Critical Condition Interview

Today we're welcoming Tara Peterson, the heroine of Critical Condition, written by Sandra Orchard, an October 2012 release by Love Inspired Suspense. 

Wow, you've just had quite an adventure. 

  

1.    Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be in the midst of such suspense. 

I am a nurse at Miller’s Bay Memorial Hospital, and while answering a call bell, I found the patient seizing and her husband collapsed on the floor. Someone pushed me from behind and ran out of the room. I summoned help, and as medical personnel struggled to save my patient, I struggled to save her husband. We all failed, but the man’s last words haunted me. “You have to stop the killer.” I went to the police and they sent Zach Davis to work undercover in the hospital.

2.    Tell us a bit about him.  What was your first impression?  When did you know it was love? 

The first time I met him, he didn’t look so good, like he might faint. Some people get that way when visiting the hospital. My heart went out to him, but then after I gave him a glass of juice to help bring back his color, he really looked at me. Looked at me as if he knew me. As if… he could see right to my soul. And he was wonderful with my three-year-old, Suzie. She took to him instantly. She calls him Dak. A tiny part of me probably loved him from the moment he took an interest in Suzie, something her father had never done.

But the day Zach folded me in his arms after we’d chased a prowler from the house, I knew. I wasn’t used to having someone in the middle of a crisis focus on my wellbeing. And I was tired of fighting. Fighting to stay out of a murderer’s sights. Fighting to protect my daughter, and my job. Fighting my attraction to Zach.

    

3.    What strengths/skills do you have?  What is your greatest weakness? 

In the words of my sister, I’m smart, creative and have more energy than anyone she knows. I can whip up a delicious five-course meal without breaking a sweat. But I can’t balance a checkbook to save my life.

         

4.    What scares you? 

My daughter getting sick or hurt. Maybe because I’m a nurse, I always fear the worse. If she gets a fever, I fear it’s meningitis. If she gets a cough, I fear she has strep. If a guy starts wanting to hang out with us, I fear Suzie’s going to get too attached and have her heart broken when he walks away.

      

5.    If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d try to see myself the way God sees me, the way Zach sees me, as loved and cherished and worthy.

6.    Where are you in your faith at the start of your story? 

I have doubts about God. I take my daughter to Sunday School, and I want to believe there is something better after we die, but being a nurse I see a lot of prayers go unanswered. I didn’t blame God. Most of the time, I blamed myself for the bad things in my life.

    

7.    Where are you in your faith at the end of the story?

Zach helps me see that just because God doesn’t give me, or my patients, the answers we want, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t care or isn’t listening. His answer may simply be no, or not now. I also learned to stop blaming myself for things that weren’t my fault.

8.    You've got a scripture at the beginning of the story.  Tell us why this scripture is significant.

Proverbs 4:18 “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” This verse is special to me, because it reminds me that I’m a work in progress, and that’s okay. I’m not perfect, nowhere near. But I’m on the path God wants me to be on, and with each step I take, the love and hope he pours into my life shines ever brighter.  

    

9.    If you could be a dessert what would you be and why?

Cake—the special chocolate cake that Gran used to invite me to make with her as a child. She fostered my love of cooking and the smell of that cake always reminds me of her. She was the sweetest person I’ve ever known, accepted me just as I am.