Toi Thomas's Blog, page 82
January 18, 2014
ToiBox Blog Weekly Recap 01/18/14
Check out my Recent Posts links to see what I was up to this week.
I started out the week with Sample Sunday 29- Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel
chapter 5…
But not before I shared my Biggest Blog Reading Pet Peeves on Saturday.
On Monday I posted my Listography of Jobs.
On Tuesday I added to my character files a Psych test for Paul.
On Wednesday I posted my monthly Blogdom.
On Thursday, I posted Count Your Blessing.
And yesterday, I posted a simple Friday Forecast .
-Later today, I’ll be out trying to promote my upcoming event.
Also, I’ve update my collage above. What do you think?
I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself this week and enjoy a very pleasant weekend.
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: author, biography, blessings, blogging, books, character, culture, discussion, entertainment, fashion, geek, interviews, journal, life, likes, lists, reading, reviews, sample, wip
January 17, 2014
Friday Forecast : 01/17/14
Highlighting interviewees, guest posters, my standard weekly posts, and whatever else I can think of, going into the next week.
So, here what’s happening next week:
Sample Sunday
The return of Mira’s Closet and the first part of my author spotlight for author, Ian Mathie.
Character Files
A special book reviews report. ( This should be fun.) The second part of my spotlight on Ian Mathie.
A Day in My Life
Friday Forecast and the third part of the Ian Mathie spotlight.
Weekly recap and a final surprise in the Ian Mathie spotlight.
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Not much going on today; I was unable to organize my author interview.
Tomorrow, I hit the pavement as a last-ditch effort to get the word out to my local community about my big event that’s coming up. As it gets closer, I’m beginning to get a little nervous.
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: author, blogging, interviews, life, reviews, sneak peak, try this, writing
January 16, 2014
Count Your Blessings 08
Adaptation is a blessing in so many ways. Human beings have the ability to easily adapt, aided by our intellect. We dress warm when it’s cold, we save for a rainy day, and we learn to swim just in case. There is one area of human adaptation that is often overlooked and that’s our psycho-physical adaptation ability. If we smell something bad, even if the smell doesn’t go away, after a while we don’t notice it as much. We feel pain, it lets us know something is wrong, but pain can be adaptable. The first time you get a stomach ache, you may feel like you’re going to die, but years later the feeling becomes annoying. Obviously there’s more to it than that, but in all I think I’ve made my point. I’m blessed to have the ability to adapt.
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: Blessings Tagged: adapt, blessings, gratitude, life
January 15, 2014
Blogdom Dec. 18 ’13-Jan. 15, ’14
Oh boy, do I have loads to share from my Blogdom (my personal realm of the Blogosphere)!
You may want to bookmark this and come back to it a few times. Good stuff here.
(Dec.18 ’13-Jan. 5, 2014)
Book Reviews
-From BOOK PASSION FOR LIFE, The Awakening by Emma Jones
-From Paranormal Reads, Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
-From Anneque G. Malchien, Divergent Cabal (pre-review thoughts)
-From BIBLIOBETH, Last Man in Tower – Aravind Adiga
-From Living Europe, LORD OF THE FLIES: THE WICKED SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE REVEALED BY CHILDREN
-From Blogging for a Good Book, Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes with Illustrations by Quentin Blake
-From Bookaholics book club, Pawn – Review
-From Edi’s Book Lighthouse, Edi’s Spotlight: Hounds of Autumn by Heather Blackwood
-From MUNGAI AND THE GOA CONSTRICTOR, Children’s Book of the Week and Other Book Reviews
-From MyBookAddictionReviews, ALL GOD’S CHILDREN by Anna Schmidt
-From Hines and Bigham’s Literary Tryst, Review of The Séance by Tricia Drammeh
-From On Starships and Dragonwings, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman Audiobook {4 Stars}
Interviews
-From Alana Munro, Special Feature: Interview with Gunnar Angel Lawrence…
-From Authors to Watch, Interview with Lucas Hargis
Book Trailers
-From Chronicle Books, JOSEPHINE – By Patricia Hruby Powell,…
-From Wiley Cash, Wiley Cash Answers Readers’ Questions
-From Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel Book Trailer
-From DuttonBooks, Romance is My Day Job: A Day in the Life of a Harlequin Editor
Short Stories & Excerpts
-From 300 Stories, THE SCISSOR-WIELDING STREET GANG
-From JeanzBookReadNReview, A BREATH OF FROST BY ALYXANDRA HARVEY
-From 300 Stories, IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
Writing
-From Interesting Literature, Guest Blog: Unreliable Narrators in Literature
- From Alana Munro, The Stupid Mistakes New Authors Can Make…Yes I Made Plenty!
-From Creative Writing with the Crimson League, 3 Things Authors Shouldn’t Mistake For “Reader Interest in a Character”
-From WIP IT, How Writers can Balance Time Spent Online
-From Insecure Writers Support Group, A Creative Ramble
Marketing
-From Alana Munro, Who doesn’t love some bling?
- From ALLi, Make the Best Use of Blog Tours With Good Etiquette
-From Writerland, Hottest Social Networks of 2014
News
-From Digital Book World, Ten Bold Predictions for Ebooks and Digital Publishing in 2014
Movie Reviews, Trailers, & More
-From Alex J. Cavanaugh, Science Fiction Guitars and The Hobbit Movie Review!…
-From MOVIECLIPS Trailers, Transcendence Official Trailer #1 (2014) – Johnny Depp…
-From Spotlight, MOVIE REVIEW: FROZEN
-From Of Musings and Wonderings, Thir13en Ghosts [Film]
Entertainment
-From inspirationenergy, Monday Motivation- How to Tie Your Shoe In One Second!
-From The Reporter and the Girl, Judge he suffers from Ghettoapathy (something to think about)
-From HISHEdotcom, How Thor The Dark World Should Have Ended
-From The Geek Twins, Poll: Who’s Your Favorite Black Superhero?
-From The Very Best Top 10, …10 BEST THINGS TO MAKE WITH USED WRAPPING PAPER
-From Pinterest, Top Pins of 2013
-From Kevin108, How to open a can without a can opener
-From wimp.com, Woman goes to the gym for 100 days…
-From www.writerswriting.co.za via The Book Reviewers & Authors Club, How to Survive a Relationship With a Writer
-From inspirationenergy, Monday Motivation: Boss vs. Leader
-From fojap via A Curious Gal, The New York Times Has Me Pegged
-From The Geek Twins, The Surreal Clockwork World of STANLEY PICKLE
By including links to these articles, reviews, interviews, etc…I am not endorsing the opinions of these bloggers and writers, but am simply sharing the highlights of my blog reading experience.
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: WWWWednesday-Blogdom Tagged: blog roll, blogging, books, interviews, links, movies, news, reviews, Toi's Blogdom, trailers, try this, writing
January 14, 2014
Character Files from the ToiBox 44: Paul- 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 4-Paul describe test image #1 as:
A monster of some sort, “He might not be such a bad guy. You simply can’t determine that from this print.”
Subject is an over-analyzer (he thinks too much). He’s a romantic and very harmless.
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, Paul, profile, psych test, romance, Rorschach, Toi Thomas
January 13, 2014
Listography of Toi 07: Jobs
These are the lists that tell my life story. They are in no particular order and some of them are very personal. Please be nice, and if you want to share, I’d be glad to take a look at what you have.
All My Jobs (paid and unpaid)
-Babysitter
-Tutor
-Note Taker
-Stage Hand
-Retail (at the mall: Wild Pair and New York & Co.)
-Office Assistant
-N.A.S.A. Intern
-Web designer
-Coder
-Nanny
-Telemarketer
-Accounts Representative (Accounts Payable)
-Event Planner
-E-retail
-Teacher
-Writer,Blogger,Interviewer
Listograhy are books and a website dedicated to helping you write or consider your autobiography through the process of making lists.
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: author, being overwhelmed, biography, diversity, education, jobs, life, lists, Toi Thomas
January 12, 2014
Sample Sunday 29
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: Giovanni’s Angel chapter 5 (wip)
“That’s ok,” Giovanni replied. “It’s been so long since I’ve been around someone new. I can’t image how strange that must be for you,” he said, leading her around the corner, back towards the main hall. There Giovanni pointed at a painted floral feature hanging on the wall along the side of the staircase. He slid his hand down the deep engraving of a petal and rolled his index finger over a small bump. There it was revealed, a secret door leading to a small platform and another staircase going down into darkness. Mira followed him down the staircase, after a slight hesitation, until they reached the bottom, where Giovanni switched on the lights. Right away, Mira blinked her eyes rapidly from the shock as they adjusted from total darkness to extreme brightness.
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: Giovanni's Angel, Samples Tagged: angels, demons, Eternal Curse, family, fiction, Giovanni's Angel, reading, romance, sample excerpt, shape-shifting, spec-fic, Toi Thomas, war, wip
January 11, 2014
Adventures in Blogging: Biggest Blog Reading Pet Peeves
I’ll be writing about my adventures, from my point of view, while offering my opinion on whatever the current matter happens to be. I hope you will enjoy it, if for no other reason, because you’ll get to see just how crazy my mind and reactions can be sometimes.
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Biggest Blog Reading Pet Peeves
When I visit a blog, there are certain things that turn me off, but I’m not too obstinate about my reaction to these. I realize that while some of these things drive me crazy, they may not brother someone else at all. In the end, good content always wins out, but…
If it’s troublesome for me to view the things I want to read, I don’t hurry back to read them.
Cool crazy fonts- These look good until you try to read something. Then it becomes a matter of interpretation. Is that an ‘o’ or is it an ‘a’; was that word supposed to be “bubble” or “babble”? Hopefully the context will help with this, but that’s only if you can read it well enough to understand the context.
Cool crazy wallpaper- For, pretty much, the same reason as above, complex background images drive me crazy. I am currently following one blog through Feedly, where 90% of its posts appear in the Feedly preview. Anything I can’t read there, I don’t. I made the mistake of visiting the actual blog to continue an article and I couldn’t read it. The background image interfered with the text to the point where it was hard to see the letters, let alone understand them.
Too much going on- This is something I constantly stress about on my own blog. I have lots to share, but I try really hard to keep it all well-organized and sectioned off so as not to clutter up my blog. There are many blogs that I stopped reading because there was just too much going on; it was too distracting. On the other hand though, one of my favorite blogs to read, is full of clutter and it drives me crazy every time I visit it, but the content is so good that I just bear it and move on.
Pop-ups- Advertisement is part of the blogosphere, so complaining about it is pointless. People do what they have to do to maintain their blogs and some of us are just stuck with the consequences of using particular services, but pop-ups are something else. Sure there is always pop-up blocker to help with that, but sometimes something gets missed, especially on pages your computer knows you visit a lot. It drives me crazy to be in the middle of an interesting article and then have someone walk across the screen offering me classes on how to write a book.
Last one, for today.
Hunting- Hunting isn’t a feature blogs have, but is the result of something they don’t. I really don’t like having to hunt down information on a blog that should be clearly displayed or searchable.
When I visit a blog and the owner of it leaves a message on the page somewhere, stating to the effect, “Contact me for more information,” but then I can’t find a way to contact them, it drives me crazy.
When I read a good article, which is clearly part of a series (such as this one), and would like to read more; it drives me crazy when all I have is an archive sorted by date to search through.
It really drives me crazy when I start to like a blog and want to know more about the blogger, but can’t find anything about them. I search their bio and find a one liner, “My name is Bob and I write this blog.”
So there you have it, for now anyway. These are some of my Biggest Blog Reading Pet Peeves.
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: AdventuresNBlogging Tagged: #thetoiboxofwords, blogging, clutter, Feedly, fonts, hunting, information, pet peeves, pop-ups, reading, searching, sharing, Toi Thomas, wallpaper, writing
January 6, 2014
Top 5: 07 Villains
This is a list of my top five something. Most of the time my lists are pretty static, but sometimes I do change my mind. While I do try to apply some logic to my choices, sometimes I pick things that make no sense and for no good reason other than “I like it.”
Keyser Söze playe by Kevin Spacey: Google search empireonline.com
Fictional Villains in General
1. Joker- any version, but the newer ones are scarier
2. Niedermann- Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
3. Keyser Söze aka Verbal- The Usual Suspects
4. Darth Vadar- Star Wars
5. Lex Luthor – D.C.
-Bias Honorable Mention-Marcos from the Eternal Curse Series
I can’t decide what’s scarier: brutality, crazy, or intelligence, but here’s what I’ve got as far as characters go. There are more powerful villains out there, but these are ones that really scare me.
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: author, biography, fiction, likes, personal, Toi Thomas, top 5, villains 
January 5, 2014
Sample Sunday 28
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.
It’s Like the Full Moon chapter 3 (wip)
Later that evening and for each evening the rest of that first week, Lisa and Rebecca went out on the town and cruised from one night club to another and behaved as though they were back in college. When Saturday night rolled around it was time for the ladies to pull out all the stops and put on their best show for the wealthy young Italian men of Milan. Reliving her youth was beginning to become a difficult chore of resentment for Rebecca. While she enjoyed the simultaneous anonymity and daring excitement that the nightclubs offered, as well as the dancing, music, and flirtatious attentions of complete handsome foreign strangers, she was beginning to tire of the whole thing and was beginning to feel foolish. She was beginning to feel like a chaperon, putting on a good face each night to keep her dear friend from venturing out alone and keeping her from getting in trouble, or worse getting involved with some strange man.
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: Full Moon, Samples Tagged: contemporary fiction, drama, fiction, friends, It's Like the Full Moon, reading, romance, sample excerpt, Toi Thomas, wip
