MANA's COMMEMORATIVE WRITERS' CONTEST WINNERS

MarketingNewAuthors.com is pleased to announced the winners of its Commemorative Writers' Contest.

• The First Prize goes to Cara Williams for her essay, "Freedom, It's Free."

• The Second Prize goes to MariaGuia de Leon for her poem, "What America Left Me."

• The Third Prize goes to Barry Carter for his poem "A Country Contradicted."

Writers were asked to submit entries about one of the following themes:

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

OR

2) What makes being an American complex?

Thank you to all those who submitted! Everyone who submitted an entry made this contest a valuable opportunity to encourage writers to reflect on their experience in this very unique 250-year-old country.

MANA will post the remaining winning entries over the next two months. The first entry to post is: 

The Sea vs.the Music

Editor's Note: This is the first entry of a six-entry short story

By Barbara Trainin Blank
Writer, Editor
Blank Page Writing

Betsy loved her father. He was wise and learned and understood her well. Partly because of his exciting profession in community service she wished she could have been a boy. Maybe not literally; just a feeling that males had it better in the world. Her mother’s life seemed circumscribed. She had a career before Betsy’s older brother was born but had given it up for housework and child-rearing. Boring, Betsy thought.

She preferred being thought a tomboy—though she wasn’t athletic. Preferred wearing her hair short and no makeup. She disliked when boys looked at her too much.

That remained Betsy’s strong feeling till, at age 13, she attended a summer program for kids entering high school. It was based on the coast of the Mediterranean, warm and placid compared with oceans. The program was full of activities but left plenty of time for swimming.

Mostly Betsy talked with the few guys she knew from elementary school—seeing them as non-threatening pals. Then one night, during a sunset swim, Betsy took a particularly strong kick and hit the leg of a boy she didn’t know. They apologized to each other, awkwardly. Suddenly she felt something strange. A tingling. She and the boy—named Alan—began a short conversation. The next day they sat together for breakfast. All of a sudden Betsy didn’t want to be a boy anymore. It was more fun talking to a boy as a girl.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Cultivating Empowerment and Positive Energy

By Christopher Haymon
of Adulting Digest 
Guest Writer 

Busy parents juggling work, family schedules, and a never-ending to-do list often recognize the quiet drain: the days keep moving, but the spark feels gone. 

When stress becomes the default and self-talk turns harsh, personal reinvention can feel risky, indulgent, or simply out of reach. Yet reinvention isn’t a personality overhaul; it’s a steady mindset transformation that rebuilds trust in choices and creates room for positive energy cultivation. 

With the right self-growth motivation, beginning self-improvement becomes a grounded empowerment journey that starts from wherever life is today.

A Simple Reinvention Plan You Can Start This Week

This process helps you rebuild momentum with small, realistic actions that fit into a packed schedule. It matters because when life is busy, simple repeatable steps beat big, one-time bursts of motivation.

1. Set one clear intention for the next 7 days

Choose a single focus that would make your week feel lighter or more energized, like “speak to myself kindly” or “move my body for 10 minutes.” Write it where you will see it daily, then pick one tiny action that proves the intention is real. Keeping it narrow protects you from the all-or-nothing trap.

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.

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?