Why are Chicken Soup for the Soul books so popular? I think in part it’s because we all love a good, uplifting, true story. These stories, while sometimes corny, touch our hearts and remind us of the good that’s in this crazy, mixed up world.
I often submit stories to various Chicken Soup books, and have been privileged to have had four stories published in four different volumes.
In Count Your Blessings, I talked about the blessing of having a huge tree fall directly onto our home, necessitating a five-month removal while repairs were made (“A Tree Fell Through It”). Lessons we learned included remembering what matters most and being grateful for family, friends, insurance companies, neighbors and others who made what could have been a very tragic event much less so.
In All in the Family, I shared how being a sister to the dozens of foster kids my parents took in during my teen and college years (and beyond), impacted my life (“A Full House”). Watching my mom and dad relate to these often troubled kids has been one of the biggest influences on my life as a parent, .
In Inspiration for Writers, my story centered around how writing a book is like birthing a baby–and how my first book (the nonfiction Hired @ Home) arrived on my doorstep the day I had my fourth child. In the story, I tried to encourage other writers that they can find time to write, no matter their circumstances.
In Best Mom Ever! (which released this week!), I paid homage to my mother in “A Mom to Many,” returning to the theme of how incredible she (and my father) were in taking in more than 40 foster kids over a three-decade span. The dedication and love for these kids never overshadowed her love for her own children. (I will be signing copies of this book at the Fair Lakes Barnes & Noble in Fairfax, Va., Saturday, May 6. Check my events pages for more details.)
No matter which Chicken Soup book you pick up, you’re sure to put it down after reading the stories feeling encouraged, refreshed and reconnected to your fellow human beings.
Mary’s hand slipped off the mouse and she used her towel to wipe off her hand, still a bit sweaty from her workout. She wished her Layla persona translated better to words, but having never flirted much in real life, she had trouble coming up with a suitable reply that wouldn’t sound dumb on the screen. With David safely in another state, she could dip her toes into the world of flirtation without too much embarrassment to herself.
Good thing David hadn’t expressed any interest in exchanging phone numbers. She had zero confidence in her ability to hold a man’s attention on the phone. She might be able to talk to Jared face-to-face, but he was an old friend, one she had met and known before her parents’ defection to the Amazon. That train of thought led her down a familiar track of wondering if something had been lacking in her to make her parents choose the jungle over their child. But no amount of introspection brought up any logical reason for the defection.
A soft ping from the computer yanked her thoughts back from the past. David had posted again.
David: I hope I didn’t scare you off. I’m really a harmless kitten. Meow.
Mary smiled, pushing away the thought that kittens did have claws. She knew David, so she shouldn’t hesitate to open up with him, but something held her back just a bit. She chalked up her reticence to being too timid when it came to men. Here was a man—a handsome man by his online photograph—who wanted to chat with her, Mary Divers, who had never even had a boyfriend. Her online profile photo highlighted her best features—her eyes and her hair—but she had never thought of herself as pretty. She’d better not let him get away or she would find herself as lonely as Aunt Geraldine.
Her relationship with David was safe and secure, and she knew she could keep him at a distance if she wanted. But a part of her longed to know him on a new, deeper level. She was suddenly tired of being timid. She was still young enough to crave a little adventure in her life. What do I have to lose?
She placed her fingers on the keyboard and began to type.
Mary: No. U caught me off guard. I have no experience with flirting, even online. I’m afraid I’ll do it wrong.
David: U could never do anything wrong. I like you just the way you are.
Mary put her hands to her cheeks and the heat rose from her blush. What was she supposed to say to that?
David: If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were stringing me along, with your talk of J and not coming to our chats on time.
Mary: No, never!
David: Sweet Mary, I was teasing. Forgive me? J
He had her at Sweet Mary.
Mary: Of course, I forgive you.
Her watch beeped, signaling time to prep for her radio show.
Mary: Gotta go now. I won’t be late tomorrow. Promise.
David: I’d like you to promise a whole lot more than that, but I’ll take what I can get. Bye for now, darling.
Mary sat for a moment to allow the heat to recede from her cheeks. Sometimes, David’s comments seemed too flirty for a missionary-to-be. Early in their chats, they had traded Christian testimonies but rarely explored their faith after that. That was one of the reasons his announcement about becoming a missionary surprised her. He hadn’t indicated he was even considering such a move.
She disconnected the chat and stood, walking over to the window to gaze down at the yard. The setting sun bathed the yard in crimson and orange, softening the ragged edges of the half-weeded flower beds and obscuring the disarray. Instead, the waning light gave the scene an other-worldly beauty. Mary wondered if she was seeing more beauty there because she was so happy in her relationship with David. He had slipped under her defenses and now occupied a place next to her heart.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Phantom Love is copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without permission from Sarah Hamaker.
H. L. Wegley served in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence analyst and a weather officer. In civilian life, he worked as a research scientist, then developed Boeing computing systems before retiring near Seattle with his wife of 50 years, where he has published seven novels and has more on the way.
What’s the hardest part of writing romantic suspense?
H.L.: My romantic suspense stories are high-stakes, high-action with near thriller-level intensity. The most difficult aspect of writing these stories is splicing in a romance that fits naturally into the thriller plot. The only way I’ve found to make this work is to integrate the romance into the thriller-level plot such that one could not exist without the other. If the romance dominates the thriller plot, or vice versa, the story can lose believability. It’s a tightrope that can only be walked by careful plot and character construction. Susan May Warren helped me do this integration for Voice in the Wilderness and I think it turned out well.
What is your favorite spot for reading or reflecting on your current work-in-progress?
H.L.: My favorite place to write, or do anything creative, is in the warm sunshine. Add some pink noise, like on an ocean beach in Maui, and my writing productivity goes up by a factor of 10. I wrote my first draft of my first novel in seven days while sitting on the shore of Lake Havasu drinking iced lattes. During the gloomy Seattle winters, I shine a grow light on my work area—just one light, don’t want any raids on my house!—and I drink a lot of coffee.
How do you pick the location/setting of your romantic suspense novels? H.L.: For me, loving a location and knowing it well are my primary criteria for selecting a story setting. My thinking is that if an author loves a place—e.g. Crooked River Ranch in Central Oregon, a place I love—it adds more passion to the writing. Knowing the place well helps remove fear of misrepresentation, and that frees one’s creativity, enhancing the vividness of story world description. Remember, readers local to the setting don’t take kindly to writers messing up their home town and local scenery.
Something else I sometimes do when selecting the setting—for example, using the Deschutes River for a battle scene in Voice in the Wilderness—is to choose a beautiful setting to contrast with the ugly deeds done there. Bad seems even more evil when it happens in one of the most beautiful places in creation. And good seems even better in a beautiful setting.
Current book: Voice in the Wilderness A political thriller with romance about an American president plotting tyranny and the young couple who risk their lives to stop him.
Mary slid into her seat in front of her computer. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten to keep an eye on the time. Early on in their daily chats, they had jokingly synchronized their clocks in order to avoid being late. Now she was seventeen minutes late to her chat. The thought of David not waiting for her made her hands sweaty. They had each missed the start time by a minute or two, but never this long in the nearly four months they had chatted on a daily basis.
She ran her hands down her shirt and keyed in the chat address and her password. The screen popped up and she saw a string of messages, all from David asking where she was. She scrolled down to the most recent one and saw he had sent it twenty seconds ago. She hit reply and her fingers flew over the keyboard as she banged out her apology.
Mary: So sorry! Forgive me, please. My gardener had a crisis. I couldn’t get away until now.
The lie sat uneasily on the screen and with her. She bit her lip. If she told the truth, he might blow her off. And she didn’t know if she could live with that possibility. She justified the falsehood by telling herself it was partly true. There was a crisis. Jared was her gardener. And she couldn’t have broken away any sooner, not with the tears she was shedding.
She chewed on her nail and clicked send. One little white lie wouldn’t matter in the whole scheme of things.
# # #
David tapped his fingers against his desk. He could barely keep his mind on his chat with Suzanne. But at least with Suzanne, one only needed half a mind to keep up with her chatter. Where was Mary? It was unlike Mary not to let him know in advance if she was going to be later than a minute or two. He couldn’t afford to lose this fish, not with the potential payout. He sent her a message every two minutes, each one more anxious than the last.
Ping! He toggled over to Mary’s chat and retrieved a message. He skimmed it and smiled. This was something he could work to his advantage.
David: I was getting worried when I couldn’t reach you. I realized I would have no way of getting in touch if something were to happen.
Mary: I thought of that, too.
David: I couldn’t bear the thought of not talking to you each day. U brighten even the dullest of days.
Mary: You’re making me blush.
David sat back, toying with several flirtatious responses. He keyed in an answer to Suzanne and wondered if kicking it up a notch with Mary would be the right move.
David: I would love to see that, cheeks a soft pink, dark hair curling about your shoulders.
Mary: Now my cheeks are on fire, not pink, but red. Not very attractive at all.
David: Let me be the judge of that.
Mary: It’s a good thing this is not a video chat or you would probably disconnect with one look at my fire-engine red face.
David: Are you fishing for compliments?
Mary: Maybe I am.
David: Then allow me to be the one to shower you with them. If you were beside me, you would have no doubt as to my feelings.
That ought to send her into a whirl. David leaned back in his chair and checked his schedule. Darlene would be coming online soon. He’d better wrap things up with Suzanne for today.
Mary: What do you mean?
David: Ah, that would be telling too much. If I reveal all, you might find me too boring.
Now he would see if his shy little kitten would come out to play. He glanced at the calendar on the wall. He was on a tight schedule to pull off this Peru adventure and needed to ramp up his support. If Mary wanted to come along for the ride, he was more than happy to give her a lift.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Phantom Love is copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without permission from Sarah Hamaker.
Reunion at Crane Lake by Robin Bayne — Colt’s memory is returning after the accident that ended his career. Now he wants to take over his family’s inn, but he’ll have to partner with his former fiancée to be able to afford it. He’ll need forgiveness to make that happen. Tia’s goal is clear: to return the inn to its former grandeur. And she’ll even work with Colt to do so. But like the inn, their relationship needs a lot of work. He broke her heart…can she ever trust him again? (Contemporary Romance from White Rose Publishing [Pelican])
Hope by Fay Lamb — She’s a starving artist facing a serious illness; he’s the doctor who’s her only hope of survival. If only she hadn’t caused his sister to die. (Contemporary Romance from Write Integrity Press)
Muffins & Moonbeams by Elizabeth Maddrey — Malachi Baxter is happy to hide in the background and manage the business-end of the family bakery. He’d much rather live in the online world of computer games where he can explore the galaxy and no one has to know he’s deaf. Ursula Franks designs websites during the day and spends her evenings battling alien races online where relationships are easy and uncomplicated. When she agrees to design a website for the local Community Supported Bakery, she has no idea that Malachi is the real man behind her online persona’s best friend and her own secret crush.As the two work together on the website, they uncover an attraction, but will they be able to put aside past hurt and insecurity to find love? (Contemporary Romance, Independently Published)
Then Came You: A Bradford Sisters Novella by Becky Wade — Garner Bradford, heir to the troubled Bradford Shipping empire, doesn’t know much about babies. But he’s going to have to learn fast because he’s just become a single father to his newborn daughter. Career girl Kathleen Burke is wholly uninterested in settling down. She has big dreams, and none of them include Garner and his small hometown in Washington State. Yet she can’t seem to get her handsome boss out of her head or her heart…. (Romance Novella, Independently Published)
General:
When the Bough Breaks by Ane Mulligan — Her dream job has a Catch 22—and time’s running outRookie lobbyist Sienna O’Shea is determined to make a name for herself in New York’s capitol city and use that influence to gain easier access to her birth records. For years she’s searched for her birth mother, but when she’s handed her first assignment—to lobby support for the permanent sealing of all adoption records—her worlds collide. Swept up into the intrigue of backroom politics, falling in love was not on Sienna’s agenda, but the candidate for Lt. Governor runs a formidable campaign to make her his first lady. When an investigative reporter discovers foreign money infiltrating political campaigns, the trail leads to Sienna’s inner circle. (General, Independently Published)
The Memory of You by Catherine West — Thirteen years ago, Natalie lost a part of herself when her twin sister died. Will traveling back to the family winery finally put the memory to rest, or will it completely destroy her? (General from HarperCollins Christian Publishing [Thomas Nelson and Zondervan])
Cozy Mystery:
Murder Is No Accident by A. H. Gabhart — When murder comes to call at a stately Victorian house, the town of Hidden Springs looks to Deputy Sheriff Michael Keane to solve the crime before anyone else dies. (Cozy Mystery from Revell [Baker])
Historical Romance:
A Rocky Mountain Romance by Misty M. Beller — When Zeche takes shelter from a blizzard in a remote cabin, he doesn’t expect to find a beautiful woman and her father, a disturbed Civil War veteran. Zeche’s instincts tell him Greta is endangered and he should stay and protect her, but his own presence aggravates her father’s condition. With a dangerous snowstorm outside and growing hostilities inside, can he find a way to keep them all safe from harm? Or will it be to the detriment of his heart? (Historical Romance, Independently Published)
A Stolen Heart by Amanda Cabot — From afar, Cimarron Creek seems like an idyllic town tucked in the Texas Hill Country. But when former schoolteacher Lydia Crawford steps onto its dusty streets in 1880, she finds a town with a deep-seated resentment of Northerners–like her. Lydia won’t let that get her down, though. All will be well when she’s reunited with her fiancé. But when she discovers he has disappeared–and that he left behind a pregnant wife–Lydia is at a loss about what to do next. The handsome sheriff urges her to trust him, but can she trust anyone in this town where secrets are as prevalent as bluebonnets in spring? (Historical Romance from Revell [Baker])
My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains: Carmela’s Quandary by Susan Page Davis — Experience the Wild West as Carmela seeks freedom of body and soul. Forced for years by her uncle to pose as a survivor of an Indian kidnapping so he can profit on the speaker circuit, she longs to end the lies. On a stagecoach in Arizona Territory, Carmela and her uncle are fellow passengers with a deputy US marshal and his handcuffed prisoner. When the stage is attacked, will Carmela’s wish come true, or will she forever be branded by her past? (Historical Romance from Barbour Publishing)
Desert Moon & Honor Bound by Susan Page Davis and Colleen L. Reece — Enjoy an Old West romance adventure from author Susan Page Davis. Julia Newman looked forward to moving home to Arizona, then she got word that her mother has died and Julie’s stagecoach is robbed. If that wasn’t enough, the first person she sees in town is Adam Scott—the man she always loved but could never have—and now he is accusing her brother of criminal activity. Also includes a bonus historical romance, Honor Bound by Colleen L. Reece. (Historical Romance from Barbour Publishing)
Her Motherhood Wish by Keli Gwyn — En route to the Double T Orphanage to work on its expansion, carpenter Chip Evans and Caroline Hunt discover two orphaned children—and become their caregivers. But Chip’s determined not to let himself get too attached to the children who just lost their widowed father…or to the lovely woman helping him care for them. Especially since Callie and the little ones just don’t fit into his detailed plans for the future. Callie can’t help but fall in love with the orphans, and despite her better judgment, she’s falling for Chip, too. Her dreams of being a wife and mother were not quite like this. But Callie believes a plan bigger than Chip’s brought them all together…and now she just has to help him see it, too. (Historical Romance from Love Inspired [Harlequin])
The Planter’s Daughter by Michelle Shocklee — When her father’s Texas cotton plantation faces bankruptcy, Adella must choose between the man who can her family’s land and the man who can save her! (Historical Romance from Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas)
When Tides Turn by Sarah Sundin — When Quintessa Beaumont learns the US Navy has established the WAVES program for women, she enlists, eager to throw off her frivolous ways and contribute to the war effort. Lt. Dan Avery employs his skills in antisubmarine warfare to fight U-boats at the peak of the Battle of the Atlantic, but the last thing he wants to see on his radar is fun-loving Tess. As Dan and Tess work together in Boston, the changes in Tess challenge his notions–and his heart. (Historical Romance from Revell [Baker])
Medical Suspense:
Dcotor’s Dilemma by Richard L. Mabry M.D. — Young surgeon Tyler Gentry thought the offer to join the Hall Group of surgeons offered the answer to his problems, but things changed when he received a 3 AM phone call that told him such a move would be hazardous to his health. (Medical Suspense, Independently Published)
Romantic Suspense:
Her Baby’s Protector by Margaret Daley and Susan Sleeman — Saved by the Lawman by Margaret Daley: As an unknown assailant attempts to kidnap family-court judge Kate Forster’s infant son, police officer Chase Walker thwarts the attack—and vows to keep the pair safe. But who will protect the ex-marine’s heart when the widowed mother and her little boy make him long for a permanent spot in their family? Saved by the SEAL by Susan Sleeman: The tragedy that killed Bree Hatfield’s best friends–and left her with custody of their young daughter–has been ruled an accident. But Bree knows it was murder. Scared and alone, she turns to her ex-boyfriend, navy SEAL Clint Reed, who’ll risk everything to protect baby Ella and the woman he never stopped loving. (Romantic Suspense from Love Inspired [Harlequin])
Agent-in-Training by Terri Reed — FBI intern Zara Fielding and her K-9 partner, Radar, stumble across a robbery gone wrong and put themselves in the criminals’ crosshairs. Her childhood friend FBI computer guru Dylan O’Leary works for the secretive FBI unit she longs to join, and he vows not to let anything happen to her. As they work to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, new feelings ignite. When she goes missing, it’s only Dylan–and Radar–who can track her down. Will they arrive in time to save her and the future she and Dylan have started dreaming about? (Romantic Suspense from Love Inspired [Harlequin])
Speculative Romance/Fantasy:
Ingrid’s Engagement by Kristen Reed — When King Viggo marches through the kingdom of Schlagefilde in a relentless quest for retribution against its wicked king, the Count of Anselm attempts to make peace with him. As the two strike a deal that will protect the people of Anselm, the King of Villriket becomes enthralled with a portrait of the Count’s oldest daughter, Ingrid. The vengeful king vows that he will leave Edmund’s county in peace if he will allow him to marry Ingrid. To prevent her father from incurring the sovereign’s wrath, the young lady hastily agrees and enters into an unforeseen engagement with the grim ruler. Ingrid’s Engagement tells the enchanting tale of a beautiful young woman who softens the hardened heart of a beastly king with nothing more than her quiet wisdom and gentle spirit. (Speculative Romance/Fantasy, Independently Published)
In Count Your Blessings, I talked about the blessing of having a huge tree fall directly onto our home, necessitating a five-month removal while repairs were made (“A Tree Fell Through It”). Lessons we learned included remembering what matters most and being grateful for family, friends, insurance companies, neighbors and others who made what could have been a very tragic event much less so.
H. L. Wegley served in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence analyst and a weather officer. In civilian life, he worked as a research scientist, then developed Boeing computing systems before retiring near Seattle with his wife of 50 years, where he has published seven novels and has more on the way.
