Need a Hero?

by KJ Howe

Please welcome talented thriller author Shane Gericke to the lair. Today Shane touches on a subject near to our hearts--everyday heroes. Here's our friend Shane enjoying a beignet at Cafe du Monde, a landmark New Orleans coffeehouse.

With Memorial Day around the corner, I find myself thinking about heroes.

Soldiers.

Firefighters.

Cops.

But not just the heroes of Important Things.

I think of everyday heroes, too.

Nurses who work overtime because a frightened patient needs reassurance.

Widows who raise their children by themselves, with class, pride and dignity.

Couples who work three or four jobs to give their kids a little bit extra . . . or maybe just to put food on the table every night.

What they have in common is courage.

Tons of it, every day, in every way.

I find such courage incredibly romantic. Being brave is one of the more romantic things we do for somebody else. It's not an easy gift, like chocolates, cards and violins. It takes effort and risk that might--or might not--be reciprocated.

It takes guts.

Which brings me to New Orleans.

My wife, Jerrle, and I vacationed there this past week. We were delighted to see the Big Easy coming back from the death blow of Katrina. It's dried out. It's rebuilding. It's lively. It's looking good and walking tall.

And it's filled with those everyday heroes.

One was a vendor in the French Market near the Mississippi River. We were looking for New Orleans spices to bring back as gifts for friends. We got his name from another vendor, and went to visit. We found the spice packets we wanted, and spoke for a while. The talk turned naturally to the hurricane. Turns out that he lost $200,000 worth of property he'd worked his butt off to buy. It was gone. Vanished. He got the princely sum of $10,000 from FEMA, and that, he said, was dispensed with an attitude that they were giving him gold. Basically, he lost nearly everything.

But he kept on grinding his spices and packing his bags and getting them to his various customers. He worked the spice cart and sold us what we wanted. He never gave up. To me, that defines an everyday hero—knowing what you have to do, and doing it without complaining.

Another example literally walked right up to us. Jerrle and I were heading out of our hotel in the French Quarter one night. We'd have a bite to eat, then go listen to Dixieland music. We recognized a Japanese woman who was also staying in the hotel. We’d never met, just saw each other once in the elevator.

She walked up to us and asked, in halting English, where we were going. We told her, and she asked if she could join us. We like talking to people we don't know, so we said sure. We found a small restaurant, and ordered drinks and gumbo.

Turns out she was traveling the Southern United States to see some of the things she'd only read about. Her husband couldn't get away because he was running their business—they teach English as a second language in Japan—so she was getting around by herself, taking buses to various cities. After a few days in New Orleans, she'd head to Memphis, then somewhere else. It was important to her to "walk the walk" instead of just talking the talk. So here she was, by herself, in her sixties, learning everything she could about America.

She'd asked us if she could come along because walking around the Quarter by herself at night worried her a little, and she was just plain lonely. So she asked. Imagine that courage that takes, to ask strangers in a strange land if you can put yourself into their hands for the night. We had a lovely dinner, spent several hours listening to jazz, and learned a lot from each other.

Yet another everyday hero is New Orleans itself. Jerrle and I hung out with a friend of mine, Erica Spindler. This being Romance Bandits, you probably know Erica's work—starting as a romance writer and moving into romantic suspense. I write crime thrillers, and know Erica from the book conventions that all us writers attend to meet fans and each other. She and her husband volunteered to take us to lunch, and then show us around the city they love.

Lunch was terrific--my shrimp-and-oyster po'boy couldn’t be beat. Then, we took the "Destruction Tour"--seeing the areas hardest hit by Katrina in 1995. Ironically, it was raining.

A good portion of the city is still flattened, by flood waters or FEMA bulldozers. The spray-painted X of condemnation is a scarlet letter on hundreds, maybe thousands, of buildings. But even in areas like the Lower Ninth Ward—the hardest hit area of them all—everyday life is alive and well. People are rebuilding. Kids are playing basketball in the streets. They're laughing, and high-fiving, and taking back their lives. Brad Pitt, the movie star, is building homes in the Lower Ninth. They're brand-new, affordable, and use green technology to the utmost. It takes a monumental amount of courage to come back from the biggest natural disaster in American history, and these folks showed it by the bushels-full.

But what could be the biggest act of courage came from my wife, Jerrle. Because on June 3, we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. That’s 30 years of putting up with me and the odd, romantic life of a writer.


She's my everyday hero. Happy anniversary, hon. Here's to 30 more.

National bestselling author Shane Gericke (pronounced YER-key) began writing professionally in high school. He spent 25 years as a journalist, most prominently at the Chicago Sun-Times, before plunging into crime thrillers. His first, BLOWN AWAY, was named Debut Mystery of the Year by Romantic Times magazine, and appears in five languages. It's followed by CUT TO THE BONE, and in summer 2010, MOVING TARGET, the third in his cops vs. serial killer series featuring police detective Emily Thompson. Shane is an original member of International Thriller Writers, and a director of the International Festival of Thrillers in New York, aka ThrillerFest. He belongs to Mystery Writers of America and Society of Midland Authors, and will speak with any group that will have him. He lives in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, where the series is set. He invites you to visit him at http://www.shanegericke.com/. He'd buy you coffee while there, but it's digital, and the powdered creamer wouldn't dissolve.

Shane and romantic suspense superstar Erica Spindler stand atop a bare foundation in the Lower Ninth Ward, the hardest hit area of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This was a family’s home, and for weeks, it was submerged by tons of filthy flood water. It had to be bulldozed. Despite such rampant, widespread destruction, the Big Easy is coming back, walking tall, looking good.

Shane, thanks for joining us today! As for everyone else, we'd love to hear who your everyday heroes are...