The Quiet After the Sirens
Previously released as What Happened to Me (2017 Gold Star Award Winner – The Book Designer)
A Memoir by Richard White
Originally released in 2017 as What Happened to Me, this powerful story returns—rewritten, expanded, and transformed into a hauntingly beautiful and deeply human novel that explores what comes after the call, after the chaos, after the uniform comes off.
In The Quiet After the Sirens, Richard White—poet, veteran, and former EMS Lieutenant—brings readers into the raw and often invisible battle of living with PTSD, depression, and anxiety. From the deserts of Iraq to the shattered stillness of 911 calls, White reveals the toll that trauma takes on the soul, and the hard-fought path toward healing.
But this isn’t just a memoir of pain—it’s a testament to persistence. Told with lyrical grit and searing honesty, White invites readers into the intimate moments most first responders never talk about: the ghosts that ride home in the backseat, the adrenaline that lingers long after the sirens fade, and the quiet war that rages behind steady hands and calm voices.
Through immersive narrative, White shows us what it’s like to fight not just fires or war, but the relentless burn of memory. He shares the real cost of service, the isolation that follows, and the slow, grueling work of learning to live again—without medication, without easy answers, and often without rest.
The Quiet After the Sirens is not a manual. It won’t give you a cure. But it will make you feel seen. It will give you permission to break, and hope that healing—though messy, brutal, and nonlinear—is possible.
This is not who Richard White was.
This is who he became.
Not just a warrior. Not just a medic.
But a man learning to walk through fire—and find peace in the quiet after.
COMING SOON