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Vote For Your Favorite September 2014 “My Gutsy Story®”

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VOTE BE GUTSY BADGE

You have from now until October 15th to vote on the sidebar, (only one vote per person) and the winner will be announced on October 16th, and will select a prize from our generous sponsors.

Our 1st “My Gutsy Story®” is by Jennifer Graham, “Interracial Couple: An Immoral Proposal.”

sky

SONIA MARSH SAYS:  What a beautiful love story that truly portrays the emotions you felt at the time. I love the ending and am glad we connected online.

Our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” is by Colleen Hannegan, “My journey, My search to Re-Discover Myself.”

Colleen author photo

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Your story will resonate with so many who “accept” their situation, rather than take the steps to become free.

Our 3rd “My Gutsy Story®” is by: Savannah Grace, “My Gutsy Love Story”

Author Photo

SONIA MARSH SAYS: I admire your courage to go with your gut, and not be swayed by others. What a meaningful statement to help those who are unsure of what to do.

“If people could not accept and let me be who I needed to be then I could only wish for that acceptance, not be expected to change my life for other people. Trying to change who I am to please others would not bring me happiness…so I had no choice but to follow my heart.”

 

Our 4th “My Gutsy Story®” is by Nancy McBride, “When President Jimmy Carter’s Wife Stopped By.”

NancyMcBride (1)

SONIA MARSH SAYS: You are one “Gutsy” and funny lady. I love your exit interview strategy. Also your artwork is so unique and whimsical.

Our 5th “My Gutsy Story®” is by: Jonathan Yanez, “My Road to Becoming an Author.”

jonathan-yanez-headshot (1)

SONIA MARSH SAYS: You show us how perseverance pays off and that you believed in your passion with such determination, that you made your dream come true. Thanks for sharing your story which will inspire other writers to not give up. I look forward to having you share your story on November 1st, at the kick-off of our next:

Sign up NOW on Eventbrite to reserve your seat for a FUN and ENTERTAINING EVENT

to launch our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology.

Page1

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: Taking Chances and Changing Your Life

 

What:  Author Sonia Marsh launches the second publication in her My Gutsy Story® Anthology book series by hosting an evening of inspirational stories moderated by former PBS SoCal anchor Ann Pulice.  Marsh, the award winning author and founder of My Gutsy Story®  series, will also announce her next gutsy adventure, signing up for the Peace Corps. The event is open to the public and all attendees will receive a copy of the newest My Gutsy Story® Anthology.

 

When:  Saturday, November 1

4:00 to 6:30 p.m.

 

Where:  Zovs Restaurant in Tustin

17440 E. 17th St., Tustin, CA 92780, (MAP)

ph (714) 838.8855

 

Who:  Moderator Ann Pulice is an award-winning journalists and was co-host on PBS SoCal’s Real Orange for 17 years.

Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event
Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event

 

Panelists include:

  • Sonia Marsh: Award-winning author of Freeways to Flip-flops and founder of the My Gutsy Story®
  • Julia Capizzi: Orange County Peace Corps representative and Bilingual Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who has lived abroad in El Salvador & Bolivia.
  • Colleen Hannegan: Author and professional speaker, certified business advisor, personal life coach for women in transition.
  • Mariana Williams: Author and founder of the “Long Beach Searches for Greatest Storyteller,” married to Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Paul Williams.
  • Jonathan Yanez: Went from renting cars, to following his dream of becoming an author. His three-book series publishing contract has now been optioned for film.

 

Cost:   $40 (includes book, wine and appetizers) before October 20th and $45 after that date.

More: Marsh hopes the My Gutsy Story® Anthology series and events will create a global community to help one another take risks in life. Her first publication, Freeways to Flip Flops, a chronology of her family’s one-year adventure in Belize, recently won the Reader’s Favorite, 2014 Gold Medal book award.

 

RSVP: For more information call (949) 309-0030 or e-mail: Sonia@soniamarsh.com

EventBrite: To sign up for the event

My Road to Becoming an Author by Jonathan Yanez

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jonathan-yanez-headshot (1)

“My Gutsy Story®” by Jonathan Yanez

 

Everyone told me I was happy. I was young making more money than I thought possible just a few years out of college. It wasn’t what I had gone to school for, my English degree was lost somewhere in my closet, forgotten between the paychecks and promotions.

Even then I never stopped writing. Sure it was nothing big but I would still write a short story here, work on a novel there. Months would go by where I wouldn’t read or write anything but the love for the craft of story telling never left.

Life flew by, taking the shape of suites, business meetings and alcohol, lot’s of alcohol. Anyone that’s been heavily immersed in the business world, especially right after college will know what I mean.

In the course of five years I had a life that from the outside, looked as though I had everything together; a beautiful wife, a stable job and even a promotion on the horizon. Still I wasn’t happy. I knew that I would eventually reach a breaking point where I just wouldn’t be able to do the long hours, the work on the weekends or the political tap dance required in the corporate world.

Then in it happened. In June of 2012, after five years with my company I just couldn’t do it anymore and I quit. In retrospect it’s actually scarier than it was then. In the moment I was determined to follow my passion and write. “Life is too short and tomorrow is promised to no one,” I would tell myself.

With no back up plan and the full support of my wife I jumped head first into the struggle of becoming an author. Working ten-hour days I immersed myself in everything a writer should be doing; social media, reading other successful authors in my genre, sending out query letters and of course writing.

In a few months I had written the first draft of my debut novel, The Beast Within, a young adult urban fantasy. Then the hard part came, the rejections. I pitched my book to everyone. No one was spared both agents and publishing house felt my determination. Everybody had the same polite rejection note with alternating phrases like, “unfortunately we have to pass” or “this just doesn’t seem right for us.”

As these rejections piled up I refused to give into defeat. I told myself I would take one hundred rejections on this book and if I still didn’t have a contract by then I would write another book and take another one hundred rejections, repeating the process until something gave.

Well my rejection pile almost did hit the triple digits. Finally after eighty rejection letters… yes you read that right, EIGHTY, number eighty-one offered me a contract. What’s more they offered me a contract for not only The Beast Within, but for an entire series.

In January 2013 after eight months and eighty rejections I was a signed author. Since then I’ve been hard at work adding a total of seven titles under my belt; five traditionally published and two self-published books. I’ve signed contracts for my books to be made into audio format, ebook format as well as having two of my books considered for film adaptations.

Looking back I know I have been blessed. But I also know that without that single gutsy leap of faith none of this would be possible.

 

JONATHAN YANEZ spent five years after graduating from college in sales and management before he realized life is too short to be doing anything but what you love. He lives in Southern California with his wife where he writes everyday, grateful for the opportunity.

If you would like to know more about his upcoming series including release dates and insider information you can visit him at www.jonathan-yanez.com and subscribe to his newsletter.

Please join Jonathan on social media and click on the cover to go to Amazon.

 

Colossus_Final_Cover_Ebook
Click on cover to go to Amazon

 SONIA MARSH SAYS: You show us how perseverance pays off and that you believed in your passion with such dtermination, that you made your dream come true. Thanks for sharing your story which will inspire other writers to not give up. I look forward to having you share your story on November 1st, at the kick-off of our next:

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: Taking Chances and Changing Your Life

 

Page1

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: Taking Chances and Changing Your Life

 

What:  Author Sonia Marsh launches the second publication in her My Gutsy Story® Anthology book series by hosting an evening of inspirational stories moderated by former PBS SoCal anchor Ann Pulice.  Marsh, the award winning author and founder of My Gutsy Story®  series, will also announce her next gutsy adventure, signing up for the Peace Corps. The event is open to the public and all attendees will receive a copy of the newest My Gutsy Story® Anthology.

 

When:  Saturday, November 1

4:00 to 6:30 p.m.

 

Where:  Zovs Restaurant in Tustin

17440 E. 17th St., Tustin, CA 92780, (MAP)

ph (714) 838.8855

 

Who:  Moderator Ann Pulice is an award-winning journalists and was co-host on PBS SoCal’s Real Orange for 17 years.

Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event
Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event

 

Panelists include:

  • Sonia Marsh: Award-winning author of Freeways to Flip-flops and founder of the My Gutsy Story®
  • Julia Capizzi: Orange County Peace Corps representative and Bilingual Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who has lived abroad in El Salvador & Bolivia.
  • Colleen Hannegan: Author and professional speaker, certified business advisor, personal life coach for women in transition.
  • Mariana Williams: Author and founder of the “Long Beach Searches for Greatest Storyteller,” married to Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Paul Williams.
  • Jonathan Yanez: Went from renting cars, to following his dream of becoming an author. His three-book series publishing contract has now been optioned for film.

 

Cost:   $40 (includes book, wine and appetizers) before October 20th and $45 after that date.

More: Marsh hopes the My Gutsy Story® Anthology series and events will create a global community to help one another take risks in life. Her first publication, Freeways to Flip Flops, a chronology of her family’s one-year adventure in Belize, recently won the Reader’s Favorite, 2014 Gold Medal book award.

 

RSVP: For more information call (949) 309-0030 or e-mail: Sonia@soniamarsh.com

EventBrite: To sign up for the event

 

 

My Gutsy Story® Anthology Book Launch #2 with Ann Pulice

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Page1

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: Taking Chances and Changing Your Life

 

What:  Author Sonia Marsh launches the second publication in her My Gutsy Story® Anthology book series by hosting an evening of inspirational stories moderated by former PBS SoCal anchor Ann Pulice.  Marsh, the award winning author and founder of My Gutsy Story®  series, will also announce her next gutsy adventure, signing up for the Peace Corps. The event is open to the public and all attendees will receive a copy of the newest My Gutsy Story® Anthology.

 

When:  Saturday, November 1

4:00 to 6:30 p.m.

 

Where:  Zovs Restaurant in Tustin

17440 E. 17th St., Tustin, CA 92780, (MAP)

ph (714) 838.8855

 

Who:  Moderator Ann Pulice is an award-winning journalists and was co-host on PBS SoCal’s Real Orange for 17 years.

Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event
Ann Pulice Emcee for the Book Launch Event

 

Panelists include:

  • Sonia Marsh: Award-winning author of Freeways to Flip-flops and founder of the My Gutsy Story®
  • Julia Capizzi: Orange County Peace Corps representative and Bilingual Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who has lived abroad in El Salvador & Bolivia.
  • Colleen Hannegan: Author and professional speaker, certified business advisor, personal life coach for women in transition.
  • Mariana Williams: Author and founder of the “Long Beach Searches for Greatest Storyteller,” married to Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Paul Williams.
  • Jonathan Yanez: Went from renting cars, to following his dream of becoming an author. His three-book series publishing contract has now been optioned for film.

 

Cost:   $40 (includes book, wine and appetizers) before October 20th and $45 after that date.

More: Marsh hopes the My Gutsy Story® Anthology series and events will create a global community to help one another take risks in life. Her first publication, Freeways to Flip Flops, a chronology of her family’s one-year adventure in Belize, recently won the Reader’s Favorite, 2014 Gold Medal book award.

 

RSVP: For more information call (949) 309-0030 or e-mail: Sonia@soniamarsh.com

EventBrite: To sign up for the event

 

 

When President Jimmy Carter’s Wife Stopped By

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NancyMcBride (1)

Charlie on my Shoulder

“My Gutsy Story®” by Nancy McBride

 

Roslyn Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s wife, would be visiting the small, two-year college where I was the Director of Public Relations and Alumni. My office was chosen for her to rest in because it had an outer office for her security, and a bathroom. A few days earlier, the Secret Service, and their bomb-sniffing dogs, preparing for her brief visit, searched and sniffed the entire campus to clear the way for her. Satisfied we posed no threat, they settled in my office to hang out with Charlie and me.

I suppose it would help you to know, sooner, rather than later, that Charlie is a plant stand. He was made for me by my kids’ babysitter and seriously resembles the bottom half of a gentleman, made with Charlie’s old jeans and his old hiking boots. I always kid that I saved the “best parts”.

Charlie and Cat
Charlie and Cat

Appropriately fleshed out with poly-fill, stabilized with a skeleton of a wooden frame, and a set-in painted plywood top, he stands life-size, well half-life size, waist height, and at a very slight slant, not too dramatic a slant, though, because he sprouted a healthy philodendron plant in a pot, on top. He was a plant stand, after all. Charlie—well what I had left of Charlie—had been a beloved beau, but that’s another story.

While the Secret Service men were on their lunch break, I was working at my desk, and for the first time ever, the president of the college, a nun, in full floating garb and starched white wimple, came flying in my room unannounced, all a flutter screaming at me like a crazy woman! “What are your children’s paintings doing on your wall? And THAT, that, that MAN thing! Get it out of here! The President’s WIFE is coming! Get rid of all of that junk, now! What were you thinking?”

Dumbstruck, I couldn’t think for the shock of her vile reprimand! The bile was sourly working its way up from my gut and I wanted desperately to blast her, but I reined it in, and kept my mouth shut. I needed a job. Period. Charlie and the kids’ artwork were banished to the closet, my perky personality pierced by the humiliating slap.

That afternoon, the Secret Service came back, and stopped in their tracks. “Where is Charlie? Where are Amy and Iona’s paintings?” (They even knew about my family by now.)

“What can I say?” I said. “I need a job.”

“That happens everywhere we go, ” they said. “People paint, repair, scrub and spend money they don’t have to impress her, and she doesn’t care about or notice those efforts. She’s totally down to earth. In fact we told her all about Charlie, and she can’t wait to meet him! She loves stuff like that!” I shrugged, miserable. I’d made my choice.

When Mrs. Carter arrived the next day with her entourage, of course I was banned from my office, and I stood about three rows back in the hall filled with the colleges’ mucky-mucks as she was shuttled from her car to my inner sanctum. Then, the door opens a crack, and a Secret Service agent caught my eye and motioned for me, not the college’s president, to come in! Now, I’m doomed, here, and I know it! I was ushered in, and Mrs. Carter stood up, to not just shake my hand, but to give me a hug, and a heartfelt apology. “This happens all the time, and I am so sorry! May I please see Charlie?”

Grinning, I showed her Charlie in the closet, and she adored him! Then she asked to see Amy and Iona’s artwork! How endearing was that?

I returned to my place in the hall, eyes avoiding contact with anyone, lips zipped. Then our college president was asked to come in and meet her before she escorted her to the stage. I had to take care of the press, so missed her speech.

A few months later, I’d accepted another job, thanks to an award-winning ad series design (toot-toot), and as I was packing to leave my job, I received a call from the president’s office requesting an “exit interview”. Cringing, I quickly finished packing my last box, and put it and Charlie’s plant in the car. He would be last, but not least. Then I impulsively perched Charlie’s crotch on my shoulder, and walking at a slight slant, myself, to balance him, went straight past her secretary into the president’s office, and announced, “This is my exit interview. Charlie and I have nothing to say to you.” Then I turned around, left the campus, and never looked back. No one has ever messed with me again about my choices of décor.

(I might have given her a gesture, but I’d never mastered that. I tried it once in a ridiculous traffic jam, exacerbated by a pedestrian who caused the breaking up gridlock to re-grid. I went to flip her “the bird” only to give her a well-timed thumbs-up!)

NANCY McBRIDE: Why write?

I am an innate storyteller. I love the joy of crafting my interpretation of a concept, be it through art or writing. I’ve been called a “whimsical realist”. Once expressed, I am relieved of some niggling, often non-defined, concept that has finally escaped through my fingers into some observable medium! Mine are simple stories, often skewed by my amusing take on life—stories colored with a twist of lime, line, texture and color, or words—all with teased-out detail—all means of storytelling, as is stopping before an idea is overdone, such as now, with this “writer’s statement”.

 

SONIA MARSH SAYS: You are one “Gutsy” and funny lady. I love your exit interview strategy. Also your artwork is so unique and whimsical.

“This is my exit interview. Charlie and I have nothing to say to you.”

Check out Nancy’s paintings below and on her website.

paint copy (1)

Boxed in
Boxed in
Teacup on a Toe
Teacup on a Toe

 

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

Get Published in our 3rd

“My Gutsy Story®”Anthology in 2015

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HERE

 

MGS FINAL COVER Small
Click on cover to go to Amazon

Benjamin Franklin Digital Awards Solver

 2013 Benjamin Franklin Honoree Winner

International Book Awards Finalist 2014

2014 International Book Awards FINALIST

Paris bookfestival

2014 WINNER of the PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL

 We just won our 4th Award for the Anthology. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT OUR AWARDS.

IMG_20140702_070759918

 


Why It’s Important to Enter Book Award Contests

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READERS FAVORITE 2014 gold-shiny-web

Some authors claim it’s a waste of money to enter book contests, but I don’t agree with them.

Whether you like it or not, readers look up to authors who have been nominated for Awards, and I think it’s important to try as many ways as possible to become “visible” in this competitive ocean of indie authors.

Why it’s important to enter Book Award Contests

  • To stand out from the competition
  • To get recognition 
  • To have a Press Release sent out to the media
  • To land an interview or a newspaper article
  • To get further media attention while attending the Awards Ceremony
  • To get your photo taken and use it for promotion
  • To add it to your Amazon Author Page
  • To try and get a photo taken standing next to a celebrity at the Awards Ceremony
  • The organization also promotes the winners (SEE BELOW)

My goal is to help you enter a few contests and I am very proud to announce that my memoir,  Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island received the Gold Medal at the Readers’ Favorite Awards.  I look forward to attending the Awards Ceremony at the Regency Hotel, Miami, Florida, on November 22nd, 2014. Photos will of course be posted on my site.

READERS FAVORITE AWARD-2014 page-001
Click on photo to see the 5-Star Review

Readers’ Favorites state the following:

“We have posted your review on Barnes & Noble and Google Books. Your book must be currently listed on these sites for us to post your review there.

We have also posted your review on our Facebook, Twitter,Google Plus and Pinterest pages. You will notice we created a special sentence with #hashtags for each of your social posts to help them get noticed. You may want to include the hashtag we created for your book title in future social posts to link them to your review and help build a trend for your book.

Amazon does not allow professional review companies to post in their Customer Reviews section. Instead, they have created an Editorial Reviews section where they want you to post excerpts from your professional reviews, which you can do through your Amazon Author Central Account.”

 

So why not enter the Readers’ Favorites, 2015 Award Contest. You have 195 days left.

Click here to enter

I know many of you have read my memoir, and I am getting ready to write another one. I have applied to join the PEACE CORPS and shall keep you posted when I get my interview and find out which country they are sending me to for 27-months of my life.

 Here are the list of Awards I’ve received to help you contact these organizations and submit your own books to them. BEST OF LUCK to you. Keep being GUTSY!

(CLICK HERE FOR TO SEE MY AWARDS LIST

Next Thursday, September 25th, COME BACK TO READ ABOUT THE  BIG ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT “MY GUTSY STORY” BOOK LAUNCH PARTY ON NOVEMBER 1st, 2014.

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

Get Published in our 3rd

“My Gutsy Story®”Anthology in 2015

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HERE

 

MGS FINAL COVER Small
Click on cover to go to Amazon

Benjamin Franklin Digital Awards Solver

 2013 Benjamin Franklin Honoree Winner

International Book Awards Finalist 2014

2014 International Book Awards FINALIST

Paris bookfestival

2014 WINNER of the PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL

 We just won our 4th Award for the Anthology. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT OUR AWARDS.

IMG_20140702_070759918

 


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