Tuesday, September 29, 2009

10/9/09 WV Book Festival Discussion & Book Signing

Title Fights & Writing Lifelines

Hey, fellow writers come join me at the Charleston, WV Civic Center on Sunday October 11, 2009 at 2:30 for a panal discussion and book signing afterwards! I promise, I don't bite.Often today getting your title published is a blow-by-blow experience, often bruising to the ego. This open discussion will focus on how to keep upbeat in a difficult business; getting to know all your publishing options; and determining which option(s) will make you happily published. In other words, while not everyone can get into the NFL of publishing, say with Random House, you do have far more publishing options available today than a decade ago, with small press and online self-publication here to stay. Miranda and Robert Walker will discuss the nature of publishing today, the importance of a writer's having a cheering section or support group, and how to stay upbeat and positive in the rough waters you are faced with when you take the boat across the publishing seas.

Monday, September 7, 2009

I See Dead People, Life of A ER Nurse

They say truth is stranger than fiction, I can tell you coming from a nursing point of view this is very true. I am reminding of this at least three times a week while I'm working in the Emergency Room, If I used any of these examples I would have to water them down because most people would think I was really off my rocker if I told the truth. With the release of my new book "The Well Meaning Killer" I'm starting to roll in some reviews, and some reviewers are questioning Megan McKenna's injury turn around. This fun little post is part of a new nonfiction book I've been working on with amazing stories of patients I've seen cheat death.

Unless you've spent a few hours, and I mean no less than fifteen in the ER waiting to either be seen or discharged you would probably not believe this anyway. For example while on a travel assignment in a large trauma in Texas, we had this guy brought in by EMS that had an ax lodged in the top of his head. I not kidding, the guy was sitting up on the gurney talking and laughing about he was just chopping wood one minute then felt his head burning and bleeding the next. The ax was situated about one inch on the forehead back to the middle of the top of the head. Of course head injuries bleed alot, so blood was everywhere. The staff were taking bets on whether the guy would survive surgery or not with his brain intact, guess what the guy made a full recovery with no deficits! Amazing.
Here's one similar to McKenna's injury, a young male I once had in Baltimore, Md came in to ER after his brother's pet boa constrictor had got out of the cage and had coiled itself around the teen. the boy had woke to severe pressure on his chest think he was having a heart attack from the drugs he'd done earlier that evening. he started yelling, waking up his parents and brother. Long story short the snake's constricting action was giving the boy respiratory problems (like not being able to breathe) so by the time he arrived in the ER he was unconscious but after a few days in the ICU he bounced back with no problems.

I have been a nurse for eighteen years, so I could go on for pages, but every day all nurses see for a lack of a better word, miracles everyday.