Monday, July 11, 2011

the following post originally appeared on http://www.sandynicks.com Dec 13, 2010

New Muse on Monday Welcomes Chelle Cordero!

Published by Sandy Nicks at 10:13 am under writing

Please give a warm welcome to author, Chelle Cordero! Chelle will be talking about her latest release Common Bond, Tangled Hearts.

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My Way

Writers write about the “what if’s” and “if only’s” – we write of lives that could have been different if only a different set of events occurred. “Happily Ever After” means that thingsalways work out anyway.

In real life things don’t always seem to work out the way we want, but maybe they do work out for the best. For all of the wants and desires, everything that happens to us makes us who we are and leads us to do what we do. So maybe things never were supposed to be different after all.

There have been things in my life that I thought I had planned out, career choices, even romances – and things happened out of my control to change my path. I studied theatre and drama determined to be an actress and decided I didn’t have the necessary commitment . Then I tested for the NYPD and did very well, but that was the 70’s when there were huge budget cuts and layoffs. Other job experiences, some very interesting and lots of fun, and finally the desire to work from home led me back to my passion for creative writing. Not what I had planned, but oh so very happy doing it.

And while my dear hubby isn’t the first to have proposed to me – or even the first I considered – he was the only one I accepted. So at one time my dreams were different until things I saw weren’t as desired as I thought they were. I had even known hubby for a while before we became involved and hadn’t once thought of making a life with him. But “events” threw us together and boy did I ever make the right choice. Perhaps the others I considered helped me to see who I really wanted to be with.

I love the lyrics to the Sinatra song “My Way” – It’s a tune I hum frequently as part of my personal philosophy:

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing
And now as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no, not me
I did it my way

Common Bond, Tangled Hearts

Blurb

Layne Gillette’s world is turned upside down when a man she has never met shows up to lay claim as the father of her 6-year old son. When Layne’s abusive “ex-husband” shows up, they are torn apart by danger, kidnapping and lies.

Excerpt

“Hey Layne,” He caught her hand. “Talk to me. Tell me about you.” He felt a need to be close to her. Justin didn’t feel at all surprised that he wanted things to work out between them.

She smiled at him. “Like what?”

She had such a sweet smile, he thought. “I don’t know. What are your dreams?”

Layne lost her smile. Then she shrugged. “People like me don’t have dreams, Justin.”

“Come on, everybody has dreams.” Whether they get to follow them or not is a different story.

“Maybe, when I was a little girl.” She laughed. “I wanted to invent a robot to collect the eggs on the farm so I could stay in bed later.” Her voice faded. “After my grandma died, I just dreamt that I would wake up on the farm again.”

He paused for a moment. Justin knew so very well how difficult things had been for her. She had told him about being bounced around between foster homes. She had also told him how she met Charlie.

“And now, Layne, do you have dreams now?” He sounded so serious.

He saw her eyes well up with tears. “Actually yes, I do have a dream. I dream that I will always be able to protect my son. I dream that I’ll always be here for him and that he’ll never be so desperate for a hero that… he’ll do something totally stupid.” Just like his mother, she thought. “I dream that I can do something to shield him from people who will just use him.”

Justin put his arm around her shoulder and leaned down close to her ear. “Layne, I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

She nodded. “Thank-you.”

“How about for you, Layne? Don’t you want something for yourself?” He continued to gently probe. He smiled. “Don’t you have any frivolous dreams?”

She shrugged. “There isn’t much I need. I have my son, that’s all I want.”

He wanted to ask if she wanted a family, a husband… a real one, a home. He wanted to know if she could want him. “But how about just for you, just for Layne?”

Thinking about it, Layne finally grinned. “I guess it’s dumb, I don’t know. I never got my high school diploma. I guess I don’t really need it, I mean I’ve managed okay without it. But sometimes it’s, well, when folks talk about their degrees and all, it’s embarrassing.” She looked innocently at him. “I… haven’t really admitted that to anyone before.”

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Chelle Cordero is a multi-published author with Vanilla Heart Publishing and a full-time freelance writer with local and national newspapers and magazines. She resides in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, family and three spoiled pussycats. In addition to her books and articles, Chelle pens a weekly writing course available by subscription at Amazon Kindle Blogs http://bit.ly/Wmg8W and volunteers with her local ambulance corps as an EMT.

Chelle’s website: http://ChelleCordero.com
Chelle’s blog: http://ChelleCordero.blogspot.com
Smashwords BuyLink: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chellecordero


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