History Comes Alive with "Bootmaker to the Nation: The Story of the American Revolution" by Dr. John Slade.

Celebrate America's 250th Anniversary by taking a journey back to the Revolutionary War through the book Bootmaker to the Nation: The Story of the American Revolution by Dr. John Slade.

This historical novel transports readers to America’s past and invites them to see history through the eyes of Benjamin York, a British-born shoemaker’s apprentice, and Genevieve Byrnes, a farm girl from Massachusetts. 

Fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, the couple takes turns telling their epic story, Benjamin from the battlefields, Genevieve from the headquarters of General George Washington.

Benjamin’s story begins when he is conscripted into the British Navy and is compelled to sail to Boston, where he later deserts. Captured by the Americans, he meets Genevieve and her brother Henry, a Minuteman. 

Building Mental Resilience for an Unpredictable World: Practical Strategies

By Christopher Haymon
of Adulting Digest 
Guest Writer 

For busy parents balancing work deadlines, family needs, and a budget that never seems to get a quiet month, unpredictability isn’t a rare event; it’s the background noise. 

The core tension is simple: constant change drains mental resilience, and without strong uncertainty management, even small surprises can feel like a personal failure. 

A future‑proof mindset treats uncertainty as a normal condition and builds capacity for adaptability in change without losing momentum. With psychological flexibility and steady stress coping strategies, everyday pressure stops running the whole show.

Understanding the Resilience Toolkit

At the heart of a future-proof mindset is a simple map of skills you can practice, not a personality you either have or lack. It blends openness to change, a curiosity mindset, and lifelong learning with mindfulness, emotional agility, and supportive ties. Mindfulness, meaning being fully present, focused, and aware, helps you notice stress without letting it hijack your choices.

This matters because resilience gets built in small, repeatable moments, like how you respond to a rude email or a surprise expense. Training attention and emotion skills can lower day-to-day strain, and an 8-week structured mindfulness program improved resilience scores by 25% for participants. 

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 has celebrated its 250th Anniversary—a once-in-a-generation milestone in our nation's history. '

Now comes an equally important question: 

What does America mean today? 

Every American has a story, a perspective, or an experience that deserves to be heard. Whether your view is reflective, hopeful, doubtful, challenging, or deeply personal, your words can become part of this historic conversation.  

MarketingNewAuthors.com (MANA) invites writers from across the country to enter MANA's Commemorative Writers' Contest and share their unique voice. 

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.