"When I'm not writing..." with Cecy Robson

This week's post is from Cecy Robson, author of the Weird Girls series. Cecy (pronounced Sessy) is a full-time writer, registered nurse, wife, and mother living in the Great Northwest. She began writing her first urban fantasy series, Weird Girls, in May 2009, and the first book in the series, SEALED WITH A CURSE, will be available on New Year's Eve.

Welcome to Tynga's Reviews, Cecy!

The woman pants. Her gown clings to her sweat-soaked body.

“I can’t do this,” she whimpers.

Rivers of scalding tears streak her flushed cheeks. Her breaths are ragged, and her eyes bloodshot from the hours of overexertion. She’s done, beaten physically and emotionally into submission. Her husband waits by her side, his words of encouragement stolen by his increasing worry and his love’s torment.

I place my hand on her shoulder and smile. “You can,” I tell her. “Your baby wants to meet you. Give me four more pushes. Four more and you get to hold your daughter.”

In her wide eyes I see doubt and pain. And I see fear, for her, and for her unborn child. She doesn’t believe me, yet I know she wants to. “Take a breath. When the next contraction comes, I want you to give me all you have because I know you can. And so does your little girl.”

The next contraction arrives too soon. But not before the woman hears my soft voice, and recognizes my faith in her. The surge of pain builds to a crescendo along with the woman’s screams. The baby’s head crowns. “Push,” I urge. “You can do this, push.”

She does, with every ounce of strength she has left, and probably more than she believed in her possession.

The beeps from the monitor and the IV, and the “clamp, clamp” of the umbilical cord barely register over the glorious cries of the sweet little baby. A new life is born.

The infant is placed on her mother’s chest. The woman holds her baby like the wondrous gift she is. Love at first sight is real. I see it every time a mother and child meet for the first time.

Hi. I’m Cecy. And when I’m not writing, I help welcome babies into the world.

I’ve worked as a Labor and Delivery nurse for several years. My job is both stressful and tremendously rewarding. I give a great deal of myself, each and every time. After all, there is a woman and often several loved ones counting on me to keep her and her baby safe. I still cry at deliveries. Life is such a gift, but it doesn’t always come to fruition.

Sometimes I have to deliver babies that I know won’t cry when they leave their mothers’ wombs, because they can’t. Their souls have left before their births, or their bodies didn’t equip them to survive. But just like with the woman who succeeds in having a healthy child, I am there, to encourage, to hold, to assist through pain, and to often cry with them.

In my career as a Labor Nurse, I have witnessed true pain, corporeal and spiritual. I’ve handed babies to fathers to rock and cuddle with, and I have held and cared for babies who didn’t take a breath, whose hearts didn’t beat, and whose parents were too aggrieved to embrace them.

I’ve also witnessed love and happiness in its most purest and unconditional form―an experience few will ever know. And I get to relive it, every time I see a child being born.

I use the roller-coaster of emotions to spark my creative side. So when I am writing, my fight scenes are edgier, the tension between my characters is more extreme, and the humor I craft more comical.

Sometimes my nursing profession feels like more than I can manage. But just like the laboring woman I’m caring for, I continue to push, with strength I often don’t think I have.

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Thanks, Cecy, for such an engaging guest blog! Enjoy the rest of your blog tour!

For more information about Cecy and her books, check out her website or follow her on Facebook or Twitter. You can also check out the other stops on her blog tour by clicking on the button below.

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Here's the scoop on SEALED WITH A CURSE:

Celia Wird and her three sisters are just like other 20-something girls-with one tiny exception: they're products of a backfired curse that has given each of them unique powers that make them, well, weird...

The Wird sisters are content to avoid the local vampires, werebeasts, and witches of the Lake Tahoe region-until one of them blows up a vampire in self- defense. Everyone knows vampires aren't aggressive, and killing one is punishable by death. But soon more bloodlust- fueled attacks occur, and the community wonders: are the vampires of Tahoe cursed with a plague?

Celia reluctantly agrees to help Misha, the handsome leader of an infected vampire family. But Aric, the head of the werewolf pack determined to destroy Misha's family to keep the region safe, warns Celia to stay out of the fight. Caught between two hot alphas, Celia must find a way to please everyone, save everyone, and oh yeah, not lose her heart to the wrong guy-or die a miserable death. Because now that the evil behind the plague knows who Celia is, it's coming for her and her sisters. This Wird girl has never had it so tough.

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

If you don't want to wait until December 31, you can check out the e-prequel, THE WEIRD GIRLS, which contains a sneak peek at SEALED WITH A CURSE:

Celia Wird and her three sisters are just like other 20-something girls-with one tiny exception: they're products of a backfired curse that has given each of them unique powers that make them, well, a little weird...

The Wird sisters are different from every race on earth-human and supernatural. When human society is no longer an option for them, they move in among the resident vampires, werebeasts, and witches of the Lake Tahoe region. Could this be the true home they've longed for? Um, not quite. After the sisters accidentally strip a witch of her powers in a bar brawl, they soon realize the mistake will cost them. Because to take on a witch means to take on her coven. And losing the battle isn't an option.

Includes a preview of the first full-length novel in the Weird Girls series, Sealed with a Curse-as well as introductions to the Weird World, and a letter from the author.

Purchase: Amazon

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Authors, would you like to visit and share with us? Please email me at jennblogs (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll set it up!

Posted by jenn at 06:00

 Cecy Robson, Penguin, When I'm not writing  9 People left their mark

Born and raised in the Toronto area, Jenn moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, eight years ago for school. She's still in school (thankfully on another degree!), now trapped in her dissertation. When she's not dissertating, which happens more often than it should, Jenn spends her time reading, watching movies, playing volleyball, travelling, and enjoying the local music scene. Her latest addictions: yoga and Almond Crunch cereal.