Enter the Hero . . .

Sunday 2/27 10:12 AM

I so enjoyed your responses, that I decided to draw TWO winners: CONGRATULATIONS to JAN MARIE and to KELLY. I will be sending you each signed copies of Critical Care!

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As many of you know, I love to open my novels with an action scene, physical, emotional, and loaded with conflict. I want to grab my readers and pull them, breathless, into my characters' world. And in all three Mercy Hospital books, this scene introduces the story's hero. Like in this opening snippet from Critical Care, a finalist for the 2010 Carol Award:

Don’t die, little girl.

Dr. Logan Caldwell pressed the heel of his hand against Amy Hester’s chest, taking over

heart compressions in a last attempt to save the child ’s life. Her small sternum hollowed and

recoiled under his palm at a rate of one hundred times per minute, the best he could do to mimic

her natural heartbeat. A respiratory therapist forced air into her lungs. Don’t die. Logan glanced

up at the ER resuscitation clock, ticking on without mercy. Twenty-seven minutes since they’d

begun the code. No heartbeat. Not once. Time to quit, but--he turned to his charge nurse, Erin

Quinn, very aware of the insistent wail of sirens in the distance. “Last dose of epi?”

“Three minutes ago.”

“Give another.”

Logan halted compressions, his motionless hand easily spanning the width of the two year

old’s chest. He watched until satisfied with the proficiency of the therapist’s ventilations,

then turned back to the cardiac monitor and frowned. Asystole--flat line. Flogging this young

heart with atropine and then repeated doses of epinephrine wasn’t going to do it. A pacemaker,

pointless. She’d been deprived of oxygen far too long before rescue. Logan pushed his palm into

Amy’s sternum again and gritted his teeth against images of a terrified little girl hiding in a toy

cupboard as her daycare burned; and a frantic search in a suffocating cloud of smoke, amid the

chaos of two dozen other burned and panicking children . . .

Exciting, commanding--offering a hero who takes center stage immediately. In the *working draft of my newest book, (tentative title) Trauma Plan, I plan to introduce hero Jack Travis in similar fashion:

“Man on fire!”

What ?

Jackson Travis hurled his duffel bag to the floor and charged back out the clinic’s door, his government-issue mountain boots pounding the splintered wooden porch. He squinted into the April sun: the parking area was swarming with people. A car swerved toward the San Antonio Street curb, brakes screeching, as he vaulted over the porch rail. Honks joined a rising barrage of shouts and screams.

“Someone’s burning up--film it!”

Jack waded into the crowd, clenching his teeth at a confirming whiff of smoke and singed hair, far too reminiscent of those long-ago weeks in Khandahar. . . . {scene shortened for excerpt} . . .

“Hold still!” Jack raced forward, knelt beside the victim—felt an immediate jab of pain in his right knee. He ignored it and went to work, blinking against the smoke and flames as he stripped off his field jacket. “Don’t move, sir. I’ve got you.”

He used the heavy fabric to extinguish the flames; patting, slapping, smothering the still-hungry blaze. Then swaddled the man inside the jacket and eased him down to the dusty asphalt. The burn victim struggled, whimpered, and Jack pinned his arms as gently as he could to keep him from getting up again. The raw panic in the old man’s eyes made Jack’s throat tighten. “Easy, buddy. Hold still,” he whispered. “Let me help you now". . . .

Besides the action, each opening scene aims to give the reader a glimpse into the emotional character of the hero. Logan Caldwell's internal plea that his patient won't die.

Jack Travis' visceral reaction to the burning man's pain, his gentle, reassuring whisper.

I think the combination of strength and compassion is important in a hero. Add his willingness to fight for a cause (for Logan, building a top-notch medical team) (for Jack, saving his urban free clinic), a good measure of human flaws, a conflict-filled situation that forces him out of his comfort zone and challenges him to change . . . and you have the makings of a story.

Of course, if it's a romance--and it is, if I'm writing it--there will be an equally compelling heroine. Stay tuned, in a couple of weeks, I'll give you an opening glimpse at Nurse Chaplain Riley Hale, the leading lady for Trauma Plan.

And be sure and stop by next Sunday, when fabulous author Leanna Ellis "covers my shift."

But right now, let's have a book giveaway! Leave a comment below for your chance at a signed copy of Critical Care. If you haven't read it, here's your chance. If you have, keep it for your collection of autographed books, gift it to a friend . . . or donate it to your favorite library. I want to keep sharing this (exciting and) encouraging story of hope.

Be sure to leave an e-mail address so that I can contact you if I draw your name.

I'll pick the winning name in a random drawing on Sunday, February 27th.

Good luck!

* This brief, edited snippet is a working draft, and will very likely change in the (several) revisions that happen before the book goes to print*