Sonia Marsh's Blog, page 25

“Granny Franny” is Super Gutsy at Age 82

Frances Wood Photo Credit, click on photo.

Now if Frances Wood isn’t an inspiration to all of us, then I don’t know who is.

Frances Wood decided to take charge of her life and go back to school, two years after her husband passed away. They had been married for 59 years and she was heartbroken, and needed something that would bring her joy again. So Frances enrolled at MidAmerica Nazarene University, in Olathe, Kansas.

She was nicknamed, “Granny Franny” and students  said, “She’s kind of like a Grandma away from home.” They flocked around her and enjoyed her company.

Please watch her video interview on KCTV 5.com.

The students wanted to give something back to “Granny Franny,” so at Homecoming, three boys asked her out.  She told them they should be looking for “real girls, that are potential wives,” but as the most popular person on Campus, they crowned her “Home Coming Granny.”

After reading about Frances, I contacted the Producer of  KCTV5.com, Kansas, and asked if they could put in touch with the “Gutsy” Frances Wood. They are forwarding my e-mail to Frances Wood, and I hope to interview her and host her on my blog as well as receive her “My Gutsy Story®” in the near future. Please check back and I shall let you know.

 ***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

Please view our 1st Published Anthology here.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October: Joe Weddington’s was the first story this month, followed by Marcia Molina-Lehmann,  and Cappy Hall Rearick.

October 28th: Don Westenhaver

Voting for the favorite “My Gutsy Story” of the month will start on October 31st until November 13th. The winner will be announced on October 14th.

Thanks and please share if you enjoyed this post.

 

 

“My Gutsy Story®” Cappy Hall Rearick

To Have and Have Not

“You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,

 Know when to walk away and know when to run.” ~ Kenny Rogers

 Act One.

We walked around the block over and over, my best friend and I. She tried to talk me out of leaving my husband; I didn’t want to listen. I was stuck in emotional quicksand.

“Stop walking and stop talking, Lynn,” I said. “I have to do this because I don’t know who I am anymore.”

She heard the truth of my words. After only a moment of looking into my soul, she wrapped me in her arms. “Then go with God.”

I can’t say that it was God riding with me as I drove away from the small town where I had lived with my little family for a decade, but there was a force of some kind. It propelled me back to my other nest, the one built by my parents.

Leaving behind a stifling marriage that had stolen my identity consumed me with both relief and fear. While on the one hand I felt liberated, rock bottom grief for leaving my two young sons behind chewed up pieces of my heart and spit them out. I cried and cried and cried

As though my mind was in instant replay, I saw the eyes of my twelve-year-old boy holding himself together as though following instructions. Even at his age, he knew there was nothing he could do to stop me from going. Being the oldest, he must have told himself to be brave since his mother couldn’t show him how to behave. The longer and harder I hugged him, the more stoic he became. So like his father.

My mind saw my youngest son, my baby. How does one tell a nine-year-old that his life is about to change and will never be the same? I held him in my lap and rocked him like I did when he really was a baby. We both wept. I kissed his face and tasted his tears, not realizing that it might be the last time he would let me hold him close or cry with him.

The year was 1973. I lived in the Deep South where motherhood and apple pie was the benchmark to which young women aspired. Divorce that allowed a husband to raise the children was not in that equation. With the exception of my friend Lynn, who grasped my situation like only a good friend can, no one understood my decision.

My mother had suspected my unhappiness but it was hard for her to empathize. She gave me a safe harbor, but she could not own my broken heart or my shattered spirit.

I was thirty-three-years-old and as I look back all these years later, I am troubled by the serious errors in judgment I made. I was so tired, so lost that I didn’t consider the long-range emotional fallout destined to haunt both my children and me for the rest of our lives.

Strange as it may seem, Husband Number One and I parted on fairly good terms. We were civilized about things and he promised to keep me in the loop regarding the boys and he did.

Not long after we separated, he told me how they cried for me at night, and how valiantly they were coping in a world that had left them bereft. I so wished he had not told me. Even after all these years, I still hear my babies crying when I lay my own head on the pillow at night. I will hear them till the day I die.

I moved to where I had attended college because it was familiar territory even though I no longer knew anyone there. Because I lived alone, separation anxiety was my companion. The grief I felt for my children ached like a phantom limb; I missed being their mother and easily convinced myself that they would hate me. That thought brought me to my knees again and again.

At night I would grab the telephone to call them and then quickly change my mind, afraid that they would say they no longer wanted me in their lives. Emotionally, I never left my boys but I was scared to death that they believed I had abandoned them the day I left their father. I was also afraid of an opposite reaction. Would hearing my voice make it harder for them to adjust to the life they had not chosen? Did I dare risk heaping even more emotional stress onto my innocent children? I so wanted what was best for them.

In the end, I would call Dial a Prayer so that I could hear the sound of a human voice, albeit a recorded one.

Many years and a boatload of heartache and change would have to take place before I could begin to feel whole again, although a part of my sad heart would always remain broken. I was a mother who left her children, so my lifeboat was filled with guilt.

My sons grew up to be fine men and remarkably, my worry of not being loved by them materialized only in my fear-drenched mind. They have made me immeasurably proud by becoming better parents than I could ever have been. Their children are sweet and good and I am blessed that they, too, have allowed me to be part of their lives.

I had to leave the life I was living in 1973 because it no longer worked and I didn’t have a clue how to fix things. At the time, I didn’t know what my future held or if I deserved to have one. Driving out of town that day forty years ago, I wasn’t even sure I deserved a future.

As it turned out, Act Two was waiting in the wings.

 

CAPPY HALL REARICK:

Syndicated Humor columnist, Cappy Hall Rearick, has authored six columns: Alive And Well In Hollywood, Tidings, Simply Southern, Simply Senior, “Putin’ On The Gritz, and a monthly e-column, Simply Something.

Click on cover for Amazon link.

She has six published books in print: Simply Southern, Simply Southern Ease, Simply Christmas, Return to Rocky Bottom, The Road to Hell is Seldom Seen and I Do, I Do, I Do. A regular contributor to Not Your Mother’s Book series, her work can be found in anthologies throughout the country.

Cappy and husband Bill live on St. Simons Island, Georgia and Saluda, North Carolina. Please follow her website, Facebook and Twitter: @cappyrearick.

 

SONIA MARSH SAYS:

Your story is filled with such honesty and your comments say it all.

“I was scared to death that they believed I had abandoned them the day I left their father. I was a mother who left her children, so my lifeboat was filled with guilt.”

I am happy to hear your sons have made you feel part of their family as a grandmother today.

Please leave your comments for Cappy and share her inspiring story with your friends. Thank you.

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October: Joe Weddington’s was the first story this month, followed by Marcia Molina-Lehmann.

October 28th: Don Westenhaver

Voting for the favorite “My Gutsy Story” of the month will start on October 31st until November 13th. The winner will be announced on October 14th.

Thanks and please share if you enjoyed this post.

The Gutsy Book Traveling Contest

Sonia standing in front of “The Duke” at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.

My husband, Duke,  (not “The Duke” above) gave me a brilliant idea.

It’s called, “The Gutsy Book Traveling Contest,”  inspired by the “Roaming Gnome,”  and “Where in the World is the Saddleback Valley News?”

Photos will be judged according to:

Originality
Unique location
Unique landmark
Unique photo

We are giving the winner a $50.00 Amazon gift certificate + promoting all those who send in their photos. Details below.

You have until December 31st, 2013, to send your photos. If we receive many photos, we shall see about extending to a 2nd contest.

Please check back as we’re hoping to get sponsors. Please check the guidelines below.

 

I’m standing in front of the famous cafe in Paris where Hemingway used to write.

(I admit, we did cheat a little. Since I was not holding my book in Paris, we photoshopped it to get this post ready. Same applies to me in front of the John Wayne statue, although I did visit both locations.)

You may remember the “Share one sentence and one photo about you,” well this time I’d like to ask you to take a photo of you holding either:

Click on cover to see on Amazon

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World

or

Click on cover to see on Amazon

Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island

both “Gutsy” travel books, in front of a well-known landmark in your town/city/country.

I shall post your photos:

on my site
on social media
on Patch.com
any media coverage I can get

all I need is:

your name
date the photo was taken
landmark
city, state, country

Here are some photos from author friends who have stories published in the first My Gutsy Story® Anthology.

 

Madeline Sharples wearing I’m Gutsy Pin and name tag from our launch party.

Madeline’s story is on page 110 of the Anthology, and the title is, “Working and Writing Helped Me Heal.” Please check out her website.  Also I interviewed Madeline Sharples about her book here.

Tom Cirignano checking out his story in the Anthology on page 146.

 

 Tom’s story is, “The 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Listen to Thy Wife.” Please check out his website.

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Kathleen Pooler has a “My Gutsy Story” on page 89.

Kathleen Pooler’s story is titled, “Choices and Chances.” Please visit her website.

 

PLEASE MAKE THIS A SUCCESS AND START SENDING US YOUR PHOTOS TO:

“The Gutsy Book Traveling  Contest”

Send your photos (.jpg format) to sonia@soniamarsh.com, with “The Gutsy Book Traveling Contest,” in the subject line.

THE MORE PHOTOS we receive, THE EASIER it will be to get SPONSORS.

Please share by clicking on the buttons below. Any thoughts or suggestions? Please leave a comment.

“My Gutsy Story®” Mayu Molina Lehmann

Writing in a second language

I recently read a piece in the New York Times by Mr. Corstica Bradatan, a Bulgarian writer. Having moved from Bulgaria to the US, he talks about the difficulty of finding a voice in a new language:

“ When you become a writer, you don’t do so in abstract, but in relation to a certain language. To practice writing is to grow roots into that language; the better writer you become, the deeper the roots. Literary virtuosity almost always betrays a sense of deep, comfortable immersion into familiar soil. As such, if for any reason the writer has to change languages, the experience is nothing short of life-threatening”.

I understand this feeling completely: Growing up in Mexico, I was passionate about the Spanish language. I loved reading ever since I can remember, and I started writing short stories when I was 7-years-old.

One of the best traditions of my childhood was that every year, my dad would take me to the International Book Fair in Mexico City. We would spend the whole day combing the aisles, exchanging books, excited at our findings. We would then emerge from the fair carrying a heavy box of books, exhausted but happy, satisfied with our treasures. It is one of the happiest memories of my childhood.

My love for books continued all my life, and when the time came to choose a Bachelor’s degree, I had no doubt to choose Spanish Literature. Then, for 4 glorious years, I immersed myself in the richness of the language, from the works of the Middle Ages to the classics of the Spanish Golden Age to the most recent emergence of Latin-American writers. I loved every part of it.

I pride myself for knowing to write well, knowing by heart the intricacies of the accentuation and conjugation, based of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. During those years I took an elective course, Latin, and was filled with delight when I learned the origin of a word. It was like polishing a word as if a gem, and discovering what it was made of.

Since I loved writing, I thought I could make a name for myself as a writer. I wrote a novel, a couple of scripts for theater and short stories. I never thought of living outside the Spanish world that I so loved. It never occurred to me to be separated from my beloved linguistic universe.

But fate had other plans, and ironically, I somehow ended up living in the capital of the United States, where my literary references were put out of context. Even though I spoke English, I was not fully comfortable with it. I was, as Bradatan explains, devoid of a language:

            “When changing languages you descend to a zero-point of your existence. There must be even a moment, however brief, when you cease to be. You’ve quit the old language and the new one hasn’t received you yet; you are now in limbo, between worlds, hanging over the abyss”.

And hanging over the abyss I was, in the middle of an English-speaking country, equipped with a deep knowledge of a language that amounted to little here. Other than Shakespeare and Hemingway, I had no reference of writers of the English language. I was in a void. I was in limbo.

Then, two or three years after I had moved to the US, my brother Alfonso, who is a musician, approached me with the idea of writing a musical. He would write the music, I would write the script. I jumped enthusiastically at the idea and we started working right away. We both agreed it should be in English. I was intimidated at first but eventually I jumped into the unknown… writing in English for the first time.

Although scary at first, the experience proved to be incredibly liberating. Writing in Spanish had carried a lot of gravitas, to the point of being paralyzing. I had such respect for the language that I feared disappointing the great masters. What would Cervantes think of this? I would anguish.  By contrast, my lack of knowledge of English literature allowed me to write more freely, without imagining anyone looking over my shoulder. I found out that writing in English gave me the bliss of ignorance.

I finished the script and went on to write short stories and memoir pieces for my two girls. I surprised myself by choosing English to do so. Again as the Bulgarian writer says: “To abandon your native tongue and to adopt another is to dismantle yourself, piece by piece, and then put yourself together again, in a different form.”

That was exactly me, forced to look at what I knew, dissect it, discard some things, hold on to some and and put everything back together in a way that was still me, but a little different. For example, literary embellishments and excessive adjectives don’t go well in English, so writing in this language forced me to see the world through different eyes, in a more objective and matter-of-fact way. The result was a new way of writing, made of bits and pieces of the old me, plus elements of my new environment.

As Bradatan observes:

 

            “In the end, you don’t really change languages;

            the language changes you”.

 

In my case, it did.

MAYU MOLINA LEHMANN was born and raised in Sonora, Mexico. Developing an early love for literature, she wrote her first story at age seven. The anthology De Niños Para Niños (Ediciones del Plumicornio) includes some of her earlier works. She authored an unpublished novel La Hija del Candidato, and is writing the script for a musical about Latino immigration.

Mayu has a BA in Spanish Literature from Tec de Monterrey (ITESM). After moving to the US she worked at the Organization for American States in Washington, D.C., where she currently lives with her husband and two young daughters.

Please visit Mayu’s Website

SONIA MARSH SAYS: I know everyone reading your story will admire your writing skills. I can relate in a different way as I grew up speaking three languages: English, French and Danish, and struggled with my vocabulary and reading skills in those three languages. What struck me as interesting was your mention of:

“My lack of knowledge of English literature allowed me to write more freely, without imagining anyone looking over my shoulder. I found out that writing in English gave me the bliss of ignorance.”

Please leave your comments for Mayu and share her inspiring story with your friends. Thank you.

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October: Joe Weddington’s was the first story this month.

October 14th: Marcia Molina-Lehmann
October 21st: Cappy Hall
October 28th: Don Westenhaver

Voting for the favorite “My Gutsy Story” of the month will start on October 31st until November 13th. The winner will be announced on October 14th.

Thanks and please share if you enjoyed this post.

 

How to Become a Successful Gutsy Indie Publisher

purchased from i-Stock

Becoming a successful “Gutsy Indie Publisher” is like being a circus juggler on a unicycle, throwing flames and spinning plates; all at the same time.

So what is the secret to juggling?

It’s to think like a pro.

If you want to sell commercially, you need to become a professional publisher.

To sell your book you have to suit the book buyers not you.

Yes, it does cost money, and you need to figure out:

What am I good at?
What am I not so good at?
What do I need help with.

There are 6 steps towards becoming a successful “Gutsy Indie Publisher” and I shall be presenting these at the Digital Author and Self-publishing conference on 10-12-13, in Los Angeles.

Click here to see the entire program.

Each phase of becoming a “Gutsy Indie Publisher” requires specific tasks and skills you need to be aware of before moving onto the next one.

Some of the steps are ongoing, and require adapting to where you are in the publication process before moving on. The 6 steps I shall cover are:

writing
pre-publication
publishing
marketing
promotion
what next?

Within each step, I shall cover the following topics:

Topics covered in those areas

Writing-Professional editing, story structure, copy editing, proof reading
Blogging-Building your platform through contests, videos, podcasts, Google+ hangout interviews
Branding yourself
Become a leader; not a follower
How to grow your platform through contests, creating your own groups
How to set up your own publishing company: Dba, Bowker, PCIP
Printing POD with LSI, CS
The importance of a professional cover Design and interior formatting
How to get endorsements from bestselling authors
Get reviews on publication day book
Networking: Giving more than receiving
What volunteering can do for you
Get local journalists to interview you
How to set up your own Virtual Blog Tour
How to create a successful Book launch, media, sponsors
How to get book signings, book club events and think outside the box (international book events.)
How to get your book into Costco
Mistakes to avoid when booking indie bookstore events
How and when to submit your book for Awards
How to create your own event and get sponsors
Crowfunding with Pubslush: How to make it work
What next? Create an event.

Many have asked me, “So Sonia, what’s next?”

Well apart from helping people with my new business, “Gutsy Book Coaching”, speaking and continuing with the “My Gutsy Story®” second Anthology, (please keep submitting your stories) contest guidelines here, I also plan to volunteer in Spain in May 2014, with a group called Vaughan Volunteers. I’ve always wanted to volunteer and meet people from different cultures. If you want to have a week in Spain, speaking English to Spanish business people, Vaughan pays for your hotel, food and sight-seeing. It’s a great opportunity to help, while learning more about the Spanish culture.

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October:

October 14th: Marcia Molina-Lehmann
October 21st: Cappy Hall
October 28th: Don Westenhaver

Thanks and please share if you enjoyed this post.

 

 

 

“My Gutsy Story®” Joe Weddington

The Unseen Bullett

Join the Army, see the world. That is what I did. I signed up for the Infantry as long as they would send me to Europe, pay for me to finish college and give me some money.

Basic Training and Infantry Training were almost a joke to me as I had been a multi-sports athlete but I tolerated the near comical antics of the Drill Sergeants as I knew they had to bring younger boys up to speed while keeping the attention of more worldly fellows like myself. I was 24 and had traveled a bit by then, had worked a job or two, had three years of college behind me and had even ran my own business. My friends thought I was crazy for enlisting but I did it.

Arriving in Germany and assigned to a unit, I did my job and spent my free time on the rails, seeing every country I could see from The Netherlands to Italy to France and all points in between. I took college classes at the Education Center on Post and had lucked in to driving a Staff Officer who traveled widely and regularly. My life was on track.

Then I went to Iraq and went to war. Over a short period of time, I became completely desensitized to death, both as a reality and a concept, not shedding a single tear at the funeral of my own mother a year later. I finished school, left the Army for the Reserves, earned my pilot’s license, I got married, went to work, moved in to my childhood home in a great neighborhood, had children and led an active life. I was a football coach, a pilot and Squadron Commander in the Civil Air Patrol, volunteered for Emergency Services and ran a successful Appraisal and Home Inspection office.

Two years after I came home I began having problems with short term memory and my limbs would jerk for no reason, throwing me into sessions of severe cramping all over my body. My legs began to swell notably and I gained 200 pounds over about 5 years. One day at work my legs began to feel as if they were on fire and I found they were swelling rapidly and did so to such a degree, they split open, leaking fluid and blood. I was rushed to the hospital where I contracted MRSA and suffered its damaging effects.

Captain Joe Weddington, Pilot and Squadron Commander, U.S. Civil Air Patrol, Bert T. Combs Memorial Airport, Hager Hill, Kentucky

I was in organ failure and fighting for my life when scar tissue was discovered on my brain. It seemed that my close proximity to a mortar detonation that had thrown me head first into the wheel of a Hummer had done more than just addle me at the time. My other symptoms were attributed to the PB pills, Depleted Uranium Exposure, Exposure to other/unknown toxins. I had effectively been badly wounded by a silent bullet and didn’t even know it.

I lived, my symptoms in check but uncured, leaving the hospital with permanent nerve damage, deformed and discolored legs and pain that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. I had a later bout with a blood clot in my leg going to my lungs and spent several days in a coma, but I lived. I became depressed and lethargic with regular thoughts of suicide. I was no longer the man I once was. After fifteen years of marriage my wife left me for a man half her age. At 40 years old I lost my kids, I lost my business, I lost my home. I lost everything.

Joe Weddington today

Now I am 48. I live in a trailer which I have made into a home using many items from the old house to do so. It is a comfort to the kids that something of their past is preserved and comfortably familiar to me. I drive a dependable fifteen year old SUV, I take my medicine, I go to doctors appointments, physical therapy, meetings with my lawyer to increase my VA benifits and I take a dozen pills a day for my symptoms.

I receive $680 per month from a 100% social security disability for PTSD and other symptoms, $640 from VA who refuses to acknowledge what has happened to me and rates me a 40% disability for “Combat Anxiety” and “Tinnitus.” I manage  a few hundred dollars from other sources. A far cry from the one thousand plus a week take home I had become accustomed to.

I get by though and have learned to watch every expense and still manage to go to the movies with my son now and then, and dine out with both him and his sister once a month. I add to things by picking up cans and collecting scrap metal and am fortunate to have a sister who helps me out often with the unexpected bill. Vacations are rare but I still manage to take one on occasion. I was, until recently, embarrassed to wear shorts in public until this pretty young waitress said to me, “Hey they are your legs, the only ones you have got; don’t worry about it.” I have worn shorts every day since. Life changed for me but life goes on, and I will be a Grandfather in a few short days. Life is good.

Joe Weddington: My Dad was a businessman, former professional baseball player, and World War II Veteran of the Marines. He married my mom; a lifelong homemaker. I grew up in the Mayberry-like town of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, where I attended public schools and community college. Employed as a paper boy at age 11 and as a gas station worker at age 14, I owned my first business, an excavation company, at age 16. I worked in South Florida for a while as a crane truck driver and operator before I joined the Army as an Infantry soldier and served in combat in Desert Storm. I was married, had two children, a daughter and son, and was successfully self-employed until 2007 when a number of service related ailments hastened my divorce and forced me into disability retirement. I just became a Grandfather.

You can contact Joe on FaceBook or e-mail him atjoedweddington@gmail.com

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Joe, after all that you’ve been through, I’m impressed with how you’ve accepted each challenge and moved on. Congratulations on being a grandfather. I love your positive outlook on life. “Life is good.”



LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 2nd “My Gutsy Story®”ANTHOLOGY

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October:

October 14th: Marcia Molina-Lehmann
October 21st: Cappy Hall
October 28th: Don Westenhaver

Please share these stories on social media and to all who need some inspiration. Thanks you. Sonia Marsh

 

Should We Have Another Event With Our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®”Anthology?

I’m Gutsy Pins Given to Everyone

 

After the success of “Bring Out the Gutsy in You” to launch our first “My Gutsy Story®”Anthology, I think we should continue with the tradition when our 2nd Anthology comes out in a year or so. What do you think?

I wish to thank our wonderful keynote speaker, Marybeth Bond, who flew down from San Francisco for the event.

Please click on individual photos in the gallery below to see them enlarged.

Please check out the program below with our speaker bios, and sponsors.

AnthologyProgram_FINAL

A BIG thank you to our wonderful panelists:

Linda Joy Myers
Jason Matthews
Marla Miller

Thanks to all our SPONSORS:

We had 8 door prizes to giveaway. Some fantastic sponsors.

We were able to donate a  check to WomanSage.org. $1.50/book sold went towards helping women in transition.

LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 2nd “My Gutsy Story®”ANTHOLOGY


Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Here are the stories we have in October:

October 7th: Joe Weddington
October 14th: Marcia Molina-Lehmann
October 21st: Cappy Hall
October 28th: Don Westenhaver

 

“Bring Out the Gutsy in You”; A Huge Success

“Bring out the Gutsy in You” Anthology book launch was a huge success.

Larry Poricelli, Manager of the Southern California Regency movie theaters, surprised me with this special marquee.

Just over 100 attended, and Marybeth Bond offered an upbeat, motivational speech about taking risks, being bold, and the advice she received from her mom.

Our panelists, Linda Joy Myers, Jason Matthews and Marla Miller as our moderator, were so inspiring.

Kira Robles, our professional photographer is sending me the photos later this week, so hopefully by my next post on October 3rd,  we shall have a ton o photos to share.

PHOTOS and NEWS on October 3rd.

A DVD of the entire event will be available in the next few weeks. I shall let you know more when it’s edited.

A few testimonials:

Congratulations Sonia, for creating a rewarding (and seamless) evening for many lucky people! -Kevin R.

We were honored to have you.  I don’t think you realize your worth! You are not only a successful writer, you are a leader, you are luminous and inspiring to others, and your experience is of great value!–Thank you!–Larry P.

Sonia,
You will never run out of willing people to share their “Gutsy” stories… much like the success of the Chicken Soup anthology… pure genius. –Kevin

LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 2nd “My Gutsy Story®”ANTHOLOGY


Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

NOW is the time to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” which may be included in our 2nd ANTHOLOGY.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

You Can’t Miss the “Bring Out the Gutsy in You” event.

Click on photo to get information about the event on 9-26.

See you on 9-26.

The Sponsor poster is ready
The programs are ready AnthologyProgram_FINAL
Authors who’ve published their story in the Anthology get a special name tag, so you can chat with them during the event.

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World

We also want to thank the following for their door prizes.

A beautiful print by artist Ilona Werner-Martin called”Two Ladies in Paris” signed by the artist.
A Hair Appointment by talented hairdresser Gillian Billetter from luxury Salon Milano in Newport Beach, CA.

To find out more about our “Bring Out the Gutsy in You” event and sign up, please click in box below.

 

This event is free, and you’re invited.

Click here to reserve your seat today.

Name and e-mail required.

Countdown to “Bring Out the Gutsy in You” Event

 

Only one week away until we celebrate the:

“Bring Out the Gutsy in You” Anthology launch party.

I ‘m so excited and it feels like I’m planning the Academy Awards ceremony.

The red carpet is being laid out, and we are getting ready for you.

If you’d like to take a look at our Final program, please click below.

“BRING OUT THE GUTSY IN YOU” PROGRAM

SPONSORS POSTER

To learn more about this FREE EVENT on 9-26 in Orange County, please click on this link.

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I thank the 27 supporters for contributing towards my Publsush Campaign.

If you made a donation, and I haven’t seen your name, please let me know as there were a few glitches. I wish to thank each one of you for your help, and shall be sending you the rewards as stated on the Pubslush campaign.

Jason Matthews
Penelope James
Barbara Hammond
Laura Holland
Madeline Sharples
David Porsser
Muriel Jacques
Kathy Pooler
Marla Miller
Beccy Hall
Tom Cirignano
Polly Dunn
Linda Myers
Jan Marshall
Linda Hoenigsberg
Larry Jacobson
Julie Breitfuss
Brooks Sharp
Marla Cerise
Sue Dykema
Belinda Nicoll
Rhonda Hayes
Mary Gottschalk
John DeNizio
Susan Williams
Lois Joy Hofmann (check sent in mail)
Shelley Miller (check sent in mail)

I hope to see you at the event on Thursday, September 26th, from 6-9 p.m. Please click here to reserve your seat.

Thanks.