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b'Barbara Sellers decided to become a writer when she was nine years old. At large family gatherings, her grandmother got everyone\\u2019s attention and read humorous parts of Barbara\\u2019s letters aloud. Everyone laughed and applauded, so she continued writing.\\xa0 When Barbara wrote to a Japanese pen pal, she unwittingly developed stronger writing skills. Knowing her pen pal had to interpret her letters into a foreign language forced her to pay attention to correct spelling and better sentence structure. After graduating from high school, Barbara worked as a secretary in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a few years before moving to Tacoma, Washington, to escape cold weather.\\xa0\\xa0Barbara retired in May 2009 from the Department of Defense, where she worked for an Army newspaper, the Northwest Guardian, as a reporter, editor, and photojournalist in the public affairs office. While there, she wrote more than 4,000 stories and won 32 individual and staff journalism awards, including the coveted Thomas Jefferson Award twice, for best newspaper out of more than 6,000 in all four branches of the military.\\xa0 Barbara is a 30-year member of Toastmasters International and has won many humorous speech contests. After retirement, she did some stand-up comedy at open mics and has two CDs of original true stories, True Confessions and Back on the Farm. Barbara is also a special guest on the CD Panic to Power, with three world champion speakers from Toastmasters. Get Tough or Die is Barbara\\u2019s first book.\\n\\nhttps://www.facebook.com/GetToughOrDieBook/?modal=admin_todo_tour\\n\\nhttp://barbarasellers.com/'