Behind the Scenes: EMT-P

Before I was a physician, before I was a novelist weaving romance, danger, and adventure together—I was a paramedic.
Two years of intensive training, an associate degree, certification exams, and long shifts working through college shaped my worldview in ways I didn’t fully appreciate until many years later. The paramedic life is a strange mix of adrenaline and stillness, heartbreak and humanity. You see people on their worst days, and you learn quickly who you are when seconds matter.
Those experiences found their way into my writing—sometimes without me realizing it until a character came alive on the page with instincts, compassion, trauma, or grit that looked suspiciously like my past.
Here are a few places where the paramedic in me stepped out of memory and into fiction.
🚑 Rico in Cabrera File: Quick Thinking with a Big Heart
Rico didn’t start out as a character inspired by my paramedic days, but the moment he showed up on the page, he felt familiar. His compassion with victims, the way he always scans a room for danger or injury, the quiet confidence he uses to calm Diz during their frantic search for her kidnapped roommate… those traits come straight from the ambulance.
Paramedics learn:

• how to stay calm when emotions spike
• how to think two steps ahead while acting in the moment
• how to speak softly in a world full of chaos
• how to care for strangers without hesitation

Rico embodies all of that. He knows how to anchor others in crisis because he’s been forged by crisis. Writing him felt like returning to an old part of myself—one who ran into danger with a medical bag instead of a pen.
🚑 Raymond & Cathy in McMillan File: Street Medicine, Street Pain
Inner city EMTs and paramedics carry a particular weight—the weight of crime scenes, drug houses, domestic violence calls, and overdoses where you never forget the faces. Raymond and Cathy were inspired by the medics I knew and worked alongside.
Raymond. He’s bitter when we meet him—burned out, jaded, carrying anger that masks unresolved grief. Many real medics hit that wall. The job demands heart, but sometimes it breaks the very heart you give.
His arc is about rediscovering compassion… and finding someone who believes he can.
Cathy. She’s steady, warm, and quietly resilient. She sees Raymond slipping and refuses to let him drown in cynicism. She reminds him why he started this work in the first place: to help people, not judge them.
Their dynamic comes straight from ambulance life—the way partners become lifelines, mirrors, and sometimes the only person who truly understands what you carry after a twelve-hour shift.
💔 Terrible Tragedies, Incredible Moments
Being a paramedic meant witnessing some awful things—accidents, violence, loss that stays with you. But in the middle of those tragedies were moments of astonishing grace:

• a patient holding my hand in the ambulance because they were scared
  a family’s relief when their loved one woke up
• the quiet pride of knowing we made a difference, even when outcomes weren’t perfect

Those contrasts--darkness and light—cemented my commitment to medicine. I learned that healing isn’t always about curing. Sometimes it’s simply showing up when someone needs you most.
That emotional balance bleeds into my fiction. My characters fight, rescue, grieve, hope, and love because that’s what real people do, even in crisis.
🏥 The ER Showdown in McMillan File: Truth Wrapped in Fiction
One of my favorite behind-the-scenes stories is the scene where Raymond clashes with Dr. David Rider in the ER. Raymond calls in with a patient, confident in his street assessment and intended plan. Dr. Rider—sharp-edged, exhausted, and slightly arrogant—challenges him.
This exact dynamic is one I lived.
There’s sometimes tension between medics and ER physicians:

• who sees what
  who knows what
  who trusts whom

In the book, their initial interaction is bristling and skeptical. But when they end up delivering a baby in a cramped, dangerous apartment (pure fiction—but inspired by real-life “anything can happen” calls), they forge a bond built of adrenaline, trust, and shared purpose.
That’s the beauty of emergency work: pressure reveals character—sometimes good, sometimes messy, always real.
🔥 Fiction Born from Real-World Grit
My paramedic years were filled with long nights, broken hearts, moments of triumph, and flashes of deep humanity. Those years gave me:

• insight into trauma
• respect for first responders
• understanding of how people act under pressure
• a blueprint for how heroes rise—not with capes, but with courage

And those lessons walk beside every character I write—from Rico’s calm bravery to Raymond’s redemption to the life-and-death realism echoed in medical scenes throughout my books.
Being a paramedic didn’t just shape my writing.
It shaped me, and through me, every story I tell.

Louisiana will always hold a special place in my heart. I lived there from 4th grade through high school graduation, and later returned for paramedic school, spending two years immersed once again in the culture, rhythm, and spirit of the Deep South. It’s a state that imprints on you—lush, humid, fragrant, musical, mysterious, and endlessly alive.

Between rural southern Louisiana with its Creole flair and the energetic sprawl of Baton Rouge—a city built on grit, tradition, and good cheer (especially when LSU is winning!)—I grew up surrounded by stories begging to be told.

So when I wrote Allison’s Alibi, it felt only natural to return to the bayous, the French Quarter, and the Cajun countryside for inspiration. Louisiana’s rich flavors and shadows made the perfect backdrop for a romantic suspense with a paranormal twist.

Here’s the real-life Louisiana that helped build the fictional world of Allison’s Alibi.

🐊 Swamps, Spirits & Alligators: The Rural Heart of Louisiana
Living in rural southern Louisiana meant experiencing life closer to nature—and closer to mystery.

• I rowed a boat through alligator-infested waters, the surface rippling with quiet danger.
• I tasted the heat and sweetness of fresh crawfish boils surrounded by laughter, music, and the spice of Cajun cooking.
• I visited the Tabasco factory on Avery Island, where barrels of pepper mash ferment into the iconic Louisiana staple.
  I even toured the old leper colony in Carville, a historical site both heartbreaking and profoundly human.
  
  

These places shaped my understanding of Louisiana as a land where stories cling to every moss-draped branch and muddy bank. That eerie beauty and lived memory became the atmospheric backbone of Allison’s Alibi—a place where danger and destiny meet in equal measure.

🎭 The Magic & Mystery of New Orleans
Some of my favorite memories come from the city where history and celebration dance together:

• Beignets at Café du Monde, warm and powdered-sugar perfect
• Jackson Square, bursting with local artists, fortune tellers, and vibrant creativity
• The French Quarter, a maze of wrought iron balconies, ghost stories, jazz clubs, and secrets
  
  

New Orleans doesn’t just entertain—it enchants. And that enchantment flows straight into the book.

In Allison’s Alibi, the French Quarter’s haunting charm echoes through the psychic detective’s gifts, the ghost of Allison’s father, and the whispers of danger around every corner.

💜 Baton Rouge: Home of Grit, Gumbo, and Tiger Pride
Baton Rouge has personality. Big personality.
I spent years there for paramedic school, absorbing the energy of a city where:

• football ties the community together
• food brings families to the table
• and hospitality softens even the hardest days

The city’s atmosphere influenced the sharper edges of Allison’s Alibi—the police procedural elements, the academic world Allison inhabits as a researcher, and the simmering tension beneath the surface of everyday life.

🔮 How Louisiana Became the Soul of Allison’s Alibi
The story follows Allison, a researcher whose colleague is murdered—leaving her with no alibi and mounting evidence pointing her way. Louisiana’s mystique offered the perfect setting for a suspense story tinged with paranormal threads.
Enter: 
1) A psychic detective with seductive Southern flair Inspired by the charm and depth I saw in many Louisianans—equal parts easygoing and inscrutable.
2) The ghost of Allison’s father, a spectral presence shaped by Louisiana’s long tradition of reverence for the dead, spiritual storytelling, and the blurred line between this world and the next.
3) A killer hiding beneath Southern politeness. Because Louisiana hospitality is legendary… but its shadows are deep.

In this book, Louisiana is more than a location—it’s a character. It’s the humidity clinging to each scene, the heat fueling tension, the music vibrating beneath fear, the flavors woven into emotional beats, and the mystery rising from the swamp like morning fog.

​Writing Allison’s Alibi allowed me to relive the Louisiana I loved, feared, explored, and grew up in. It felt like coming home—but with a fictional twist and a dead body.

​Allison's Alibi