Living, Breathing, Writing - like having an artist in residence

Living, Breathing, Writing

by Chelle Cordero

This book is available for download on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes. Books must be read on an iOS device

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Description

In celebration of Volume 1 going to print edition due to demand, Chelle Cordero and Vanilla Heart Publishing have put together another complete month of lessons about the craft of writing and being a writer, from time management to social networking, organizing queries to publication, and more. Includes more than 50 brain-starting exercises and prompts to help you get those words on paper.

$5.99 

Available on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. 

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines 

Published:Aug 05, 2011 

Publisher: Vanilla Heart Publishing 

Seller: Smashwords 

Print Length: 87 Pages 

Language: English

Based on the highly successful Amazon Kindle Blog

Living, Breathing, Writing  

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Carpe Diem

It’s been a tumultuous week. It began with the horrendous bombing at the Boston marathon, an explosion in Texas that devastated a community, followed by the senseless killing of an MIT police officer and the latest today, a 6.6 earthquake in China in an area still trying to recover from another earthquake a few years back.

Some people say the end of the world is near. They say that mankind has been “naughty” and like Sodom and Gomorrah, life as we know it will be struck down. It’s been intimated that we angered a supreme power and we must now pay the consequences.

I say that these events, heartbreaking  certainly, and overwhelming to families who have lost loved ones, have also allowed human beings to show their resiliency and strength in the face of unremarkable obstacles and threats. In times of calamity, mankind has always found a way to unite with fellow man.

The world sent messages of support, prayers, hopes and good thoughts to the city of Boston. Die-hard Yankee fans cheered for the Red Sox just because. Just hours after an explosion shattered the community of West, Texas, cars and trucks were lined up on the highways bringing supplies and offers of help. And back to Massachusetts, where cheers were loud and boisterous and emotional when the surviving Boston bomber was apprehended. South China was hit with an earthquake and once again folks huddled around television sets hoping for anything positive.

People care. It is the acts of heroism, compassion, selflessness and demonstrations of strength and calm that fill me with hope every day.

No one is ever sure of what will happen tomorrow or even if there WILL be a tomorrow. This makes it so important to live each day as if it were your last – never miss a chance to tell your loved ones how you feel, experience life and not just walk through it, and truly appreciate all of the good things around you  and the people in your life.

There are no guarantees and in a way that’s a good thing – why else would we force ourselves to live each day to its fullest and savor each delight that comes our way?

Laugh often, revel in the sounds all around you, enjoy the beauty of nature, and always give shelter and compassion to people in need. We can all be there for each other and sometimes even when you might ask for help, it does more than just make you feel better, it makes another person less frustrated and feel necessary.

When we do face adversity, intolerance, cowardice and terrorists, and hate – know that these are thankfully fewer than the good people around us and certainly not as vital to our communities as we are. Don’t live in fear, don’t stop living, don’t stop believing in yourself and in the good of people overall.

Be there. Live. Rejoice.

A Parent's Joy & Final Sin

During a private moment between Jake and Julie in the novel Final Sin, Jake tells Julie how he didn't live up to his mother’s expectations. Julie suggests that his mom just likes to complain but that she loves her children anyway.

Isn't that was a parent is supposed to do? Love their children and to kvell (Yiddish, “to be delighted”, “bursting with pride”) over every milestone and accomplishment. A child doesn't have to win every competition or accomplish the seemingly impossible to earn his parents’ praise and love.

Parents can take joy in every birthday, graduation (even from grade school), every time their daughter is on stage even if it is not a lead role, a new job, a new home, a marriage,… every little thing that is not so little to the parent watching an offspring blossom. Parents simply enjoy watching a child grow.

It should never be about a competition, a comparison, or winning – every time a child shows a personal best, it is a huge accomplishment; every milestone in a child’s life is to be celebrated; every recognition is to be applauded. When all is said and done, the joy and happiness is a parents’ privilege.

             "Tell me more about you.  I want to know you."  She spread her hand against his chest.  "Tell me what you were like as a child.  What's your family like?"

            He shrugged slightly.  "I was just an ordinary boy, nothing special."

            "I don't believe that.  There is certainly nothing ordinary about you now."

            "Nobody expected anything great out of me.  At least I didn't let them down."

            "I think you are underestimating yourself.  I think you are kind of great."

            He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.  "My parents weren't thrilled when I got together with Helen.  They thought I was, well, thinking with the wrong brain."  Jake sighed.  "I think they were surprised when I decided to work towards my degree anyway."

            Julie yawned.  "Oh, I'm sorry. That was rude."

            "You need your sleep."

            "No, I want to hear about you."  She was fighting to stay awake.  "How did they feel when you got divorced?  Did your folks like her?"

            "I don't really know how my dad felt, he never really said.  Maybe he was just too busy letting my mom do the talking… I embarrassed her, I was the first to get divorced in the family.  I don't think my mother liked her, she just felt that once I was married, I should have stayed that way."

            "Is your sister married?"

            "Well… that was another reason for my mom to complain.  My sister has a partner, a same sex partner."  His mother's lament was having a son who couldn't keep a wife and a daughter who didn't choose a man.  "My sister and her partner came out, they're lesbians."  Jake wondered if he was just trying to see how Julie would react to that.  She didn't flinch.

            She looked up at him in the darkened shadows.  "And your parents didn't approve?  How about you?"

            "I guess I was a little uncomfortable at first, I had never known anyone, really known that is, who was… homosexual."  He shifted a bit.  "But then I went out to visit them, they live in California, and they are really happy together.  Maggie makes my sister really happy and that's important to me."

            "That's good."  She sounded like she was beginning to drift off.  "Everyone should have a good person to love."

            Jake held her close to him.  He thought about the disappointment he was to his mother and father.  And he thought about his ex-wife and how different she was from Julie.  Jake wondered briefly how different his life might have been if he had met Julie first.  Right, he thought, then he'd probably be in jail for child molestation!

            Then he thought about how special Julie made him feel.  Jake realized that he had never really spent a lot of time thinking about how he felt, he just did the things he had to do each day.  Since meeting Julie, though, he did think about how good it felt to be with her, to hear her voice and how everything seemed to fit in place when she was around.

            "Your mom probably just likes to complain.  I bet she really loves both of her kids."  When she spoke again, she sounded like she was almost asleep.  "And Helen is just a fool who seems very unhappy with herself."

            It was uncanny how Julie seemed to get inside his head just then.

A Teaser from Final Sin

There wasn't anyone there who didn't look like they weren't ready to heave. Julie felt sorry for the vollies, the members of the local volunteer ambulance corps. At least she and Matt were being paid to be there. Then again, no amount of money was worth witnessing the carnage that was lying there before them.

Matt had done the unwelcome task and already pronounced one of the girls dead. It was obvious death, obvious to anyone. Trying her best not to step into the pool of blood or disturb anything else vital to the crime scene investigation that would follow, she finished preparing the one girl who was still alive for transport.

A young man in his late twenties or early thirties, Julie wasn't sure without reading the patient care report, had been burnt when his shirt had caught fire. He was sitting huddled and guarding his severely burnt arm as Matt treated him. He looked scared and in shock at the events around him and wouldn't look at any of the police officers who had responded. Julie assumed that it was his need to deny the trauma.

A broad shouldered officer came through the door and took command of the scene. He seemed hardened to the butchery, almost as if he had seen too many gruesome scenes just like this one. Dressed in a dark blue baseball jacket, open collar knit shirt and khaki pants, he donned a pair of latex gloves he had carried in his pocket and began an almost detached visual inspection of the room. The springy snap of the elastic gloves stretching to fit his large hands was in sharp contrast to his motionless stance. Other officers at the scene deferred to his judgment and took instructions from him as he calmly took in the entire scene. He was concerned with the best way to collect the pertinent evidence to tell the story of what had happened.

As Julie and one of the ambulance crew members moved the surviving girl to the gurney, she risked a quick look at the tall officer’s dark eyes and noted that there was a thinly disguised veil of dismay. He had intrigued her with his stony expression and seeming aloofness to the horrors, and his complete focus on the collection of relevant clues.  Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, it was a comfort to Julie that the cop was not completely indifferent to this horror or detached from the human cost.

For Matt and Julie, their tour of duty had started out like many others. There had been a call to a minor motor vehicle accident, another for chest pains and one more for a cancer patient who needed to go to the hospital for treatment. Many of the upstate New York communities had contracted with Paramedic services to complement the existing ambulance corps and provide emergency medical response. Whether paid or unpaid, the certified corps always responded with Emergency Medical Technicians who were capable of handling most emergencies. When the Paramedics were dispatched as well, IV drugs and additional hands could often help make critical differences when necessary.

This call had gone out over the radio for a burn victim, so none of the responding police, fire fighters, volunteer ambulance crew nor paramedics were prepared for what they found when they reached this isolated tool shed. From the outside, the grayed wood had seemed serene enough, and the one small window had been caked over with dirt. She didn't think that she would have given the shed a second glance under normal circumstances. But this was far from normal. No one had anticipated the horror scene inside.

Final Sin

Final Sin is the first of my two EMS mystery stories.

I've been a NYS Emergency Medical Technician since 1987 and a volunteer with Stony Point Ambulance Corps ~ my whole family works and volunteers in emergency medical services. While Final Sin, and it's sequel Hyphema, are works of fiction, many of the EMS perspectives are very real.

Being an EMS volunteer has been a completely enriching experience and has given me a wonderful opportunity to be a vital asset to my community which depends on volunteer emergency services. All of these years of being an EMT has also given me great insight into the beauty and fragility of human life.

I hope you will share some of my experiences - please read my books Final Sin and Hyphema. And why not consider volunteering in your own community and helping your neighbors in their times of need?