Toi Thomas's Blog, page 121

Author Insight 08

This is more of an update.

I’m very excited about the Goodreads giveaway I have going on. I’m excited about the writing I’ve been doing lately. I released the free ebook companion guide to Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, am just about ready to start editing the sequel, and am working on another non-related piece of fiction. Check out the ToiBox to learn more about that.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and even some networking. I think the constant state of being overwhelm has come to a lull. I still don’t have time to do most of the things I want to do, but I guess I’m just over it now. I’m excited about meeting new people and being able to post some cool and interesting interviews. I have a special interview lined up for tomorrow that I’m sure you all will like.
As always, I’m behind on my reviews, but I hope to get caught up soon. I love to read and to write, but I still have trouble writing about what I’ve read. I’ve made some changes to this blog in hopes of making it more user and fan friendly. I’d love some feedback. So far I’ve made some changes to the color scheme and the general fonts because of comments people have made. If you give me a heads up, I’ll do my best to improve this blog.
Saturday’sR4Sharing will hopefully go up on Saturday this week, but it’s still too early call. LOL! I’ll get things together eventually. One more day and the weekend will be here. Enjoy yourselves and be safe.

WWW WEDNESDAYS 05

WWW WEDNESDAYS… is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading, where you share (1)What you’re currently reading, (2)What you recently finished reading, and (3)What you think you’ll read next.
Comments and shares are welcomed here, but please try to share with Should be Reading as this is their meme.
1. What are you currently reading?Childhood’s End by Author C. Clarke, Embrace (Gryphon Series) by Stacey Rourke, and just started A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, but this may be a bit much for me.
2. What did you recently finish reading? The Conduit (Gryphon Series) by Stacey Rourke.
3. What do you think you’ll read next? I just pick up a Peter Pan story that I can’t even remember the name of. It was new and I hadn’t read it so I got. I love stories from Neverland. Maybe next week I’ll have my head on straight and tell more about it then.   
What is your WWW Wednesday?

Stacking The Shelves 05

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, and of course ebooks!*Create your own Stacking The Shelves post. You can use Tynga’s official graphic or your own, but please link back to Tynga’s Reviews so more people can join the fun!*You can set your post any way you want, simple book lists, covers, pictures, vlog, sky is the limit!*Tynga’s posting Stacking The Shelves on Saturdays, but feel free to post yours any day that fits you.* Visit Tynga’s Reviews on Saturday to add your link so others can visit you.*Visit other participant’s links to find out what they added to their shelves.The information list above was taken directly from Tynga’s Reviews blog.Here’s what I got.Time Sniffers (Shadow World) by C. S. Lakin- ebookMend My Broken Heart by Jocelyn Soriano- ebookCaptain James Hook and the Curse of Peter Pan  by Jeremy Marshall & Jeremiah Kleckner- ebookA Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness- audio book Just for fun, ECS will also be Entertaining My Brain.I will be sharing the comics, movies, live shows, and vinyl records I’ve added and or will be seeing at venues or theatres.  Please feel free to share and comment.*Just got my Netflix copy of Lottery Ticket. I hope it’s more funny than silly.*Bought more Batman paraphernalia. I think I have a problem.Can’t what to see what I have next week.

Happy Birthday to Me Giveaway!

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Goodreads Book Giveaway Eternal Curse by Toi Thomas Giveaway ends October 21, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
Monday is my day of blog rest, but I just couldn't wait to post this. In addition to this lovely Goodreads giveaway, I will also be awarding an Eternal Curse: Giovanni's Angel swag pack with t-shirt and a $5 gift card to one lucky new follower of this blog.

Visit Goodreads for a chance to win a signed copy of my book. Follow this blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the swag pack and gift card. Don't you all just love contests?

Saturday'sR4Sharing 03

This is a weekly meme hosted by Eternal Curse Series. Throughout the week, guests and followers will have the opportunity to vote on the week’s topic. Each Saturday, I will post my thoughts on the subject matter and will include my top 5 whenever applicable. I greatly encourage guests and followers to comment and contribute to the subject of the day.
Book to Screen Adaptations
One of these days, I will actually post my Saturday Share post on a Saturday, but until then, I say better late than never. Lately I’ve seen lots of discussions about book to screen adaptations. It seems that everyone has an opinion about it, but not everyone is talking about the same thing.
Exploring new frontiers, I have been slowly adapting to the world of GoodReads.com. There is a Listopia list there called, “Books that should be made into movies.” It is interesting to see the types of books on the list and even to see that many of them are already being made into movies.  I am reluctant to vote on many of these, simply because I cherish my stories. There are several books that I think would make for great movies; I just don’t trust Hollywood to do these books justice.  The only thing Hollywood really has going for it right now, are books. All the “creative experts” of Hollywood have run out of ideas and now they are attaching the literary world to keep them afloat.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am just as much a movie buff as I am a reader and lover of stories, but I just don’t  like it when someone takes a good idea or story and runs it into the ground. The magic of movies has uplifted me so many times, that until recently, I have been able to over look the times it has disappointed me. The problem now is that it’s not just Hollywood that’s impressing upon my beloved stories. Now the broadcast industry and the Internet is also on board with taking from books, but what are they giving back?
I guess you could say that I’m at an impassable cross roads in my mind right now. Anyone who’s written a book in the last few years, knows that a pitch for book-to-screen- adaptation has become a growing part of book marketing process. My book is still fairly unknown at this point, but I’ve already been approached by agencies, who are only in it for the money, to pay for a screen adaptation of my book to pitch to cinematic agencies.  Again, don’t miss understand me. I’d love nothing more than to see my book represented on the small or big screen, but there’s a time and place for that. I wrote a book and want people to read my book. If I didn’t want that, I would have written a screen play. Why must the two things I so enjoy cause me so much grief? I need to stop thinking so much.
Comments are welcomed. Be sure stop by this week and vote for next week’s topic.

6 Sentence Sunday 05

This is a weekly meme hosted and originated by 6 Sentence Sunday. Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel -6 sentences from chapter 4
Abraham, Giovanni, and Mira all gathered around the table and took their seats. Just before eating, Abraham asked for a moment of silence in case anyone wanted to pray. Mira was pleasantly surprised by this suggestion. She halfway closed her eyes and bowed her head. She could see that Abraham was saying his grace intensely while Giovanni was staring at him from across the table, just watching him even more intensely. When the moment of silence was over they all began to eat.
To participate, pick six (6) sentences from anything you like (it can be from a Work in Progress (WiP), something you recently sold, something you hope to sell or even something already under contract and available for purchase – and don’t worry, Six Sentence Sunday is for published AND unpublished writers ). Then post them on your blog on Sunday. That’s all there is to it!
Posts are for bloggers only, but comments are open to all. Please post a link back to Six Sunday, the “anchor” site, to let people know where you heard about the idea. You are not required to list the week’s posters on your post…And don’t be afraid to share the love by adding the hashtag #sixsunday to your tweets about Six Sentence Sunday. You can follow the official Six Sentence Sunday twitter at: https://twitter.com/6_Sunday.
*The informative content listed above was taken directly from the 6 Sentence Sunday website with a few paraphrases for ease of viewing and reading. Please review their FAQs for more details.

Review 03

 Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
I give this story a solid 5.
This is the story of an unconventional game played to the death, only the participants don’t really understand that they are just pawns in a rivalry that has gone on far too long. It is the Night Circus that is their playing field and the weapon of choice is magic, though there won’t be any waving of wands or chanting of spells here. In many ways, that aren’t so oblivious, mystery and intrigue are the catalysts to changes in the player’s favor whether they are actively playing or not.
When posting my typical To the Point review of the audio book I said, “Think Cirque du Soleil meets Harry Potter with youthful imagination and mature sophistication. Listening to this story is like hearing a secret that no one else can handle, except you.”Think Cirque du Soleil meets Harry Potter with youthful imagination and mature sophistication. Listening to this story is like hearing a secret that no one else can handle, except you. Think Cirque du Soleil meets Harry Potter with youthful imagination and mature sophistication. Listening to this story is like hearing a secret that no one else can handle, except you. Think Cirque du Soleil meets Harry Potter with youthful imagination and mature sophistication. Listening to this story is like hearing a secret that no one else can handle, except you.
Maybe I was being a bit deep, but that’s how the story made me feel. This is not a story for children, but only because I don’t think they’d get most of it. Teens with a fever for magic would probably eat this up, but still, the story is mature. I like that that the story is for and about adults, but it’s clear the that Erin was definitely in touch with her inner child when she imagined this quirky Circus and all the people in it.
The story is fill with youthful imagination and has a mature appeal, but most of all, it has that ‘love conquers all’ or that ‘good triumphs over evil’ feel to it. The best thing about the story to me is the fact that the reader never really gets to pick sides in the game. Every time you think you’re going to pick one player over the other, something happens and the story takes you in a whole new direction. Like every story that inspired and shaped my imagination as a child, Night Circus left me wanting to leave the world of reality and take a trip through the lines of the story. I can just see myself now staring into the white flames of the bonfire just as the festivities are about to begin. I wish there was more of it to read.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/383456392

Have you been following #ECGA?

I have been giving little nuggets, insights, and chapter previews of my current book release. I’m trying to build up interest. I honestly don’t know if it has made any impact, but I’m proud that I’ve been persistent with it and actually have something to show for it.

If anyone should ever get the notion to look up the initials of my first book and add a hash tag to it, they will find quite a bit to keep them busy, and I’m still adding to the list. I’ve posted one-liners, questions, articles, and excerpts. Surely, there is something there peak someone’s interest.
#ECGA is easy sometimes, but sometimes it’s hard. I don’t have as much time to put into as I wish I did. Sometimes I feel like I’m not sharing enough or that I’m sharing the wrong stuff. I feel like I’m just picking and choosing random lines from the book to post, even though I know, I am actually trying to pick relevant stuff to post.
In any case, I know I’m making the effort. Maybe one day all this will amount to something more, but for now, #ECGA is keeping me alert and in the game. There are just 10 days until my birthday, but I don’t have anything big planned for me. I do have something for my fans going down. To get things started, for a chance to win an Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel swag pack and a $5 gift card, tell me when Mira’s birthday is. This link may help. 40 Day & Nights of Eternal Curse. Follow this blog and my twitter page to find when the next question will be posted so you’ll have more chances to win.

Author Insight 07

Give and Take  
In a world of give and take, I feel like an old penny pincher taking away, just to give back in a different form. If I’ve completely lost you at this time, don’t feel too bad, I’m having trouble understanding myself right now.
The thing is, I have this wonderful companion blog that I wrote as a writing challenge to myself for my first book. It provides all sorts of wonderful information about the book and is an in depth and interesting read all on its, but I want to sell books. I think I’m just too passive about it. So I’ve decided to give the companion guide away for free as an ebook in hopes that people will read it and want to read the actually book. In doing so, I’ll be removing a small amount of the content from the blog to add to the ebook as exclusive material. The blog covers 40 days of entries so I won’t short change blog readers of that if they should happen upon the online companion guide, but I will make known what’s missing and where to get it.
For all I know this may backfire on me, but I doubt it. At this point, the companion blog has reached the top of its viewing peak and people love free stuff. If no one takes my free book it’s not like I’ve lost anything. As I see it, it’s a win or no effect at all situation, and that’s not too shabby for me.

WWW WEDNESDAYS 04

WWW WEDNESDAYS… is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading, where you share (1)What you’re currently reading, (2)What you recently finished reading, and (3)What you think you’ll read next.
Comments and shares are welcomed here, but please try to share with Should be Reading as this is their meme.
1. What are you currently reading?Just started Childhood’s End and put Gulliver on the back burner. Two chapter’s left of Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher. It’s a good story, but I have a few issues with it that have nothing to do with it’s unnecessary over-usage of the F-word. I’m really getting into The Conduit (Gryphon Series) by Stacey Rourke. I may finish it this week.
2. What did you recently finish reading? I haven’t finished anything else new lately, but this week looks promising.
3. What do you think you’ll read next? Since I have the sequel, I may just start Embraceafter the Conduit, though I usually like to wait a while before reading a follow-up.  
What is your WWW Wednesday?