We were lucky to catch up with Shelley Harper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shelley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

In the winter of 2013, my husband aged 45 randomly got sick and we found out it was an aggressive form of leukemia. His aggressive part of his treatment lasted about a year and involved our entire family. (We had one grown son at the time and three other kids still at home.) Right before my husband was diagnosed, he received a prophecy at a local church we attended for a special prophetic event. God definitely showed up for us during our entire journey. There were so many ways that He did so that I started writing them down, thinking maybe eventually I could write a book about our journey. About ten years later my dream was realized when I self-published (with the help of my amazing editor and now friend David Kilmer) the book The Prophecy Our Journey to Cancer Hell and Back. It was through writing this story that I discovered my love for writing and recently published my second book, Sweet Girl, You Got This! I think I have approximately fifteen books that I’ve started since, not sure which ones will end up being completed.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have discovered through my writings and my life experiences that I have many passions involving people. I love and want to help anyone who has either had cancer or had cancer affect their family. Along with that I have a strong passion for women. Being married to the same man for over 34 years along with raising four adult children with him, I know and recognize that is very difficult in today’s world to sustain a marriage and family. Life has a way of throwing surprises into the mix that make marriage and raising kids even more challenging. Because of my experiences of this and seeing others, I find that my writing has turned into road maps for families battling cancer along with women “battling” for their marriages or families. I hope to be an encouragement to them and give them hope to face another day with joy, gratitude and peace.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Recently I reached out to a local female business owner who runs an award-winning boutique in my local area. I knew her a little through another friend and local author. I continued to remind her that I had a new book that I thought would be a perfect fit in her store and she was busy. I was tempted to give up. I battled against the negative self-talk that was very active in my mind and reached out once more to see if she could meet for coffee. She agreed and the appointment was set. We both sat down to drink our brew, and she picked up the book I had set down in front of her. She started flipping through the pages and then proceeded to tell me that on the way to the appointment she was trying to think of a nice way to let me know that she didn’t have room for my book nor would she be interested in selling it for me. However, after taking one look at the beautiful picture on the cover (her words, not mine) of myself and my adorable granddaughter with a local lake, mountain and dock backdrop she fell in love with my book and changed her mind instantly. She has been one of the biggest supporters locally for my book and sells it proudly at her beautiful store. She reminded me that it was a good thing that I persisted to call her and set the in-person appointment. This was an important reminder for me too that day. It’s so easy to give up on yourself and your dreams, right before the next break. I recently saw a quote that Tim Tebow said, “You don’t have to have all the details figured out. You just need to take the first faithful step.”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of writing is the ability to share something I’ve learned to help another human being. Being human is hard, it’s not just always an easy journey straight to the top. If we can encourage someone along the way, give them a hand up or pat on the back then we are making a bigger difference than we will ever truly know. Like my husband Chris says, “What’s the point if you can’t help someone along the way.” Sometimes it’s not in the millions of likes but making a difference in the ONE. Making a positive difference in one mom’s life, then affects her entire family, which can affect a whole generation. Helping a cancer patient or caregiver could be the difference of them fighting another day. Never give up on trying to make a positive difference, no matter how big or small.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shelleyharperauthor.com
• Instagram: @shelleyharpie
• Other: amazon.com/dp/BODR8B6PTH

  https://www.audible.com/pd/Sweet-Girl-You-Got-This=Audiobook/B0F5DDQVTB?.source_code=ASSO-RAP051160006&share_location=library_overflow

  https://a.co/d/0q2S7ro

Image Credits

capturedbykenna.com

David Kilmer

Shelley Harper