Cynthia Sax Loving Plants… A Bit Too Much
I love plants, LOVE them. My roots are in farming (I LOVE
puns too - grins) so I’ve inherited a love of making things grow. This love
translates to the plants themselves. I’ve cared for some of my plants since my
university days and I’ve formed an emotional attachment to them.
My favorite plant is Fern (and Fern’s babies). Fern is a Rabbit’s
Foot Fern. He has lush lacey fronds and furry rhizomes that hang over the side
of the container. Yes, Fern is pet-able! He’s soft to stroke.
Fern is very aggressive. If left unchecked, he’ll creep
along entire rooms, searching for a place to set down more roots. He has killed
off neighboring plants and taken over their pots. He doesn’t need a mate to
reproduce. He simply splits off his rhizomes.
Steve, the man-eating plant in Menage Lost, is based upon my
beloved plant Fern. Steve reproduces using his rhizomes (there’s no plant sex
in Menage Lost – Steve doesn’t need anyone else, not even a female). He’s the
alpha being on his plant-dominated planet, and he aggressively defends that
role, killing off any rivals, plant, animal, or alien.
Steve, being a plant in the future, has evolved past Fern’s
stage. Fern can detect light, turning his fronds toward the sun. Steve can see
(what he sees, I don’t know). Fern creeps. Steve moves faster, giving him the
ability to kill.
Despite his murderous tendencies and his unabashed
arrogance, I fell in love with Steve during the writing of Menage Lost… which
some readers find funny because he’s a plant. But hey, plants need love too!
***
Menage Lost Blurb
Trapped
on a plant-dominated planet, Mirian hasn’t seen another humanoid in five years.
She has never seen humanoids resembling Furu and Xan, a beautiful aristocrat
and his beastly warrior lover. Watching their shared passion makes her burn
with desire and ache for companionship.
Mirian
wants to experience the ecstasy of their touch. She eagerly trades the only
thing she owns—her body—for what she believes to be a breathtakingly ardent
casual affair.
Furu
and Xan don’t engage in casual affairs. They want Mirian permanently as their
breeder and they’ll break every rule, battling their unnatural female, a
male-eating plant and the entire Balazoid army to claim her.
***
Menage Lost
Excerpt
An
artificial thunder rolled across the mist-covered sky, the unnatural sound
signaling a change Mirian both welcomed and dreaded.
“Do
you hear that?” She tilted her head back. “Ohhh…the
visitors are landing.” Mirian bounced on the balls of
her bare feet, nervous and excited and scared. “They’re landing, Steve.”
A
small silver ship, the same ship she’d spotted skimming along the planet’s
surface yesterday, emerged from the heavy blanket of moisture. Dewdrops dappled
its metallic panels. Markings in a language she didn’t know were boldly etched
along its hull.
“I
thought we’d never see another being ever again.” She trembled with excitement,
having lived as the solitary humanoid on the vegetation-dominated plant for the
past five years, that status pushing her to the edge of insanity.
“So
please don’t eat them.” Mirian glanced over her
shoulder at the plant looming above her, his fuchsia flowers angled toward the
ship, his blooms serving as eyes, his visual system as evolved as those found
in warm-blooded life forms.
“Unless
they’re slavers.” She shuddered, remembering how the slavers had dragged away
the discovery team’s leader Denise, the humanoid female’s heart-wrenching
screams haunting Mirian’s dreams.
“If
they’re slavers, eat them and leave the ship intact,” she advised. Many of her
supplies were sourced from a replicator and the machine desperately needed parts,
the rectangular prism frame held together with twigs and hand-twisted twine.
“Don’t
let them capture me as you let them capture Denise. I’m your friend, remember.”
Mirian tapped a broad green leaf, Steve’s veins plump
and heavy with a red liquid resembling blood, the uniquely Viridian
plant incorporating animalistic attributes. “I feed you Sus,
those sweet little rodents you like. I—”
The
roar of the ship’s engines drowned out Mirian’s
words. Wind whipped her hair back and rippled the blue mud she’d slathered on
her skin, the decaying vegetation’s stench masking her human scent, the cool
layer lowering her body temperature.
“Please
let them be humanoid,” she murmured, clasping her calloused hands together.
Steve, the alpha plant she’d named after her first botany professor, curled a
comforting vine around her shoulder, and she leaned into him, his leaves
pressing against her bare back, supporting her weight.
The
ship landed with a planet-shaking thud, boulders rattling, and a tree limb
crashing to the ground. Steve fluttered his leaves, expressing his irritation
with the disturbance.
Mirian groaned, the visitors’ careless landing dramatically
lowering their odds of survival, Steve viewing any affront to his planet as an
act of aggression. “Don’t hurt them.” She rubbed the healed puncture marks on
her right arm, the scars a constant reminder of the plant’s bad temper.
“You
don’t know when or if we’ll get more visitors. This could be our only chance.” To
re-establish contact with the outside world, to ease the loneliness, to be talk
to someone, anyone, to feel human once again. She danced in place, the
anticipation almost unbearable. What will they look like?
The
high grasses, majestic torch trees, and white clouds reflected off the shiny
silver panels, the spacecraft visually disappearing into the landscape. A ramp
silently descended, and bright lights illuminated the void, temporarily
blinding Mirian.
She
glanced down at the ground and bit back a curse, her highly intelligent plant
friend not waiting to identify their guests. He slowly snaked his vines along
the flattened grass and wrapped them around the landing gear, securing the ship
to the planet.
“Subtle,
Steve, really subtle.” Mirian rolled her eyes, too
exhilarated to be angry with him.
A
red beam radiated from the ship and she froze in place, holding her breath, her
stomach clenching with fear. The light passed over them, tickling her skin, and
dissipated, leaving them unharmed. Not a weapon. She exhaled, sagging
forward, and Steve mimicked her actions, his thin, flexible trunk folding into
two.
Polished
black boots clomped against the metal ramp. Mirian
lifted her gaze over a pair of leather-clad legs, the newcomer’s skintight
garment covered with a staggering amount of daggers and guns. Thick gloved fingers
gripped yet another weapon, that gun larger than the others, and the male’s
bulging biceps flexed, his toned chest topped by broad shoulders.
She
gazed higher and blinked, taken aback by the raw aggression reflected in the
stranger’s fuck-with-me-and-die face, his slicked-back black hair accentuating
his white skin, his chin square and firm.
“Humanoid,
definitely humanoid,” Mirian murmured. The male
glared at his surroundings with blazing red eyes, as though daring someone to
attack him, and her pussy moistened, his dominance unexpectedly arousing. “A
very sexy humanoid.”
The
big brute turned his head with a snap and peered in her direction, his dark
brows lowered, shielding his eyes. “Who’s there?” His deep voice echoed as
though traveling over a long distance. “Show yourself.”
Helenos no. Mirian
remained hidden in the tall grass. Is he a slaver? She glanced at the
weapons accessorizing his outfit. He doesn’t look like a slaver. No
restraints dangled from his belt. He could be a warrior, but why would a
warrior land on Viridi?
Is
the why important? He did land and I’m no longer alone. Mirian
opened her mouth to answer him.
“Are
you talking to the plants, Xan?” A voice originated
from the ship.
Another
male. She pressed her lips together.
The
second male glided down the ramp, his slight, thin form garbed in the same
black leather, his skin the whitest white and his eyes a deep crimson. Finely
arched eyebrows accentuated a delicate perfect profile.
He’s
beautiful. Mirian’s jaw dropped. Fuck me
gorgeous.
“I’ve
performed multiple scans.” The breathtakingly stunning male waved a small
handheld device. “Only Amani-like creatures
inhabit Viridi.” The tentacles on his head
lifted, each skin-covered strand moving independently.
Tentacles,
pale skin, red eyes. Mirian’s shoulders lowered,
her concerns vanishing. He’s a Balazoid, friend to
the Federation.
“I
heard a female voice speaking words in the universal language.” The beastly
warrior, Xan, frowned, his wide sloping forehead
creasing with lines. “And you saw a larger heat signature.”
“Briefly.”
His beautiful companion shrugged his narrow shoulders, his pale lips turned
upward. “It was likely a glitch. You know how fragile these instruments are.”
He crouched down and jabbed a long needle into the soft ground.
They’re
fellow scientists. The Federation sent them back for me, for my research. Mirian covered her mouth with her palms, grateful that
she’d continued the readings the Federation had been willing to risk lives to
obtain.
She
stepped forward, eager to make their acquaintance, to talk to them, to share
her discoveries. Steve wrapped a vine around her waist and pulled her backward
into the safety of the forest.
“You—”
He
smacked a thick vine over her lips, smothering her protests.
Bastard
plant.
***
Bio:
Cynthia
Sax lives in a world where demons aren’t all bad, angels aren’t all good, and
magic happens every single day. Although her heroes may not always say, “I love
you”, they will do anything for the women they love. They live passionately.
They fight fiercely. They love the same women forever.
Cynthia
has loved the same wonderful man forever. Her supportive hubby offers himself
up to the joys and pains of research, while they travel the world together,
meeting fascinating people and finding inspiration in exotic places such as
Istanbul, Bali, and Chicago.
