What makes a HERO?

Comic book heroes have superpowers and are invincible. REAL heroes are mortals who seem to have an inner strength to run towards danger to help strangers even while others run away.

We’ve heard and seen the stories of heroism that came from 9/11, or hurricanes, earthquakes and other catastrophes. Right now, in 2020, our country, our world, is going through a frightening pandemic and yet there are people with remarkable dedication and bravery to be there when people need them.

Our First Responders and Health Care Workers have continually put themselves in the line of danger on the Front Line dealing with an unknown disease — we may have a name for this virus, but every day we seem to find something different in how it reacts, the damage it causes and the lives it takes. And it takes bravery for our “Essential Workers” to show up every day and help the rest of us keep some semblance of normalcy in our lives. No one is a fool, no one thinks they are invincible.

I am a very proud mother and mother-in-law of FOUR FRONTLINE individuals – EMS, Fire Department, and Hospital staff. I am very proud of my offspring and their other halves, and it is scary as hell because I worry about them every single day. But I am PROUD of their commitment to make our world better, to care for strangers, to provide comfort. I don’t know if I could be so brave.

I know that my four are not the only ones out there, saving us, and being there for us. I know that personally because our kids are not the only ones in our family to be on the FrontLine as well as many friends who are out there responding to wherever they are called.

My husband and I are sitting at home, practicing #SocialDistancing, wearing masks WHEN we do have to go out, and doing or giving where we can and I almost feel guilty for keeping ourselves safe when our children and so many other heroes are out there. I say “almost’ because every person who keeps himself healthy does not put more strain on an already strained healthcare system.

What I have been trying to do is let each of our heroes know how much I appreciate them and acknowledge how vital each one is. When we have to do our necessary grocery shopping, or make phone calls to keep our daily lives moving, my husband and I always try to thank each person we encounter and let them know we appreciate their being there.

I have devoted several spots on one of my blogs to highlighting Healthcare workers — EMTs, Paramedics, Hospital workers and their support systems – I would love it if you would take a look and share your thanks as well. If appreciation helps at all, let’s appreciate.

Thank you.

The HEROES2020 series

#EMSSTRONG, EMS Week 2020, 5/20

Men & Women of RMC/RPS  5/17

 Gayle Metzger, 5/15 Darrell Jennings, 5/13

 Moms of Essential Workers. 5/10

 Jesse Goldsmith,5/8

 Dave Stone RIP, 5/6

video: Never Alone, 5/3

 Micky Huber, 5/1

 Jared Panko, 4/24

Send me your #COVID19Warrior story for inclusion
in the HEROES 2020 series.
Send info on 1st Responders & Healthcare Workers who are on the Front-Lines during this COVID19 crisis. Submit a brief blurb about the individual (see some of the examples above) and a digital pic.
This is a great opportunity for EMS, FD, PD and hospital personnel managers to show their appreciation for a Job Well Done!
If you are submitting as a private individual
(friend or family member) please make sure you have that
individual’s permission to post their info.
Send your submission to ChelleCordero@gmail.com,
please put HEROES2020 in the subject line.
I will post as many as I can.
Thank you to all of our Front-Line workers!

I’m Insulted…

Like many of us, I haven’t gotten to actually SEE and be with any of my kids for about two months now. We have two that we’ve raised and two that have joined our family and I miss each one of them. Yes we’ve spoken on the phone and actually had a few video chats but I miss being able to hug them. The holidays were a letdown, we usually make a point of having a Passover Seder together, but it didn’t happen this year. Yes, I know that has been the case for most parents of grown children. And I feel weepy and miss them so much.

And what really, really bothers me most is I know how many other people they see every single day… You see all four of them are first responders. Two of them are working “in-house” positions along with others, and two of them are riding in ambulances and treating innumerable patients all day long — sometimes their hours are so long that they are too exhausted to answer their phones or return text messages. I am so damn proud of each of them, they are heroes.

I am not insulted because my kids don’t have the time to see me, or that they can’t because of social distancing. I am insulted by the fact that so many people just assume that there will be a response each time they call 911 and they seem to forget the sacrifices that each responder makes often for very little pay. I am insulted by the fact that all these highly trained individuals, of which my children are a part of, are forgotten when the crisis is over. Heck some of them aren’t even considered to be ESSENTIAL even though they are risking their own lives with every single patient and every single time tones go out.

For now everyone is referring to our FRONTLINE during this Coronavirus crisis and thanking them with thoughtful meals and cards, blue ribbons on trees, and cheers. What is going to happen when this crisis is over? Will our first responders be forgotten again? Will most of today’s heroes have to continue working multiple jobs to pay their bills? I’ve seen it happen before and I worry that it will happen again.

It’s time to recognize our TRUE heroes, the ones who respond to cries for help, the ones who save our lives even when it puts them at risk. Make a list NOW of them people you are able to depend upon for all of the important stuff — all the people who come when you dial 911, all the people who restock the grocery store shelves, all the people who maintain the roads so that trucks can get through with supplies, all the nurses and doctors in the ER and ICU, our military and National Guard, the people who man the food shelters… these are the people we need to value, we need to thank, and we need to remember.

I never could stand the sight of blood

Most of us would look at that statement and say “Okay, big deal.” But it really is kind of ironic, I spent almost 30-years riding a rig as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and I saw blood more than a few times, LOL. I treated and transported trauma and acute illness, I even delivered babies! When I was busy with a patient the blood didn’t seem to bother me, but if I was just an onlooker for some reason — YIKES!

I stopped riding a few years ago, 911 response is much easier on a younger person, but I do miss it. Now I sit on the sidelines, my son and his wife are both EMTs, my daughter was a Paramedic for many years, my husband is also “retired” from EMS, and I write about it as both a journalist and as a romantic dreamer.

When I first wrote Final Sin it was a dual purpose. Years earlier there was a horrible murder (it was in all of the papers) and a major part of the crime scene was less than a mile where I live and it gave me the heebie-jeebies and I wanted to exorcise that feeling. The gruesome opening scene of the book was inspired by this true-crime, and then the similarity ends. Of course, knowing me, I wrote about a burgeoning romance between a paramedic who responds to the carnage and the Deputy Sherriff who is investigating the murder.

I had fun writing some of the unusual and sometimes humorous events in the book and YES, these things really have happened. There was the night my husband responded to a call for a heart attack victim and there was a lady who only wanted her car battery jumpstarted with the defibrillator! Of course that scene made it into the book.

Jake (sheriff) and Julie (paramedic) do get together, well no spoiler there, it DOES have an HEA ending. Along the path though there is a lot of tension and danger. I say this with all of the love I can muster on the keyboard, I hope it keeps you awake at night. (It did me while I was writing it because there were some “things” I needed to research in order to make it sound realistic.

Deputy Sheriff Commander Jake Carson has his hands full... investigation of a brutal multiple homicide, a troubled son and a vindictive ex-wife. He meets young, free-spirited paramedic Julie Jennings. When Julie becomes the subject of an obsession, it puts both of them in danger...

Final Sin evolved into Hyphema. Matt was Julie’s ambulance partner and we follow his after Final Sin life —he has a wife and son and they move to a small town in North Carolina. Oh by the way, you can find Hyphema as a stand alone book or with Final Sin as part of the EMS Novels Bundle Pack.

In Touch of Love’s short story “the Dead Guy in the Park” I was actually just being a bit whimsical. I wanted to fit some intrigue and romance into just a few pages. Oh, the apparent suicide was based on another real-life incident where, guess what, I responded. They do say that truth is stranger than fiction.

Today ends the official National EMS Week celebration but I still want to pay homage to all of the highly skilled men and women out there who answer the call for help 24X7!

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Another one “Ripped From the Headlines” ~ Hyphema

There are just so many conversations these days about immigrants and even more mistrust of certain groups. Yes, I admit whole-heartedly that I wanted to build that particular hot topic into my EMS suspense Hyphema.

Hyphema is the second EMS (Emergency Medical Services) suspense that I wrote; the first EMS novel is Final Sin. Matt Garratti, Hyphema’s hero, was introduced to my readers as a sort of supporting character in Final Sin (as the best friend and riding partner to the heroine Julie), but he refused to let me type The End on his story when I finished Final Sin. He convinced me that he is actually a pretty interesting guy and certainly worthy of a few words.

Enter Sudah, (she was never seen in Final Sin but she was mentioned near the end of the book). Sudah was born and raised in Pakistan and a practicing Muslim. She fell in love with Matt. It was a mixed-marriage (Muslim and Christian). While she hadn’t achieved her United States citizenship in Hyphema she was in the process of studying for it.

With their infant son in tow Sudah follows Matt down south so that he can follow his dream job of being a flight medic. And that’s when things begin to happen, people look at her with suspicion, and when crimes happen (to others as well as Matt’s family) there are those who don’t trust her. There are those, even among Matt’s new work family, who cannot separate any Muslim from the terror attack of 2001.

I try to show that there is good and evil in all sides, and I try to demonstrate both the acceptance and the prejudice against all immigrants to our country. Hyphema won the Dec 9, 2011 Friday Book Cover Vote on the Shades of Love website and was recommended in the book Summer Reading: 2012 Blue Ribbon Selection published by the Ewen Prime Co.   EMSWorld posted about Final Sin and Hyphema.

Hyphema: Bleeding in the eye caused by trauma…

Matt Garratti, a paramedic from New York, moves his wife and son to North Carolina to work at his dream job as a flight medic. Pakistani born Sudah, his wife, receives frosty stares and insensitive comments from their new neighbors... Matt wonders if he is pursuing his dream or bringing his family into a nightmare from which they may never wake.

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How A Haunting Murder Led to a Romantic Suspense

It was 1985 and the little town I lived in was horrified at the murder that captured newspaper headlines. The site of the murder was just a few minutes from my home.

Using my EMT skills, I used to work in the infirmary of a local summer day camp in those years. Every day, as I drove to work, I went past the driveway leading to the smokehouse where the victim’s body had been burned beyond recognition. The police caught the murderer and the trial replaced the actual murder headlines.

But each time I passed the mailbox at the end of the crime scene driveway I was filled with an unease, there were nights when the horror at what had occurred there just wouldn’t leave my mind and I would lay awake staring at the ceiling.

When I wrote Final Sin I used a mental image of the crime scene that had haunted my town and I developed a different crime, a crime that included a body that had been set on fire. But that is where the similarity ended…

… Deputy Sheriff Commander Jake Carson has his hands full with the investigation of a brutal multiple homicide, a troubled son and a vindictive ex-wife when he meets young, free-spirited paramedic Julie Jennings. He is immediately drawn to her and finds himself unexpectedly falling in love. Julie finds herself just as drawn to him. When Julie becomes the subject of an obsession, it puts both of their lives in extreme danger… Romance…danger…adventure…suspense…another great Chelle Cordero novel sure to grab readers from many genre!

Final Sin was an Honorable Mention in the
Fiction Category of the 2010 NY Book Festival 

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Final Sin is available in Print, E-book & Audio

Now Available in Spanish and German translations!

Book Discussion Packet

Not everyone is okay with her ~ SNIPPET SUNDAY, Nov. 12-13, 2016

Hi! Welcome to another Weekend Writing Warrior and Snippet Sunday round. Every week writers post 8-to-10 sentences on their blogs from a published or unpublished book. Then we "hop" around and leave comments on each other's snippets. Whether our work is already published or in progress, the helpful comments help us become stronger writers on our next WIP. We welcome EVERYONE's comments.

See more at the
Facebook Snippet Sunday group

& check out the

WeWriWa blog

I'm sharing snippets from HYPHEMA, my second EMS novel. The hero in HYPHEMA was first introduced in Final Sin as the heroine's ambulance partner and best friend.

Matt Garratti, a paramedic from New York, moves his wife and son to North Carolina to work at his dream job as a flight medic. Pakistani born Sudah, his wife, receives frosty stares and insensitive comments from their new neighbors… Matt wonders if he is pursuing his dream or bringing his family into a nightmare from which they may never wake.

Matt has gone with his so-workers to play a game of paintball while the wives wait in the clubhouse and Sudah is worried that the game is too violent. (dinner plans are to follow). Most of the wives have no problem with Sudah except for Donna. (special note: the e-book came out the week before Bin Laden was found and killed) I've done LOTS of editing to fit this scene in!

Creative editing (a.k.a. condensed to fit) alert!    

Trisha broke in, “Donna I don’t understand why you are being so rude, I am so sorry Sudah.”

Donna faced Sudah menacingly, “my older cousin’s fiancé was killed on 9/11…”

“Oh goodness Donna that was almost ten years ago, Sudah was only a little girl back then.”

“I am very sorry for your loss, but we are very much alike then, my father’s dear friend Jamaal also died on that terrible day,” said Sudah.

“On one of the planes I bet.”

“He was working in a restaurant in New York City, he loved this country and was studying to become a citizen, he ran to the two buildings after the first plane crashed, he was trying to help when the second plane came, I remember when Jamaal’s wife was told her husband was dead.”

“And yet you cover your head like those Arab women who cheered.”

“I cover my head because I am Muslim, it is a sign of respect for my beliefs.”

“Muslim, that’s who attacked us,” Donna snorted, “and they say that Bin Laden lives like a hero in Pakistan.”

“I have not seen him, I do not know where he lives, I would tell authorities where if I knew,” Sudah smiled sweetly and shook her head, “the Islamic people are people of peace, the few who murdered so many and the people who were happy about it are not true believers, they are cowards and they do not speak for most of us.”

For more WeWriWa Snippets, go to: 

www.wewriwa.com

Hyphema: Bleeding in the eye caused by trauma…

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FREEBook Club Discussion Packet

REVIEWS

 A Non-Stop Thriller that Will Leave You Longing for More by Tracy Riva

  Nobody Writes It Better by Charmaine Gordon

I would read another one of her stories by Marcia

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Will they like me? ~ SNIPPET SUNDAY, Nov. 5-6, 2016

Hi! Welcome to another Weekend Writing Warrior and Snippet Sunday round. Every week writers post 8-to-10 sentences on their blogs from a published or unpublished book. Then we "hop" around and leave comments on each other's snippets. Whether our work is already published or in progress, the helpful comments help us become stronger writers on our next WIP. We welcome EVERYONE's comments.

See more at the
Facebook Snippet Sunday group

& check out the

WeWriWa blog

I'm sharing snippets from HYPHEMA, my second EMS novel. The hero in HYPHEMA was first introduced in Final Sin as the heroine's ambulance partner and best friend.

Matt Garratti, a paramedic from New York, moves his wife and son to North Carolina to work at his dream job as a flight medic. Pakistani born Sudah, his wife, receives frosty stares and insensitive comments from their new neighbors… Matt wonders if he is pursuing his dream or bringing his family into a nightmare from which they may never wake.

Matt told Sudah about the plans to get together with some of his new co-workers and their wives. Sudah is unsure as to how people will respond to her because she is a Muslim immigrant. It seems that she is more sensitive to the stares she's gotten from some strangers in their new community than she has let on in the past.

Creative editing (a.k.a. condensed to fit) alert!    

“Do you think your friends will like me?”

Matt chuckled, “Are you really worried, baby, how can they not like you?”

“It is one thing to ignore stares from strangers, but these are people you know, I do not wish to embarrass you,” Sudah adjusted her scarf.

“You could never embarrass me,” he stopped her and turned her to face him, “you’re beautiful and you are the best person I know.”

“I wear a scarf.”

“So?”

“I am a Muslim, I am not an American yet,” she looked down, “I do not want to cause trouble for you.”

For more WeWriWa Snippets, go to: 

www.wewriwa.com

Hyphema: Bleeding in the eye caused by trauma…

Buy Links

KINDLE

AMAZON PRINT

NOOK

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APPLE

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SCRIBD

INKTERRA 

SMASHWORDS

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FREEBook Club Discussion Packet

REVIEWS

 A Non-Stop Thriller that Will Leave You Longing for More by Tracy Riva

  Nobody Writes It Better by Charmaine Gordon

I would read another one of her stories by Marcia

#####

Let's go paintballing ~ SNIPPET SUNDAY, Oct. 29-30, 2016

Hi! Welcome to another Weekend Writing Warrior and Snippet Sunday round. Every week writers post 8-to-10 sentences on their blogs from a published or unpublished book. Then we "hop" around and leave comments on each other's snippets. Whether our work is already published or in progress, the helpful comments help us become stronger writers on our next WIP. We welcome EVERYONE's comments.

See more at the
Facebook Snippet Sunday group

& check out the

WeWriWa blog

I'm sharing snippets from HYPHEMA, my second EMS novel. The hero in HYPHEMA was first introduced in Final Sin as the heroine's ambulance partner and best friend.

Matt Garratti, a paramedic from New York, moves his wife and son to North Carolina to work at his dream job as a flight medic. Pakistani born Sudah, his wife, receives frosty stares and insensitive comments from their new neighbors… Matt wonders if he is pursuing his dream or bringing his family into a nightmare from which they may never wake.

Matt and his co-workers talk at a get together, it will be the first time Matt's new co-workers will be meeting his wife.

Creative editing (a.k.a. condensed to fit) alert!    

“Hey guys,” Frankie spoke up, “how’z about some paintball this weekend, it’ll be a good chance for Matt and his wife to meet the crowd.”

"Ginny and I won't be able to make it, sorry guys, her folks are coming down," Big John waved off the beginnings of a protest, "but you four go ahead; besides this way we can save the best for last, Ginny and I will meet Matt's wife some other time."

Matt shrugged, “I’d have to make sure we can get a sitter for the baby.”

“My daughter will do it,” Little John made the offer.

“Thanks, I’ll speak to Sudah.”

Frankie leaned forward, “what kind of name is Sudah?”

“She’s from Pakistan.”

“Sounds exotic,” Little John raised his eyebrows comically, “she pretty?”

Matt nodded.

“Looking forward to meeting her.”

~~~~~

For more WeWriWa Snippets, go to: 

www.wewriwa.com

Hyphema: Bleeding in the eye caused by trauma…

Buy Links

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AMAZON PRINT

NOOK

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APPLE

KOBO

SCRIBD

INKTERRA 

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FREE
Book Club Discussion Packet

REVIEWS

 A Non-Stop Thriller that Will Leave You Longing for More by Tracy Riva

  Nobody Writes It Better by Charmaine Gordon

I would read another one of her stories by Marcia

#####

Believing in Santa

A Holiday Short Story

 by Chelle Cordero

Dini didn’t want to think about her past. And, Seth wasn’t thinking about anything but his past. Thrown together as Santa and his Number One Elf at the homeless shelter, Dini and Seth seem to be on opposite sides… of everything. Her past is catching up to her, and Seth may risk his future to protect her.

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