Toi Thomas's Blog, page 84

Friday Forecast : 12/27/13

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

My Geekdom: Muppets

Character Files

WWW Wednesday

WIP Update

Friday Forecast

Weekly recap and maybe another installment of my Adventures in Blogging.

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No Adventures in Blogging today.

I am so blessed to have acquired 200+ followers on this blog. I hope I am able to keep informing, entertaining, and conversing with you all for a very long time.

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: Author Insights, Uncategorized Tagged: 200 followers, author, blogging, interviews, life, milestone, reviews, sneak peak, try this, writing

A Day in My Life: Dec. ’13

You may or may not find this surprising, but as a writer I’ve never been much of a journaler (I like making up words). I’ve always kept writing, sketching, and poetry notebooks, but I’ve never really liked writing about myself. This monthly post is my attempt at rectifying that and is an opportunity for me to get a little personal, as I share a single event from my life.

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December 2013 – Holiday and Birthday Parties

June is a month that is so swamped with birthdays and other celebrations that I always feel a little overwhelmed, but December is a little different. There are several birthdays to be celebrated and then, of course there is Christmas, but it seems to be a little more laid back. So for this month of December, I say happy birthday to many, including my mother and nephew, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

  

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, birthday, celebration, Christmas, family, holiday, life, social interaction, tradition

Review: The Oath

The Oath by Frank Peretti

I give this book a 4.

This book is not what I thought it would be, but I liked it. The Oath tells the story of a town with so many secrets that people are beginning to die because of them, but maybe this has been going on for a while. At the beginning of the story it is a stranger from out of town who’s the victim of a horribly violent death that begins to bring light to the existence of the Oath.  The Oath itself is a little difficult to grasp, but it seems that the people of this town have collectively decided to do whatever they want at any time and never speak of it, proudly defying the notion of consequence or sin. As everyone knows, no secret is kept forever and in Hyde River, the silence has manifested itself with terrifying results.

This book was a short and easy story to traverse. The imagery was in-depth, but not wordy. I felt as if the whole story was delivered in a matter-of-fact kind of way, as if the author was telling you the story at your house over coffee. I think what I liked best about the book was how real it seemed. I’m pretty sure I’ve been to that small town on more than one occasion. A place where people point the finger at one another, but never actually says anything.

From a fantasy perspective, the physical manifestation of sin is one of the scariest monsters I’ve come across in a while. I was intrigued by the hunting sequences and the whole predatory and prey struggle. There is absolutely nothing vulgar about this story, but it does touch on many sensitive subjects such as: infidelity, substance abuse, greed and pride, and more.

Me being me, I also liked the spiritual aspects of the story. This is definitely an adult read, but while younger children may not be able to understand the imagery or handle the dark elements, and some teens may not be able to grasp the maturity of some themes, I think this is good story for anyone.

This review has been posted to GoodReads.

If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try these links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble.

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: Reviews Tagged: books, Christian, crime, dragons, drama, fiction, lies, mystery, reviews, secrets, spec-fic

Christmas

Christmas is a special time of year for so many people. Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. Others who observe this occasion, spend time with loved ones and spread cheer. I think, also, that many people try extra hard to be a better version of themselves than they usually are, during this time.

Christmas isn’t just for Christians and I think it’s great. Why wouldn’t I be grateful for any occasion that brings out the best in people? So anyone reading this today or some time down the road, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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: holiday, life

My Hope #50StatesOfPray

Click here to follow this hop.

My prayer for this year and every one to follow is that people learn to love humanity. I want people to be allowed to be human, to have differences without having to be enemies, and to agree to disagree. I want to experience World Harmony…maybe peace is too hard, but harmony can be achieved if people just give it a chance. I’m tired of judgment and double standards. I want to live in a world where it is okay to be different, uncool, traditional, liberal, conservative, taboo, devout, and even weird. God bless us all.

Please, if you have any time at all, stop by some of the other stops on this blog hop; share, leave comments, and help spread some love, cheer, and hope. Thank you Mark Koopmans for putting this hop together.

This is an unofficial Author Insights post.

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: Author Insights Tagged: #50StatesofPray, blog hop, Christmas Eve, hope, Linky, Mark Koopmans, peace, pray, share, thoughts, Toi Thomas, World Harmony

Character Files from the ToiBox 41: Rebecca aka Becca- 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 1-Becca describe test image #1 as:

A large man holding a small baby, his baby.

Subject is no threat to anyone or herself, but has some serious male and father issues. She has more influence than she’s aware, which only hurts herself.

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: character, contemporary fiction, cultural study, drama, family, fiction, friends, profile, romance

Mira’s Closet: 12/23/13

Sorry for the funky post guys. I’m on vacation and forgot about my auto posting. Mira’s Closet will return next month, with a few changes.

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, fashion, life, links, try this

Sample Sunday 26

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 4.5 (wip)

Mira thought to herself that the house was decorated very simply and elegantly, but overall the house had a somewhat cold feeling to it. At first Mira couldn’t quite pinpoint why she had this notion, but then it came to her. Mira realized that there were no pictures of people anywhere in the house. There were no family photos in frames or in albums, and there were no wall paintings with people in them. There were barely any mirrors in the whole place. For some reason, one or both of these men didn’t want to even see people. Mira began to wonder where these men’s families were and why they were hiding away from the rest of the world.

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, romance, shape-shifting, spec-fic, war, wip

My GoodReads Year in Books 2013

Here’s a little something I felt like sharing just because. Click above to see my list.

It seems that no matter how hard you try, things will never go precisely according to plan, but that’s no reason to give up. I never seem to be able to read as much as I want to, and that’s even considering the fact that I now even listen to audio books. In the end, there are still only so many hours in the day to read, writing, blog, work your day job, eat, sleep, and spend time with that spouse who’s hanging around all the time .

All in all, I am pleased that read or listened as much as I did. I can’t wait to see how I do next year.

This is an unoffical Listography post. 

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: 2013, audio books, books, comic books, ebook, goodreads, reading, Toi Thomas

ToiBox Blog Weekly Recap 12/21/13

Check out my Recent Posts links to see what I was up to this week.

I started out the week with Sample Sunday 25- It’s Like the Full Moon chapter 2.6…

And then, I reblogged a post from Alana Munro “Never hide in the shadows for anyone”.

On Monday I shared my Listography of favorite movies as an adult.

On Tuesday I added to my Character files the Rorschach test for Michael.

On Wednesday I didn’t post my Blogdom because the holidays are crazy.

On I Counted My Blessings and then…

I finally posted a late list for my Blogdom.

On Friday after my Friday Forecast I posted my interview with author and friend, L.A. Little.

-No Adventures in Blogging today.

-On a personal note, today I will:

mail out some review copies of my book,

finish reading a book I’ve been reading for far too long,

get caught up on my book reviews,

and then sleep until my head hurts. Habit woke me up this morning, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go back to sleep.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all. Be safe and be loved.

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