Please join me in welcoming back to my blog Cheryl Wyatt to celebrate the release of her latest book The Doctor's Devotion. (I fell for the hero of this book and considering before this weekend I had a massive fear of doctors that says something).
1. Thanks for coming back to
my blog for the release of The Doctor’s Devotion, can you tell the readers a
bit about yourself?
I am fun-loving and enjoy humor and happy endings. I think I write
romance because life doesn't always provide a happy ending this side of Heaven,
so I read and write happily-ever-afters to provide not only a sweet escape, but
a glimpse of Eternity where happily will be for ever after. I was born on a
Navy base in San Diego on Valentine's Day, so it's fitting that I write
military romance. I love featuring rescuers in my books since I have a strong
sense of being rescued by God. Some things that might surprise people about me:
I'm REALLY shy. I've been snakebitten twice. I've been dogbitten twice. I am a
recipient of donor bone and spent almost three years in a wheelchair and on a
walker. I'm a tomboy who loves guns and motorcycles. I love worshipping Jesus and
I consider it a great privilege to be able to write and do so as worship. I
love encouraging aspiring authors. I travel a lot with my a/v technician hubby
who does a ton of sound gigs for all sorts of bands you've heard of. I am
thinking of chronicling our adventures in a husband/wife blog titled Verbs and
Reverbs. I've been a media, humanitarian and medical missionary overseas
following global disaster. I love pecan spinwheels far more than any human
should. LOL!
2. How did you come up with the
concept for the Eagle Point Emergency series?
My lovely and brilliantly talented editor, Melissa Endlich, asked me to
try my hand at a medical miniseries for them since I'm a Registered Nurse and
because she felt I write caregivers well. She said that she'd like the series
to be set in a small town and to feature some type of medical facility or
clinic and for most of the scenes of the first book to take place there. She
said she'd like for most of the heroes and heroines to be doctors and nurses or
otherwise medical and of course for the series to be romantic. She said
otherwise, the palette was mine. I followed her suggestions and advice and
incorporated the military background in keeping with my brand then viola! Eagle
Point Emergency was born. I loved the idea of former war veterans planning a
trauma center while overseas, then getting to come home and see their dream
come to fruition in a way that helped a struggling community pull
together.
3. I have to say I love books
with doctors (which may sound strange when I have a real phobia of doctors) how
did Mitch Wellington come about?
I LOVE honoring the elderly generation and also military veterans with
my books. So the idea came to me to have a veteran be close to the heroine's
grandfather, Lem. I started thinking about how they could have met and
instantly a scene flashed in my mind of a young pre-teen Mitch being led across
a corn field by Lem by his ear, because Lem caught Mitch stealing corn. Lem
discovered Mitch's dad died from a motorcycle crash that happened too far away
from the nearest hospital which birthed Mitch's desire to be a doctor and to
one day build a trauma center in the rural area. Mitch's character came to life
from there.
4. I love Lem, Lauren’s
grandfather, did you have fun writing for him?
I absolutely had fun writing Lem. He is a conglomerate mixture in
personality of my grandmother Nellie and her brothers and sisters, particularly
her brother Lemon. The book is nostalgic for me in many ways because I rarely
base fictional characters off of real people I know. But in this case, I
couldn't resist and Lem is probably one of my most favorite characters because
of it.
5. Is there a message you
would like readers to take out of this book?
To never let go of your God-given dreams, no matter how long it takes.
God keeps his promises and is devoted to seeing our purpose through. Also that
He cares about the things that are important to us and He is intimately
acquainted with our pain.
6. When you researched this
book did you find any facts you didn’t expect or you found interesting or
surprising?
I discovered that God will bring just the right research helpers at
just the right time for whatever technical aspect I'm struggling with or that
is causing me to doubt the plausibility of my plot. He is SO faithful. I was
surprised to discover that most hospitals in Illinois are phasing out LPNs
which I think is not a good idea as they are such a help to RNs.
7. Can you tell us what will
be coming up next in this series (you know I can’t wait for the next book in
the series)?
Absolutely excited to tell you about Ian's story! Book 2 is called
Doctor to the Rescue and features Bri as heroine. I just turned in line and copyedits
for it and am really pleased with how it turned out. It was fun to write a
brooding hero and see him come around to his natural personality again after
the trauma he suffered when his wife divorced him while he was deployed
overseas. His daughter was a special aspect to the story and I enjoyed writing
her character. I think I'm a better re-writer than a writer and some poignant
moments really came out during revisions that I can't wait for readers to
experience. It will release around Christmastime of this year, or for sure by
January 1. I often name my characters after faithful readers to show my
appreciation, so Ian's mom is named Jenny Shupe (Jenny...after you, my friend
Jenny Blake who I AM going to go to an Aussie Cricket game with once before I
die! LOL! And surnamed Shupe after Sally Shupe, who is also a dear reader who
means a lot to me and who is going to be a wonderful editor in the future.)
(Jenny here, I am so honoured to
be in one of your books. And yes we will go to the cricket.)
8. Where can readers find you
one the net? (Here is where I have to say you have one of the best facebook fan
pages)
Thank you sooo much! I LOVE hanging out with readers and have a page
dedicated to them on Facebook where I interact on an almost-daily basis: https://www.facebook.com/CherylWyattAuthor I
hope you will join (aka "Like") the page because we have a lot of fun
and would love to have more readers to participate. I also have a website which
lists my books and will have excerpts of all my books soon. I have a quarterly
newsletter people can sign up for there too. www.cherylwyatt.com I love
encouraging aspiring authors too and post frequent writing prompts on my blog,
which can be found on my website.
A Doctor’s Vow.
When he fled Eagle Point years ago, former air force trauma surgeon Mitch Wellington left only broken dreams behind. Now he’s back with a new dream—opening a trauma center in the rural area and saving lives. He hopes to hire the quick-thinking nurse who impressed him during an emergency. But Lauren Bates lost her faith and doesn’t believe she deserves to help anyone. Mitch knows firsthand what loss feels like. And it’ll take all his devotion to show Lauren that sometimes the best medicine is a combination of faith, community—and love.
Eagle Point Emergency: Saving lives—and losing their hearts—in a small Illinois town.
