How to Boost Your Mental Wellness with Simple and Unconventional Habits

BY CHRISTOPHER HAYMON
of ADULTING DIGEST
GUEST WRITER

Busy parents juggling work and home, mid-career professionals carrying constant deadlines, and caregivers who rarely get a real pause often want mental health improvement without turning life upside down. The tension is simple: everyday emotional wellness matters, but the usual advice can feel like another chore or a bad fit. A calmer mind often comes from treating wellbeing like mental health experimentation, with small, safe trials that create real feedback instead of guilt. For general readers, unconventional wellness methods can open new doors when standard routines stall.

Try 4 Alternative Ways to Downshift Stress Today

If you're treating this week like a low-stakes experiment, a "pick-one" menu can make stress relief feel more doable.

MANA's Writing Contest: Commemorating The USA's 250th Birthday

The United States of America marked its 250th Birthday on July 4th, 2026. In addition to commemorating this event, it is also a time to reflect upon it. 

To encourage this reflection, MarketingNewAuthors.com (MANA) is sponsoring MANA's Commemorative Writers' Contest to highlight thoughtful voices and meaningful stories.  

Contest Themes

There are two themes for the contest:

1) What does the word "American" mean to you?

OR

2) What makes being an American complex?

Listen To Excerpts From Dr. Fairy's Books: "Are There Black Angels In Heaven?" Sharing A For-Real Black Love Story" and "A Widow's First Year"

Forty years of love can fill a lifetime of memories—and one loss can change every single day that follows. For decades, MANA's owner, Dr. Fairy Hayes-Scott, recorded special highlights from her marriage, but not to post on social media or for others to read. 

Dr. Fairy wanted to preserve the over 40-year journey she shared with her husband, Robert Scott. She provides the details in her book, Are There Black Angels In Heaven?: Sharing A For-Real Black Love Story. 

Then life changed. Robert Scott, the man Dr. Fairy had built a life with, was suddenly gone. Like many people facing the loss of a spouse, she entered a season few are prepared for. 

While the memories and the love are still there, daily life looks completely different. Dr. Fairy faced a chapter she never expected to write.

Dr. Fairy shares her experiences in her latest book, A Widow's First Year. She opens the door to the realities of life after loss.

In Part 1 of the audio, Dr. Fairy reads excerpts from both of her books. 

Publishing With Confidence: The Importance of Having a Plan

If you’re a writer, it’s common to feel uncomfortable about publishing your book for the first time. 

But here’s the part most writers don’t realize: staying where you are feels safe, but it comes with its own cost.

Every month your manuscript sits untouched is another month your story goes untold. Another month when the manuscript you’ve already worked so hard to write isn’t doing what it was meant to do—reach people, impact lives, and open doors.

After all, you don’t want to feel like you made the wrong call and paid for it twice—once financially and once emotionally.

Why Most Writers Get Stuck After Writing a Book—and How to Finally Get Published

You did the hard part.

You wrote the book.

Late nights. Early mornings. Weeks—maybe years—of struggling to put words onto the page.

And then you’re finally done.

The manuscript sits in a folder on your laptop, or you upload it to a flash drive for good measure.

You tell yourself you’ll publish it soon. But the reality is you’re not sure about the publishing process.

Weeks turn into months, and months turn into years, and you still haven’t published your book.

Sound familiar?

How Small Businesses Can Plan and Achieve Sustainable Growth

BY CHRISTOPHER HAYMON
of ADULTING DIGEST
GUEST WRITER

For small business owners trying to grow, especially creative founders running author services, retreats, or small publishing projects, expansion can start to feel messy fast. 

The core tension is simple: the business needs more capacity and visibility, but hiring new employees, funding growth, choosing marketing strategies, and tightening customer acquisition all compete for the same limited time and cash. 

That mix can leave founders working harder while feeling less certain, even when demand is real. The most helpful first step is naming the one constraint creating the most friction right now.

Quick Growth Planning Takeaways

Congratulations to Lisa Sarno, Winner of MANA's Black History Month Writers' Contest!

MANA is pleased to announce that Lisa Sarno, a Flint, Michigan, resident, is the winner of MANA’s Black History Month Writers’ Contest. Sarno won for her poem, “Juba’s Spirit.”

The theme for the 2026 contest was “Dealing with Changes in Black Culture.” MANA asked writers of all ethnicities to submit their work, as diverse perspectives foster better dialogue and deepen understanding.

We learned to move through the thickest of times is a line from Sarno's poem, "Juba Spirit," which describes different dances across time periods that black people enjoyed. 

In an interview with The Flint Courier, Sarno said she saw that dances such as the Cha Cha Slide and those from the Harlem Renaissance era all originated from ancestral dances. She also noted that not much has changed about these dances. 

How Writers’ Retreats Transform Isolation Into Creative Growth and Success

BY CHRISTOPHER HAYMON
of ADULTING DIGEST
GUEST WRITER

For location-independent writers, digital nomads, military spouses, van-lifers, and indie authors working from spare rooms, freedom often comes with a quiet cost. Remote writing isolation can turn a steady practice into stop-and-start sessions, where writer motivation challenges pile up, and doubts get louder than the work. 

Without regular feedback and real deadlines, building writing craft remotely can feel slow, and progress becomes hard to measure. Even when online groups exist, writer community engagement can stay thin and transactional. 

The result is simple: talent grows faster in good company.

What a Writers’ Retreat Really Is

A writers’ retreat is a planned block of time and a shared setting where you show up to work on your project with intention. The simplest definition of a writing retreat is a designated period and space to focus, often alongside other writers. That focus is only the first win. 

Retreats strengthen your craft through concentrated practice, add a layer of community support through real conversations and feedback, and help your career by creating momentum you can measure when you return to normal life.

Think of it like moving your writing from “whenever I can” to “this is the shift I clock in for.” Your draft gets pages, your ideas get stress-tested, and your goals start looking like a workable publishing plan. 

A Love Story After Valentine's Day

"Good things happen to those who wait." "Experiencing a true love experience takes time." The beautiful love story, Are There Black Angels in Heaven?: Sharing A For-Real Black Love Story by Fairy C. Hayes-Scott, illustrates these sayings. This is a non=fiction love story told through the author's diary entries. Also, she adds some reflective comments. It is a book for the individual wanting to curl up with a for-real love story.

The author recalls going to her manicurist on a day close to Valentine's Day. The facility was busier than usual. The author wondered why. Her manicurist must have been reading her mind, she remarked that Valentine's Day was coming very soon. Thus, young ladies were getting their nails done as well as their feet "prettied" for the special day. The author recalled that she smiled and said, "Well, now my husband has passed, so he and I won't be celebrating that day. However, we never did. Yes, we would exchange cards. We did no more than that. We just tried to make every day of our marriage a celebration of Valentine's Day."

It took time to meet her for-real love. This book takes you through the journey in an entertaining way.  

Yes, this was a for-real Black love story for any person to appreciate.

Go HERE to visit our bookstore for Are There Black Angels in Heaven?: Sharing A For-Real Black Love Story.