TRUCKEE, Calif. – In a powerful collaboration decades in the making, English professor Andrea Neptune and burn survivor Cindy Ames have brought to life Fire and Forgiveness, a raw memoir recounting Ames’s story of survival and ongoing healing. The book, published by AuthorHouse, is rooted in real events that began in Truckee, California—where Ames’s life was forever altered by a devastating house fire in 1982.

With burns covering 70% of her body, Ames first dropped her four-year-old son out of a third-story window before jumping herself. Her path to recovery was marked by physical agony, emotional trauma, and spiritual reckoning. Yet through it all, Ames emerged with an unshakable will to live and a deep desire to help others.

The book also details her experience during the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, where fate once again placed her in the path of destruction. Still, she survived—and with the help of Neptune, finally told her story the way she always intended.

This story is about finding hope and the will to live when all seems lost,” Neptune said. Despite everything she endures, Cindy still has a joy for life and expresses gratitude for each day.”

The idea of writing a memoir had lingered in Ames’s life for decades. Over the years, she had tried working with other writers and even fielded a movie proposal. But nothing felt quite right—until Neptune offered to help. Their personal bond runs deep: Ames was a close friend and business partner of Neptune’s late mother and a maternal figure to Neptune since childhood.

“She’s my daughter from another mother,” Ames said.

That lifelong connection allowed Neptune to translate Ames’s experiences with distinct sensitivity. The two worked closely—revising chapters, reading aloud, and navigating emotional memories together. “Sometimes when I read it, I don’t know where my thoughts ended and Cindy’s began, or vice versa,” Neptune said.

The result is a memoir that not only chronicles physical survival, but the enduring power of love and human connection. Ames’s background as an ER nurse adds a unique perspective, offering insight into the caregiving experience from both sides of the hospital bed.

“I want people to know how important their touch is to a patient, their speaking to a patient, their communication, their care,” Ames said. She remembers a nurse once asking what she planned to do after surviving. Her answer? “I’m going to write a book about this.”

Writing that book became a life mission—one that Neptune was determined to help fulfill. The inspiration struck during the pandemic, when Neptune was tending a burn pile on her property near Lake Oroville, just miles from Paradise. “Standing in the heat and smoke, I thought of Cindy and her unimaginable resilience,” she said. “It just hit me with conviction. I had to make that happen for her.”

The next day, she called Ames—and the two got to work.

For Neptune, the experience of writing a memoir was unlike anything she’d done as a literature and creative writing instructor. “I had to unlearn the rigid structure I teach my students and lean into more emotionally resonant storytelling,” she said.

The process was also a tribute to Neptune’s late mother. “Even though my mother passed before the novel was completed, I feel like my mother lives on in the pages of the book,” she said. “People who never got to know her in person will know her from these chapters, and that means so much to me.”

Fire and Forgiveness has already touched readers. Ames has heard from people who say her story gave them hope to face their own struggles. “People have said, ‘You got through that. I can get through this,'” she said.

Both women describe the journey as deeply healing and affirming. “It strengthened our relationship,” Neptune said. “It just works so well with us.”

Neptune and Ames will host a book reading and signing on May 1st from 6:30–8:00 p.m. at Word After Word Books in downtown Truckee.