Ordinary people, extraordinary stories

Molly Shore

When John T. Boal published his book, “Be a Global Force of One!,”

he said it got great reviews, but nobody bought it. Discouraged, he

interviewed Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, co-creators of the

“Chicken Soup for the Soul” books to find out how they became

successful, selling 81 million copies of books in their series.

“More than a year later, I got a call to be a participant on the

[new] project,” he said.

Boal, one of six co-authors of the newest volume, “Chicken Soup

for the Volunteer’s Soul,” said he was once confronted by a woman who

told him she thought the books were too “schmaltzy.”

Boal, who was born in Glendale and lives in Burbank, said, “I

wanted the stories to rise above being ‘schmaltzy’,” and he believes

they succeeded.

One of his favorites titled “A Touch of Love” is about a sick

Indian woman comforted by an American volunteer at the Mother Teresa

Home for the Sick, Dying and Destitute in Calcutta. Its poignancy is

in a simple humane act -- the healing power of touch.

“We scanned the globe to every organization we could think of, and

we got some 5,000 stories,” Boal said. They were pared down to less

than 100 stories.

While working on the 17-month project, Boal said he started at 4

a.m. because much of the brainstorming with Canfield and Hansen, as

well as the other authors -- Tom and Laura Lagana and Arline McGraw

Oberst-- was through e-mail.

“The book couldn’t have come together without it,” Laura Lagana

said of the e-mail communication.

“Chicken Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul” is available in

bookstores.