Arkansas Writers Inspire Moms with Chicken Soup
Rogers, Arkansas – Arkansas authors Lela Davidson and Rhonda Franz deliver light- hearted and endearing stories of what happens when our best intentions meet with the reality of new motherhood in the latest Chicken Soup title.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, March 2011) features stories that came from experiences Davidson and Franz had early in their motherhood careers.
Davidson’s “Earth Mama Wannabe” and Franz’s “Yoga Night” are just two of the quick reads in Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms, a collection of brief essays offering inspiration and advice to new moms finding their way.
“These are the things you hope to laugh about later,” said Davidson about her story of adventures in cloth diapering. “I was naďve and optimistic, but hopeless.”
Lela Davidson is a freelance writer and Managing Editor of ParentingSquad.com. Her writing is featured regularly in family and parenting magazines throughout the country. Her own collection of essays, Blacklisted from the PTA (Jupiter Press, 2011) will be released in July. She and her family have lived in Northwest Arkansas for the past seven years, and she serves on various non-profit boards, including that of the Rogers Public Library Foundation.
Rhonda Franz has lived in Northwest Arkansas for eight years, and is involved in various church and community ministries. She holds a graduate degree in special education. Her years of experience teaching other people’s children could not have prepared her for life with three boys of her own. Somehow she has found time to be a Contributing Editor for ParentingSquad.com and write for various parenting magazines and other websites, including local favorite NWAMotherlode.com.
“I hope women find support in these stories from those of us who have been there, and are still learning as we go,” said Franz, who wrote about trying to get just a few minutes to herself. “May new moms be encouraged to do the best they can, seek help when they need it, and learn to laugh at themselves along the way.”
Franz and Davidson didn’t realize they had both submitted to the same Chicken Soup edition. “It was a surprise in that we didn’t know each other had submitted to the anthology, but not at all surprising to me that Rhonda’s piece was included.” Davidson said. “It’s precious.”
The admiration is mutual.
“If moms need a good, guilt-free laugh about the day-to-day trenches of motherhood,” says Franz, “they should read Lela Davidson’s essays and stories. No one does family humor better.”
The Chicken Soup stories will help new mothers through difficult times and provide reassurance to those who worry they are not living up to the Supermom ideal. Since 1993, books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series have sold over 112 million copies.
Maeve Maddox
Maeve Maddox writes about English usage and public education at AmericanEnglishDoctor.com/. Her most recent publication is The Fabergé Flute, a cozy mystery novel set in 1980s London.