Mercy’s Rescue by Debra Holt

Posted by on Sep 25, 2015 | 14 comments

Mercy’s Rescue by Debra Holt

Can Mercy open her heart to life again and find a way to restore her faith in God…as well as love? Meet romance author and Texas girl, Debra Holt, author of Mercy’s Rescue! Leave a comment at the end and enter on the Rafflecopter to win a copy of her book! 

 

 

Fabulous Fridays!

Welcome, Debra! When did you first discover that you were a writer?

In high school, the teachers gave me high marks for my papers and called on me to write special projects for them.

What inspired Mercy’s Rescue

I was sitting at a table in the local Barnes and Noble one Saturday morning and my attention was caught by a bright helicopter flying low in the sky past the window.  It was a medi-vac chopper from the local trauma center.  Almost immediately a story began unfolding in my mind.  That is usually how it happens with my stories…very quickly and no warning!

What character in Mercy’s Rescue is most like you? Was that intentional, or did it just come about in the course of the writing?

I would have to say Mercy and it was not intentional. She is strong character yet has a vulnerable side also.

Are you a full-time writer or do you hold a day job? What is the biggest challenge/obstacle you face in protecting your writing time?

I hold a very intense day job that has odd hours sometimes.  During the fall season especially, my day job’s demands can cut into my writing time and then I am so tired some days when I do get home that I fall asleep at the laptop!

How important is the setting to your writing?

As 95% of my books are based in my home state of Texas, it is very important.  Texas is the perfect canvas for my Mercy's Rescuecharacters and their stories.

How would you like to inspire your readers?

To take more time to read good books and to believe in the power of love triumphing over all odds.

Often we desire to teach a lesson in and through our writing, but we as writers also learn something. What was one thing you learned while writing Mercy’s Rescue?

I learned I have an enormous amount of patience I never knew I had when it came to working with my editor…who is absolutely the best ever!  I learned a great deal about how to improve my writing.

You have other books to your credit also. What would you tell someone who is unfamiliar with your writing about your books?

I write pure romances.  I want the reader to experience that wonderful feeling that is found when the heart opens up and love comes in and the world is full of infinite possibilities.  I want the reader to close the book at the end and have a smile on their face and in their hearts…to have that ‘aaahh’ feeling.

What is on the horizon for you?

The stories keep coming and I am writing as fast as I can to keep up.  My agent is shopping three different series for me and I have another dozen or so ready to go out.  I will keep writing romances as long as the stories keep coming into my head!

Tell us a little about your family and what you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

When I am not writing?  When is that?  Seriously, I write every day during the week after my day job and all day on weekends.  My children are grown and busy working.  My daughter is pursuing a career in law enforcement, hoping to join the FBI one day and my son is an aspiring film actor.  My husband works in a different state so we also have to schedule travel time between two homes. I have three rescue dogs, three cats, and one hedgehog. The best time for me is when I can get out and travel the country back roads of Texas.

Book Blurb:

Finding himself fighting for his life after an ambush, Sheriff Josh Wellman awakens to find himself looking into the eyes of a real-life angel of mercy.

When their hands touch, he knows his life has changed in that instant.

But devastating heartbreak has left Mercy Smith’s faith in tatters, her heart guarded against more loss. Her dedication to the air evac trauma team she leads has insulated her from the realities of the earth below, so now Josh faces the biggest challenge of his life.

Can he find a way to get past the walls around Mercy and convince this angel to stay on the ground with him? Can Mercy open her heart to life again and find a way to restore her faith in God…as well as love?

Please share the opening scene of Mercy’s Rescue with us. 

CHAPTER ONE

“Three minutes out.  Descent begins in one.”  The pilot’s voice crackled through Mercy’s headset.  He tossed a look over his shoulder at the female medic seated in the jump seat.  She responded with quick thumbs up. “The scene is secured,” he added.  “We’re in and out fast.  There’s only one to transport.”

A dull, leaden weight sank to the pit of her stomach.  Mercy Smith knew his words meant the other injured person had died before their arrival.

“We can’t save them all, Mercy.” Paul Robards, the second medic onboard and seated across from her, noted the shadowed look that crossed her eyes. “Some things are out of our control.”

“That’s true. I just wish we could at least have the opportunity to try.”   Having served two tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, before joining the trauma unit as team leader, she had become a realist and knew they would always lose some of the patients they were called to assist, but it never stopped the feeling of defeat when they lost someone before they even had the opportunity to attempt to intervene and save them.  Mercy used to tell herself, a long time ago, that everything was in God’s hands.  She didn’t delude herself with that platitude any longer.  The only hands she could count on were the two folded in her lap. She just needed the opportunity to try.

Mercy cast her gaze out the window.  They were coming in low over endless stretches of farmland.  Cotton fields bordered the two lanes of the Farm to Market road which resembled a sea of flashing red and blue lights stretching into a long ribbon. First responders, paramedics, fire trucks, and a myriad of local, county, and state patrol cars blanketed the scene.  People rushed to and fro like a colony of hungry ants.

A large tractor trailer rig sat at an awkward angle across an intersection of the two county roads.  Its cab doors were thrown open and the large rear door was raised as well.  Mercy could make out the figures of the black-clothed officers with the large letters DEA emblazoned on vests as they scrambled over the inside and outside of the truck.

As the helicopter’s skids touched the ground a few yards from the center of the intersection, a cloud of red dust kicked up and people shielded their eyes as they waited on the two figures in bright blue jumpsuits and helmets, visors open, who immediately exited the doors the moment the aircraft landed.  Mercy and Paul ran toward the group of paramedics and police officers as they collectively motioned toward the stretcher where a motionless body lay prone upon it.

“Tell me,” Mercy spoke with clear authority in her voice as she reached the group, her eyes already on the man lying before her.  The paramedics gave his vitals and the results of their preliminary findings.  Mercy took in the amount of blood loss evident on the officer’s uniform; khaki material shredded by bullet holes and ripped by the shears of the first responder medical personnel in order to administer to him. His main torso had been shielded by the bullet proof Kevlar armor, but there were still areas along the legs, lower torso, and arms that had not been so protected. First glance, she would have expected his wounds to be fatal after such a vicious attack. His vitals were definitely critical and the bleeding was not being stemmed fast enough.  He needed trauma surgeons and fast.

“Let’s load.”

There were ample hands ready to do just that.  The patient was loaded; crew back in seats, and the helicopter was in the air in less than five minutes.  They had no time to waste and the race with the invisible, yet ever present ticking clock had begun.

Mercy automatically began her in-flight assessment, speaking through the mike inside her helmet which was linked with the medical team at the hospital.  At the same moment she was doing her on-site assessing, the doctors were able to hear and to make the calls on what meds needed to be pushed in flight.  She and Paul worked quickly with long practiced ease in the confines of the jet craft. For the moment, the patient was holding his own.

Mercy took another look at the readout from the overhead blood pressure machine. Lowering her eyes, they fell to the face of the patient.  She caught a slight flicker of his eyelids as he tried to lift them.  On his second attempt, Mercy found herself the focus of a deep blue gaze.  They had to be the bluest eyes she had ever seen and the thought came briefly that given another situation, they might be quite mesmerizing, almost like watching the calm waters of a serene lake.  She hastily pushed the unbidden and whimsical thought to the side and returned to a professionally-focused mindset.  The oxygen mask kept him from being able to speak, but his eyes were quite eloquent, holding a mixture of pain, fear, and questions.

“Hang in there,” she tried to reassure him in her usual calming tones. “We’ll have you on the ground at the hospital in just a few minutes. Squeeze my hand if you can understand me.”  She placed her hand under his.  Very slowly, long fingers moved to grasp hers.  “Good job.”

Mercy went to remove her hand but to her surprise, her fingers were held securely by the man. She was surprised he had the strength left in him. When she looked down at him, his eyelids were closed again.  A sudden odd sensation moved through her. It was both strangely pleasant and unnerving all at the same time.  She could have pulled her hand away from his, yet something made her hold steady.  Perhaps it gave him comfort to have contact with another human being. Often the patients they transported were more terrified from the flight than from their injuries. She tried to not dwell on the unexpected sense of security that settled over her at the same time as she sat beside him.  It was her job to give comfort to him, not the other way around.

With certainty, she knew somewhere there were family members being notified that this loved one had been seriously hurt and may even be dying.  They would begin the mad dash to the hospital, their hearts torn up, imagining all the worst possible scenarios. That’s when they would then begin offering up every known prayer they could remember to whatever ‘Being’ they believed in, pleading and begging for a miracle. Mercy knew their feelings from personal experience. It was a lonely path she had walked more than once.  She also knew, from that same experience, the odds were they were likely to come up short.  At the moment, she and her flight team, and the waiting ground team would do everything humanly possible to save their loved one.

Mercy retrieved a cloth from the overhead compartment and gently tried to remove some of the blood and splattered dirt material smeared across the man’s forehead and cheeks. It was a strong looking face.  Dark lashes appeared even darker as they lay against the ashen pallor of his skin.  An equally vital mouth was thinned into a harsh line of pain.  Mercy had concern for the amount of blood still oozing through the bandaging. The meds were not slowing it as fast as she wanted. He needed to have a surgeon’s care as fast as possible.

She looked down at him and again found his blue gaze locked on hers. Something stirred once more inside her, responding automatically on its own. It was harder this time to drag her gaze away. Darting a quick look outside the window, she could finally see a faint outline of the tall buildings which made up the hospital complex in the distance.  Mercy felt his fingers stir under hers, but he still did not break his grasp.  She looked down at him again and gave him what she hoped was her best smile of reassurance.

“Just another couple of minutes and we’ll place you in the capable hands of the doctors.  They are the best at what they do.  But don’t tell them I told you that part.  Their egos are already too huge.”

His eyes narrowed a bit. Was that a feeble attempt at a wink?  This was one tough man. Mercy smiled in return.  He had better be tough for what was ahead of him. The smile left her face.  She and Paul made ready for the landing.  Only when the rudders of the helicopter touched the ground did his contact with her hand finally break.  For a brief moment, just before she opened the door, Mercy experienced a fleeting sense of loss. There was no time to dwell upon it.  Several pairs of hands reached for the stretcher as she jumped out of the way.  The ground medical team took charge of the patient.  Mercy followed close beside the trauma physician, giving her report.

 About the author:

Debra HoltDebra Holt was born and raised in the Lone Star state of Texas. She grew up among horses, cowboys, open spaces, and real Texas Rangers. Pride in her state and ancestry colors the heroes and heroines she most loves creating. She also draws upon a variety of life experience, from working with abused children to caring for baby animals to owning a wedding planning business (Ah, the romance!). She read her first romance novel 30+ years ago and has been hooked on the genre ever since. Mercy’s Rescue
is Debra Holt’s second published novel.

Connect with Debra:

Website: http://www.debraholtbooks.com/

Book Trailer: http://bit.ly/1LUffAz

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/DebraHoltBooks?fref=ts

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/debraholtbooks/

Twitter: @debraholtbooks

Email: debraholtbooks@gmail.com

Book Link:

Amazon:   http://amzn.to/1J6id6E

a Rafflecopter giveaway

14 Comments

  1. Thank you Norma, for hosting me on your blog today!

    • You are so welcome, Debra!

  2. After reading the opening scene, I definitely want to know more about Mercy and Josh. Thanks for the chance to win.

    • Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Thank you for the giveaway

    • Thanks to Debra!

  4. I love Christian fiction.

    • Me too! Thanks for leaving a comment!

  5. My son-in-law was a Marine & he had a tour in Afghanistan so that was the first thing that caught my eye about wanting to read Mercy’s Rescue

    • Thank him for his service, Sharon!

  6. What an exciting opening scene. Great job. I’m hooked and ready to read the rest of the story. My cousin’s son is on his 5th tour in Afghanistan right now.

    • Wow! Convey my thanks for his service!

  7. This was a book from Lighthouse Publishing that I have wanted to read since I saw it on preorder. Sometimes I like to read and experience “pure romance” like Debra Holt mentions.

    • Me too, Terrill! I am a romance lover!

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