Nurse and Novelist: Chester Harper Weaves Compassion and Creativity into Compelling Stories

Chester Harper has a lot on his mind. There's compassion for his pediatric patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock. There's extensive medical knowledge from over 36 years as a registered nurse. There's love for his wife and two daughters, who also dedicate their lives to children through nursing or teaching.   

And then there are stories.   

Whether it’s a reimagined science fiction tale of Bigfoot or unearthing a fictional world surrounding his real-life ancestors, stories — and the inspiration for them — can pop up everywhere.   

"'Everybody has stories in their head. Just put one of your stories down,'" he once told his oldest daughter, who had to explain, "'Dad, not everybody has stories in their head.' It never occurred to me that it was unique to writers that we have these stories in our heads. And if I can get them out of my head into someone else's head, sometimes my stories help people."   

Harper, 59, of Austin, has 25 years' experience at Arkansas Children's, his latest stint lasting the past 12 years. Beyond the joy he receives working with children, his flexible schedule as a surgical recovery room nurse allows him to pursue his passion for writing. His first novel was published in August.   

"The flexible hours very much support my writing. I like to bounce ideas off of people. When I had finished my novel, I needed beta (volunteer) readers," he said, enlisting some trusted coworkers. Those coworkers couldn't help but share his success with Marcy Doderer, FACHE, president and CEO of Arkansas Children's, when she recently rounded on his unit. Harper admits he was initially embarrassed by the attention, but her praise for his achievement made him feel valued.   

"It felt really good," he said. "It makes me feel like the people at the top care."    
 

‘Just write’ 

Harper started writing seriously about 20 years ago. He took a children's writing course and found that stringing words together was innate. Not every story was perfect, but even in the rejections, he found the hope to keep going.   

"There was one short story that was almost published, and it was the best rejection letter I ever received. They said, 'We didn't have room in our Civil War issue, or we would have used your story.'"   

He paused his hobby to focus on family and work when he and his wife of 33 years, Tanya, also a nurse on his unit at ACH, had two daughters.   

But the stories never left.   

"I have been a voracious reader ever since I could read. It was always mysteries and sci-fi, fantasy. Then I got into historical fiction. I found out I really, really liked that," he said.   

Today, he’s written about 30 short stories, including westerns, science fiction, paranormal and historical fiction, and dabbles in poetry.  

For the past seven years, an international online writers' group, Writers Unite, has fostered his creativity. With them, he has collaboratively self-published anthologies.   

"I typically write in the evening or even late at night. My creative brain seems to work better in the afternoon and evening times. I sometimes wake up with something in my head and write it down so I don't forget. Nothing is worse than getting this great idea and waking up, and you can't remember it," Harper said. "I do write by hand. My ideas flow better from my brain onto paper than straight onto a keyboard. I write into a composition notebook."   

On paper was where the first draft of his roughly 350-word novel "Freedom's Trail, Always & Forever" lived. About five years in the making, it all started with a Google search of a relative's name and a desire to learn more about his family's history. It led to a complicated discovery. His great-great-great grandfather Hartwell bought a mixed-race enslaved person named Amanda. The two would eventually marry and have children.   

“Finding out I had a Black heritage made me do some soul searching and go, ‘Who am I?’” Harper admits.   

The realization turned into his first novel, a heavily researched and fictionalized account of his relatives’ lives during the Civil War. One of his favorite lines in his book came from Amanda’s son, Barton, from a previous marriage, who decried the state of racism at that time, “I’m afraid those days will never be over, at least not in our lifetime.”  

"We still struggle with mixed-race families and relationships and things like that. People disapprove of my youngest daughter's boyfriend, who is Black. He's the best guy she's ever dated," Harper said.   

He enlisted several Black and white people to read his novel, ensuring the content was authentic to a diverse audience.   

Oracle BookArt & PA Services, based in Colorado, published the book on Aug. 6. The company is also contracted to publish his next novel, a science fiction tale about Bigfoot, early this year.   

Harper said holding his published novel in his hand was an unmatched feeling.   

"Just write. You cannot be a writer if you don't write," he said. "I tell people, if you have a story, write it down and find somebody you trust to read it. It can't be somebody who tells you it's great if it's horrible. Find somebody you trust that will tell you the truth. Don't get your feelings hurt."   

 

‘One child at a time’   

Like the spark of inspiration for a story, Harper's career in nursing was happenstance. At 20 years old, he worked at a grocery store in Ava, Mo., trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.   

"I knew I wanted to do something to help people. I wanted to be a state trooper in Missouri," his home state, he explained. "That was my junior high dream. But I'm too short. Back then, they had a height requirement. I'm 5'6, and you had to be 5'8."   

An old high school classmate walked into the store with her student nursing scrubs. Harper asked if any of her college classmates were men, and she said yes.   

"I thought, 'I'm going to look into this.' I started college in the fall of 1985. I have never looked back," he said.   

Harper began working at ACH in 1992. Throughout his first 13 years, he served primarily in the neonatal intensive care unit and then in outpatient clinics. He worked at an adult hospital but found his way back to ACH in 2012. Today, Harper works in recovery, tending to patients after, and sometimes before, surgery.   

"It's the kids; that's why I came back to Arkansas Children's. I have more compassion for kids. It goes back to that mission statement of making them 'better today and healthier tomorrow.' I'm not just part of that one visit. I can be a part of their overall health," Harper said.   

Interacting with pediatric patients, particularly preteens and teens, is easy for Harper because he's just a big kid. He enjoys the TV shows "Pokémon," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and can "talk 'Bluey' all day long" with the youngest patients.   

“I had one parent say that I had so much in common with her son that it made his pre-op easier because he could relate to me,” Harper said.    

Nursing and writing connect when some personality traits from patients translate to characters in his stories or medical angles he takes in his writing.   

"I think that's just because it's where my brain lives. Sometimes, I think it's a stress reliever from nursing. I can have a bad day at work, but then I can escape into my fictional world, and it's kind of a relief. It can make that day look a little bit better."   

But whether he’s creating ideas for a story or providing the best care for a patient, his work is a well of inspiration.   

"There was a cancer patient who had surgery. She woke up, looked at me and the first words out of her mouth were, 'Oh, you're bald too,'" he said. "She's not bald by choice but has such strength. Children want to get better. They're not going to give up. It makes me feel like I'm doing something important. I'm making a positive contribution to the world I live in, one child at a time."   

This article was written by the Arkansas Children’s content team.