Touch of Love ~ ...a bit of therapy

If you’ve read any of the stories in my second short story collection you might have surmised how personal some of the stories are to me. In addition to the obvious I’m going to let you in on some of the backstories.

The first and most personal one is An Empty House. In December 2016 my wonderful husband had a stroke. I can use all of the clichés available (Threw me for a loop, knocked the wind out of me, came out of nowhere…) and it just does not express how our lives changed that night. As I said in the story we’ve had to adjust to a “New Normal” which really isn’t normal.

I am eternally grateful that the love of my life survived and has made terrific strides towards recovery, but there is still much more to go. In the meanwhile we had to find ways to get back to life, my husband is the one who suffered the stroke and yet we’ve all been affected. I had to force myself to resume my activities, responsibilities, and my professional life. I actually felt empty inside.

Long ago during an interview I was asked WHY I write, my answer was “I write because I breathe.” I had to learn to breathe again. I started compiling my second short story collection and it wound up being both personal and therapeutic for me. This collection is truly personal to me and there are other stories which were certainly drawn from my heart. I also started a very basic website http://lifevscare.blogspot.com which, although slow in development, I hope will offer some useful information to others who have stroke survivors in their life.

He is My Brother is about my brother(in-law) and our desperate quest to save his life and find him a donated kidney. We, our family, need him. If you don’t mind please visit the website we set up for him and share our story to all of your contacts, https://kidney4del.wordpress.com/

Although these next stories are pure fiction, they were certainly inspired by people and events in my life and hold very special meaning for me — these stories include: Rekindled, A Date with Mistletoe, and The Lost Love. Finally The Dead Guy in the Park and Always, One More Time were just fun stories to write.

If you take the time to read this collection, please handle it with care, it really was written with a personal Touch of Love.

And then came Annie's Karma

The Karma Stories

Writing a sequel wasn't the easiest thing I've done. I had written series books before: Bartlett's Rule & Courage of the Heart (Survivor Series); His Lucky Charm & Within the Law (Cousins Series); Final Sin & Hyphema (EMS Series) — but this was the first time I wrote an actual sequel.

What's the difference? In two of my series I did have recurring characters, but it was always another couple who was the main focus of the book. I created Annie and Dave in Karma Visited and the story could have ended there, but it couldn't. You see both books do have the traditional HEA (Happy Ever After) implications, but somehow my fictional characters wanted more and they talked me into it.

So I wrote a continuing story of a couple — a Colorado Sheriff and a woman with an unusual and really unexpected talent. Annie is able to "travel" while she is sleeping and when Dave first met her he really only met her "essence", it took him a while to accept that she was a real person and he wasn't just going a bit bonkers.

Annie's Karma opens approximately one year after "The End" of Karma Visited. Sure I had already created these "people" and now I was writing about those same characters, I did know them pretty well. Except... there was a year of growth between them. Dave had a year to accept Annie's unusual talent. And Annie had a year to be out of an abusive marriage and learn what it was liked to be loved by a kind and generous man. They couldn't be portrayed the same way they were in the first book and that was the challenge; keep their basic traits but add new experiences.

I hope you'll give me a chance and read both books and then tell me if you think I achieved that growth.

Oh, one more big change in the two books — Mauszer, Dave's cat, had a much bigger role in Annie's Karma.

Annie's Karma
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So… do YOU believe in Karma?

 Karma Visited

Based on Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, Karma means “Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.” [Wikipedia]  

Many people have beliefs that include phenomena that seem unexplainable, things that really can’t be proven beyond doubt. Even our major religions all refer to angels and spirits. Some people believe in, and might even have abilities, in ESP, a sixth sense, and contact with the afterlife. 

Annie travels in her sleep to help people, literal strangers. Who are we to say that someone might not be “sleep traveling”? Actually there is a more acceptable word for what my character, Annie, can do in Karma Visited — it’s called Astral Projection, also known as an Out-of-Body experience.

Annie doesn’t understand what’s happening to her; for some reason Dave can “see” her and neither of them can understand that either. But then that’s how my story develops and it’s exciting and even though I wrote it, I keep rooting for Annie and Dave to find a way to be together. (btw, their story continues in Annie’s Karma)

 Karma Visited captured me from the beginning and never let go. This tale of good, evil, and a miraculous gift between has a cast of characters you’ll never forget. Well done, Chelle Cordero.

~ Charmaine Gordon, Author of Survive & Thrive novels and Mature Romances

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also available in foreign translations
Portuguese ~ Italian ~ French ~ Spanish