We are so excited Candace agreed to interview with us! You will be excited that she has agreed to giveaway a copy of Trauma Plan!!
Here is a link to the contest: Trauma Plan Giveaway
Candace Calvert is a former ER nurse who believes love, laughter and faith are the best medicines. Her MercyHospital and Grace Medical series offer readers a chance to “scrub in” on the exciting world of emergency medicine—along with a soul-soothing prescription for hope. Wife, mother, and very proud grandmother, she makes her home in northern California.
MTAR: Tell us a little bit about yourself?
Candace: I’m a veteran ER nurse, a mom, and proud grandmother to seven. Folks who follow me on Facebook and Twitter (and at my blog, Authors’ Galley) also know that I’m a passionate “foodie,” as much at home with an apron and kitchen whisk as a keyboard. When I’m not writing, I love hiking, gardening, bird watching and world travel. And I always get goose bumps when my husband hits those low notes at karaoke.
MTAR: How does your ER experience affecting your writing?
Candace: In my ER years I experienced trauma and tragedy, joy and laughter—the full gamut of human emotion. I valued the tight bond and camaraderie that comes with being part of team dedicated to saving lives; and I saw firsthand the triumph of hope in the toughest of situations. I try to offer all of that to readers who “scrub in” with my medical fiction.
MTAR: How does your personal experience of being a patient in the ER affect your writing?
Candace: Landing “on the other side of the stethoscope” in my own trauma room (broken neck, back, ribs, bleeding lung, spinal cord injury) actually prompted my first published work, an inspirational essay in Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul. It also helped me to write from a patient’s perspective, adding realism to those scenes. In fact, the heroine of Trauma Plan, Riley Hale, suffered a broken neck and spinal cord damage, much the same as my own. I understood her struggle to recover from her injuries and return to the career she loves.
MTAR: What inspired you to write your first book?
Candace: I was disappointed that while popular TV dramas offer all the adrenaline-infused excitement of the medical world, they almost never include elements of faith. As I nurse, I saw how many prayers were sent heavenward by patients, family, and hospital staff. I wanted to “help Grey’s Anatomy find its soul.” Now folks call me the author of “medical hope opera.” I like that.
MTAR: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Candace: Trauma Plan is about woundedness and healing, the triumph of hope over fear. We can all have that: faith is the prescription.
MTAR: Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
Candace: There are characters that I have trouble saying goodbye to, for sure. Many of them are secondary characters, like rodeo clown Bandy Biggs in Trauma Plan. He still hangs around my office, offering peanut sandwiches and wisdom.
MTAR: I understand that you are a supporter of book clubs?
Candace: I love book clubs! All of my novels have a Discussion Guide at the end, and I often “join” book groups via speakerphone or Skype—such fun.
MTAR: Can you tell us about your upcoming book?
Candace: My current release is Rescue Team, the continuing story of nurse Kate Callison from Trauma Plan. Here’s a short blurb:
Tired of running from her past, nurse Kate Callison intends to become Austin Grace Hospital’s permanent ER director and make Texas her home. Despite staff friction, she’s moving ahead. Then unthinkable tragedy wraps the ER in crime tape, brings swarms of media, legal chaos . . . and a search-and-rescue hero who seems determined to meddle in her life.
The third book in my Grace Medical series, Life Support, is now in production and expected to release in March of 2014.
MTAR: If you were a super hero, what would be your superpower?
Candace: I would be a nurse version of Wonder Woman and I’d have the superpower to bring instant healing, pain relief, emotional health, and happiness. I’d have a sparkly stethoscope and great boots, of course.
MTAR: What makes you laugh?
Candace: The silly antics of our youngest grandchildren; they never fail to crack me up.
MTAR: What would your fans be surprised to know about you?
Candace: I once crafted an entire emergency department out of gingerbread, complete with gingerbread men and women in frosting-embellished scrubs, and Santa Claus on a stretcher being rushed to the ER for an “overdose of cookies and milk.” Medical world meets foodie passion.