Results by "I.M. Aiken" in All categories

Over four decades in public safety, Alex encounters a changing America, where veterans are left to rot on streets, women are welcome in dangerous fields but abusers still walk free, and service providers are subjected to intense public scrutiny while being denied the resources they need. After moving from bustling Boston to small town Vermont, Alex discovers an escalating feud between emergency operators and must decide which to protect: their community, or their legacy.

Centuries and continents apart, two American soldiers deploy in the years after "mission accomplished"—only to discover a land far from peace. In 1870, five years after the United States defeated rebelling southern states, eighteen-year-old Henry McDonald enlists in the U.S. military. Henry's sharp shooting and sharper mind while chasing Ku Kluxers in the South earns him the title "Private Trouble"—but real trouble still wreaks havoc in the rebellious Georgia in the form of lynchings, looting, and guerrilla violence.

Boston-born first-responder Alex Flynn gets called into the principal’s office in this short story set in rural Vermont, where poor roads and under-funded public services form a comfortable and familiar background. Explore the hidden links and community found in an ordinary New England town when local first responders might or might not have to engage with an active school shooter. Trowbridge Dispatch is part of the Trowbridge, Vermont series of novels and stories, wherein I.M. Aiken draws on her roots in public safety to narrate tales of the everyday heroes that every community depends on.

Alex Flynn, chief of Trowbridge Rescue, recollects poignant elements of a friendship during Alex’s days in government service. The story remembers love, fear, and sadness released when hearing The Steve Miller Band’s song “The Joker”.

Trowbridge Dispatch is part of the Trowbridge, Vermont series of novels and stories, wherein I.M. Aiken draws on her roots in public safety to narrate tales of the everyday heroes that every community depends on.

Al of Trowbridge Rescue works a shift on a commercial ambulance on the day that Vermont experiences the first ears of sweet corn. One medic says: “I wanna eat so much corn, I’ll shit kernels ‘til Thursday.” He partner replies, “The butter and salt will drip down my chin”. The crew of two ambulances celebrate an ersatz holiday.

Join a small crew of EMTs and paramedics (characters from The Little Ambulance War of Winchester County) who undertake a hilarious and disgusting anatomy refresher as part of their on-going training requirements. Given the location (rural Vermont) and the season (hunting season), the crew explores the heart and lungs of a deer.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, Trowbridge Vermont EMT Brighid Doran delivers the region’s ambulance to a three-alarm house fire. Afterward, she sits in a warm truck with her girlfriend Sam, a US Army officer fresh from the battlefields of Iraq, as they watch a local volunteer firefighter battle the blast in subzero weather.

EMS Captain turned sleuth Brighid Doran suspects that all is not what it appears on the surface at The Branston Club—a swanky ski lodge being built in her rural Vermont town. While dodging danger and digging up dirt, Brighid faces the ire of small town politics, crooked cops, and an ever deepening hole of deceptions, all the while struggling to cope with the constant deployment of her wife Major Sarah (Sam) Ann Musgrave.

Boston-born first-responder Alex Flynn is back with wry wit and still chasing emergencies in rural Vermont in this tale involving a gas line, a chainsaw, and other things that might or might not go boom and that might or might not go horrible wrong. Eavesdrop on emergency personnel as they attempt to diffuse a dicey situation in this, the first in the Trowbridge Dispatch collection of short stories.