The Passion for Writing Series: Author Cynthia Vespia

Cynthia Vespia, "The Original Cyn," has a background as a certified personal trainer; licensed private security guard; award winning video editor, and graphic designer. But the allure of writing has always remained her first love.

As a skilled wordsmith she established a successful career as a journalist and promotional writer. Throughout that time she remained true to her pursuit of writing novels, a passion she's held since she was a very young.

Today Cynthia writes quality, character driven novels full of suspense as well as dark fantasy. With a plot pace to stir the adrenaline and keep the pages turning, Cynthia likes to refer to her novels as "Real life situations that you could find yourself in but hope to God you never do." In her spare time she enjoys reading, movies that involve a strong plot/characters, and keeping active through various forms of martial arts and as an active fitness competitor.

You can learn more about Cynthia at/on: [Her website] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Advertising Site]


The Passion for Writing - From Cynthia's Pen
Where does your passion for writing come from?
I love reading first and foremost, and that translated into a love of writing. The art of creating worlds and characters is very freeing, seductive, and delicious.

If your passion for writing was a color, what color would it be and why?
I could say its "shades of gray" ...no pun intended! I could say my writing encompasses all the colors of the rainbow due to the varied emotions, genres, and stories. But I see a purpleish hue. Dark, intense, but not so dark as it is black. Purple = passion.

How do you keep the passion burning in your relationship with storytelling?
The same way you keep passion burning in any relationship, you spend time with it. Experiment and try new things when others are feeling stale and old. Try not to focus on the faults but instead pump and continue to develop the things that are working.

[Buy your copy of Sins and Virtues today from Amazon and S&V's publisher!]
Fantasy novelist Ben Haskins has taken a remote cabin in the wilderness to revive his shaky marriage and failing career. Within the peaceful surroundings he runs into real trouble when convicted murderer Sam Mitchell breaks into the cabin after she escapes from prison. Marked by a dark past of abuse Sam is volatile and ready to snap. It is up to Ben to use his writer's gift of words to diffuse the situation before time runs out for them both.

Excerpt from Sins and Virtues

Ben brought up his hands to signify he was not hostile, but before he could speak the woman made a surprising move.  She dashed backwards and slipped a long knife from the wood block that stood on the counter.  By chance or choice she’d yielded the butcher knife.  Its large, flat edge gleamed from a spot of yellow sunlight breaking through the kitchen window as its master twisted it in her grip.

Now Ben was certain there was trouble.  She could be unstable from a mental disorder, or drug abuse.  Either way, she was now armed and double the threat.

Ben wasn’t about to take any chances with his life, woman or man.  He had a family to support, a son to watch grow into a man.

His most logical decision now would be to bring the odds decidedly back to his favor.  The mental image of the .12 gauge shotgun, flawlessly polished and resting inside the tomb of the foyer closet, sprung to mind.

The woman was about five feet in front of him, clutching the knife tightly in her right hand.  Her eyes were steely and locked onto Ben’s every move.  The lines of her body were contoured into an athletic looking frame, poised and ready to strike.  She could be on him like a jungle cat, stealthy and quick, that he was well aware of.

The pulsing of his heart grew rapid and his adrenaline surmounted once again.  But unlike the level attained in the weight room, it was now at a pace he could not voluntarily control.  His shirt was pasted to his skin, clinging and delivering a feeling of constriction to his chest.

He wondered if he should speak, say something to let her know he wasn’t a threat to her. But in the back of his mind he wanted nothing more than to be out of harm’s way. Hoping to gain positive ground by using an obstacle as interference, Ben knocked over one of the chairs from the wicker dining set.  Turning on heel he made a swift vault for the closet where the shotgun was located.

As he reached the handle to the door he looked back just in time to see the woman hurdle the chair with ease.  Stunned at her athleticism he fumbled for the shotgun, unable and unwilling to take his eyes off of her.

Rather than pursue him, she stopped at her landing with a soft pad of her feet and marked him in her sights.  She flipped the knife around to grasp its steel edge and launched it through the air with precision.

Ben tipped back just in time to narrowly avoid being struck in the face by the airborne blade.  Instead, it grazed his left ear and temple as he fell ass backwards to the hardwood floor.  His hand instinctively shot up to attend to the sudden coarse burning that spread out over his damaged flesh.

In mere seconds the woman was across the room and upon him.  Ben had been on target about her cat-like quickness.  A solid, brutal heel strike landed squarely upon his groin.  Before he could even wail out in pain another kick caught him flush under the chin, gnashing his teeth together, almost severing his tongue.

Sparks of blackness rattled his vision.  His body was overloaded with pain and dizziness soon followed.  Regaining his bearings Ben thought for a moment he was dreaming.  As his vision cleared he realized he was in a very real and waking nightmare. The woman stood above him, the barrel of the shotgun aimed at his chest.

5-Latte Review of Coleen Paratore's BIG

When asked to read Coleen Paratore's Big [Little Pickle Press' Site and Blog], I was more than delighted to do so. There are many readers of ChickLitGurrl with children, with nieces and nephews, and with friends with children, and Big is a wonderful gift with a great message for kids between the ages of 5 and 8.

Continue through the post to learn about Big, to see my 5-latte review, and to sit back and watch Big's trailer!


[Available in: Print | Kindle]
BIG goes beyond the basics to show that size is more than a matter of height. Touching on ideas such as health, citizenship, and imagination, this book can be the key to heartfelt dialogue between children and caregivers about the importance of values over valuables.


5 out of 5 lattes

This is a book that makes me smile from beginning to end. Geared toward children, it offers them tools to become BIG in their lives. For parents, it offers a tool to begin conversations with their children so that they can nurture their growing, BIG children. For everyone else, it's a book with a BIG message that can even have the child at heart reflecting on how to add bigness to their own lives.

Side note: Little Pickle Press [Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest] offers lesson plans for BIG and for other books by LPP. The BIG lesson plans are excellent, and even though they are geared toward teachers for classroom activities, I think parents could get a lot from the lessons to have one-on-one conversations with their little ones.


BIG Video Trailer



Jump on the BIG Blog Book Tour wagon and travel to the blog BritMums; the tour will be stopping there tomorrow!

Pages of the Heart ~ Guest Post by Author Ruthie Lewis

The story of Fireflies is a special one, but even more special is how it came to be. My love affair with books began early. The school or local library was a world beckoning the search for “happily ever after.” I fell in love with those words, and adventures that led to them. I couldn’t resist the urge to try putting words to paper, a kid’s imagination.

So I thought.

Even though I knew I really enjoyed it, and the words flowed easily, it wasn’t until later adulthood that I recognized it as a passion. The story’s not uncommon but what do you do with a passion even after you recognize it?

My adult-discovered and recovered passion only a blossoming bud, I sat writing in my journal one night as I was finding my way through dark, gut-wrenching circumstances, and wondered how many of these books with blank pages I’d filled with words penned from my heart. As I thumbed through the pages, I realized that I’d never stopped writing – I just hadn’t let stories in my imagination have any play, let alone find their way to paper.

How could I get all the heart that was in these journals in book form?

During this time - after several years of gasping for breath and reinventing my life - I was in the process of becoming a Life Coach. My experiences and all that I’d learned were recorded in my journals, so it was logical to envision my first book as non-fiction.

I had also pursued studying writing and was pleasantly surprised when my love for fiction began to re-emerge and was told by my writing mentor that “You have a bent for fiction.” Then, came the moment that sealed the deal. When the fiction portion of the study was nearing an end, I received an email from my writing mentor: “Wow!! I so enjoyed reading this. Your writing is getting so strong. I’m not kidding. You keep persevering because you have a future here, and I don’t say that to just anyone!”

That was the gust of wind beneath my wings; it allowed me to let my love for fiction live, while a whirlwind of light-bulb moments flickered like fireflies in the night sky – one of which was that Jesus himself spoke to the hearts of people in parables; stories.

My non-fiction metamorphosed into fiction. As wings began to sprout into a soaring, powerful story, the day came when its title, “Fireflies” burst into the midst of it all like a 4th of July sparkler. Faith Hill was a guest on a popular program and performed her hit song, Fireflies. It was melting all over me like a chocolate fountain, when the author of the song was introduced. She revealed the story of how the words were penned. In the middle of a mothering and laundering afternoon, she sat and poured out her heart as she wondered what had happened to her dreams and if her husband even had a clue what they were or knew who she really was before he ever met her. It was my story – and the story of so many other women who wonder what happened to the woman she was before she ever married, before life screamed “have-to / supposed-to.”

Fireflies is for every woman who has ever wondered who she would be if she’d never married; if she’d pursued her passions, whether married or unmarried; if she had listened to her heart rather than trying to live up to who everyone else implied she should be.

I’ve come across so many books that may be clever, written by a recognizable name, and may be entertaining, interesting and contain knowledgeable content, but if it’s not pages from the author’s heart, it won’t carve its way into the reader’s heart. I am part of an online group that was asked the question: What book most impacted your life the most? The result was a huge list of great books, which confirmed what I have found: The books people talk about the most are those that impacted the emotions and thinking patterns of a life.

Because heart to heart is how the ink on a page impacts a life and the world.



Ruthie is an author, speaker and life coach. She resides in Edmond, OK and is the mother of two amazing grown sons, and a daughter who was a life-long dancer and brought light into the lives of everyone who knew her, and now dances with Jesus.

[Order Fireflies at RuthieLewis.com]

I’m so different now, so different from the naïve high school senior full of heart and dreams.
Like a firefly whose very being lights up a summer night like a Fourth of July sparkler,
my soul’s light was at its brightest.

Tammy and Charla have been friends since childhood, but lost touch when life took them separate directions. In their time apart, both women have found themselves in situations far beyond their control.

Tammy Trovich had been full of dreams, but had sacrificed and forgotten them all. Truth collides with her head-on when she realizes she’s been caught like a firefly in a proverbial jar, living a life of have-to and supposed-to, when all the while, freedom was only inches away.

Despite many obstacles, Charla Calibrisi thinks she’s living her dream as a news anchor, but when her husband’s aggressive behavior mirrors her dark past, will she allow the truth she has buried to be excavated, or will she be buried with it?

Trapped in a jar with their lights dimming, both women wrestle with their devotion to the sanctity of marriage. To what limit will Tammy and Charla let their lives grow fainter before their light is extinguished—unable to emanate even the faintest glow?

The Passion for Writing Series: Author Julia Blues

I'm a storyteller who simply loves telling tales about what happens in relationships when people aren't honest with themselves, and how to put those pieces back together once truth is revealed. My stories have been featured in It's Not Enough To Dream Magazine, both in print and online.

You can learn more about me at/on: [My website] [Facebook] [Twitter]


The Passion for Writing - From Julia's Pen
Where does your passion for writing come from?
Comes from my desire to help people be better and do better in their lives and relationships. I get these nudges from characters, they tell me their stories. I don't know where they come from. But something in me can't rest until I tell their stories with the hope that if it gives them peace, others can have it, too.

If your passion for writing was a color, what color would it be and why?
Clear. I say that because my passion is driven by transparency. My characters bare their soul, and in ways, I bare my own. It's what drives me.

How do you keep the passion burning in your relationship with storytelling?
I keep my passion for writing burning just like I would any relationship: I spend quality time with it, get to learn its idiosyncrasies, study its behavior, pay attention to its moods. We go places together; shopping, to the movies, out to dinner. We travel the world together. Even when we have disagreements or even experience moments of neglect, it's our love and need for each other that keeps the fire burning.

[Buy your copy of Z-Rated today!]
Heated Waters (story in anthology) deals with a couple facing divorce after a wife commits adultery. Two years after the fact, the husband realizes his decisions may have driven his wife to desperate measures. With the papers on the table, this couple has to decide if it's worth giving up eight years of marriage or making the changes needed to give love one more try.

Excerpt from Heated Waters

The pool mirrors the moon in its stillness.

I dip the tip of my foot in and watch the moon’s reflection break into tiny pieces just as my life has shattered within the last twenty-four hours.

“I’m filing for divorce.”

My eyes sting as a fresh batch of tears form. I do everything I can to prevent them from falling. Clear my throat, swallow, cough. Nothing helps.

His familiar scent of Sicilian citron, apple, and cedarwood tickles my nose and betrays my emotions.

“How did we get here?” I ask as I feel him standing behind me.

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead he sits down next to me, rolls up the legs of his pants and sticks his feet in the water right along with mine.

I look over at him, beg for answers with my liquid emotions.

He wipes away a tear just before it falls from my chin. “I think this is something we’ve both been wanting for a while. Why prolong the inevitable?”

I sigh. “It doesn’t have to be this way. I – I don’t want you to leave.”

Trevor looks up at the sky, says, “Full moon. Emotions always get the best of folks on nights like this.”

I lean my head against my husband’s shoulder. The shoulder that has carried the weight of my infidelity for the last two years. His love for me kept him around all this time despite my indiscretion. It wasn’t intentional, wasn’t planned. It was a moment of weakness. I was lonely. Married and lonely. Two words that should never be used in the same sentence. His job kept him away more than a husband should be away from his wife. Seemed like the more I spoke up about it, the more business trips he would make. One trip lasted a week longer than planned. When he came back, I had already broken my vows.

“It wasn’t the way you think.”

His shoulder tenses under my head when I refer to that night. He tenses and shuts down every time I try to talk about it. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Are we really over?” I want to know though I already know his answer. I just need to hear him say it again to make it official.

“The papers are on the dining room table. Movers will be here in the morning.”

My eyes begin to burn again.

Trevor leans his head down and places his lips against my forehead. “You’ll be okay. We both will.”

Maybe a full moon does get the best of people because as hurt as I am, another feeling between my thighs won’t let me break down the way my heart wants me to. Been fighting my hormones since he walked out smelling all good.

I lift my head, turn it in the direction of the lips that were just on my skin. I close my eyes and kiss my soon-to-be ex-husband.

“Let’s not—”

“Shhhhh,” I say as I try to have some control over what happens in my life.

For a second neither of us move or say anything. Contemplation is in the air. Him debating if he should oblige my offer. Me wondering if I should take it off the table.

He wins.

He removes his legs from the pool and walks back in the house.