Ramblings By Rhianna

November 30, 2007

The dead guy

Filed under: The writer — Administrator @ 12:07 pm

As “Shaking Off the Dust”  began to percolate in my brain the first character to come along and help shape the story was Tom Mecurio. The idea sprung from a discussion at work on physicians and what particular type of doctors tend to be the most arrogant. There are several individual doctors that I have met in the last couple of decades of nursing who fit the bill, but I have to admit that overall the Neurosurgeons won the honor of most egotistical. Don’t get me wrong, there are some wonderful neurosurgeons I have known, who were the sweetest and nicest of human beings.

 
 What makes an arrogant ghost an interesting character? First of all, he has a complicated background and although he is a skilled surgeon, he is inadequate in most social situations. Wildly inappropriate at times, he wants to believe he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him, especially this smart mouthed nurse, Hannah, who is his only link to life.  The fact that the one person, who can see and hear him, doesn’t have an especially high opinion of him doesn’t sit well. He is at turns, frustrated and charmed by Hannah’s ways. Their relationship begins with a fair amount of sniping, but soon grows on many levels. He discovers that the after life requires him to build many new relationships.

 
His best friend, Takeshi Shimodo, knows him better than anyone. A shared background of loosing their parents early in life has taught them to understand each other and allowed a longstanding friendship to form through college and medical school. He trusts Shimodo to find a way to help him, even if he’s not so sure what kind of help he needs. These three characters drive this story forward. Tom is the catalyst.

Rhianna Samuels

November 28, 2007

A sense of humor

Filed under: The writer, ER nurse — Administrator @ 5:05 am

I’m in that time right before my book comes out in e-print. I should be doing every thing to promote “Shaking off the Dust”, and in small ways I am. My day job is a nurse educator, and it doesn’t require PR. However, new authors need as much publicity as they can get.
 I want to believe that I wrote a novel so fast paced and interesting that it will find an audience based solely on the story. Perhaps, if I were being published by one of the massive publishing houses, who were spending many thousands of dollars to promote the book and have it placed at the check out in every Borders, Books-a-Million and Barnes and Nobles in the united states my chances of having a ground swell of readers would be better.


 My dream is that it is such a different take on life and death, as we know it,  that the reader will be drawn into the lives of these characters. I’d love to have a best seller–big surprise, huh?–  So I want to start introducing you to my novel. There are some excerpts at Samhain Publishing, here’s the link
 http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/shaking-off-the-dust

In the end, it’s all about the story, so let me tell you a little about my herione.

What I loved about writing this story was that although there are some very serious themes involved- a terrorist plane bombing for one—Hannah’s voice is full of self depreciating humor. She recovered from a near death car accident and is living with the after effects.  Although, it is the same old routine, her life works and she functions well in how she defines it. When she’s literally thrown to the ground by fate and begins her odd alliance with the dead neurosurgeon, Tom Mecurio and his best friend, Takeshi Shimodo, her life strays far from normal.  She just wants to get it done and return to her real life, that’s the nurse in her. Do your job and be quick about it because someone’s life my hang in the balance.


 Working in an ER is part of my professional life, I know first hand the kind of jaded wit that doctors and nurses use and the teasing  that keeps the weariness of life smacking you up side the head on a regular basis at bay. Some people think it’s black humor, but it’s not. It’s the one thing that can keep you sane. So you look for what is absurd and find a way to express that with an amusing twist. You are never more alive than when you are laughing.  She’s a cry baby at heart, the humor is a brave front. Although, I think she is genuinely funny. 

 Cover Art
Come on back soon.  Next blog is about Tom, the arrogant ghost.

November 22, 2007

I Blame the Turkey

Filed under: My Life — Administrator @ 10:33 pm

This afternoon, after stuffing ourselves with turkey, dressings and gravy we sat down in various chairs and couches and made the mistake of closing our eyes. The tryptophan high kicked in and the need to siesta clawed at consciousness. Having slept well the night before I refused to give in to the pull of oblivion and continued to talk, frustrated with my sleepy compatriot’s occasional mumbled comments it was inevitable that my eyes would slowly droop.

 
 It’s a waste of a perfectly good holiday when you nap through half of it. What good is having relatives drive in, if you listen to them snore, instead of catching up on what is happening in their life. I adore my niece. She is now in her twenties and I rarely get a chance to talk with her, and yet we spoke only a few times before nap time interfered.

 
 I can’t blame them. I blame the turkey!  If ever we were to be invaded by aliens, they should choose thanksgiving, because we will be out our most sleepy. It’s like spiking the water system.  I’m still fighting off the fatigue, my eyes at half mast. NO TURKEY FOR CHRISTMAS!
Rhianna Samuels
Rhiannasamuels.com
http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/shaking-off-the-dust

November 18, 2007

Bull Headed Brother

Filed under: My Life, The writer — Administrator @ 7:10 pm

 The holidays are upon us, and I love holidays. I’m not in love with spending all the money that holidays now cost, but I love the excuse for parties, celebration and family to gather. If you check the blog at Samhain Publishing you can read how I go on about my family and our fun cut throat Scrabble competition. Aw, but that is another blog and so this one takes a different direction. 

The festive air is alive and excitement is a contagion. The Doc’s at my ER have the party scheduled for December 1st.  It gets earlier and earlier every year. I’m skipping the party this year, but I usually show up and keep my smart mouth running. My table companions enjoy, and I try not to say anything to telling.

My brother and his wife are coming in from New Orleans on Sunday and head back on Thursday morning. Rick is a gem and a veterinarian. During Katrina, Rick and several of his partners kept their small animal hospital open in Metairie, La with nearly three hundred animals. They had their own generator and were prepared. A day or so after, they checked another clinic and discovered hundreds of animals left unattended and brought them to their hospital.

After days of waiting, they watched army trucks drive in each morning full of equipment for road repair and leave empty. The next the day they made arrangements to have all their animals transported by the trucks on the way out to Baton Rouge and the university.  I have so much respect for him and the kind of thinking that took, to utilize what was available, contact the reserve and to do the right thing. He’s funny and warm and would do anything for anyone. You can tell him I said that.

Thing is he’s one of those male readers, who won’t read a book if it is from the female point of view. I am hoping he might read my book, but I doubt it. What it that with men? For decades my brother and I have swapped science fiction and fantasy books, so I know he likes the same kind of books I do. Heck, we love the same action and mystery movies, why do you suppose I would recommend a book that he’d hate. No, old bull head, just doesn’t feel it from the females’ POV. It would be amusing if it didn’t skew book buying for authors who write from the female perspective; because I know he is only the tip of the iceberg.

Aside from this flaw, he’s a wonderful person. I thank God each day for my family, even the bull headed ones.

Hope you all have a great holiday.

They’ve posted an excerpt up at Samhain Publishing for my book, “Shaking Off the Dust”

http://samhainpublishing.com/excerpt/shaking-off-the-dust

November 11, 2007

A thread in the tapestry of my life

Filed under: The writer — Administrator @ 7:35 pm

What a remarkable year I am having. (This is the part where I remark upon it for several paragraphs.) Years of ICU nursing and the last sixteen as an emergency room nurse have taught me how fragile our existence can be. I bear witness to the comedies and too often, the tragedies. That kind of constant bombardment of the worst possible outcomes can make your world view a bit jaded. *Color me uber skewed*.  So it was not a huge leap from my world to the world of Shaking off the Dust.
A half hour lunch discussion on who were the most boorish physicians, naturally led me to the idea of a book based on an ER nurse being haunted by an obnoxious neurosurgeon. (It was a close call between orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons. Yes, I do respect all physicians, but they are still human.)   With 9-11 and daily news reports on the next terrorist bombing the premise unfolded. By the time I started to write, the story was fully formed and poured out of my pen.  Hammering it out on the keyboard was not as much fun.
 Those twenty years away from my last English or writing class didn’t help the spelling or punctuation, but the story grew in the telling. At the time of it’s writing, I’d fallen in love with Takeshi Kenishiro, who I’d watched over and over in the Japanese megahit “The Returner” (a sci fi, time travel movie from 2001, the number one movie in Japan that year.) I was a couple years late in viewing, but once I seen it, I was hooked.  This guy is a huge Asian film star and as I wrote SOTD his picture sat upon my computer screen.
 Then late last year, I took a writing class with Ann Crispin and sent her two partials to look at as part of the class. She started reading the first of them and didn’t even bother to view the other. Lucky for me the one she read was SOTD. She liked it. And during our one on one critique she encouraged me to start sending it out.  At the same conference, I sat in on a panel of editors and Samhain Publishing was among them. I was impressed with their representative; she was warm, funny and encouraging.
So here is where life took a decidedly odd turn. I waited a couple of months to have a new critique partner review the manuscript before I submitted to the editor I met at Samhain.  Within a few days of finally sending it to her, I received a reply informing me that she had died the previous week. This was a tragedy and an eerie parallel to the theme that runs through my book.
“Shaking Off the Dust” is about opening ourselves to change. For the ghost Tom Mecurio, he clings to this plane of existence because he believes his purpose here is not fulfilled and because he is afraid. He pulls Hannah Campbell from the quiet routine she has fallen into since a car accident, allowing her to open up to adventure and romance. Professor Takeshi Shimodo, Tom’s best friend, has punished himself for years for breaking the rules in his youth and loosing everyone that he loved. His life since then has been quiet discipline and nearly emotionless, until Hannah comes laughing into his heart. These three main characters are rising from the ashes of their old lives, shaking off the dust and moving forward.
 The woman that I met on that editor’s panel was vibrant and witty, she was a fleeting link to a future I hoped to reach. As we submit our manuscripts to editors for consideration, you always hope to find a connection with the person on the other end. Though, from their perspective that may not be what they perceive as existing, an editor wants a story that is fresh and engaging. My day job prepared me for the constant transformation of the landscape. I could only imagine the impact of her death on her family and coworkers. I put aside my ambitions and told them I would resubmit at another time.
My manuscript was sent on to another editor though. After rewrites and a resubmit, I was offered the opportunity become part of their author list and I’ve been thrilled every day since then.
 As for my world view of how I reached publication? I have to say, it was a brief encounter with a woman who is now gone, whose life became a thread in the tapestry of my life.
Rhianna Samuels
Rhiannasamuels.com

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