Cynthia Bostick: Expert on Violent Behavior Pens First Thriller Fiction

When Cynthia Bostick decided to take a leap into the world of writing fiction, she turned to her experiences as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist working with cases of violent behavior. Her debut book, “The Match,” (under pen name Davinia Bostick) was recently self-published last June by www.xlibris.com and is currently available on amazon.com.

Bostick, a lecturer who teaches online classes in theory and therapeutic communication in the School of Nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills, says that readers’ fascination with violent crime is a paradox of repulsion and attraction.

“I think there’s an element of disbelief,” she says. “They think, ‘How can this be? Why do that, it’s so senseless.’ [It] stretches people’s minds. A piece of them wants to understand it and a piece of them doesn’t want to understand it. If they understand it, there’s the fear that it’s in them too.”

The cast of characters in “The Match” encompass Bostick’s experiences working with addicts and violent men, women and adolescents. She says that often, a “good” mind will be attracted by the charisma of a criminal mind and unwittingly become an accomplice.

“Sometimes we’re attracted to something not realizing what we’re getting into, and then we have to deal with it,” she says. “Crime and the antisocial personality are that way. [Criminals] tend to be very charming and appealing... you have no idea what you’re being drawn into.”

“It is a story that weaves the sociopathic behaviors that can unexpectedly come into our lives,” she says. “It is also a story about the greatest force in life: love that can overcome the machinations of evil.”

Bostick says that she imbues her clinical exercises for students with the same techniques she used to create “The Match.”

“Sometimes I have some students who [join] me in the clinical area of my practice,” she says. “I tell them that when you listen to people, you have to listen to their story. From that you have to draw the clues about this person: Who are they? What makes them tick? So putting [“The Match”] together was one way of showing them how to read a story of a person’s life.”

Bostick, who taught at CSU Fullerton and the University of Maine before arriving at CSU Dominguez Hills six years ago, says that “The Match” took her more than five years to write. She encourages her colleagues, students and patients to pursue their dreams, no matter how insurmountable the goals seem.

“Sometimes we don’t pursue our dreams because we say we don’t have the time,” she says. “Take that time and pursue the dream, even if it seems out of reach. If I want something, I have to start over here and say, ‘What tiny step can I take to get there?’

“It’s surprising how it will evolve. Before you know it, you might be opening the door to that dream,” she continues. “I certainly never thought I would finish this book.”

Bostick is currently at work on her second book as she develops a series of crime fiction. Her latest academic writings include a book review of the “Handbook of Remotivation Therapy” for the journal Activities, Adaptation and Aging Manuscript. She was also a contributing author on the 2008 textbook, “Human Sexuality.”

- Joanie Harmon