Winner of free book

Congratulations to Katsrus for winning a free copy of Genesis Beach while blog jogging last Sunday. Thanks to all who dropped by and participated. Please visit often.

Blog Jog Day

I am delighted to be part of Carol Denbow's Blog Jog Day again this year.

Please explore all my blog has to offer, including information about Killer Recipes, a cookbook with proceeds donated to cancer research, and intriguing author interviews.

Sin Creek, my fourth Logan Hunter Mystery, will be out in a few days. Here's a teaser:

The Cape Fear River snakes through eastern North Carolina past the stunning port city of Wilmington, and sidling up next to it is Gator Creek. Some call it “Sin Creek”, a sliver of water where wickedness and decadence take precedence over decency.

To win a free copy of Genesis Beach, my first mystery,  leave a comment and your name goes in the basket.

Good luck! Then jog on over to “The writings & ramblings of a Philadelphian” http://harveyle.blogspot.com/


If you would like to visit a different Blog in the jog, go to http://www.blogjogday.blogspot.com/


Thank you for stopping by my blog. Please come back often!

Bente Gallagher: The DIY series

Bente Gallagher (Jennie Bentley) is my third guest author who contributed recipes for Killer Recipes. She's here today to discuss her DIY series and her contributions to the cookbook.


Bente, congratulations on the success of your adorable series.

Thank you, Susan! The Do It Yourself home renovation angle seems to have been a hit with the readers, just as my editor hoped, so we’re all happy! Last I heard, Fatal Fixer-Upper was into a fifth printing, which is just awesome!

Please tell readers what inspired you to write this series.

In a word, money.

LOL

Actually, it’s kind of a twisty road, seeing as I didn’t originally set out to write a cozy mystery series about a home renovator. What I wrote instead, was A Cutthroat Business, a sort of romantic Southern chick-lit mystery/suspense novel about a real estate agent who stumbles across a dead body in an empty house. (It was released in June, under my real name.) I used that manuscript to find an agent, and she started shopping it to publishing houses in New York. While we were waiting for someone to decide to pick it up, an editor at Berkley Prime Crime approached us with the idea of the DIY series. They wanted someone to write about home renovation, my background as a Realtor® and renovator (I’m living in my 9th house since 2000) gave them the idea that I’d be a good person for the job – coupled with, I guess, the fact that they liked A Cutthroat Business even if they decided against publishing it – and the rest is history. I was offered a three-book contract with Penguin, and that’s not something you turn down when you’re a rank nobody just starting out in the publishing business.

Could you give us a short synopsis of Fatal Fixer-Upper, Spackled and Spooked, and Plaster and Poison?

I don’t know about short, but sure:
Fatal Fixer-Upper is book 1 in the DIY series. When the book begins, the main character, Avery Baker, is a textile designer in New York City. She loves her life, has a great job, a great boyfriend – also her boss – and a great, rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, so when she inherits an old house (and two cats) on the coast of Maine from a relative she hasn’t seen in 26 years, she wants to get rid of it. But when she realizes that the perfect boyfriend isn’t so perfect after all, and she loses him and her job in one fell swoop, she decides to spend the summer in Maine renovating the house, to make some money. She hires local handyman Derek Ellis to help her, since she has no experience with renovating, and the two of them start butting heads immediately. Derek is a purist who wants to restore Aunt Inga’s Victorian house to its 1870s glory, while Avery wants to squeeze in every newfangled convenience she can think of. There’s a missing professor of history from a local college, a bunch of valuable antiques dating all the way back to Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, and some unsavory relatives heating things up, as well as Derek himself, who’s one of those hot handymen with power tools.

At the end of the book, Avery decides to stay on in Maine and work with Derek instead of going back to Manhattan, and in Spackled and Spooked, the two of them purchase their first house together: a supposedly haunted mid-century ranch they’re planning to renovate and resell. The supposed haunting stems from a murder that took place seventeen years earlier, and Derek believes enough time has passed for them to be able to sell the house and make a profit. But when they find a skeleton buried in the crawlspace, and then a next-door neighbor turns up dead, it becomes questionable whether anyone will ever want to take the house off their hands.

When book 3, Plaster and Poison, opens, they’re still trying to get rid of the haunted ranch house, and there’s no money in the bank to take on another project. As a result, Derek and Avery agree to go to work for their friend Kate, a B&B owner, to turn an old carriage house at the back of her property into a romantic retreat for two in time for Kate’s wedding to chief of police Wayne Rasmussen. But when an old friend of Kate’s shows up, and then ends up dead in the carriage house, it’s anyone’s guess whether the wedding will ever take place. It’s a book about family: Avery’s mother and stepfather are in town from California to meet Derek, and Derek’s family, the Ellises, features prominently in the history-mystery aspect of the book, which deals with tracking down a set of initials carved in the wall in the carriage house. There’s also a really cool connection to a real person by the name of William Avery Ellis who died during World War One.

Is there a favorite character that runs through the series?

Probably Avery herself. I spend so much time in her head that I feel I know her pretty well. She can be annoying, sure – she’s insecure as well as slightly neurotic with a penchant for jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions – but I like her. The scenes with Avery and Melissa are an awful lot of fun to write, too. Melissa is Derek’s ex-wife, and the person we all love to hate. Pure perfection, she was married to Derek for five years, and never lets an opportunity go by to remind Avery that she knows him better than Avery does.

When will the next DIY book be released?

DIY-4 is called Mortar and Murder, and will be released January 4th, officially. Sometimes the books make their appearance early, though, so in some places, I suppose you might be able to get your hands on a copy a week or two early. It doesn’t hurt to look, anyway. It’s a not a Christmas book, though: #1 takes place in the summer, #2 in the fall – how could I not take advantage of Halloween for the haunted house book? – and #3 in November and December. By #4 we’re into spring; the book actually opens on April Fool’s Day. In it, Derek and Avery are renovating a 1783 center-chimney Colonial house on an island off the coast of Maine, and they run into smugglers both historical and current. It’s a little less cozy than the others, in that it deals with the very current subject of human trafficking, but it has all the other aspects people have come to know and love, including a new kitten for Avery.

Where can folks purchase them and in what formats?

Most big bookstores should have them in mass market paperback. Same goes for any specialized mystery bookstore. Independents; yes or no, depending on size, I guess. Around here they have them, but that may be because I’m local. If you can’t find them in your local store, any bookseller should be able to order them for you. Amazon has them on Kindle, and Barnes and Noble have them for the Nook. There’s really no excuse not to read one!

Bente, you submitted recipes for my cookbook, Killer Recipes, with all proceeds going to cancer research. I thank you for that. I hope to try your Whoopie Pies over the holidays. Is there a personal reason you got involved in the project?

My mother died of cancer, and I have a young relative who’s just come off four years of treatment for childhood leukemia. She’s holding her own, and doing very well, so we hope the worst is over, but you just never know, do you? Cancer is the kind of disease that’ll end up touching everyone’s family sooner or later, and although I’m honestly not sure we’ll ever be able to come up with a cure for it, we can’t stop trying, can we? Can’t win if you don’t try, right?

We send love and prayers.

Do you have upcoming events you can share with us?

I’ve got a few things going on for the release of Mortar and Murder, including a signing at Mysteries and More bookstore in Lenox Village, on the south side of Nashville, on January 8th, and the Coffee County Library’s annual author day in Manchester, Tennessee, the following Saturday, the 15th. On April 7th, I’ll be doing a mystery panel for the WNBA – that’s the Women’s National Book Association, not the basketball players – and a little later in April I’ll be going to Bowling Green, KY, for the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. And then it’s on to June and the release of Hot Property, the second book in the Savannah Martin series, after A Cutthroat Business.

Thanks for the interview, Bente. And folks, here's the recipe for Whoopie Pies. For the rest of the wonderful recipes, head over to Amazon where you can purchase Killer Recipes in print, ebook, and Kindle formats. They make great gifts and support cancer research.

Warped Whoopee Pies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets.


In a large bowl, cream together shortening, sugar, and egg. In another bowl, combine cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, stir the vanilla extract into the milk. Add the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture, alternating with the milk mixture; beating until smooth. Drop batter by the 1/4 cup (to make 18 cakes) onto prepared baking sheets. With the back of a spoon spread batter into 4-inch circles, leaving approximately 2 inches between each cake. Bake 15 minutes or until they are firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Filling:
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups Marshmallow Fluff
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


In a medium bowl, beat together shortening, sugar, and Marshmallow fluff; stir in vanilla extract until well blended. When the cakes are completely cool, spread the flat side (bottom) of one chocolate cake with a generous amount of filling. Top with another cake, pressing down gently to distribute the filling evenly. Repeat with all cookies to make 9 pies. Wrap whoopee pies individually in plastic wrap, or place them in a single layer on a platter (do not stack them, as they tend to stick). You can freeze them the same way, by wrapping each pie in plastic wrap and putting them in a freezer proof container. Thaw them again in the fridge.

Vicki Lane: Tales of Appalachia

I am beginning a new series on the blog, one which includes authors who contributed recipes for the cookbook, Killer Recipes. Even though each recipe has the contributing author’s book titles and web sites, that’s it. After all, it’s a cookbook. Now I’d like to interview a good number of these generous writers and learn more about them. Come along. I think you’ll enjoy meeting every one of them.


My guest today is Vicki Lane, author of the recently released standalone, The Day of Small Things and the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries: In a Dark Season, Old Wounds, Art’s Blood, Signs in the Blood and the forthcoming (2011) Under the Skin.

Welcome to the blog, Vicki.

Hey, Susan, thanks for inviting me! I was so pleased to be a part of Killer Recipes and I’m delighted to be here today.

Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to visit. Tell us who Elizabeth Goodweather is and from where you got the inspiration for your heroine.

Elizabeth was born ten years ago in a class I took at the local branch of Asheville’s community college. Writing Fiction That Sells met six times and our first assignment was to come up with a protagonist and an idea for the type of book we might like to write.
Well, I almost quit right there. I was 57 years old and had lived on a small farm for the past 25 years and really hadn’t a clue about what sort of protagonist I could credibly write. So I chose to write about a fifty-something year old widow, living on a farm very much like ours in a house exactly like ours. A dreadful lack of imagination. I did make her a widow so she had room for romance to enter her life and I gave her daughters so as not to embarrass my sons. She’s definitely not me – but she shares my beliefs and world view.

Elizabeth is a very endearing character.


Even though I've read all of your books, I’m not sure I have your titles in the right order. Please set them up for us with a short synopsis of each.

Signs in the Blood introduces Elizabeth Goodweather. A still-grieving widow, she has wrapped herself in the serenity of Full Circle Farm, safe amid the idyllic fields of herbs and flowers on Pinnacle Mountain. The puzzling death of a neighbor's son shatters that peace and sends her on a life-changing quest in search of a missing shotgun.

Traveling the winding roads into the hidden coves and hollows of the Appalachians, Elizabeth finds the laurel thickets and rocky hillsides are full of surprises --- serpent handlers, star children, tongues-talkers, sang hunters, militia men --- and murder.

Art’s Blood - North Carolina's hills are a crazy quilt of old farmsteads and new beginnings, of locals, strangers, artists, and new age wanderers. . . Here Elizabeth Goodweather has made her life -- a still-young widow who moves easily between the gentrified world of Asheville and old-timers in their hollows. But when a flamboyant performance artist is murdered, and Elizabeth learns the amazing history of a magnificent piece of folk art, she is caught between her two worlds -- and in the middle of an agonizing mystery.

Old Wounds - On Halloween night of 1986, Maythorn Mullins disappeared from her home near Elizabeth Goodweather's Full Circle Farm. Now, almost twenty years later, Rosemary Goodweather wants to find out the truth about her lost childhood friend. She begins to suspect that she herself knows . . . if she can just remember. As Elizabeth helps her daughter to delve into the past, memories come alive -- old friends, old enemies, old loves . . . and old wounds.

From the slopes of Pinnacle Mountain and the hidden Cave of the Two Sisters to the homeless shelters and self-realization programs of Asheville to the Cherokee Reservation where the noisy, glittering world of the casino gives way to the pristine woodlands and waterfalls of Big Cove, Elizabeth and Rosemary, aided by Phillip Hawkins, search for the answers to long-suppressed questions. Elizabeth must finally confront her own failings as she learns that there are some wounds time alone will not heal.

In a Dark Season - Crouched on its ledge above the historic Drovers' Road, the house at Gudger's Stand has witnessed many a dark and bitter deed. When a new friend of Elizabeth Goodweather leaps from the upper story of the old building, Elizabeth and Phillip, already tangled in the problems of their own off-and-on relationship, are drawn into a web of long-kept family secrets. Brooding madness, mountain magic, and a tale of bewitchment and betrayal in a by-gone time all come together in the best Goodweather novel yet!

The Day of Small Things, a non-series standalone, is set in Elizabeth Goodweather’s Marshall County and tells the story of her beloved neighbor Miss Birdie. Called Least by her mother, the girl who will be Birdie grows up cursed by her mother’s cruelty and blessed by her neglect. Deemed unfit to join the outside world, Least turns to the wisdom of the land, to voices she alone can hear, to legends left by native Indians, and to the arts of divination and healing.

Oh, I love Miss Birdie!

But the time comes when Least has to choose between an ardent suitor and her childhood magic, between his church and her spirits. Now, as her life enters its final chapter, her world has been invaded by a violent criminal with a chilling plan. To stop him from committing an unspeakable crime—and to free an innocent child—the woman who was once Least must break long-held promises, draw on long-buried powers, and face a darkness no one else can even see.

You live in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. Tell us how that environment affects your writing.

Pretty much in every way possible. My characters and stories are based on people I’ve known or have been told about. I live in a very rural county that, for the most part, didn’t have paved roads and electricity till after WWII. We learned a lot of the old time ways from our neighbors and, at the same time, I absorbed a good bit of the language. The seasons and the land itself are integral to my writing. Many people have said that the setting is like another character.

You submitted Ba’s Pound Cake for the Killer Recipes cookbook. I plan to bake it for the holidays. Tell us about your grandmother, Ba.

My grandmother grew up in Troy, Alabama and, though she spent most of her married life in Florida, she never forgot her small town Alabama roots. She was a wonderful Southern cook and the sort of grandmother everyone should have had. She made this pound cake about once a week. (Killer Recipes is available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats at Amazon.com)

As Thanksgiving approaches, what are you most thankful for?

My family, of course, and the beautiful place I’ve had the good fortune to call home for thirty-five years.

Do you have any new projects in the works?

The fifth Elizabeth book – Under the Skin – will be out in 2011. It’s pretty much done and now I’m putting together a standalone proposal for my editor based on a story I was told about a local cemetery where there was a grave with a little house sitting atop the grave. And there were dolls inside . . .

Where can readers find more information about you and your writing?

My website, my daily blog, and my monthly newsletter cover the ground pretty thoroughly.

Vicki, thanks so much for the interview. I have enjoyed the Goodweather series and look forward to many more adventures with Elizabeth. Congratulations on your success! I look forward to meeting you in person at Cape Fear Crime Festival in Wilmington.

Thanks for inviting me, Susan! It’s been a pleasure!

Rob Ballister's God Does Have a Sense of Humor

Rob Ballister can find humor anywhere.  Whether it’s in the operating room, in the classroom, in a relationship, or in Spain, his unique style takes you on a journey through the significant events that shaped his life.  Through a never-ending struggle to understand his family, women, and God’s sense of humor, he stands defiantly with nothing more than a smile and his teddy bear Oscar. Follow him as he joins the Navy, sees the world, beats cancer, and gets beaten up. It’s a wild ride filled with laughter, friendship, a bit of heartbreak, and a lot of love.  You will laugh, you may cry, but one thing is certain.  You won’t forget it.     Rob is my special guest today. Welcome to the blog, Rob.

Born and raised in a very Italian, Catholic family in New Jersey, Rob Ballister left home for the Naval Academy at age 17. Since then he has survived cancer, a Naval Career, and his mother in law’s cooking. Armed with his sense of humor, he still serves in the Navy, and also speaks at cancer survivor and cancer support events. GOD DOES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR is his first book, and won the 2007 Gold Medal for Humor from the Military Writers’ Society of America.

Rob, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions so that folks can learn more about you.
What is your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

My wife and I send lots of books to cancer patients as well as troops deployed overseas. When we hear that one of those books made someone smile who really needed it, it makes all the effort worth it. The two single best “feel good” moments were when a buddy send me a note from Kuwait saying he found my book in the medical tent, where it was making the sick and injured troops laugh, and when the wife of a cancer patient told me that she took my book with her to the hospital with her now deceased husband every time they went. Making a difference makes a difference.

You bet! That's awesome!


Tell us about your book. Is it available in print and e-book formats?

GOD DOES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR is a collection of short writings inspired by the events of life. From dating disasters to surviving cancer to learning the truth about Santa Claus, the stories take potshots at the author, the establishment, and most of my relatives. The book is available in hardcover, softcover, e-book, and kindle formats. It can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iUniverse websites.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Being raised in an Italian family in New Jersey provided no end of material. Add to that surviving cancer and traveling the world with the Navy, and you have plenty of influence into the foibles of life.

Any current projects?

Two, actually. First, I’m working on a sequel to the first, tentatively entitled YOUR FEET ARE VISIBLE FROM SPACE, AND OTHER THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T TELL YOUR PREGNANT WIFE. The first book handled everything up until I met my wife. The second book covers our time together as well as the birth of our daughter.

Second is a more serious work for those recently diagnosed with cancer. No title yet. The idea is to profile people that were diagnosed with cancer as young adults (I was 22) and then went on to live normal lives. This will hopefully give those newly diagnosed a glimpse at the other side and give them something to shoot for.


Where can folks learn more about your books and events?


Recently launched http://www.robballister.com/. Everything is there. 

Rob, it's great to have you over. So glad you beat cancer. My cookbook, Killer Recipes, is a compilation of recipes from mystery writers across the country who were willing to give up a few family secrets for a good cause. Killer Recipes (available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats at Amazon.com) offers delicious food and we're giving all proceeds to cancer research in hopes of wiping out this disease in our lifetime. Thank you for telling us your story. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Bobbye Terry

My guest today is Bobbye Terry, a fellow L&L Dreamspell writer.
Welcome to the blog, Bobbye. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a mystery/suspense writer under my real name, Bobbye Terry, but have many romantic comedies under my pseudonym, Terry Campbell, with co-writer, Linda Campbell, and write fantasy/science fiction solo as Daryn Cross. I also have two inspirational non-fiction books. Additionally, my credits include short stories in many anthologies, including Dreamspell Mystery Vol. 1 and Dreamspell Haunts, Vol. 1, just released on Halloween under the name, Terry Campbell, and Just One Bite Vol. 3, writing as Daryn Cross & L.J. DeLeon, released by AllRomance Ebooks on Thanksgiving Day. My book, It’s Magic, co-written with L.J. DeLeon, Crescent Moon Press, is debuting this month.

What are your writing goals, Bobbye?

I plan to write at least one fantasy, one mystery and one novella per year. I have so far exceeded that goal. My long term goal is to make enough money off my books to write fulltime and not have to seek a day job.

What is your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

The writing itself. I love when everything is working and the words our out. Sometimes I read back over what I wrote and say to myself, how the heck did you write that? Of course, I believe the right characters have a tendency to write themselves.

Tell us about your latest book. Is it available in print, ebook, and Kindle formats?

It’s Magic is a romantic urban fantasy. It’s the first of a series involving Maxwell Magic, Santa on his off-season. Magic matches unmatchable misfits (say that three times). He matches people who can’t see to get it right when it comes to everlasting love. His match in this book is a feminist writer and every man’s favorite radio psychiatrist.

Here’s a blurb:

Can true love exist between a man who believes a woman is capable of sticking a shive in his heart while making love and a woman who is convinced men think with only one head? Maxwell Magic, an eccentric mysterious matchmaker swears it can and he’s the man to provide the stimulus to make it happen. Kasey Bell, feminist writer, and Guy McLane, radio’s famous chauvinistic psychiatrist, are his targets. Even with carefully executed plans, the road to true love is strewn with mishaps, mirth and money-hungry nighttime talk show hosts. Will Kasey and Guy risk their reputations by exposing secrets buried beneath layers of shame and self-doubt for a desperately needed big money pay-off? Or, will they claim what has evaded them their entire lives—a love that lasts forever?

Were any of your books more challenging to write than the others? If so, why?

My book Honey Blood and the Collector, yet to be sold, was a true challenge. It’s the beginning book of an epic. So, I had to introduce a complicated world and all of the lore for the characters in the first book. I’ll build on it of course, am doing so already in the sequel, but the foundation is the hardest part. It was also a multiple POV book.

My book, Coming to Climax, slated to come out by Turquoise Morning Press mid-2011, was also a challenge. It’s hard to explain to people how humor with a generous dose of Southern culture can mix with the macabre machinations of a psycho serial-killer. Thankfully, editor Kim Jacobs got it.

Both of these books are close to me. The first is dear because of the characters, individuals whom I don’t think I’d ever get tired of. The second one is very sentimental for me because I wrote it about the area where my mother, whom I lost last year, was born and grew up in her early years.

How do you develop characters? Setting?

I develop profiles for them. Most of the time my hero and heroine are opposites on the introvert/extrovert scale, but are similar in core values. They usually come from professions of which I am knowledgeable, but not always. As for setting, anything goes. Most of the time, I set the novels in places where I’ve lived or enjoyed visiting. Having said that, I obviously have never been to 14th century Ireland, 15th century Romania or 19th century America. Then here are my alternate time lines…

Any current projects?

Right now I’m working on the sequel to It’s Magic. Then it’ll be time to polish the sequel to Coming to Climax, already written, so I can submit that. I also have the second of three novellas to write. I’m shooting to have numbers two and three done by Christmas.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

All of my books are or will be at Amazon and other online venues. Look for my backlist as Terry Campbell in the next couple of months on Kindle. You can also go to my publisher sites, including www.CrescentMoonPress.com/books/ItsMagic.html for my current release, www.LLDreamspell.com for my two new anthologies, and www.AllRomanceEbooks.com for my new anthology released Thanksgiving Day.

Congratulations on all the accomplishments, Bobbye, and continued success.

Thanks for having me as a guest, Susan!

Cynthia Vespia's Life, Death and Back

Cynthia Vespia was drawn to writing early in life where she developed a successful career as a freelance journalist writing everything from features and fillers, to reviews and human interest stories. But it was the allure of the fantastical worlds of fiction that always remained her true passion.
 Her first novel, a medieval fiction entitled The Crescent was published in August 2005. The novel was unanimously praised as "an engaging, descriptive read" which prompted a sell-out at Borders Bookstore in less than one hour during the first official signing.


A short story, a satirical look at the afterlife entitled Death's Grand Design was published online shortly thereafter and once again met with reviews that honored her attention to detail and the flow of her prose.

In May of 2006, Theater of Pain was released. This suspense thriller unfolds within the eccentric world of professional wrestling where competitors would do anything to reach the top...even murder.


After a short hiatus, Cynthia returned with Demon Hunter. It is the story about a nobody who becomes a somebody in the bloodiest of ways. Following the tradition of dark fantasy and combining the concept of high-adventure, Demon Hunter examines both the light and dark side of human nature when a man learns he is fated to hunt demons before they corrupt mankind. The success of Demon Hunter was followed up by the sequel, Seek &Destroy which takes the characters and the reader on a journey that begins on the high seas and ends in Hell. Both novels (published in e-book format) were nominated for Best Series in 2009 by LRC Cafe.

Cynthia’s next release returns to the contemporary side of thrillers but still contains that special twist that her novels are fast becoming known for. Life, Death, and Back (WeavingDreamsPublishing) delves into the paranormal when a mans life is tragically cut short and he remains on Earth to tie up loose ends with his family.


Today Cynthia writes mainstream suspense fiction with savagely powerful characters and strong storylines. 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.


Welcome, Cynthia, and congratulations on your recent Covey Book Trailer Award.

Thank you, Susan.

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?

I started writing as young as 8 on my sisters old typewriter producing random short stories on a daily basis. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I decided I wanted to write professionally. I write what I like to read which is mainly contemporary thrillers and a smattering of fantasy.

When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?

My goal has always been to entertain. Looking back on some of my novels I can say that the themes have messages of their own but when I sit down and start a book it is never about getting some hidden meaning across. I like to write real and authentic to whatever world I'm creating. Essentially I just want to create stories like the bards of old.

Briefly tell us about your latest book. Series or stand-alone? If you have written both, which one do you prefer?

Unfinished Business (Weaving Dreams Publishing, ISBN #978-0-9824876-3-1, $13.95), weaves together a tapestry from life to death and back again. In the wake of his death Bryan Caleb begins to realize how precious living is and how much he’d taken for granted. Now he has unfinished business. In exchange for more time on Earth, Bryan has been granted guardianship. Even as he struggles with his own immortality Bryan must find the compassion within himself to help guide Lisa Zane, an emotionally and spiritually drained young girl, through her troubled life to find her true purpose. For it is only with Lisa's help that Bryan can rescue his very own son from the life of crime he has fallen into before Kriticos Caleb's fate mirrors his father's...in death.

What’s the hook for the book?

All humans die, but what happens beyond the grave? Can the dead return to the world of the living? These are questions that have been asked for centuries.

How do you determine that all important first sentence?

That's like trying to get a car out of the mud by rocking it back and forth until you finally hear that satisfying "pop!" I usually began with some sort of action event to get the story moving immediately. What action? Well that depends on the story. I meditate on it...no lie.

How do you develop characters? Setting?

That's the best part of writing in my opinion. The creation of worlds and people to populate those worlds, its a gift from God and what better way to pay him back then to create the way you yourself were created. The setting develops out of the initial story idea and those come to me at random times. Then you fill in the characters to match that time and place. Or I'll get an idea for a really interesting character that I just have to use and I'll build everything else around that. Most of the time the characters are a mix of personalities that I've known in my lifetime coupled with creative license. Like I said I want the story to feel as real and authentic as possible.

What are your protagonist’s strengths? Flaws?

The protag for Unfinished Business, Bryan Caleb, has the strength of perseverance. He's a good man in essence, always trying to do the right thing in his life. His flaw comes in death. He's dead, the rules have all changed and he has to learn what they are and how he can use them if he hopes to finish his task at hand.

How do you determine voice in your writing?

That is something which develops in time and it can only come from writing and writing a lot.

Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?

Back when I first started writing I let the story take me for a ride. I’d follow the characters and let them tell me what would happen next with just a shimmer of an idea in the distance. Now I tend to outline just a little bit more. I get my characters in order with deep, rich details...some of which I may never even use but they are there from which to draw. Then I jot down a few key scenes I want to include and build from there. I try not to map the entire story otherwise I feel it loses its spontaneity.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Events in my life lend themselves to stories if I see fit to draw from certain experiences. But being that I write fiction the majority of the writing comes direct from the imagination. I see the story in my head and it’s my job to deliver it to the page in a way that draws the reader into that same story.

Have you started any online networks or blogs to promote yourself and others?

Yes, I like to stay active within many different networks to reach out to fans and other authors alike. Most recently I’ve revamped my blog to make it more fun and user friendly. I invite everyone to drop by for a visit at Cynsights.Blogspot.com

I’m also online at Twitter (www.twitter.com/cynfulcharm ); Facebook; and Myspace

After hours of intense writing, how do you unwind?

Writing does get intense. It’s mentally draining sometimes. I like to workout. I do strength training and martial arts. Or sometimes I just put on a good movie and kick back. Watching great films inspires me.

What are your current projects?

I’m getting knee deep in a series of novels told with grit and suspense in some of the most popular cities in the states starting with my hometown of Las Vegas. Hold on to your butts because I’m going to push a lot of buttons with this one…no apologies!

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Go to my official web presence at www.CynthiaVespia.com

I also maintain an author page at Amazon.com where you can find my current novels and a link to my blog.

Thank you to all for the continued support!