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Honesty and Compassion
In The First Call Was Mine, you share the abuse of your childhood, the hardships of your adolescence, including suicidal despair, and the long road to healing. Why was this an important book for you to write?
For a long time, my story lived quietly inside of me. I carried the memories, the fear, and the resilience without ever fully putting words to them. Writing The First Call Was Mine became a way of reclaiming that story, not just as something that happened to me, but as something that shaped who I became.
Growing up in instability and abuse can make you feel invisible, as if your experiences don’t matter or your voice isn’t worth hearing. Writing this book was my way of pushing back against that silence. It was important for me to tell the truth about what it looks like to survive a chaotic childhood and still build a life defined by purpose.
I also wrote this book for others who have lived through similar experiences. Trauma can convince people that they are alone or broken beyond repair. If someone reads my story and realizes that survival, healing, and even joy are still possible, then sharing my story was worth it.
How did you approach writing about childhood experiences that were both formative and painful?
I approached it with a balance of honesty and compassion for my younger self. When you revisit painful memories, it’s easy to relive them through the lens of pain or anger. Instead, I tried to write those moments with the understanding I have now as an adult.
That meant allowing the experiences to be truthful without letting them become the entire definition of the story. The book isn’t just about trauma; it’s about resilience, growth, and the complicated ways we survive difficult circumstances.
At times, writing those chapters was emotionally heavy, but it was also surprisingly healing. Putting the experiences into words allowed me to process them differently and see the strength that existed in moments where I once only saw survival.
You draw a powerful connection between childhood survival and your work in EMS—when did you first recognize that link?
For a long time, I didn’t consciously recognize the connection. I just knew I was drawn to emergency services, the chaos of it all, and helping people in their most vulnerable moments. It felt natural to step into chaos and try to make things better.
Over time, I began to realize that my childhood had quietly prepared me for that kind of work. Growing up in an unpredictable environment teaches you how to read situations quickly, stay calm under pressure, and protect others even when you’re still trying to protect yourself.
EMS gave me a way to transform those survival instincts into something meaningful. Instead of chaos defining me, I was able to use the skills I learned from surviving it to help people in their most critical moments. In many ways, the career that grew from that path became part of my healing.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your experiences?
I hope readers understand that the circumstances we come from do not have to determine the limits of our lives. They don’t have to define us.
Many people grow up believing that their past defines them, that trauma, hardship, or instability will always control their future. My story is proof that those experiences can become something different. They can shape strength, compassion, and purpose.
Healing doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t erase what happened. But it does allow you to build a life that isn’t ruled by those experiences. If readers walk away believing that change, growth, and healing are possible, even after the hardest beginnings, then the book has done what I hoped it would.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
The First Call Was Mine is a raw and unflinching memoir about growing up in chaos and choosing a different future. With honesty and dark humor, Kayla traces her path from a traumatic upbringing to a career in emergency services, where she found purpose in running toward the very crises she once lived inside.
Becoming a firefighter and paramedic did not erase the past but it gave her the tools to face it. Through demanding calls, hard-earned resilience, and moments of unexpected grace, she begins to understand how survival can transform into strength. The book explores themes of foster care, trauma, identity, and healing, while examining how service, discipline, and community can help rebuild a life once shaped by loss.
This memoir does not offer easy answers or tidy resolutions. Instead, it tells the truth about what it means to carry trauma forward and still choose to show up, again and again. It is a story for anyone who has lived through adversity, questioned where they belong, or wondered whether it’s possible to break cycles that feel inescapable.
The First Call Was Mine is a testament to resilience, chosen family, and the quiet courage it takes to keep going, even when the past is loud.
The First Call Was Mine
The First Call Was Mine is a memoir about growing up inside relentless instability and then, somehow, building a life devoted to helping other people survive their own worst moments. Author Kay Blake traces a childhood marked by abuse, neglect, foster care, abandonment, and the aching responsibility of trying to protect her little brother, then follows that thread into adolescence, EMS work, paramedic school, chronic illness, sexual violence, suicidal despair, and the long, uneven work of healing. What stayed with me most was the book’s central idea that her instinct to respond to emergencies did not begin in uniform but in childhood, barefoot in the snow, wrapping her mother’s bleeding hand, or in the smaller, piercing moments that never quite leave, like a boy handing her his coat at school, or the locket her foster parents gave her when she was sent back into chaos.
I admired that Blake never writes like she’s polishing pain into something noble. She writes like someone who has stared at it for a very long time and decided, finally, not to lie about its texture. There’s a rough honesty to the prose that I found deeply affecting. At its best, it has a plainspoken force that lands harder than ornament would. She has a sharp instinct for the image that says everything. Christmas gifts arriving in black trash bags, Kid Rock becoming the soundtrack of dread, sleeping in a car that is both freedom and shelter, signing a dead friend’s guitar while half-thinking he’d be furious about the marker on the finish, these moments give the memoir its pulse. I also appreciated the dark humor braided through the book. It proves she survived it with her wit intact. That tonal balance is hard to manage, but here it often feels earned.
I also found the book compelling because of the ideas beneath the story, especially its refusal to romanticize resilience. Blake understands that being “strong” is often just what adults call a child who had no safe alternative. That insight runs quietly through the memoir and gives it moral weight. I was especially moved by the later sections, where the book shifts from survival into a harsher, more adult recognition that trauma doesn’t politely stay in the past. It follows her into love, into work, into her own body, into the institutional failures that greet her even after she does everything right. The chapter in which she reports being assaulted and is met with skepticism and procedural coldness is infuriating in exactly the way it should be. And the scene in the garage, when she nearly ends her life and then reaches, however shakily, for one stubborn reason to remain, has the kind of emotional nakedness that made me put the book down for a minute and think. Even when I wanted a little more compression or shaping in places, I never doubted the heart behind the pages.
The First Call Was Mine is painful, brave, and very human. Blake makes room for grief, rage, tenderness, absurdity, loyalty, and the slow dignity of choosing to keep going. I’d recommend it to readers of memoir who can handle heavy material and want something emotionally direct, especially people interested in foster care narratives, trauma and recovery, or the hidden personal histories carried by first responders. It’s a hard book in many places, but it has real warmth in it, and by the last page, I felt I had been spoken to by a person, not a performance.
Pages: 272 | ASIN : B0G5B3Z7J1
Tucson 9-1-1: Do the Right Thing!
Tucson 9-1-1: Do The Right Thing! is a deeply personal, sometimes fiery, and always passionate insider account of the rise and fall of Tucson’s emergency communications center. Michael LaFond, a former 9-1-1 operator, brings readers behind the curtain of public safety communications to reveal the unsung heroes, complex personalities, bureaucratic missteps, and systemic flaws that shape how emergency calls are handled. The book recounts both the triumph—like the heroic response during the 2011 Tucson shooting—and the unraveling of a once-proud institution due to budget cuts, managerial changes, and disregard for public safety culture.
What struck me most about LaFond’s writing is the raw, unfiltered honesty. He writes like a man who has nothing left to lose, and that lends a gravity to every page. His admiration for figures like Louie Gonzales is touching—almost reverent. But when he turns his pen against those he sees as betraying the mission of public safety, it’s blistering. His style swings wildly from reflective to sarcastic to downright angry. That makes it a bit uneven, sure—but it also makes it real. This isn’t corporate PR. It’s a whistleblower’s war story written with both heart and bite.
At times, the story slows down to dive deep into the minutiae—office politics, scheduling policies, bureaucratic turf wars. There are long tangents that might lose readers unfamiliar with the workings of a 9-1-1 center. But maybe the tedium is part of the tragedy. Because LaFond’s central message is clear: it’s not flashy heroics but small, smart decisions made by dedicated people that save lives. When leadership forgets that, things fall apart fast.
Tucson 9-1-1: Do The Right Thing! is a stirring read. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in public service, emergency response, or organizational leadership. It’s not a thriller, but it sure feels like one when you realize what’s at stake in every call. If you want a book that will challenge your assumptions and make you care about the people behind the phones, give this a read.
Pages: 542 | ASIN : B0F2M3PG1L
Deputy While Immigrant: The Story of a German Who Became a Deputy Sheriff in Arizona
Deputy While Immigrant by Tom Peine offers a reflective and engaging look into the life and career of a German immigrant who navigates the challenges and triumphs of working as a police officer in the United States. Peine’s journey from exploring various professions to becoming a dedicated policeman is presented with an honest and grounded perspective, highlighting the rigorous testing and physical confrontations he faced, especially as a 40-year-old entrant into law enforcement.
Peine’s memoir stands out for its blend of personal anecdotes, detailed crime scene descriptions, and insightful reflections on his mental and emotional experiences. His narrative style is engaging, bringing to life high-adrenaline moments of vehicle pursuits and home raids while acknowledging the less glamorous realities of police work that often contrast with their cinematic portrayals. This authenticity is evident in stories like the noisy trailer home raid, which diverges from the stealthy operations commonly seen in films. The book also delves into the more somber aspects of law enforcement, such as handling sensitive cases involving minors and attending a fellow officer’s funeral. These moments are presented with sensitivity, adding depth to the narrative. For those interested in action-filled memoirs or considering a career in law enforcement, Deputy While Immigrant offers valuable insights. Peine’s advice, such as maintaining professionalism in adversity and using police jargon, immerses readers in the law enforcement.
This memoir is more than just an account of a police officer’s life; it explores resilience, adaptability, and dedication. It resonates with current, former, and aspiring police officers, providing a multifaceted look at the profession. Peine’s compelling storytelling and richly detailed experiences make Deputy While Immigrant an absorbing and enlightening read.
Pages: 299 | ASIN : B0CNQRV7QL
