The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Chance for Solinea by Genene Stradling

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Chance for Solinea by Genene Stradling https://www.amazon.com/Chance-Solinea-Genene-Stradling/dp/1645843777 What else can go wrong for Solinea? In the three years since her mother had walked out leaving her with her stepfather, Tom, all she wanted was to be a "normal" teen-age girl with a normal life - friends, a real home and regular food. Just when it seems that things are starting to work out, her mother shows up out of nowhere. Why? Can Solinea forgive her? Does she still love her? The hurt and anguish and confusion tear her apart, what can she do? To top it all off, Solinea is in a school dance contest that night and - her skirt falls off! Yep! Right there in front of everyone. Does she have any chance for her normal life? Is she strong enough? Could be! "At some time in most of our lives we may feel like Solinea; alone and so overwhelmed with our problems that we just want to run away. But, we finally realize the only way to deal with them is to just face them like she did."

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Today's featured author comes to us from Books to Lifemarketing.co. dot UK. With expert publishing to strategic marketing, they help authors reach their audience and maximize their book's success. Today an amazing lady on the show, we're going to be talking about two of her books. The first one is called It Could Be Worse, Out November 17th, 2020 by Janine Straddling. And her other book, we're going to be talking to as well, Chance for Selenia out December 11th, 2019. We're going to get into with her and all the good stuff about her book.

and some of the wonderful things that are inside of it. So she was raised as a farmer's daughter and became a soldier's wife who lived almost her whole life in Arizona, taught schools for 18 years from a preschool in my home to eight, or in her home, I should say, in eight years up to eight years in the special education department at the high school level, where she got lots of stories that she used in her books, got a love life experience. Welcome to the show. How are you, Janine? I'm doing great, Chris. Thank you.

Thank you. Give us any dot-coms or social media websites. Maybe you want people to check you out on or get to know you better? No, I don't have anything like that. Sounds good. They can order the book off of Amazon or wherever fine books are sold. So give us a 30,000 overview about either one of these books or both them. I think you want to talk both. Yes, I do because they both go together. They're both about the same girl, Selenia.

My books embody the struggle and the resilience of today's teenagers. I worked with, like you said, in the high school for eight years, in the Learning Strategies Department and working with kids, teenagers, mostly, and young adults. And I hear so many stories of how abandonment, feeling so alone and struggling with life. and my heart just goes out to them. I try to want to make a difference to survive. And so I hope by depicting the deepness of their troubles and putting them with a little bit of light, fun things

that teenagers deal with pretty much coming of age and having to forgive and especially when they're dealing with fractured families and things like that that are seem to be increasing and happening more and more and for young adult readers, for parents, and for educators. Okay, so for educators too then.

So let's kind of lead off with it could be worse. Tell us about, is the character the same in that book as is in the chance for Selenia? Yes. Okay. This is a sequel. It's actually a sequel to it. Okay.

So it's part two. Let's lead off then with a chance for Selenia, since that's book one. Tell us about Selenia. Tell us about this character and what maybe kind of the setting is that she's going through. Okay. A chance for Selenia, I start kind of in the middle of the story. where she's been abandoned for several years. And she's in high school trying to find a way,

she lives in abject poverty, and having to deal with not feeling accepted, which a lot of teenagers, young adults, don't feel accepted, have a hard time with that. And she does, there are some things that happen in a story that are fun. as she tries to become a part and feel included one of the fun parts that a lot of people talk about is she is in the dance festival and her skirt falls off in the middle of the dance

and so she has to deal with that and it's this kind of a lighthearted story okay okay and so she we go through the adventures of you know her trying to survive her trying to you know, navigate, you know, school and the pressure is probably there. I mean, kids are vicious to each other in school. It's quite

a day. And so they're not nice. And imagine something something like that. You know, there's singing all the, you feel, you feel and and so she's got to survive this. Of course, is she navigating the foster

program what's going on with her there? Well, they have, I guess, a foster program, but she was actually left with her stepfather, who doesn't, he has a hard time dealing with his own problems, and he tries to take care of her because he has that feeling of obligation, but he doesn't know what to do, and he doesn't really understand, so he's pretty much left on her own. Yeah. That's a tough thing because that's a real pivotal point in a woman's, well, most of youth is a pivotal point for women as they grow and they try and find the way through life. I mean, you know, they're dealing with their bodies and they're dealing with, you know, women aren't nice to each other sometimes. They can be pretty, they can be pretty vicious to each other. And so they're probably dealing with, you know, in high school, that whole thing, the mean girls, I think they call them, I would imagine. And I hope this is relatable to most, a lot of people because, yeah, they are going through a lot of the same struggles that I try to embody in the story. There you go. So what prompted you to write the books? What was the motivator that said, I need to write a book and I need to try and tell a story to help others?

I loved writing all my life and studied. I've done some online courses, but working with the teenagers in high school and hearing their stories. I wanted to help them, but there wasn't a whole lot where we are not allowed to do a lot of things. You know, you have to really keep it careful when you're working with in a school environment. And so I just wanted to put their story out. And maybe they could relate to it, and it would give them hope and encouragement that things like this do happen. But there is hope at the end if they can just hang on and just keep struggling through and just make a difference in their lives. And that was my goal.

So as we move to the second book that's in the series, it could be worse. What's going on with her in that book? People after they got the first book, they said, so what happens to Selenia? And that makes me to write. That's good. Everyone wanted no more. Yeah. So anyway, I started out at the very beginning when her mother first left her and went through all the times when they went from town to town because her stepfather was just trying to find himself.

He was really hurt. and so she was drug along with him and trying to find her way in different schools, in different environments. And it's just, then I embodied the chance for Selenia when they broke down. And finally, she starts finding some, they find people that actually help them.

And I know not Excuse me Not everyone believes in God But in my story She finds God And she finds love And it goes together So I

I wasn't sure when I first started writing the book How I was going to end it I needed a climax I needed something to happen And so I just started I thought okay I'll just write To where I come to that point but I felt like

Selenia took over I know she's not a real true person but I felt like this is what she wanted and she took over and I just finished writing the book

and that's what she wanted to happen in her life so you know telling stories is such a great way to kind of narrate maybe issues that we see in the world and by seeing them through I think a third person

you know seeing someone else go through that it can kind of help us get outside of ourselves and provide a mirror to oh yeah that's what i'm going through too and oh okay i can see in the story that she has resources or ways that she finds to better her situation i can utilize that blueprint i call we call them blueprints on the show of different ways people used to survive tragedy or cathartic times or challenges And, you know, knowing that we're not alone can give a lot of hope, knowing that, you know, there's somebody else maybe who struggled through something like that. And we can find a blueprint or a roadmap to also survive. And it also tells, and the hope from the story, of course, you know, gives people, hey, it can get better.

You just got to maybe hang in there, tough it out, or maybe find some more better resources. And that's the beauty of stories like yours, I think. What do you think about that? Well, this is true. And in the story, she keeps finding people that are really worse off than she is. And she realizes that there's a lot of stuff going on in the world and people's lives. And she really doesn't have it as bad as some people, some other people. And that's what I hope that sometimes some people that are going to

two bad things, conceive this and say, my life really wasn't that bad. I'm not as bad off as she is, but I have hard things. If she can hang in there and forgive and find happiness and hope, then maybe I can too. Yes. I have made a small, just a little scene that I would like to show you this is a part from the story, if I can include that. Sure. Do you want to read that? It's a video that I've made, so I'm just going to put it on. Okay.

I think I may have to hit a button to put it on show. There we go. I see that. I'm going to add that to the stage. Christmas snakes. look as good as you used to. I guess it has been four years since mom gave you to me. No. One of my sky. So sorry, May.

Oh, Meg. You're not only when I have fucked it. You're not even real. Oh my. Mama, only you were here. Probably wouldn't have made a difference to me anyway. Mom didn't love me when she would have left me. Nobody loves me.

Everything makes. They're not real. Not even Tom. Wow. That's powerful. That's moving. You know, it's tough. I mean, it's a cold, hard world, and man, if you don't have some parents that love you and can engage you and be, you know, provide love and, you know, kids grow off of that.

So it's really important. What do you think that scene, what makes that scene so important? Well, I, it, to be, it's one of the emotional parts of the story that it's so emotional. It's Christmas and she has nothing. And nobody, and it's, that's a hard way to live. Yeah, it is. And that's kind of what this story basically comes down to is trying to deal with that type of life. Yeah.

So now you've turned this into a, you've turned this into a screenplay. Tell us about that. Like I said, it just, I combined them. I started when she finds the note that her mother has left her, and how they start going from, it starts in a small town of Louisiana. They go to Arkansas, then they end up going to Oklahoma, they go down to Texas, and she has to find her way. in all these schools, pretty much on their own.

And they live out of their car a lot. They're homeless. And sometimes they have to ask for help. And which I know that there's a lot of homeless now. I see a lot of it in the news. And they finally decided he wants to go to California. And they break down in a small town in Arizona. and Holbrook and that's where people start where things happen that actually come into their

lives and this feels so good for things to start going right instead of dealing with problems over and over and over again which we do in our lives a lot and I know this but that's what happens and then like I said the people that finder are very Christian and take care of her and help her find that God is there. God is listening, and the reason she is there is so that she can help her. And she does, like I said, you've got to have romance in a story somewhere, especially if she did. That's part of hope in finding the good ending. It's not maybe not a happily ever after, but it is a good ending.

to me, that's what makes the story good, is if it ends good, I'll put up with anything else if it has a good ending. Bing, butto-boom. Yeah. Now, with the screenplay, are you hoping someone in Hollywood picks it up? Did you write the screenplay yourself? Exactly. I did, and I know it's not perfect. But I'm hoping that there is someone that can see the possibility

see my hope, see my desire to make a difference and can understand and can take it because, yes, I wrote it myself and can do something with it and make a reduction that will make a difference in people's lives and be able to help people to have hope and to find some peace and happiness in their lives.

Peace and happiness is always it's always good, right? Exactly. That was good. Very good. So now, what else would you want people to know about the books? And is there any future books? Is there a book three maybe in the works anywhere?

Well, like I said, I loved writing. So, yeah, I have about five or six other books that I've written. But when I first started trying to publish, books. They didn't have all these self-publishing companies and not so many scam publishers and

so most of them want a lot of money. I spend over $15,000 in trying to have them published and promoted and I just don't really have the money to keep doing that. I'm just hoping that

there's someone that will see this podcast and be able to have a desire to take it and make it into a video that will be available to people. It seems like nowadays people don't read books as much as they used to. Videos are kind of the main way you can reach out and help other people and touch their lives. Yeah, most definitely. most definitely

but you know we have a lot of people that still write and read books on the show I think there's a segment of people that still really enjoy that sort of thing so yeah anything more we want to cover will we have you on the show to talk

about the books maybe just because I talk to people and they say when I tell them I've had some books published they say oh I've always wanted to have a book or something like this, I always tell them, if you have a desire to and you love writing, then you need to promote yourself. You need to develop your writing and do it. But you have patience because there's a lot of people out there that are

writing books. And so you have a lot of competition. If you develop your writing and you polish it and you do the best you can, you need to. to try to, I had written a lot of books and tried to publish them way back years ago before they had all this self-publishing. And I never, I never got any bites. No one never bought my stories. So I put them in a tote in the bottom of the closet and they stood there for about 20, 25 years. Then I heard a thing, an advertisement on the radio said, have you written a book and would

like to get it published? And they felt like it was talking to me. Yeah. And I published a couple of books. And that's what I need. I would like people that want to write the stories that they should.

And you finally got around to it. Yeah. You got around to it. There you go. Well, that's a good, it's a good, worthy effort. And you're making the world a better place and hopefully we can get these in the hands of young people that can

help or like you said I think administrators could maybe give the books or share them with their classes and stuff I hope so so as we go out give people your final pitch out to order up your books and all that good stuff okay

like you said they're available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and if someone needs to contact me I have an email just jeanine at gmail.com people can contact you there thank you very much jean for coming on and sharing your stories and your books and your works and what you're trying to do and hopefully we can get that taken to the big screen i hope so good thank you thank you thank you and thanks

monies for tuning in order up for books wherever fine books are sold it's called chance for selenium and also it could be worse and if you're interested in producing a screenplay there's a one available for you, and it sounds like an amazing story. Guys, invite your family, friends, and relatives to the show. Go to goodrease.com, Fortresschus, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortezes, Chris Foss, Chris Foss, 1 on the TikTokity, and all those crazy places to the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.

And that should have us out.