CHARLOTTETOWN — Darlene MacInnis can’t believe she is getting between the covers with Barack Obama.
The Charlottetown child and youth care worker has penned an essay that will be in a soon-to-be released book containing essays by another 100 authors, including the likes of the U.S. president, billionaire Warren Buffet, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Martin Luther King, Jr.
That’s rather heady company for MacInnis, a 50-year-old who struggled with writing while in school and until now has never had anything published.
“It’s surreal really,”’ she said. “Like, it’s unbelievable, but I think, what’s next? And I’m thinking Oprah’s next. Why not?”
MacInnis stumbled into the pages of How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth, a collection of essays about one or more of the 10 elements of a heaven on earth: peace, security, freedom, democracies, prosperity, spiritual harmony, racial harmony, ecological harmony, health, as well as moral purpose and meaning.
She took a workshop presented by Martin Rutte, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work. She struck a rapport with Rutte, who encouraged her to write the essay.
She did and her 1,000-word piece, Healing Holes in Hearts, was accepted and purchased for US$1,000.
MacInnis, a mother of four who has fostered seven girls, said the message she hopes to convey in her essay is that people need to pay greater attention to the welfare of others and that even a small positive gesture toward a child means a great deal.
“Do you know what I really hope for this book? I figure if everybody that reads this book does one thing to change the world, what a shift that will be in the world. It would be an amazing shift in the world.”
The book will be released in the United States on Tuesday.