My story in Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon is a great example of God’s turning something that seemed to be a “No” becoming a “Yes!”
My mother is a big fan of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. For a while, she had me borrowing a new one from the library for her each week. Eventually, though, the library ran out of books she hadn’t already read and I went on a search for something similar she might enjoy. I was very pleasantly surprised to find Hot Apple Cider and A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider, the first two books in the Hot Apple Cider Books series.
Intrigued by this Canadian series I’d never heard of before, I read the books as well, once Mom had finished them, before I returned them in to the library. In the back of one of them I saw a reference to a website and maybe the possibility of a writing opportunity for me.
God works in mysterious ways. That is something I believe strongly, and this was yet another example of that. When I checked out the website it just so happened that a new Hot Apple Cider Book was in the works. Submissions for Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon: Stories about Finding Love in Unexpected Places were open for only two more weeks, but, amazingly, I had a piece sitting in my slush pile that I felt could easily be reworked to fit the submission requirements!
“Storm Stayed” is a love story I’d originally written over a couple of very hot summer evenings a few years earlier for a magazine. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately as it turns out, the piece had been refused by the editor of the magazine because it was too “fluffy.”
I’ll never understand why there seems to be such a huge demand for “dark” stories, or ones full of bedroom scenes, but that is just not my style of writing. I like wholesome, down to earth characters. Ones who care about others and have a strong sense of right and wrong.
Originally written for a winter edition of the magazine, my story was set at Christmastime. The plot involved one of the familiar snow storms so common along the Lake Huron shoreline where I live. While driving home from town on far too many occasions where I could barely see the road, I’d often wondered what would happen if I got stuck in a ditch somewhere and then the road was closed. Would I find nice people to help me? Would I freeze in my truck huddled under my emergency blanket?
So I put my main character in this situation and a charming, sweet little Christmas story came out of it. I’m happy to say the story was accepted for Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon. I hope you enjoy it.
Shelley Norman draws inspiration for her writing not only from the One who gave her the gift but also from the family farm she operates with her husband, their animals, and the children who attend her home childcare. Shelley’s short stories have been published in various magazines, literary journals, and anthologies in Canada and the United States. She also has one published children’s book, Bruce County Counts (The Brucedale Press).