Getting to Know Pattie Welek Hall and her Books, Believe and Creer

My journey consists of stray puzzle pieces wedged together, providing an inter-locking connection to the person I am today. Born in St. Louis, MO, number three out of seven within a nine-year span, posed its own set of challenges. My best laid plan of action was to withdraw. That’s when my pen, paper and imagination became my most intimate friends.

It wasn’t till I attended an all-girl high school, taught by a flock of nuns, and filled with a kaleidoscope of females, that my life began to pivot. Girls will be girls and our mission was to break the rules, dodge detention, lie if we must, repent later, and laugh till we peed in our pants.

The years that followed were a horse of a different color. I taught school, experienced all the anguish that goes hand in hand with divorced parents, changed my career to real estate then reverted back to teaching, got married, lived overseas, raised three wonderful children, created several small business ventures, suited up and showed up at Nar-Anon and Al-Anon meetings, lost myself, got divorced, found parts of myself, returned to the workforce, dove into the abyss of family tragedies, moved to another state to reinvent myself again and continued to search for the lost pieces.

Due to the economy my Community Relations position in the non-profit sector, dealing with sexually abused and poverty stricken families, was cut. Like the magician in tarot, I packed up all my tools and headed south to Charleston, South Carolina, to create the new me.

Life has turned full circle and here I am today with my pen, paper, and imagination writing once again, only my stories are richer and fuller. The depth and breadth of who I am is enhanced by those intricate puzzle pieces of the past, but who I am becoming is still being defined and created.

In 2010, I wrote and illustrated BELIEVE, translated into Spanish, CREER, and am currently in the throes of writing my memoir. In 2011, I launched by Blog Talk Radio Show – JOY Radio: People Inspiring People.

TELL US ABOUT THE GENRE OF YOUR WORK.

I am not fixated on any particular genre.  My life experiences have inspired me to write, dictating the genre of my work. Not sure how to classify BELIEVE.  It can be categorized under Tragedy, Self-Help, Children’s Books, and Inspirational. My main focus was not to write in a particular genre, it was to convey my message, helping other people who walked in these same shoes.

My upcoming book is a memoir/narrative nonfiction.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS GENRE?

As mentioned above, I didn’t choose the genre, the genre chose me. My son’s death was so surreal that I found myself standing knee deep in denial, stuffing the pain. Driven to escape reality, I buried myself in my work, hardly breaking to breathe. The unstable economy, wobbling on three legs, forced me into unemployment. With nowhere to hide, I was driven to return to the past, and retrieve my emotional story hidden on my back bookshelf. Blowing away the cobwebs, opening to chapter one, sinking into the story-line, I plummeted into the abyss and began my healing process. It’s said, “We only get what we can handle in life, but sometimes it takes time to digest everything on our plate.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR BOOKS, STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED?

Believe and Creer (Spanish version of Believe) published in 2010. Memoir/narrative nonfiction to be released 2011/2012.

As mentioned in my bio I am pretty much of a newbie to the publishing world. Grief Haven published my story, Believe, in their 2011 second and third quarter newsletters. http://www.griefhaven.org/. I also write for Examiner.com/Charleston as Charleston’s Family Grief and Bereavement Examiner.  But recently I’ve grown tired of writing about grief… half my life my feet have been submerged in that quicksand. I decided to leave the muck behind, find the lessons, honor the gifts and step into joy. Hence, I created JOY Radio: People Inspiring People. My show focuses on authors, motivational speakers and coaches with inspiring and empowering stories. My goal is give life a helping hand by providing a venue where people can move out of their ever-consuming and paralyzing fear into joy, stimulating positive vibrations, lifting the earth’s energy, and creating a Tsunami of good news.

WHAT AGES DO YOU DIRECT YOUR BOOKS?

My first books, Believe (Creer - Spanish version) can be read by all age groups, yet current reviews list it under Children’s Books.  The message is simple yet powerful: the pain is deep yet it does lesson with time, honor our loved ones journey, find the gifts they left behind, and celebrate their life every chance you get.

My upcoming book is a memoir/narrative nonfiction and can be read by all age groups.

GIVE A DESCRIPTION OF EACH. BOOKS-TITLE, ISBN AND WHERE THEY CAN BE FOUND. NEWEST BOOK?

Believe and Creer are a story about the loss of a child… a heart’s healing journey… and the bond of a Mother’s love. Both are available on Amazon.com and also through my website: http://www.pattiewelekhall.com/

Believe ISBN: 9781449990008

Creer ISBN:    9781450575843

My upcoming memoir/narrative nonfiction (title TBA) centers on my son’s traumatic brain injury, set against the backdrop of his insurmountable challenges, inspired by a mother’s unwavering faith, impacted by the intercession of heavenly beings, yet gripped by an unexpected twist of fate.

Want to know more about her new book, check it out at: http://pattiewelekhall.com/media-kit/

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOUR BOOK/S?

My books are a part of my journey. They have provided the greatest amount of soul-growth any human being can ever wish for. I consider myself a ‘little nuts’ to have raised my hand for such an adventurous ride through life, but blessed knowing I survived.

HOW DID YOU DEVELOP THE CHARACTER/S IN EACH OF YOUR BOOKS?

Death is not an easy subject to talk about, especially when it pertains to the loss of your child. I wanted something light, for death itself is dark enough.  I chose Oma, the wise grandmother to tell the story to her grandson, knowing with age comes wisdom, understanding and acceptance.

The characters in my memoir/narrative nonfiction are authentic, outlandish, serious, sad, compassionate, helpful, moving, enlightening, mysterious, exciting, quirky and funny.  They are a kaleidoscope of colorful personalities developed through the unfolding of my son’s horrific tragedy, tangled in deep emotions, riding a roller-coaster of unpredictable events, set against the backdrop of the hospital, rehab, home, and… I’d rather not say.

IS YOUR BOOK ILLUSTRATED? IF SO, WOULD YOU TELL US BY WHOM, AND IF YOU WORKED WITH AN ILLUSTRATOR, CAN YOU DISCUSS THAT EXPERIENCE?

While creating BELIEVE I was encouraged by my best friend, Drace, to illustrate the book. I fought and screamed like a two-year old having a temper tantrum.

“Me illustrate the book? Are you nuts? I’ve only taken one art class in my life – watercolor – that was interrupted mid-stream when Casey had his brain injury eight years ago?”

“You’re the only one who can do the drawings. This is your personal story and your energy will flow through your artwork,” Drace gently coaxed.

The rest is history, but I fought all the way till the last blot of ink.

My upcoming memoir/narrative nonfiction will include pictures, not illustrations.

ARE THERE ANY PROBLEMS IN GETTING CHILDREN’S BOOKS PUBLISHED?

Going the traditional way was not an option for me. My objective was to get BELIEVE published so I could continue my healing process.  Guess I’m not the person to answer this question.

WHAT IS YOUR WRITING SCHEDULE?

Being quite disciplined and still unemployed, I usually start plucking away around 4:00 AM and by 6:00 PM my fingers and mind go limp, and the light switch goes off.

WHAT KIND OF ADVICE OR TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO WRITE AND GET PUBLISHED?

Best advice I ever received was, “Don’t get it right, just get it written.” ~ James Thurber.

ARE THERE ANY COMMENTS, ADVICE OR TIPS THAT YOU WOULD GIVE TO BEGINNING WRITERS?

Churchill said it best, “Never, never, never quit.”

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE NOT WRITING?

Read, plan JOY Radio Shows, play with my lab Emme, jog, ride my bike, play tennis, go for walks in nature, meditate and hug a tree whenever I get the chance.

You can learn more about Pattie by following the links below.

http://pattiewelekhall.com

http://pattiewelekhall.com/blog

http://pattiewelekhall.com/joy-radio-2

pattie@pattiewelekhall.com

http://pattiewelekhall.com/media-kit/

Chatting with Nurse/Author, Tim Sheard, about His Newest Book and the Upcoming Release of the Fourth in His Lenny Moss Series, So Many Ways to Die

Writing about what he knows best, Tim Sheard, sets his crime mysteries in the medical world.  This was an interesting chat with the author, and learning about how he has intertwined his profession into his books makes the plot and characters almost real.

 Tim tells how he got started as an author:

After graduating from college in 1970, I was drafted and served two years stateside as a medical orderly. Caring for hospital patients was a revelation: I loved it. I liked the regular hours, the regular pay (though salaries were awfully low back then), and the fellowship of my co-workers. When my tour was completed, I attended nursing school in St. Louis, and then went on to work as a nurse, mainly in critical care. The work allowed me to marry and raise a family. We have two fine sons, one of whom volunteered for two years in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina; the other is a gifted musician who fronts an exciting reggae band.

I worked in hospitals for close to twenty years when I began to think about the patients I had cared for, and about the co-workers I had known. I wanted to tell the world about these wonderful, frail, noble, heroic people. About how they endured and how they triumphed. Most of all, I wanted to tell them what they meant to me.  Therefore, at the ripe age of forty I began writing short pieces about my nursing experience. I sold a bunch of them to nursing journals and mainstream magazines. Seeing them in print made me feel connected to those former co-workers.

I sold a number of stories, and then collected a host of them for a memoir, The Cup of Human Kindness, with a theme that traced my personal development as a nurse. I tried for several years to sell that collection, titled, but never landed an agent or a publisher.

My wife Mary, ever a big mystery fan, suggested I turn my nursing stories into medical mysteries. That way I could tell all the true-life tales of health care workers and our patients, and I could weave in a crime story that was marketable. Since I never worked as a police officer or private eye, I decided on an amateur sleuth to carry my flag. And, who could better investigate a murder than a hard-working union steward could? His co-workers are always going to him for help. Therefore, why would they not turn to him when the police wrongfully arrest a co-worker? In this way, Lenny Moss came into the literary world.

I am still working as a nurse in a teaching hospital in Brooklyn; still married to my dear wife Mary; and still writing mystery stories.

Tell us about the genre of your work. 

Crime novels are my genre: procedurals and thrillers. My Lenny Moss novels are classic whodunits, with clues scattered through the book and red herrings aplenty. My latest novel, Love Dies, is a cat-and-mouse thriller that features a professional killer and the public health physician who investigates an “outbreak of murder.” I love the mystery because all the surprises remind us again and again that people are much deeper, more complex and more surprising than they appear to the casual observer. We are all capable of great love and compassion, as well as terrible cruelty.

Why did you choose this genre?

I chose the crime genre because it allows me to weave a novel with lots of hooks and puzzles that keep the reader engaged. Moreover, it allows me to reflect on the nature of good and evil, which resides in all of us to some degree.

What are some of your books, stories that have been published?

In the first book, This Won’t Hurt a Bit, ISBN 0981451810, Hard Ball Press (originally published by Creative Arts, now out of business); the police accuse a hot-tempered young African-American hospital worker, Regis Devoe, of murder. Regis works in the laundry. As he leaves work one day, the security guard demands to search his bag while allowing a white physician to exit without being searched.

Regis starts an argument with the doctor. The next day the doctor disappears, only to be discovered dead a week later in a most embarrassing situation. The police arrest Regis.

Regis’s co-workers turn to their feisty shop steward, Lenny Moss, to find the real killer. Lenny enlists the help of his friends: ward clerks, office secretaries, dietary aides, a young nurse and a friendly doctor. Together they uncover the clues and bring the killer to justice, while fighting along the way for safe working conditions.

The second book, Some Cuts Never Heal, ISBN 0981451802, Hard Ball Press (originally published by Carrol & Graf, now out of business), opens with Lenny pulling off a joke on the administration that lands him and his co-workers in big trouble. To save their jobs, he has to uncover the person who murdered a beautiful drug rep, who may have been conspiring with a greedy doctor to cook the results of a drug trial. Or, was she an innocent victim? At the same time, Lenny’s friends want to attend the funeral of a beloved co-worker, but the funeral is in the middle of a work day. Will Lenny persuade the supervisor to let the hospital workers off to attend?

The third, A Race Against Death, ISBN 0981451829, Hard Ball Press (originally published in hardcover by Five Star/Thompson Gale), finds a cold-hearted obstetrics doctor butchering young black women from a poor section of Philadelphia while performing abortions. When one of the women dies a horrible death, angry workers ask Lenny to investigate the butcher for murder. Lenny joins forces with a courageous African-American medical student, president of the medical students of color. Together they pursue the evil physician, even though things do not turn out quite the way they expected. And, along the way, Lenny battles the administration on behalf of the laundry workers, who are passing out due to the terrible heat wave that leaves the basement laundry as hot as a furnace.

The forth book, Slim To None, ISBN 0981451837, from Hard Ball Press, finds the fictional James Madison Hospital operating a string of spas & exercise gyms for a profit, even though they are a “non-profit” business. When Lenny tries to bring the spa workers into the union, he is brutally attacked. Another murder draws Lenny and his friends into a new case. This time Lenny suffers some horrific injuries. Once again, his friends step in and pull him from the jaws of death.

Newest book?

The next Lenny Moss book, So Many Ways to Die, to be released in September 2011, finds the nurses suspecting that a psychopathic serial killer is murdering patients in their hospital. The administrator tells them to keep quiet and not raise any alarms, so they turn to Lenny, who sets off in pursuit of a cold-blooded killer.

How do you come up with the names of places and characters in your books?

Since my books are inspired by real co-workers and real patients, I pattern my characters after them. My hospital has a daily census loaded with names. It is easy to thumb through it now and then and pick up names that I like. And, the characters? Well, hospitals are full of ‘characters,’ so it is not a big leap to build curious characters for my novels.

How did you develop the character of your protagonist in this book?

My hero is based largely on a good friend who has dedicated his life to fighting for justice for his co-workers. I have done some work standing up for co-workers as well. And my wife, Mary, has long been a friend and defender of neighbors and colleagues on her job. Therefore, my hero represents all the “Lenny Mosses” of the world who stand with someone who has been threatened or beaten down, and who say, “That’s not right,” or “That’s not fair,” and “We have to do something about it.”

What about an antagonist…is there a unique “bad guy” or a recurring nemesis of any kind?

I develop a new antagonist for each book. Each one is inspired by a real person I have known on the job. Of course, none of them committed the murder I attribute to them, but they certainly could have.

What is your favorite thing about your book?

I love the way the every day, unappreciated hospital workers support each other and help each other every day. The solidarity they build. Not that they are all perfect. No, we all have our flaws and our weaknesses. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of working people are generous, good-hearted people, and I love to tell their stories of struggle and of love.

How is writing in the genre you write, different than other genre?

Really, my crime stories are novels. I have realistic, sympathetic characters dealing with all kinds of personal and work problems. Sometimes they screw up. Sometimes they fall by the wayside. Sometimes they die. These themes are present in all good books. Human beings are mysterious. We have our secrets, don’t we?

Why and when did you begin writing?

I began after nursing in the hospital for twenty years. I wanted to tell the world about our work.

What is your writing schedule?

With a 40-hour day job and personal responsibilities, I wish I had more time to write. However, I try to write on my lunch hour. I sketch out my stories walking to and from work – it is a 2-mile walk. In the afternoon, I write out what I have been imagining. Somehow, the books get done.

What projects are you working on now, or plan for the future?

If I can retire from my day job by the end of 2011, I plan to bring back into print long lost writers who deserve to be back in print. Some are friends of mine whose work I have enjoyed. Others wrote a hundred years ago and are still vital storytellers today.

What kind of advice or tips to you have for someone who wants to write (especially mystery)?

Take some adult education writing classes, especially for writing mysteries (I did). Form a writing circle out of your classmates and meet weekly at a convenient pub or café: read aloud so you can hear the boring parts, accept criticism, and keep at it. Join the National Writers Union to find advice over contracts and marketing. And, always remember to rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. The first draft is a block of wood waiting for the chisel.

Are there any other comments, advice or tips that you would give to beginning writers?

Believe that you have a story worth telling that others will want to pay to read. You do.

What do you do when you are not writing? 

I volunteer quite a bit with the National Writers Union, helping aspiring writers find their voice and find a publisher. We have free programs the first Monday of the month in New York City. Check them out at www.nwuny.org

What “Made It” moments have you experienced in life?

My marriage to Mary. I could not believe she went through with it. We are still happily married after 35 years (I make her laugh). The birth of my two sons, Matthew and Christopher. The sight of my first novel on a bookshelf in Manhattan. My first book garnering a positive review in the New York Times. The first time seeing and driving my classic 1969 (Studebaker) Avanti.

If you want to learn more about the author and his books, check out the following websites at:

http://www.timsheard.com/LennyMossNovels.html

http://timsheard.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Sheard/e/B001K8CTZA/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0