When a Simon & Schuster editor rejected Sonja Gracy’s 2009 pitch for an inspiring book for single black women, “The Tales and Advice from the Stunningly Single!” author says she mixed her book endeavor with prayer, and simply never gave up.
And it was Gracy’s prayers and perseverance that helped her win the support of renowned women in the gospel entertainment industry from Christian lifestyle magazine publisher Dr. Teresa Hairston, to Evangelist and singer Shirley Murdock, to Halo Tu’ Beauty cosmetics founder Adrian Anderson and even the young, former single, Kierra Clark Sheard.
“If I’d of given up,” says Gracy, “I would never have gotten to know on a substantially relational level some of the incredible women I’ve admired for years.”
Former Trin-i-tee 5:7 singer and Halo Tu’ Beauty founder Adrian Anderson also shares her successful single girl prescriptions in the book as well. Her first piece of advice is for single women to “recognize life’s seasons.” Anderson says in ….Stunningly Single! that “women should understand who they are in life and where they want to be” and strongly urges single women “to have fun. Life has different seasons,” says Anderson in the unique book. “You must know the season you’re in. There’s a season for you to nurture and develop yourself, and a season for you to partner.”
Gracy, who’d spent time as a singles magazine writer before penning her new book, says she wanted to do something inspirational to counter all the negative news coverage she’d been witnessing blitzing the “single black woman” issue.
“I thought a lot of the national media coverage was really, really gloomy, and I was, and still am, extraordinarily concerned with how the coverage affects black women’s minds. Since I personally knew single black women like me who weren’t ‘desperately single’ and had read about others who were doing fantastic things with their lives as singles, I started calling on many of them and was thrilled when they responded to help. I absolutely loved the things they were willing to share and be open about to help others.”
R&B legend turned evangelist Shirley Murdock also weighs in with her words of wisdom as a woman who regularly ministers to singles and believes that women can’t love anybody until they learn how to love themselves.”That’s so important,” says the famous singer in …Stunningly Single! “Because then you can understand who you are and whose you are and the value that God places on you. Our Father is a King, and that makes you a princess. When you understand your status and when you understand your value; that sets the stage for how you treat yourself and how you let other people treat you.”
Gracy says that one of the best parts of her “Tales and Advice from the Stunningly Single!” journey has been the first little steps that led to the bigger ones that led to her connecting, learning from, and writing about the book’s great, single women. “I re-learned something special from this endeavor as well. I re-learned that every ‘No’ isn’t fatal, and that another person’s ‘Yes,’ and a lot of help from God ‘make things beautiful in His time.’ I am so glad that I didn’t give up.”
Review copies of “Tales and Advice from the Stunningly Single!” are due for availability this fall through iUniverse.com and Amazon.com.
