Book Promo ~ Black Sheep

A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment,
Belonging, Racism, and Redemption

Ray Studevent walked hesitantly toward the door of the nursing home and prayed that his Momma, now in the throes of dementia, would recognize him. Surely, the blue eyes would give him away. The blue eyes that his Momma originally equated with hatred and brutality.

White on the outside, Black on the inside, Ray grew up on the eastern side of the Anacostia River, the Blackest part of the Blackest city in America not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the D.C. race riots. There were guidelines if you were Black; different rules if you were White; but only mixed messages for mixed-race children like Ray, who had to fight for acceptance and struggle to find his identity.

Black Sheep: A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment, Belonging, Racism, and Redemption is the unforgettable true story of Ray’s struggles as a mixed-race boy learning to fight the ghosts of his past to find trust and love. Abandoned by his White, heroin-addicted mother and Black, violently alcoholic father, Ray found salvation at age 5 when he was adopted into a loving, stable home by his father’s uncle Calvin and his wife, Lemell. But that is just the beginning of the story.

Lemell is suddenly widowed and must raise Ray and her two daughters as a single mother in Chocolate City. Each time she looks into Ray’s blue eyes, she sees the Klansmen who tormented her family as she grew up in segregated Mississippi.

Ray and Lemell must navigate the minefields of society’s outward racial tensions while inwardly, Lemell does her best to overlook her emotional scars and suppress her justifiable resentment toward White people when she looks into Ray’s blue eyes.

Black Sheep takes readers on an emotional journey and reveals universal truths through faith and great humor. It is a search for who we are, where we fit and who we can become. Imagine a book where The Notebook meets The Help.

About the Author
Ray “Ben” Studevent was a mixed-race child whose unique look led him to fight a racial identity crisis his entire life. Each time he entered a room, he had to decide whether it was better to be Black or White. His personal and career journeys ebbed and flowed, taking him to prison, fatherhood and gigs in comedy clubs, modeling and stock-market research. In all these varied experiences, he realized that race played a critical role. Visit his website at: raystudevent.com.

Amazon Review
“Black Sheep is a profoundly powerful tome about making peace with your past by daring to face it. I was stirred with emotion, and connected intimately with this memoir on so many levels. It is a must read for anyone seeking healing and redemption from the ghosts of their past.” ––Sophia A. Nelson, award-winning journalist and nonfiction author; CNN political and legal commentator

Black Sheep
Publisher: HCI Books
ISBN-10: 0757323812
ISBN-13: 978-0757323812

Available on
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Touch of Love… is Here!

 

~~ All Ebook Editions ~~

Touch of Love

Short Story Collection

 by Chelle Cordero

 

An Empty House: You never know what tomorrow will bring. This is a personal essay about coping with and moving on with the “New Normal”. 

The Lost Love: Rejected for her Mexican heritage by the teen-age boy she had a crush on, Lindsay put it behind her. So how come, when they wind up at the same college years later, Lindsay can’t get over her anger at the humiliation? And will Brad ever forgive himself for his callous behavior?

The Dead Guy in the Park: An almost end-of-shift call leads a paramedic and her partner to a dead guy in the park. All she has to do is pronounce him so that the coroner can come get the body. What could possibly go wrong?
*includes a bonus Spanish edition El Difunto del Parque translated by Marianna Carranza

Rekindled: Cynthia and Daniel were college sweethearts torn apart by tragedy. A lifetime later they bump into each other again — Is this their second chance at love?

 A Date with Mistletoe: Sometimes you find that it’s the “Unanswered Prayers” that are the best things to ever happen. When confronted by the man of yesterday alongside the man who means the world to her, there is no doubt in Rachel’s mind that she has the best.

 He is My Brother…: Who can help save the life of a beloved family member? Prayers, hopes and a personal plea for help.

Always, One More Time: Disowned by her parents because of an interracial love affair, Callie Sanders is left alone to raise her son after his father, Jimmy Bernerd, dies fighting in a war on the other side of the world. Desperate to give her son a family she goes to the Bernerd household — what she finds is a second chance at love, acceptance, and family.

 

Touch of Love Sneak Peek Video

 

Touch of Love

Short Story Collection

 by Chelle Cordero

 

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Author Chelle Cordero

Chelle Cordero writes stories of Passion and Suspense. Vanilla Heart Publishing has published eleven Cordero novels: Bartlett’s Rule; His Lucky Charm; Within the Law; Courage of the Heart; Final Sin; Hostage Heart; A Chaunce of Riches; Common Bond, Tangled Hearts; Hyphema; and Karma Visited. She is currently working on her next novel and promises another action packed adventure and heartwarming love story. Chelle has been writing both fiction and non-fiction for the bulk of her adult life and has been with Vanilla Heart Publishing since early 2008.

Her books have earned many plaudits which includes: Bartlett’s Rule was named one of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Top Ten Reads for 2009; Final Sin was an Honorable Mention in the Fiction Category of the 2010 NY Book Festival and a 2009 Pushcart Prize nominee.; Hyphema won the Dec 9, 2011 Friday Book Cover Vote on the Shades of Love website; A Chaunce of Riches was Winner of D. Renee Bagby’s readers’ choice for The Best Overall First Chapter, April 2010; and Hostage Heart, Final Sin and A Chaunce of Riches had top ten finishes in the 2009 Preditors’ and Readers’ poll. Chelle was also featured in “50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading” published by The Author’s Show in 2010.

Chelle Cordero maintains an author’s blog at http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/, and a promotional blog at https://ccepotourri.wordpress.com/. Her website http://ChelleCordero.com offers information on all of her books and her appearances. Bloggers and the media are welcome to visit Chelle’s media room at http://chellecordero.com/media/ with downloadable photos and other information.

Be sure to LIKE Chelle’s FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorChelleCordero and follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ChelleCordero. You can email Chelle at ChelleCordero(at)gmail.com.

Chelle lives in the northeast with her husband, Mark, and family. They have two adult offspring. Jenni and Marc (& Trish); they also live with three mischievous and spoiled pussycats, one of whom has taken up permanent residence on Chelle’s desk. Chelle is a full-time freelance journalist for multiple publications; her articles appear regularly throughout North America and she writes a monthly column on NYS Emergency Medical Services issues as a (former) NYS Emergency Medical Technician (First Responder News).

Vanilla Heart Publishing

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Book Review: Beale Street Blues by Angela Kay Austin

Beale Street Blues

by Angela Kay Austin

Darling Crawford lost the man she loved to another woman. Returning to her parents was bad enough, but returning home broke, divorced, and jobless is awful. Right about now she just needs to have fun.

A man with a sexy southern drawl. A strong drink. A night of dancing. What happens on Beale Street stays on Beale Street, right?

About the Author:

 Angela Kay Austin has always loved expressing herself creatively. An infatuation with music led to years playing several instruments, some better than others. A love for acting put her in front of a camera or two for her thirty seconds of fame before giving way to a degree and career in communications. After completing a second degree in marketing, Angela found herself combining her love for all things creative and worked in promotions and events for many years.

Today, Angela lives in her hometown in Tennessee with her really really really old dog, Midnight.

To learn more about Angela, visit her website: http://www.angelakayaustin.com/.

Amazon Customer Review:

 Enjoyable reviewed by TJ7109md 

I think the best part of this story is the fact it was about two older (40ish) people and the focus was not placed on the wealth of the male and his saving a poor, struggling female but the personal challenges they either created or faced to be together. I think the age of the primary characters helped present a more mature, relatable story than what other writers are putting out these days. It was not full over the top erotica for one. While the storyline is not new, I like that Darling had doubts and struggled with life after a divorce – her actions were more reflective of reality than what is traditionally presented in a majority of IRR using this same storyline. Great job to this author – first time reading her work but looking forward to future releases.

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Book Review: Hyphema by Chelle Cordero

“I read the book ‘Hyphema’ in one stretch. Very well researched and well written. The element of suspense was maintained throughout. I liked it very much. Great work.” ~ NS (5/11/2016)

Hyphema won the Dec 9, 2011 Friday Book Cover Vote on the
Shades of Love website & was recommended in the book
Summer Reading: 2012 Blue Ribbon Selection published by the
Ewen Prime Co.   EMSWorld posted about both of
Chelle’s EMS novels Final Sin & Hyphema.

~~~~~

“This is my first book by this author and I would read another one of her stories.

This is Matt, Sudah and Raja’s story. Matt is white and his wife is Pakistani. Matt is a paramedic. Sudah is a stay-at-home mum who takes care of their son, Aden, but she wants to finish her education.

The story is told mainly from Matt’s perspective and you can feel the love he has for his wife. Sudah appears to love her husband. She is a Muslim and very traditional in the way she treats Matt. She is very subservient to him although he does not require this from her.

Sudah asks her husband if her cousin can come from Pakistani and live in their home with them so she can go back to school. Matt knows in his heart this is a mistake but because he loves his wife he says yes. Raja brings trouble to their happy marriage.

In the meantime there is a deranged man seeking revenge against Matt. Every harassing activity perpetrated against Matt and his family makes everyone believe these events are happening because Sudah is a Pakistani and a Muslim; but nothing could be further from the truth.

I read the book in one sitting; it was a page turner and I had to discover what happened in the end. I found the story to be an emotional roller-coaster ride because I did not believe that Sudah’s love for Matt was as deep and as unconditional as Matt’s love was for her. Even though there is a happy ending, I could not enjoy it because I thought Matt had been short changed by Sudah’s lack of trust in him. She believed Raja over her husband who had never given her any cause to ever doubt him. I was cheering for team Matt.

What would have made this book a better read for me was to hear the story from Sudah’s perspective, as well, because it was very difficult to understand her reasoning at times.

Definitely worth a read.”

-Reviewed by Marcia  (from Romance Novels in Color  1/4/2016)

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~~~~~

What else has been said about Hyphema?

“In Hyphema, author Chelle Cordero meets headlong a number of real problems facing her characters. She doesn’t sugar-coat cultural differences and prejudice. The series of incidents and the deaths faced by Matt and Sudah cause them to face these problems and gives the love story a depth well-done.” —Janet Lane Walters

“Ms. Cordero tackles such amazingly current topics-hate, prejudice, fear of the different, with such enjoyable, suspenseful, and well-researched background, that this reader will be following her closely to see what she writes next. Each medical scene resonates with reality, and each chapter flows into the next with a flutter in the pit of the stomach for what is coming, as well as what has been.” —Brian Davidson

“I sat down to read Hyphema late one night. I thought I would start it, read for about thirty minutes and then go to sleep; instead, I stayed up till almost four in the morning reading it. Immediately immersed in the story, the tension never let up enough for me to even consider putting it down and coming back to it later.

Matt is an air ambulance EMT, a flight medic. He has just moved his son, and his Pakistani wife, to a small town in North Carolina from New York so he could have this job. The job is his dream job and Sudah, his wife, couldn’t be more supportive. She is patient, caring and so obviously in love with Matt and their son that it just spills over onto the page. She’s the kind of person I’d like to have for a neighbor, but not everyone, even within the circle of Matt’s work buddies and their wives feel that way, but Sudah handles the anger and prejudice with grace and softly spoken words meant to soften hearts and break down the walls of misunderstanding.

On one particularly heartbreaking call, Matt and his team are dispatched to a motor vehicle accident involving an SUV that had rolled over. The mother was unconscious, trapped in the car and her toddler son was bloody, unresponsive and pinned in the back in his car seat. To get to him they had to get the mother out.

Knowing there was no time to wait for fire trucks and ambulances Matt and his team pry open the car door and get the mother out, but when they get to the little boy, they realize he is dead. Wanting to be able to tell the mother when she regains consciousness that they had done everything possible to save her son, Matt opens IVs wide and begins CPR on the boys still warm body, handing the CPR off to an EMT on board Matt goes to work on the mother, trying to stabilize her condition. Even though the team does everything they can the little boy is pronounced DOA at the hospital. His devastated father comes into the ER and discovers that his son is dead when he wasn’t even supposed to be with his wife, her sister was supposed to be babysitting. Overcome with grief he screams how he’ll make everyone pay.

Life for Sudah is difficult at times, even though she is a happy person with an optimistic attitude. People won’t talk to her and sometimes call her names. Her own parents will not even recognize her marriage because it is a Muslim/Christian marriage. This is extremely hard on Sudah because she loves and misses her parents, but it becomes especially hard when they refuse to even accept a picture of their grandson because they view him as illegitimate.

Sudah becomes the victim of apparent hate crimes; a rock is thrown through their window when she is home alone with a message that appears to relate to 9/11 on it. Another note is found taped to the house after the family had been away, every time they report the incidents and every time they police act as though there is simply little to nothing to do. After one particularly frightening incident the police even threaten to arrest Matt for filing a false report because they think he is making it up to make the police look bad – a task they are managing quite well on their own.

Matt and Sudah face obstacles that severely test their relationship and their marriage. I do not want to go into anymore of the specifics here, but while Matt and Sudah’s relationship plays an important role in the book, the story is much more of an extremely well written thriller and I definitely recommend reading it.” — Tracy Riva

“Chelle Cordero tackles a difficult subject this time in her latest release HYPHEMA: bleeding in the eye caused by trauma. A mystery thriller with love, prejudice, and first responders makes HYPHEMA a must read in this climate where compassion and understanding will lead toward peace.

Writing from years of experience as a first responder, Ms Cordero paints an accurate, thrilling story of the lives of flight medics in North Carolina.

Matt Garratti brings his wife, Pakistani born Sudah and their baby son to begin a new life. Before long, Matt wonders if he is bringing his family into a nightmare from which they may never wake.” — Charmaine Gordon