Love Matters: Interview with Joan Marlow Golan

1.) This is the first book in Harlequin’s new nonfiction line. Why was this book chosen as the launch title (i.e. how does it fit in with or extend the fictional Harlequin experience)?

Harlequin is the publishing brand trusted by women to provide great, relevant entertainment, and in most markets Delilah has the largest female listening audience ages 25-54 of any radio host in America, so it’s a perfect match! For almost sixty years, Harlequin has been publishing romance and relationship fiction, and LOVE MATTERS, Delilah’s first book for us, extends the Harlequin franchise to real-life love stories.

2.) For those who might not know Delilah, who is she?

I think she was best identified in the Chicago Tribune, as “radio’s equivalent to Oprah Winfrey.” With more than 8 million listeners a night in over 250 markets across the United States and Canada, Delilah is North American’s #1 nighttime radio host. The self-proclaimed “Queen of Sappy Love Songs, Delilah dominates the airwaves with her mesmerizing voice and unique offering of popular music, superb storytelling and sympathetic listening.

Delilah is also the single mother of ten children, seven of them adopted, and lives outside Seattle, WA on 45 acres of beautiful gardens and farmland.

3.) This book is a collection of letters written to Delilah. What kind of people wrote these letters and what are they about?

All kinds of people write to Delilah—men and women of all ages and from all walks of life, and seven children. With her empathy and nonjudgmental compassion, she has the gift of establishing an instant rapport with a wide range of individuals who trust her with their most intimate confidences and relationship stories. The selection of stories in LOVE MATTERS includes letters from Iraq and Vietnam veterans, a 13-year-old girl, a middle-aged stepfather and couples celebrating 30 years and more of married life, among others.

4.) You were the editor of this collection. Which letter affected you the most?

Many stories affect me strongly every time I read them—and as editor of the collection, I've read every story at least a dozen times. There are some great lost- and-found love stories about couples who fell in love as teenagers or young adults but separated and even married others, only to reunite with the true love they never got over decades later. There’s a moving story from a stepfather who wants to remove the prefix “step” from all blended family relationships, and a humorous story about a man who tested his future wife by playing a practical joke on their first date. Another story I liked was about a mother of sons who finally got a longed-for daughter in an unexpected way, and yet another was from a pilot who met his wife at a wedding he almost didn’t go to. And there are incredible stories of a priest who donated a kidney to save the life of a boy he’d never met and of a soldier who owes his life to an enemy soldier’s sacrifice. But if I have to pick just one favorite story, I’d pick the first one in the collection, to which Delilah dedicated the song “To Where You Are,” performed by Josh Groban.

This favorite story is told by Barry, a professional Santa, who was deeply moved by a hospital visit he made to a six-year-old girl named Ashley who was dying of cancer. When he asks Ashley what she wants for Christmas, she keeps telling him what to get her siblings. Finally, he says, “But what do you want?” and her answer is heartbreaking: “I’m going to die soon, I know that, and I’m going to live with Grandma and Grandpa and I’m not going to hurt anymore. What I want is for Mom to stop crying—she is going to be here alone and needs to take care of my brother and sisters.” Barry gives Ashley a sleigh bell as a souvenir of his visit, and at the end of the story, at her funeral, he sees she is clutching the sleigh bell in her casket and comments that she was a Christmas angel who touched him in a way no one else ever has.

I’m choking up even writing about this story, and I defy anyone to read it to the end with dry eyes!

5.) Was it difficult to choose the letters to include?

Since there are going to be at least two sequels, I wasn’t too concerned about cutting stories—all the best ones will be published. Sometimes it was hard to decide which chapter to put a particular story in— for example, there’s a chapter True Love and another Second Chance at Love— but a relationship can be both of those!

6.) What do you hope readers will get out of it?

As we say on the front cover, these are remarkable love stories that touch the heart and nourish the soul. My hope is that these emotional narratives, as well as Delilah’s reflections and stories from her own life, will encourage, inspire and empower all who value loving relationships.

7.) Are there other Delilah books planned?

Absolutely! We’re already working with Delilah on a sequel, FAMILY MATTERS, scheduled for publication in October 2009, to be followed by a third book, tentatively titled LOVE STILL MATTERS, likely to be released in October 2010. Of course, I’m hoping this will become a series, like the Chicken Soup books. Love always matters, and Delilah has the gift of communicating this with eloquence as well as sincerity.

8.) Anything else you would like to mention?

I hope that readers will be inspired to share their own stories with Delilah, and hopefully we can include them in a future book (we only would do this with the storyteller’s permission, and pseudonyms are allowed). I hope, too, as Delilah says at the end of her Introduction to LOVE MATTERS that these stories will inspire every reader to love someone, and someone else and someone else . . . .

9.) What is the next Harlequin nonfiction book?

In November 2008, we are publishing an extraordinary memoir with a great Harlequin story behind it. SAFE PASSAGE is the story of two British sisters – Ida and Louise Cook – who facilitated the rescue of dozens of Jews from the Nazis in the years leading up to World War II. Ida helped to finance their efforts through the money she made as a romance writer for Mills & Boon, Harlequin’s British subsidiary, where she published more than 120 novels under the pen name Mary Burchell.

First published in 1950, the story remains as fresh, vital, and entertaining as when it was first issued. SAFE PASSAGE is an inspiring read and moving testimony to all that can be achieved when conscience and compassion are applied to a collapsing world.