A Cloverdale mother of two is celebrating a recent writing success. This spring marks the third time one of Ritu Shannon’s stories has been published in an edition of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
Her story, “Blurred Lines,” is included in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Multitasking Mom’s Survival Guide, featuring 101 inspiring and amusing stories of mothers who do it all.
Two other stories have been included in previous editions of the bestselling non-fiction series.
A busy mom herself, Shannon works part-time as a sales representative, juggling her day job with writing – and family life, which serves as a rich source of material for her writing projects.
Her husband encouraged her to submit the very first story she wrote – a poignant and funny story involving her children, daughter Priya and son, Keegan.
“Big Sister” was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Parenthood, last year.
It recently earned Shannon her very first piece of fan mail – from a reader in Saudi Arabia.
“That was a huge surprise,” she says.
Her latest story – once again drawn from real-life experiences as a parent – is included in the chapter, Juggling a Career.
“Blurred Lines” recalls how she and her husband came to a decision on whether she would return to work. She felt torn between the desire to have a career but didn’t want to miss out on a single milestone in her son and daughter’s early years.
“Just One More Minute, Mommy,” is based around a bittersweet realization involving a bedtime ritual with her daughter, Priya, who starred in Shannon’s previous story. It appeared in Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul.
Since her first story was published, spurring her on to begin writing again, she has branched out. She blogs for the Beacon News, an independent online newspaper, where she writes about everything from current events to family and parenting issues.
She’s also submitted more stories to the Chicken Soup publishing company in hopes of having more of her work picked up by the publishing juggernaut.
“As well, I have finally put pen to paper and started working on a children’s book series,” she says. “That one is a long way from completion, but it’s always been a dream of mine.”
The Chicken Soup books are mainly stories written by ordinary people who have had extraordinary experiences.
Since 1993, more than 100 million books in the series have been sold in Canada and the U.S., and have been sold in 100 countries in 40 languages.
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