Author looking for consultant

[Just Plain Ruff]

I've been talking to him via email and I am trying to answer all his questions. He really appears to want to make this character valid and good.

I am intrigued by his new book and will probably get his soon to be published book on my nook when It's out.

Congrats on the publishing of your novel. That's a big accomplishment.

[HERBIE1]

I've been talking to him via email and I am trying to answer all his questions. He really appears to want to make this character valid and good.

I am intrigued by his new book and will probably get his soon to be published book on my nook when It's out.

Congrats on the publishing of your novel. That's a big accomplishment.

Glad he's getting top notch advice from you, Ruff.

I applaud the guy for wanting to do this right. Too many writers are not concerned about accuracy- regardless of the subject matter, even if it's "only" fiction. I think even folks who aren't very familiar with a topic know if something is believable or not. To me, it's the hallmark of a good writer and a good story and makes it that much more enjoyable to read. The devil's in the details, and that's what sucks me into a good book.

If I am really digging a novel, I have a hard time putting it down- I tend to read them cover to cover-causing more than a few sleepless nights. LOL

[Just Plain Ruff]

Glad he's getting top notch advice from you, Ruff.

I applaud the guy for wanting to do this right. Too many writers are not concerned about accuracy- regardless of the subject matter, even if it's "only" fiction. I think even folks who aren't very familiar with a topic know if something is believable or not. To me, it's the hallmark of a good writer and a good story and makes it that much more enjoyable to read. The devil's in the details, and that's what sucks me into a good book.

If I am really digging a novel, I have a hard time putting it down- I tend to read them cover to cover-causing more than a few sleepless nights. LOL

TYVM Herbie

The top notch authors who do the characters justice and correctly usually have quite a long Acknowledgement list at the back. They also usually have a huge source list that they put in the back of the book.

If you look at The author of the John Adams series (can't think of his name right now)He had over 50 pages of sources in the back of his book. Just like all his other books.

Heck even a writer of fiction will sometimes have a long list of sources that show where he got some of his stuff.

I think the hallmark of a good book is a good fleshed out character and believable locations as well as beleivable plot. No matter how fanciful the book plot is, if it's believable then it's good.

Some authors cannot pull that off. I have tried but I just seem to miss the detail.

All this discussion has made me want to dust off my first draft of my son's book and get to writing it again.

[HERBIE1]

TYVM Herbie

The top notch authors who do the characters justice and correctly usually have quite a long Acknowledgement list at the back. They also usually have a huge source list that they put in the back of the book.

If you look at The author of the John Adams series (can't think of his name right now)He had over 50 pages of sources in the back of his book. Just like all his other books.

Heck even a writer of fiction will sometimes have a long list of sources that show where he got some of his stuff.

I think the hallmark of a good book is a good fleshed out character and believable locations as well as beleivable plot. No matter how fanciful the book plot is, if it's believable then it's good.

Some authors cannot pull that off. I have tried but I just seem to miss the detail.

All this discussion has made me want to dust off my first draft of my son's book and get to writing it again.

Go ahead and write, Ruff.

I have always been a Steven King fan- although I hate his Dark Crystal series, but he's the reason I began dabbling in writing. His attention to detail is great, and as you know, when you try to write something yourself, you really appreciate a good quality story and I respect the hell out of anyone who can make a living at it. I am especially envious of folks like King, Koontz, Patterson, and others who can crank out (mostly) quality work so frequently. I simply do not know how they do it.

As I noted to this author, I am also a wanna be writer- writing the great American novel. LOL

I have several stories and one novel that I have been tweaking for years, and never quite finish it. One that my wife says is particularly good, but I simply do not have the confidence to finish the deal. Maybe some day.

Every so often I dig out the stories, add a few things, etc, but unless I am totally into the writing mode, nothing much happens- too many distractions, and nothing flows. Especially with the novel-I need to reread it, get back into the character's heads so to speak, and move the story forward from there, or it ends up being crap.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I've written quite a bit.

I have about 15 short stories (think board books for toddlers)

I have a 49 page novella that is about my son's water turtle

I have a 35 page beginning novel that I have written off and on.

I am getting ready to revisit the short stories in the hopes that I can revise them and make them publisher worthy.

I could submit the novella to a magazine and see how that goes but I don't think it's quite good enough.

All of these books could be self published and given as gifts to friends and hopefully by word of mouth they would catch on.

I have other marketing ideas based on my travels. Who knows, maybe I will get published someday.

[tniuqs]

Honestly, I'm nearly speechless. The level of malice leveled at me for asking nothing more than an EMT's perspective is scary. That kind of behavior diminishes us all. I spoke from the heart with an honest request. I was respectful, yet treated unkind.

Also, I did indeed provide a valid email, as herbie1 has already proven by contacting me through it.

Malice is a legal term, did someone cause you damages, hurt your feelings maybe. I feel malice when some one wakes me up from a dead sleep too.

Asking for something that is normally earned in EMS just because we are nice guys and girls and You respect us (I hope you stick with that when you write) you wish to help you showing up out of the wild blue freaking yonder handing life experience to you on a plate so that you:

1- Could possibly misrepresent.

2- Continue to propagate myths.

3- Spend a short time rubbing shoulders and making a nice tidy profit on your book.

<Gasp>... so my kind of behaviour diminishes us all ? Really now, a literary licence, tenor in fiction writing is limited to a book or a magazine only ? A most interesting theory coming from a fiction writer himself, but Welcome Back, here is hoping you learned about an interview technique called Good Cop, Bad Cop it is not limited to Law enforcement.

Paramedicmike pretty much covered the basis (more politically correct than I) on why your introduction post was received rather "tentatively". I agree with mikes comment's wholeheartedly. Just to add some serious perspective here, one individual introduced himself on a website similar, was a "poser" and fortunately for a thing called a Moderator one that can see IP addresses. One lurks here on occasion and is privy to more info than the average member. (just saying) Well long story short the individual was suspected to be a serial violent rapist and had set up meetings with a couple of women using a forum's (oddly exactly like this) ... rumour has it he was not very successful. I digress.

So a recap of the proposed book, just so I get the picture.

A Paramedic (now) a Father with an offspring with a fictitious disease, the Paramedic character that its just incidental, yet needs to authenticated. You are going to use a call with respiratory burns to upper and lower airways of a child to justify this.

This does not sound like a book I would pick up to read, why, because I suspect I know 3 medics that this is not fiction, sadly. You may want to goggle the term idiopathic, it sounds a bit more medical than fictitious.

cheers

[Just Plain Ruff]

There is more to the book than what he has posted. I think the book has promise.

I think he has the people he needs to help him on this book.

[Richard B the EMT]

RobertsFiction, as to the medical aspects of the professions of EMTs and Paramedics, some here have told you to become one yourself.

Short of that, might I suggest you invest in 3 of our training textbooks for research on what we do, and get the latest edition of the first 2, Emergency Care (Brady), Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured (American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons), and Emergency Care in the Streets (Carolyn). Some here a while call the Brady and AAOS books, the Yellow and the Orange books, respectively.

I apologise for the attacks on you, as some of us try compartmentalizing themselves by not bringing home the bad, or even the good, calls they did on any particular day, and what they do here is, for some, a release by telling others what not to do, or the inverse. Others may have assisted someone in writing a story, and gotten burned by the author, some might be as they stated, not wanting association with a bad storyline (I don't know you, obviously, so I cannot claim what quality stories you do or do not write). Others might be writer wannabees (myself included), and don't want their "war stories" stolen and copyrighted away from them (NOT nessesarily me).

You've read reference to "Mother, Juggs and Speed", here. Some see it as humor, a bit at our expense, others see it as an attack. Then, there's "Bringing out the Dead", written by a Paramedic as a way of self expression, as suggested by his psychietrist, due to "issues" he was then dealing with.

[Chief1C]

Some here a while call the Brady and AAOS books, the Yellow and the Orange books, respectively.

The Orange Book,

and The Yellow Book. Holy large image batman. Edited for size.

Edited January 26, 2011 by 4c6

[HERBIE1]

The Orange Book,

and The Yellow Book. Holy large image batman. Edited for size.

Sheesh. Memories

I had a different orange book(cannot recall which one) as an EMT-with a matching study guide, both long gone, and Nancy Caroline's text for paramedic school.

Edited January 27, 2011 by HERBIE1