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.

Buy Links

KINDLE

AMAZON PRINT

NOOK

B&N PRINT

APPLE

KOBO

SCRIBD

SMASHWORDS

AUDIOBOOK

About the English language

I received the following humorous tidbit from a friend the other day and I thought it was worth sharing...

Read all the way to the end...
This took a lot of work to put together! 
   
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse morerefuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture..
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in thedesert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.  
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewerline.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow tosow.
17) The wind was too strong for me to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimatefriend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UPfor election and why is it UP to the secretary to writeUP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UPan appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stoppedUP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close itUP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP,look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't giveUP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,
so.......it is time to shut UP!

Imagine if you were immigrant to the country and had to learn English.

Hyphema    by Chelle Cordero
From the Series: EMS Novels by Chelle Cordero,  
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.