Toi Thomas's Blog, page 81

Author Spotlight 3: Ian Mathie 1.3

New Release!

Now available through Amazon.
Kindle and other digital copies coming soon.

For further information about Ian and his work, please visit: http://www.ianmathie.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Guest Posts Tagged: Africa, author, book cover, book release, Ian Mathie, memoir, non-fiction, spotlight

Author Spotlight 3: Ian Mathie 1.2

A Bio

image from ianmathie.com

Having worked his way through two energetic careers, Ian Mathie retired and became a full time author. Using the pile of detailed notebooks he had kept during the years he spent working in the African bush, he began a series of African Memoirs in which he shares the many exciting experiences and gives his readers an intimate look at tribal life from within.

With four books in the series already published, the fifth volume is due for release any day. After that he intends to try his hand at fiction, with a fast paced spy thriller.

****

Born in Scotland, within sight of Edinburgh Castle, Ian was taken out to Africa aged three, when his soldier father was posted to be second in command of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment in 1951. After a sea voyage to Cape Town, during which he spent most of the voyage confined to his cabin with measles, the family spent four days on a train as it crawled across southern Africa, eventually stopping on the bridge over the Victoria Falls to wash the dust off the carriages in the spray.

Not long after arriving in Lusaka, Ian was sent to the local mission school, along with his father’s soldiers’ children. There all the teaching was done in the local language and in the mornings he did lessons, while in the afternoons the wide open bush was his playground.

At seven and a half Ian was sent back to UK to a boarding school, and hated its restrictive environment. Fortunately he was able to fly back to Africa for each of the school holidays, where he spent most of the time wandering in the bush with his local friends. Boarding school continued for the next nine years, during which he developed an interest in flying and demonstrated some talent by gaining his gliding certificate on his sixteenth birthday. Two years later he joined the Royal Air Force to train as a pilot.

Due to politically driven defence cuts, Ian’s career in the RAF only lasted four years, and then he returned to Africa. Someone in the service had noticed that he got on well with all the African students on his military courses, and he was invited to join the government’s overseas aid programme as a rural development officer. He was sent to West Africa and soon found himself specialising in water resources, living among isolated communities far out in the bush. As the work developed, the territory for which he was responsible increased, and he was given a light aircraft to fly himself between remote projects, often thousands of miles apart.

****

Over the years, Ian visited and worked in most of Africa’s countries, only returning to UK when changes in the political situation meant there were more local people available to take on the work he had been doing. Inspired by wanting to know more about what had motivated the tribesmen among whom he had worked, he took a place at Cardiff University and retrained as an industrial psychologist. He went on to develop some innovative and challenging motivational and performance development programmes, returning regularly to Africa on short term assignments and working across Europe.

When health issues restricted his work and travelling, Ian became a full time author, and now lives right in the centre of England, in south Warwickshire, with his wife and his dog.

For further information about Ian and his work, please visit: http://www.ianmathie.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Guest Posts Tagged: Africa, author, biography, excerpt, Ian Mathie, memoir, non-fiction, sample, spotlight

A Day in My Life: Jan. ’14

I apologize for the confusing auto-posting of this article. I am away from computer dealing with a family matter. Some posts are prescheduled while others may be incomplete or missing.  I promise to return to my regular posting schedule as soon as I can.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Listography-Top5-MyLife Tagged: biography, family, holiday, life, social interaction, Toi Thomas, tradition

Author Spotlight 3: Ian Mathie 1.1

An Except

BRIDE PRICE, is the story of Abélé, a fourteen year old orphan girl to whom I became foster father when I moved to live in a forest village in Zaïre. Life settled down well and we fitted into the community with ease until an unwanted suitor came out of the forest demanding to marry her. He demanded I should set her bride price and I had no right to refuse. That’s when the problems began.

Under the intense scrutiny of the witch-doctor and observed by my friends and neighbours, who were prevented by their own customs and traditions from giving me any direct advice, I had to peer into this evil man’s soul to find a price he could but would not pay. When I finally named the price, his reaction was entirely unexpected and had far reaching and dramatic consequences.

Here’s an extract from our first encounter:

 ****

His presence completely dominated the room. I felt a faint tremor of apprehension and began, for the first time I could remember, to feel uncomfortable in my own home.

The afternoon light was dim inside the house but there was enough to let me see the man clearly and to examine his features and huge frame. By the way he had stooped to enter I judged that he must be well over six feet tall and he was massively built. I wondered if he came from one of the south eastern provinces of the country, where many of the men were this tall. Certainly he was unlike the local people who were wiry and slight. He spoke the local dialect well, but with an accent which showed the language was as foreign to him as it was to me.

A dull green shirt stretched tightly across his barrel chest, the buttons straining to contain him. Heavily muscled arms, like those of a heavyweight wrestler, filled the short sleeves. His creased grey trousers were sweat stained round the waistband and grubby down the fly. They contrasted harshly with fluorescent pink socks and white plastic sandals. In the humid air beads of perspiration coated his broad chocolate forehead. A thin scar ran from the corner of the right eye down the broad expanse of his nose to the corner of his mouth. His face and his overall appearance held a distinct aura of menace that was increased rather than dispelled by the brief smile as he finished eating.

He tossed the mango pip casually out of the open door and wiped his sticky fingers on the leg of his pants, adding to the grime. Turning to look at me again, his eyes gleamed mischievously in the dim light. Again the tremor of apprehension fluttered through me and I hoped that it had not shown. I did not know this man. He was not someone I would forget easily and I wondered who he was and why he had come.

For a long moment we stared at each other as though neither knew what to say. Finally my visitor broke the silence. This time he spoke in good but heavily accented French. I tried to place his accent but could not.

“I am Kuloni Nkese. Do you know me, Kamran?”

His name was all too familiar and he evidently knew something about me for he had used the name by which the villagers now called me. It was the common name for a tall thin tree that grew in this part of the forest which Olidange, one of the villagers, has applied to me since I was over a foot taller than him and he had to crane his neck back to talk to me. The others, who were not much taller, all laughed and the name stuck. Word travels fast in the forest, even among isolated communities, so I should not have been surprised that Kuloni Nkese knew this. Even so, his use of the name made the back of my neck tingle.

When people spoke his name it was with fear and with hate, invariably accompanied by a sign to ward off evil spirits. This man was the Party Agent from a village some twenty-five kilometres to the east of here, across the Banaii River. He was hated by all, feared by most and spoken well of by none. His reputation made him the archetype of all things evil in mankind.

 ****

BRIDE PRICE is available in print or electronically at Amazon.com…

And is also available in other e-formats at Smashwords.com.

For more information about the author and his other books, please look at Ian Mathie’s website: http://www.ianmathie.com . You will also find reviews of his work and two broadcast interviews there.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Guest Posts Tagged: Africa, author, biography, book, Bride Price, ebook, excerpt, Ian Mathie, memoir, non-fiction, sample, spotlight

Personal Appearance Rescheduled :(

Due to inclement weather, the library will be closing early. I will be rescheduling this event. If you know of anyone who was actually trying to leave their house to attend this tonight, please pass the word along.

Thank you and sorry for the last-minute notice.

Stay safe and warm.

Toi

Filed under: Uncategorized

Character Files from the ToiBox 45: Mr. Thornton- Psych Test

Rorschach Test

This is not a real Rorschach test , but simply a fun little additive to the whole character profile motif.

Subject FM 5-Mr. Thornton describe test image #1 as:

The personification of human sorrow and pain, “A monster of our own making.”

This subject seems tired and grieved, and harmless. He’s a realists.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Character Files, Full Moon Tagged: #thetoiboxofwords, character, contemporary fiction, cultural study, drama, family, fiction, friends, It's Like the Full Moon, Mr. Thornton, profile, psych test, romance, Rorschach, Toi Thomas

Author Spotlight 3: Ian Mathie 1.0

 

An Introduction

Ian Mathie – non-fiction author who writes gripping tales every bit as exciting as the best thrillers.

Having spent much of his childhood and early school years in East Africa, Ian Mathie returned to Africa after military service in the RAF, to work as a rural development officer. Flying himself in a light aircraft for long range transport, he specialised mainly in water supply projects, and his work took him all over the continent: sinking boreholes, digging wells and building small dams in West Africa; establishing clean water filters in the sweaty jungles of the Congo basin; building storage facilities in the Kalahari, and irrigation systems in the intense heat of Ethiopia’s Danakil desert. Living intimately with the people he was there to help gave him a unique insight into their cultures and traditions that were largely hidden from outsiders, and are now rapidly disappearing under the onslaught of twenty first century progress and technology. Along with his working notes, much of this was recorded in the notebooks he kept at the time.

The political situation changed, and more local people became available to do the extension work, so Ian decided to return to Europe and retrain as an industrial psychologist. He spent the next twenty years designing and delivering leading edge motivational and performance development programmes, in both Europe and in some African countries. For these he exploited principles he had developed whilst working with African tribesmen and applied them with innovative twists.

When medical issues curtailed his travelling and work, he dug out the field notebooks he had kept whilst working in Africa, and began writing a series of fascinating African Memoirs. Focussing on the people among whom he lived and worked, rather than on his own activities, these memoirs provide an intimate view of tribal life from the inside, and yet they read with all the excitement and tension of top grade thrillers.

Best selling Australian author, Rosanne Dingli, commenting on Ian’s writing said:  “His narratives have a terse, engaging style. No embroidery, no fancy metaphors, no needless personal disburdening … just deceptively plain narrative that is gripping and memorable.”

His first Memoir was BRIDE PRICE, the story of an orphan girl, to whom he became a foster father whilst working in a forest village in what was then called Zaïre (now Democratic Republic of Congo).

This was followed by MAN IN A MUD HUT, a tale of culture shock, witchcraft, African problem solving, and development work across several West African countries.

SUPPER WITH THE RESIDENT, the third volume, is an anthology and includes memorable meals under somewhat unconventional circumstances with four African Presidents. These included President Mobutu Sese Seko, whom Ian was privileged to know as a personal friend.

The fourth volume, DUST OF THE DANAKIL, is about the relief effort during the great drought in the Horn of Africa during 1973 – 74, during the final days of Emperor Haile Selassie.

All four of these are available in both print and e-book format and can be found through Amazon.com.

A fifth volume, SORCERERS AND ORANGE PEEL, is due for release any day and will be released in both print and e-book formats at the same time. This one is set in three countries in West Africa and is about sorcerers and….er….orange peel!

Non-Kindle users who require books in other e-formats can find all Ian Mathie’s books at Smashwords.com.

Further information about this author, his work, and sample chapters, can be found at his website: http://www.ianmathie.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Guest Posts Tagged: Africa, author, biography, book, ebook, Ian Mathie, memoir, non-fiction, spotlight

Mira’s Closet: 1/20/14

Mira’s no fashionista, but she definitely has her own sense of style…

And now here’s an update on just that.

First an observation: I’m gearing up for public appearance tomorrow and I’m a little worried about how to dress. I have several pieces of jewelry (from December 10) I can dress up or down, depending on what I’m going for, I just haven’t decided what that is yet. I want to look nice for my audience, but I also want to be comfortable and not draw too much attention away from my book. After all, it is the star of the show, not me.

Now here are some style tips/clips from

my own personal fashion guru, trainer, and my physical inspiration for Mira.

Just one of many from Tori’s Favorite Dishes of 2013, part 3.

 

I hope you enjoyed this. Also check out Tori’s new EBoutique: December 10.

For more on style and fashion check out:

Celebrity Trends at WhoWhatWear: http://www.whowhatwear.com/

Fashion Medley: http://thefashionmedley.com/ (content advisory)

A Beautiful Mess: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/

My Style Pinboard: http://pinterest.com/toinette_thomas/my-style/

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Mira's Closet Tagged: accessorizing, culture, Daily Dish, Eternal Curse, fashion, Fashionplate, life, links, Tori J. Jones, try this

MLK Day!

Please do not copy this image. Click here to visit Pinterest and share, share, share.

It’s not so much the man I admire as it is what he stood for. History has proven, time and again, that heroes and the ones placed high on pedestals, are often the ones to fall hard from their elevated status, in one way or another. I’m sometimes saddened by how people’s opinions and, even, their actions are so wrapped around the perceived character of a public figure. I, however, choose to follow ideals and principles that matter to me and don’t put all my hopes in the character of another.

Veering away from that tangent, I’d like praise MLK Jr. for the symbol of peace and equality he is. Though we have come a long way, we still have so much further to go. Thanks to people like MLK Jr. we now live in a world where people have to think twice about how they treat others different from themselves. My hope is that one day no one will have to think about their actions because everyone will finally embrace the ideals of equality at their very core- perhaps people will be born colorblind and have an appreciation for humanity never before experienced in history.

Like MLK Jr. before me, I have a dream and hope one day it will become a reality.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 2014, holiday, life, MLK Day

Sample Sunday 30

Here is approximately 100 – 150 words from a randomly selected original piece for your enjoyment. These samples can include excerpts from my all my WIPs and my Eternal Curse Series, but only as works in progress (not the final products). These samples of published and unpublished works are protected under the U.S. Copyright agreement.

Eternal Curse: Battleground chapter 4.1 (wip)

“Well thank you for your consideration, but you’re a little too late!” She rushed past me. She went into the linen closet and grabbed a towel. I’d never seen her that upset. “I can’t talk to you smelling like that,” she fussed and then tossed a towel in my general direction. Her aim was off, but I knew it was intentional. She didn’t really want to hit me, she was just upset. I stretched out my arm quickly and caught the towel in midair just off to one side, and then she finally noticed it. Mira gasped for air looking at the reddish purple spot on my arm that was slightly sunken in. It was a dent, an almost hole, which of course made her scream out once she noticed it. “What the heck happened to you?”

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Filed under: EC: Battleground, Samples Tagged: angels, demons, Eternal Curse: Battleground, family, fiction, reading, sample excerpt, spec-fic, Toi Thomas, war, wip