Giveaway - Life, Death, and Back

On Monday I reviewed Life, Death, and Back. On Wednesday Cynthia Vespia posted a guest blog. Today she has graciously agreed to host the giveaway to celebrate 50 followers! So if the review and/or Cynthia's post piqued your interest, you now have a chance to win a PDF copy of the book.

Onto the rules...I will draw the winner from a hat on Monday morning, contest closes Sunday 11:59pm.

For the first entry - be a follower and leave a comment.

Additional entries (separate comments for each entry necessary):

• Visit Cynthia Vespia's blog and become a follower
  
• Share this giveaway on twitter - leave a link in your comment
  
• Grab my button (if you already have this on your blog, you get the entry just leave a link)
  
• Blog about this entry (2 extra entries for this one)

And that's it. Let the entries start rolling in. :) And a big thank you to Cynthia Vespia for hosting this giveaway and letting me share this great book.

Guest Post - ORIGINAL CYN

Shall I begin as David Copperfield, I was born then I grew up? Or do you as reader want to delve into the mind? Though I must warn you I feel a bit like the character from A Beautiful Mind at the moment. Not Russel Crowe, but John Nash himself. So many thoughts racing through my mind, it's hard to keep up at times. Multi-taskers, I'm sure you can relate. So come with me on this journey.

Throughout my life I've had many titles and learned many skills. I'm a certified personal trainer; licensed private security guard; trained mixologist; and self-taught graphic designer and video editor. Writing has always been my passion, more specifically writing novels. My love of writing started at a young age, eight to be exact. Though never more than random short stories and the like until I happened upon a Dean Koontz novel INTENSITY in my high school library. Anyone who knows me can tell you how much I love Dean Koontz. My desire at that point became the pursuit of writing to invoke the same emotions in readers Mr. Koontz drew from me. (On a side note I was able to impart this to him recently at a convention. What a thrill! One more item checked off from the bucket list.)

Fast forward to today, I've written – a lot. Been published – some. But I've continued to hold a passion and talent for the written word my entire life. Y'know that feeling when you really feel as though you're good at something? For me it's writing.

I started by self-publishing back when self-publishing was frowned upon. What it brought me was feedback to reinforce my own belief in my talent and beat back the demons who routinely sneak in to tell you you're not good enough.

THE CRESCENT told the tale of two women, one a slave the other a queen, who both find themselves as fighters inside the gladiator arena. People enjoyed the adventure so much that it spawned a screenplay (still in the works) and more importantly gave me the confidence to continue pursuing my passion.

Not that you ever need a reason to go after your dreams. Always shoot for the moon, if you miss it then reach out and grab a star. But positive reinforcement keeps us going when everything around us says to quit. Some of my best work has come in the past few years, and that was after a long hiatus away from the business.

Sometimes you need to step back and gain perspective. Because I never quit I was able to pen DEMON HUNTER. My dark fantasy series that tells the tale of a man who comes to learn he is fated to follow in his fathers footsteps as a hunter of demons....whether he wants to or not.

I have to say it is rare as a writer to have your original idea come off exactly as you envisioned it in your mind. DEMON HUNTER was a labor of love and in spite of, or because of, the fact that it took me over a year to finish I managed to capture magic on the page.

Reader feedback was nothing but favorable. I don't mind telling you they compared me to Robert E. Howard's CONAN series (which I grew up reading);THE ODYSSEY; and GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. I believe I can die happy now! Those are such great compliments but the best part is having readers describe back to you the emotions they felt reading it and knowing that I was going for that exact emotion when writing it. That means I've done my job. That means I fulfilled the wish I had back when I pulled Dean Koontz novel off the shelf.

I write for readers, for entertainment, and for fun. If it loses its fun then there's no longer a point, is there? As the song says: “It's not about the money.”

Writing my new thriller LIFE, DEATH, and BACK was most certainly fun. Having a character who comes back from the dead gave me great creative freedom. There are really no rules when writing such a piece.

Like all my novels LIFE, DEATH, and BACK took on a life of its own. The characters are some that will be endearing to me even after several years. Character building is always an extension of myself in one form or another. The ideas for the worlds they will travel in come to me at random. I'm not the owner of my talent, that was bestowed upon me by a higher power. I am just the manager of it.

I've been doing this for a very long time now and I will continue to do it until I can no longer think straight. So that's my story, so far. If I didn't lose you in the abyss of it all I invite you to check out more on my website on my own blog: www.cynsights.blogspot.com or follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cynthia.vespia

Review - Life, Death, and Back

by Cynthia Vespia
Amazon.com - $16.95
Barnes & Nobles - $16.95

Synopsis:
Life goes by in a blink.

One moment can change everything.

For most, death is the eternal end.

Bryan Caleb has unfinished business.

Even as he struggles with his own mortality, 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 purpose.

For it is only with Lisa's help that Bryan can rescue his son, Kriticos Caleb.

---

This style of book is more like 3 short stories. The center character is surprising, she is on the sidelines through much of it but is the only one in all the sections. That would be Lisa Zane.

In the first story she is a drugged out young woman, her body being abused in exchange for a place to live and the drugs she craves. Bryan, after an untimely death acts as her guardian angel to rescue her.

In the 2nd part, she has fully cleaned up her life when a reanimated Bryan asks her help in saving his now grown son from the violent path he was on.

And in the last section, Chris (Bryan's son, aka Kriticos) and Lisa are fully in love, and both of their pasts come to destroy them.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are well written, although at times they are far too good. The situations are also believable, even Bryan's afterlife. The language, settings and characters all come together to create a novel with a quick flow that doesn't leave you wanting for anything.

I am surprised to see this is only available as a paperback, although perhaps if enough interest is shown an e-version may show up. I have included a links to buy the book above, if you are looking for an intense, deep read.

Come back on Wednesday for a guest post by the author, Cynthia Vespia...my first guest blogger - I'm so excited!