About

It is hard to imagine anyone living or working in New York that wasn’t affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  During my corporate career, I myself attended many meetings and conferences in the WTC.  My husband, Mark, who worked in midtown Manhattan, happened to be on a business trip on 9/11.  I remember being thankful and relieved that he was nowhere near the city and that he returned safely home to our son, Chase, and me.  Mark lost a childhood friend who was working at the WTC that day.  We had a neighbor who missed a train that would have put him in Windows on the World at the time of impact.  Perhaps most chilling of all, is the memory of my brother-in-law working at his desk at the WTC that morning.  I watched in horror when the buildings were struck, and later as they came down, and prayed that he had made it out alive and was on his way home to my sister, and their two beautiful, young daughters.  It wasn’t until late in the evening when I received a phone call from my sister that he was safely home.

 

Having grown up in New Jersey, I am an ardent fan of Bruce Springsteen.  I have followed his music career ever since I purchased the vinyl album “Greetings from Asbury Park” when I was eleven years old.  I greatly admire his story-telling ability, and so, when Springsteen released “The Rising” in 2002, I was deeply affected by the emotions he captured in the lyrics. 

 

The Rising helped inspire me to write my debut novel, Please Take Care of Tommy!  in order to help memorialize this time in history.  While all the characters in my book are fictional, I wanted to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, the survivors, and the family and friends of those who died.  It took me several years to write this book, and several more before I published it.  Although I received numerous compliments on my writing style, and encouragement to write on different subject matters, I couldn’t find an agent willing to represent me on this particular book.  That stung, as there is nothing political about my book.  There is only a story of everyday people trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after tragic loss.

 

Officer Sullivan is a fictional hero in Please Take Care of Tommy!  There are, however, twenty-three real-life NYPD heroes who gave their lives in the line of duty on 9/11.  Countless more have died from toxins they were exposed to while helping with the clean-up efforts and other 9/11-related illnesses.  I wrote Officer Sullivan to honor the men and women in blue, and to tell them, now more than ever, that they are needed, they are appreciated, and they are loved.

 

And so, as I contemplate another painful anniversary of that fateful day, I turn again to getting another story out there to remind us of the fragility of life.

 

Thank you, for helping me to…

 

Never forget,

Camille