Sonia Marsh - Gutsy Living

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Check out my new office

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If  you’ve seen me on a Hangout video with Jason Matthews’ Indie Authors show, you will know that I have a paper towel holder and a red cutting board behind my desk as well as  a stainless steel toaster and tea kettle. I tried to hide some of the kitchen mess with an orchid from my living room table, but that didn’t work well.

After seven years in my kitchen, I now have a desk in a proper room.

Just in case you didn’t see my kitchen, check this out. Here I’m introducing Jason Matthews and our wonderful panel of indie authors from my kitchen. Looks like I forgot to put the oven dish with foil away. Two of my sons were home during these videos, and I told them not to come into the kitchen while we were recording. Poor kids were thirsty and starving, they had to go out and get food as they couldn’t get to the fridge.

I converted my youngest son’s bedroom into an office and purchased a used cherry wood table and file cabinet, from Craig’s list.

You should have seen Duke and I struggle to carry this table off his truck into our garage, and then slide it along our narrow hallway into my son’s bedroom. Duke had to take the door off the hinges as it barely fit.

Can you see the photo on the wall in front of me? Well that’s a present from a friend in Belize, Olivera Rusu, a professional photographer on the island where we lived called, Ambergris Caye. She sent me this photo for my birthday; it’s from Azul, a small resort about half a mile north of where we lived.

Azul Resort by Olivera Rusu Photography
Goff’s Caye, above our TV in living room.

Duke received this beautiful photograph of Goff’s Caye, an island eleven miles from Belize City.

What do you think? Comments?

Sonia Marsh is on her virtual blog tour this month.

You can check out all my interviews here, and tomorrow I shall be in France with Stephanie Dagg and her wonderful Blog in France.

I shall also be speaking on Monday September 24th at Signal Hill Library with one of the winners of the “My Gutsy Story” contest, Jill Fales. Remember Jill?

 

An honest quick “chat” with Sonia

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Sonia Marsh having fun at her book launch

An “old” blogger friend wrote to me the other day and said something that made me think:

“I would very much like to hear more from YOU. Yes, you’ve shared bits about the book launch, but what is happening to Sonia? What is Sonia thinking and feeling? “

So in honor of  Rob-bear, I am going to answer his questions:

  • I am living on an adrenaline rush these days.
  • I love what I’m doing but it’s exhausting.
  • Cookie, my rat terrier isn’t getting as many walks as she used to.
  • Unfortunately I don’t have as much time to respond to my friends’ e-mails as I used to.
  • Like many of my writer friends, I’m online as soon as I wake up.
  • I would like to set up an office in my son’s bedroom now that he’s left home. I think a splash of yellow paint on the walls, colorful drapes and flowers on my desk, would make my office a relaxing space for me.
  • This evening I have an event in Dana Point at 5 pm  with Tom Blake.
  • Saturday at Peet’s Coffee with some nice raffle prizes.
  • I have a book signing event at Laguna Playhouse next week, which I’m looking forward to, thanks to Michelle Bendetti for setting up.
  • I’m on a virtual blog tour with some wonderful people who are hosting me. I know they are patiently waiting for me to answer their questions.

I’ve done two so far:

Sonia’s 1st interview with author Susan Pohlman on Expat Chat 8-31-12

Sonia’s 2nd interview with Shirley Showalter on 100 memoirs 9-3-12

I shall be on FrenchYummyMummy.com with Muriel Demarcus, a French expat in London, tomorrow. Come watch our Hangout video.

Thank you Rob-bear for letting me share what’s going on in my life. It’s all good.

I have included some of my local events, and hope to meet you in person at one of them.

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Don’t forget to vote for your favorite August, “My Gutsy Story.” You have until September 12th to vote and the winner will be announced on September 13th. Please go to the sidebar to VOTE and click on your favorite story of the month. Thanks, and please share with your favorite social media buttons below.
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Do you have a “My Gutsy Story” you’d like to share?

To submit your own, “My Gutsy Story” you can find all the information, and our sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here.

Book Launch Party! My BIG Day is here

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Tonight is my book launch. This is a day I’ve been working towards for the last seven years since I started my journal in Belize.

In celebration of all authors I’ve met and connected with over the past seven years, I can say that you all deserve to be congratulated for your hard work. I never realized what it takes to write a book until I went through all the headaches, anxiety, frustrations, rewrites, edits, re-edits, and finally a book in my hands.

This celebration is for all of you.

On my BIG day, I am going to make a speech, and with so many people to thank, I’m afraid the speech will come across as the ones we hear at the Academy Awards.

As you can see on the poster above, I wish to thank Laguna Beach Books for hosting my event, and six sponsors.

I would like to thank the following businesses for their kind sponsorship:

My apologies for starting the voting for your favorite August “My Gutsy Story” contest tomorrow instead of today, but you will have until September 12th to vote. Come back tomorrow to VOTE.

My “OC Register” Interview on Front Page

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Sonia holding a copy of OC Register 8-23-12 and pointing to the article written by Lori Basheda “Lake Forest family leaves the rat race.”

Yes, today I’m bragging. I couldn’t believe it when Register writer, Lori Basheda, told me that her article about my family escaping OC for Belize would make the front cover of the OC Register.

I woke up early, ran to buy 3 copies of the OC Register outside my local bagel shop, and asked my husband to take some photos of me holding the paper in our back yard.

The story continues on Page 13, and I had to get another photo of that page. As you can see, the OC Register photograher took a photo of me at Laguna Beach, holding my book, Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island.

OC register article “Freeways to Flip-Flops”

You can read the online version of my interview with Lori Basheda, here.

There are extra photos to look at on the online version and if you would be so kind as to leave a comment on the online version. I was told the more comments, the longer that article will remain online.

Thanks to all of you for your support.

Sonia

 

Freeways to Flip-Flops is Now Available

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Endorsements for Freeways to Flip-Flops

“Sonia Marsh and her family give new meaning to the term “flipping out!”  Sombreros off to them for showing us the roads less traveled can often be the most rewarding — even when our trips don’t go as planned.”

–– Franz Wisner, New York Times bestselling author of Honeymoon with My Brother and How the World Makes Love

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“If you’re dreaming of escaping to a tropical island, or to any foreign land, don’t miss Sonia Marsh’s candid and vivid recounting of the ups and downs of life abroad. Part adventure tale, part romance, part family saga and part travel guide, Freeways to Flip-Flops is a memoir that reads like a novel.”

–Lan Sluder (Easy Belize, Fodor’s Belize, Living Abroad in Belize)

 

I am so happy to announce the arrival of my travel memoir:

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

After seven years of gestation–the time it would take for 3.5 African elephants to  grow inside their mother, I am now the proud author, wife, and mother of my family’s story.

As a special gift, I would like to offer you a 26-page book called: My School Bus Isn’t Yellow.  My husband, Duke, wrote this book which is full of color photos from our year in Belize. You will see our family, how we took our sons to school by boat, the mangroves, dolphins swimming next to our boat, a stormy sky, Altun-Ha Mayan ruins, our pier, a stingray next to our boat dock, “Hank” the hawk, starfish, and how we did our final garage sale by boat.

“My School Bus Isn’t Yellow.”

I love how Duke wrote this story for children, from the perspective of our ten-year-old son. It shows children and adults,  how different our life can be depending on where we live.

You can find all the information for signing up to receive your gift, my book and more on the Sidebar to the right.

Finally I wish to thank my family, fellow writers, blogger friends and everyone else, for your support during my writing journey. I wish you the best with your writing and publishing, and one last message.

I’d like to share one piece of wisdom that I learned from our year in Belize.

“Paradise is not a physical location; it’s a place that you discover within yourself.”

Love from Sonia.

 

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