.  In each occasion, I learned things. In the spirit of helping others, I decided to write an article/essay on my home-buying experiences.  

However, I was not prepared for how much trolling my article received.  So many individuals insulted my intelligence over it.  Realtors and real estate agents commented on how much they disliked my article (while being sure to leave their contact information in their comments). It incensed me!!  

Thankfully, there are good people out there who stood up for me.  

In any case, here is the very popular essay that I wrote for Military Spouse Magazine online:

http://militaryspouse.com/at-home/10-rookie-mistakes-to-avoid-when-buying-a-house/

Cyndia Rios-Myers

On Rabid Squirrels and Lifespans

I have no idea if this squirrel was rabid or not.  All I know was that it was getting far too close to the kids at a local playground.  It walked right by us.  Stopped a while, sat on a cement wall and then on the memorial bench.  

We kept our children away from the squirrel and watched as it did its seemingly intentional wandering.  

Truth be told, I was kind of scared and entranced by it.  Was it looking for something?  Was it out of its mind?  

I think that I was kind of jealous of it.  Imagine running through a park, being pulled by nothing save for your own inner thoughts and introspection.  Imagine the luxury of getting lost in thought.  

According to Wikipedia, squirrels in the wild can expect a lifespan of 2-6 years.  Not very long. Maybe they are entitled to their moments of oddity and getting lost in thought.  

If I'm lucky, I'm looking at another 50 years on my lifespan.  One day, I might have too much time for introspection.  With that in mind, I'll go back to busy thoughts and practices of child-rearing, writing, dinner, and family time.  

Cyndia Rios-Myers

On Stress

Here's an essay I wrote on stress, and how it can ravage your body:

http://www.manykindregards.com/cyndia-rios-myers/a-prescription-against-stres


Cyndia Rios-Myers

A Link That's Made Me Think

My Kind of Heroine

I Think.  I'm Going to Work On It.

Jeff Gerke wrote a great article for Writer's Digest on how to introduce your hero (or heroine). He says that a good move is to have a small stand-alone story, or scene to introduce your heroine.  

I've come up with another bad @ss heroine.  My prior introduction to her had her performing a very mundane task for the company she worked for.  But because I read the article above, I think that I am going to start the book with the "action scene" that's meant to fuel the action in that first book.  I'm hoping to sell my readers on my heroine's characteristics before I get to the middle part of the book.  

But now, I'm wondering about balance.  If I start the novel with a lot of action, should its middle part be calm, and the end be about more action?  Or is a novel with a slow build the way to go?  

Okay, so you are probably wondering what this novel is going to be about.  I'm going to give you a hint:

That might not be much to go on, I know.  I hope you understand my need for secrecy.  A writer's gotta protect their intellectual property, you know.

Until the next!

Cyndia Rios-Myers

Can't Stop Writing

I Really Want to Tell You This Story,

But I Can't Stop Writing It.  Sorry.  

I think that's the danger of writing good fiction.  You get sucked in by the world you create.  As a matter of fact, I am stuck in the middle of three stories that I cannot bring myself to end.  

One entails a human girl in a mermaid world. 

Another features a woman living in fairy.  

Another features a woman who has lived, loved, fought and died alongside her husband, while they hunted aliens together.  So stuck am I in that story that she is now living another existence from Heaven, and I'm telling that part of the story.  

They have to end. I know that they have to. But how do I do that?  How do I end a story that I don't want to end?  Some people might say that a series is the way to do that, but I don't think that always works.  

Still, I have to find a way to wean myself off of the fictional worlds I've made.  

I'll let you know when that happens.

Cyndia Rios-Myers

A Story Waiting to Be Told

Arthurian Drama:

Wanting to Publish it, But Still Licking My Wounds

A few months ago, I pitched an Arthurian Women's Fiction/Romance novel to five separate literary agents.  I didn't hear back from one of them, and then other four said no.  

The hard ones were the rejections that had words such as "talented" and "intrigued," along with "not for me."  

Rejection always sucks.  It doesn't matter how many times you get turned down.  It is a good novel with a strong heroine, though.  I hope to get it published sometime.

On my computer sits other novels; other stories that are waiting to be told. The sequel to The End of Thunder and Lightning: Alanna's Fall sits in a writing folder, waiting to be published, too.  

Also sitting on my computer and about...75% completed is Jennifer Bauer.  The truth is that I don't know when I will publish that.  

Another untold and complete story is a romance/women's fiction story about a woman who falls in love with the bad guy for all the right reasons.  Does she stay with the guy?  Does he change his ways?  I might publish that one sometime.

The one that's driving me is a detective series of books that I will start writing.  In June.  I can't wait for that.  

I'll have to jump into the painful business that is pitching queries, and very soon.  I'll keep you all posted!

Cyndia Rios-Myers

Bringing it Back - The Blog

Hello Folks.

I'll be frank here.  I wasn't in love with my website, so I let it lapse.  So, I thought I would update you all over here.


Updates:

• I have published zero fiction works in the past year.  
• I have published a good number of essays and articles in print and online.  It has been fun.

Facts:

• I have not delivered on some of the publication dates I promised on.  

Gripes:

• Some of my Amazon readers have quickly read and returned my novellas back to Amazon. Can I tell you how uncool that is?  Very.
• Reviews.  I've not been getting them, and that's unfortunate.  Of course, I'd like to not be raked over the coals, but I would like my works to be reviewed.  

New Promises:

• I will publish fiction again.  I will conclude the story of The Wolves sometime.  

Amusements:

• I've been devouring the works of Denise Grover Swank, Camilla Chafer, A. R. Winters, and Meghan Ciana Doidge.  I love series that feature strong heroines, humor, and notes of romance. 
• We cut the cord - the cable cord - here at home.  I miss HGTV something fierce. However, our Roku's been providing just enough entertainment.   

I guess that this is all for now.  I hope that you keep reading and that you keep in touch!

Cyndia Rios-Myers