I love how my friends look out for me! As I continue to tell people about my (as yet unpublished) memoir Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and how running helped my mental health, several friends alerted me to Chicken Soup for the Soul possible book topics on which I could write. These include "Life Lessons from the Dog," "Running for Good," and let's not forget "The Golden Years or Second Wind" among the nine listed.
The writing guidelines for their stories are deceptively simple. The bottom line? They are looking for stories that inspire.
I'll be honest. I didn't have a terribly high opinion of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Weren't these just fluffy, feel-good stories with no literary merit? Book snob much? Sorry. So I ordered Chicken Soup for the Soul: Runners. Just a few stories in, I dropped my superior attitude and began to thoroughly enjoy these tales of challenges overcome and lessons learned, stories similar to my own.
With my new and improved perspective, I'm going to submit a few essays and send them over. While the author biographies are compiled in the back of each book and not after each individual essay, if the series selects one of my essays, perhaps a reader will enjoy it enough to flip to the back and look me up. Ideally, I'll have a published memoir to include in the bio by then, but even a "soon to be published" reference can't hurt.Labels: Chicken Soup for the Soul, depressionhatesamovingtarget, Dogs, running, submissions. writing guidelines. essays