Wednesday, May 1, 2013

"Lost & Found" by Candace Calvert, author of "Rescue Team" (In stores May 1)

I count it a rare privilege to welcome guest blogger & author Candace Calvert to Chat With Vera.  Today, May 1,  her book, Rescue Team was released to the delight of her fans.  If you like medical thrillers and want a good clean read and one that is Christian fiction as well, then you'll want to read Candace's books.  Today, though, she is taking us back to....... but .... let's just let her tell you herself. 
In the throes of childhood, both of my kids managed to get themselves lost—scare your mother half to death lost. Separate events that I’m certain were the cause of my first gray hairs. (Fortunately those hairs have since miraculously turned a lovely shade my hairdresser calls Copper Mahogany). My daughter was a toddler when she disappeared at our community park’s performance of the Pickle Family Circus.
She was wearing pink-check gingham, Salt Water sandals, and a stubborn “Me do it” look on her face. An hour past her nap, she’d threatened to pitch a three-ring fit unless I allowed her walk under the occupied bleachers from one end to the other, the way her older brother had. It was a very short distance. I stood at the end of the bleachers and watched, waited. Then waited, strained to see-- my heart climbing to my throat. It wasn’t impossible, but somehow in broad daylight, right under my nose—and a short set of wooden bleachers—my baby girl simply disappeared.
I went nuts. Ran underneath the bleachers, calling her name. It was a small crowd, young parents, grandparents, and teachers. A gentle scenario to get lost in. Then suddenly someone uttered, “Dressed in pink? I’m not sure, but I think maybe I saw her. A man was carrying a little girl toward the parking lot just now.” I think I stopped breathing.
The ringmaster announced my daughter’s name and description as I raced toward the parking lot, praying, berating myself for being the world’s worst mother, and then praying some more. I was too terrified to cry.
And then—out of nowhere, as fast as she disappeared—my daughter was toddling toward me. Pink gingham, chubby cheeks, and snow cone sticky. With a very proud, “Me did it” smile on her face. Unharmed, happy, clueless. Just out for a walk. What’s the big deal, Mom?
My little girl slept great that night. I didn’t. The what-if’s kept spinning in my brain. I needed to sit beside her crib and whisper thankful prayers that she was found . . . not lost.

In my newest novel medical drama, Rescue Team, I explore the concept of  “lost” on several levels: physically lost, suffering a tragic loss, losing a relationship, and losing faith in God. I invite readers to see something I’ve learned in my own life: sometimes it’s by losing something that we find what’s been missing all along.
The hero, Wes Tanner, is a search and rescue volunteer. It’s a soul-deep passion for very personal reasons. As shown here in the opening chapter: 
***
Wes headed down the road to his horse trailer as morning lit the hill country cedar and prickly pear cactus—golden as the yolks in Gabe’s favorite breakfast. He glanced back at the gully, remembering the moment he’d found Amelia Braxton. “It’s okay. You’re not lost anymore.” His favorite words in the world. Being able to say them and offer that lifeline of hope to another human being had become as important to him as breathing. It was the reason he’d answer any callout—anytime, anywhere. Even if he had to do it alone. And sometimes he did that . . . hours, weeks, even months after other searchers called it quits.

Because he understood how it felt to be lost, cold, terrified, and desperate for help. Despite a lifetime spent trying to forget, he still remembered it as if it were yesterday: the January night that Lee Ann Tanner left her seven-year-old son in the woods. Then drove her car into the river.


***
Today my little girl in pink is 34 years old and remains an adventurer. Last summer she hiked a 200 mile stretch of the rugged Pacific Crest Trail—solo. She’s doing the John Muir trail this summer. The fact that she carries a GPS unit which sends daily “I’m okay” signals keeps me from going grayer than my hairdresser can handle. That cool mechanical gizmo . . .  and the deep faith we both share.


GIVEAWAY:  Candace Calvert has graciously provided the opportunity for one of Chat With Vera's readers to win a their very own copy of Rescue Team.  Use the Rafflecopter entry form below. Begins May 1 and ENDS May 30 @ 12:01 a.m. EDT. Open to USA continental residents only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway 

 

10 comments:

  1. She lost her daughter when her daughter was a toddler but only for a short while and everything was ok.

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  2. Divorce, the Northern California floods of 1997, and an equestrian accident all about the same time. I had training because of those floods - how to rescue, how to mark and determine if the building is safe to reenter, they were truly awful from the pictures that I saw.

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  3. Hi Vera! Thanks for the post....I'm here to answer the question in the rafflecopter giveaway.

    Candace shared her experience of when her daughter got lost when she was little. How scary! I can't imagine the terror she must have felt in that.

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  4. Candace talked about briefly losing her daughter. Scary for any parent!

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  5. Her young daughter went missing.
    may_dayzee (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  6. She came to fully understand the difference between being a strong woman and a woman of strength. The difference is faith.
    may_dayzee (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  7. I'm amazed at how strong she is. A true inspiration to not only budding writers, but women all over the world. Her faith was strengthened by what happened in her life and she never let anything beat her!

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  8. Candance shares about loseing her daughter. Great post.

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  9. Candace shared about her daughter disappearing from under the bleachers.

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  10. I love how Candace didn't let any of the trials and temptations that occurred in her life turn her away from God but TO Him. She surrendered her all and has become a powerful witness for Christ!

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