Toi Thomas's Blog, page 97

Author Spotlight 1: Brita Skinner 1.0

image provided by author

Author completes new Christian thriller, despite having a rare muscular disease.

Brita Skinner finished the Young Adult fiction novel entitled DayBreaker, which is part of the Nightlife series. Though the book is aimed at Young Adult’s it can also be an exceptionally read for the general market.

The main character is Sambi Prince a senior who finds out she is not all human and has a mission to fulfill. Her life will never be the same again.

Skinner who residences in Canada states, “There were times when writing became difficult because of the awful pains I experience, this has not been an easy process I was diagnose with this chronic pain in 2007, which is actually a disease of the nerves system, the nerves that control my pain receptors but also affects my muscles.” She continues to say, “However this hasn’t deterred me from pursing my dream as a writer, I love to write and am determined to make it into the publishing world. My advice is despite your circumstances hold on to your dreams and run for it.”

Though her agent is diligently looking for a publisher DayBreaker has already received great response from the public. “I thank all those people who have supported me, which includes my fan base. This makes me want to write and interact with you more and more.”

For more information about Brita Skinner or to contact her, please try these links:

Web: http://britaskinner.wix.com/britaskinner#, Email: authorbritaskinner@gmail.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, Interviews Tagged: author, biography, books, Christian, muscular disease, promotion, spotlight, writing, YA

Beginnings by Nina Soden

provided by author

Book Title: Beginnings

Series: Blood Angel

Author: Nina Soden

Publisher: Self-published

-eBook: http://www.BookTango.com (paperback coming soon)

Reading Level: Teen & YA

Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural

Content Rating: PG

Number of Pages: 268 pages

Purchase Links: Kindle

 

Book blurb

Having lost her family Alee has been thrown into a new life and a new world. Camouflaged by the mundane happenings of a high school existence she would never have guessed what was happening below the surface in, “The Underground”.  If she thought hunting in the wild and drinking blood was bad, what will she think when she becomes the hunted? Newly armed with the knowledge of being half witch and half vampire Alee, the only surviving Dhampir in history, is forced to learn to control a lifetime of magic and vampire powers if she wants to survive. Will she overcome the challenges she faces or will her destiny prove more powerful than she?

 

Author bio

provided by author

Nina has always been creative, be it art, theatre, film – anything but singing – you don’t want to hear that! She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Military Science from EMU where she spent most of her time either on stage, rappelling down buildings, or working one of three jobs. After college she moved to Los Angeles, like so many other actors, in pursuit of her dreams. In 2008, after some major life changes, Nina self-published her first book PRIVATE WORDS UNSPOKEN, a compilation of poetry. Since then, her dreams have gotten bigger and she likes to think her storytelling ability has gotten better. She has done everything from secretarial work to business development to being the Director of a private preschool. She has fired a M16, jumped out of a C130, and given birth – TWICE – but she always returns to her art.

Though she’ll forever be a Michigan girl at heart, she now lives in Alabama with her husband and two beautiful children. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her lounging with a good book, playing with her kids, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Starbucks coffee.

Author Links: Blog | FaceBook | Twitter

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: author, book, fiction, promotion, YA

My Geekdom 04: Marvel Comic Books

Pins from Pinterest that inspire me and indulge my geekness. http://pinterest.com/toinette_thomas/my-geekdom/

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

The Marvel Universe is more of my style of fantasy (even though I LOVE D.C.), but it’s also scary enough that sometimes, it’s too much for me. Marvel blends fantasy and reality. These superheroes interact with real people and visit real places as well as take on fictional people and places. I do, somewhere in the back of my little geek mind, sometimes worry about will happen when Apocalypse comes to claim the earth, but I know that the mutants, the radioactively altered, the genius minds, and other world gods are just waiting to come to our rescue.

Heroes with flaws seemed silly in the heyday of comic books, but now perfect super heroes just can’t be taken seriously. Marvel was the first company to really embrace this idea and increased their popularity with it. Other companies, including D.C., have also embraced the flawed hero idea, and the world of comic books and storytelling is all the better for it.

In Eternal Curse all my characters good, bad, male, female, super, or not have flaws. In some cases the flaws are actually a blessing, but I don’t have time to get into that now. In any case, flaws add a human factor to story-telling that makes the impossible seem believable.

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: My Geekdom Tagged: author, blogging, comic books, geek, good vs evil, heroes, inspiration, Marvel, Pinterest, process, try this, writing

Sample Sunday 15

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 2.2 (wip)

At that point, I too was crying again. Dad held us both in his arms and simply stared at us. He looked at us as if he was witnessing a miracle. He was in awe and amazed that we were there with him.

It was becoming more and more difficult for me to look into my father’s eyes without confusion and discomfort. There I was, twenty-two years old and he only looked to be a few years older than me. In all those years, he’d barely aged. I had always been daddy’s little girl. I never wanted to acknowledge the fact that I knew one day, I’d grow old and he’d outlive 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: EC: Battleground, Samples Tagged: angels, demons, family, fiction, spec-fic, war, wip

ToiBox Blog Weekly Recap 10/05/13

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

I started out the week with Sample Sunday 14- Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel chapter 4

Next I opened up Mira’s Closet: 9/30/13

After that, Nina Soden stopped by to share her book, Awaken

Then I participated in the “Souls Around the World” blog hop (still going on until 10/31). Please view my message at the bottom of that post for a content advisory about the hop.

I added to my character files a biography of Paul.

Then I reviewed “A Brave New World” to which some felt I was lacking; see comments. Can’t please everyone :/

And finally, I shared A Day In My Life: Sept. ‘13 (well really, two minor events)

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

A Day in My Life: Sept. ’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.

******************************************************************************

10/03/13

from IMDB

So my efforts to be more social took a little dive this past month, but I have gotten out a little. I only wish I had some pictures to share this time around, but since I don’t, I’ve barrowed one from IMDB. I was supposed to go out and get involved in many different social events, but sometimes life has a course unknown to the one living it. I did manage to make it out to one of my oldest nephew’s Cross-Country meets were I had a nice conversation with one of the fathers there. He was drawn to my proclaimed Batman fangirl status, but we talked about much more than just comic book stuff. It was nice to have a good conversation with a relative stranger. We’ve agreed to look out for each other at other meets down the road.

My sister, ever the social butterfly, came to my aid once again in my efforts to be more social by inviting my husband and I to an event at her church. They were having a movie night and showing “The Princess Bride”. At the last minute, she and her family weren’t able to make it, but my husband and I stayed around and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn’t as social as I would have liked, but it was a step forward and besides, who gives up a chance to watch “The Princess Bride” on a big screen?

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: About Me Tagged: Batman, biography, cross-country, fandom, life, Princess Bride, social interaction

Review 18: Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I give this book a strong 3.

This is a compelling story that seems to have not only to be written as a warning for the future, but also to just make you a little angry at human intellect. Set in a future of “perfection”, Bernard doesn’t feel as happy he’s told he should. He decides to visit a “savage” reservation to gain perspective only to find that he isn’t the “rebellious lone wolf” he thinks he is. In the end, Bernard is the product of the world he lives in, but he still manages to cause a ruckus in the lives of others before realizing this.

This book shows what a wonderfully peaceful existence life could be through control, conformity, segregation, a lax moral code, and drug induced feelings of happiness. I found this book to be very sad, but shockingly real. This is the story of what could happen to the world, but I hope it doesn’t.  Not that teens would be interested in this book, but I’d recommend it to them (with their parent’s permission). This is a book that plucks a lot of nerves and may not be for everyone, but is definitely worth reading. I see this book going over well with male readers.

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: "the system", being overwhelmed, books, conformity, drama, fiction, free will, future, life, reviews, sci-fi, spec-fic, terminology

Character Files from the ToiBox 29: Paul- Bio

Biography:  Subject FM 4-Paul

Paul is the only son of a wealthy elderly man. He was born in the UK, but raised around the world as he traveled with his father. Paul is a good and sensitive son and a very charming person. He’s very athletic and likes to write.

After his father has retired and he’s graduated from college they move to the U.S. to seek new opportunities. Paul is a true romantic. Though his parents love story is a bit tragic, it is also very beautiful. Paul aspires to one day have the kind of love, his father found in his late mother.

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, fiction, friends, profile, romance

Souls Around the World Blog Hop

Giovanni knows what goes “bump” in the nightmares of his mind; an excerpt from

Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, by Toi Thomas

He looked down toward the ground and saw an attractive young woman carrying a large pail into a barn. Her skin was freckled and pale, and she had rosy cheeks. Her hair was long and straight, and it was black like the night. She seemed so familiar to him, but he didn’t know her. Giovanni watched as the young woman filled feeding troughs with water to be cleaned. As she reached for a scrubbing brush, Giovanni could see that someone or something was following her. He sensed that trouble was on the way. He tried to call out to her, but she could not hear him. His voice made no sound. Giovanni left the tree and swooped down to the ground to get a closer look.

There he saw a creeping perpetrator bouncing from beam to beam in the rafters of the barn. Drool slipped from the monster’s mouth while it hovered over the unknowing young woman. Giovanni tried to fly up to see this fiendish stalker, but he couldn’t get his feet off the ground, and his wings would not flap. Giovanni knew something bad would happen, he could feel it in his heart, but it seemed he could do nothing to stop it. He did not understand. Why was this happening? How could he appear to be so powerful, be so angelic, and not be able to help someone in need?

Giovanni refused to give up his pursuit. He pushed his body forward and went from door to door, and window to window, trying to get in to warn and protect the young woman. Looking through a window, Giovanni finally saw the villain’s full horror. He got a clear vision of the attacker as it was leaping down from the ceiling toward the woman. It was the most hideous monster he’d ever seen, much worse than his own reflection.

It was a twisted and mangled troll with charcoal for skin on its hairless body. It had empty holes carved out of its skull where eyes once were. There were two large dull spikes protruding from its hunched back, where it looked as though wings had been violently ripped from its body. Its hands were made of jagged bones held together with rotting ligaments, and its feet crackled as it moved along the floor.

In the troll’s hands were two long golden rods that whipped back and forth like lassos. Each rod was attached to the end of a large iron spike that punched through the shoulders of a young man’s dying body. They were holding up the young man’s body as though he were a puppet. To the young woman, the troll simply appeared as a shadowy figure lingering around the painfully disturbed and ailing young man.

The troll maneuvered the young man’s body around the girl, delivering blow after blow.  The monster had taken this young man’s life; he was using his body as a weapon to attack this poor girl for what seemed to be the sheer enjoyment of it. It laughed a loud cackle as it threw the girl down to the ground, tearing her raggedy dress. Giovanni could see the girl’s anguish and could hear her screams, and he could even feel her pain, but Giovanni could do nothing to stop it.

Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel Copyright © 2013 Toinette Thomas, pending release.

****

For an in-depth, informative, and entertaining looking into the background, development, and tidbits of Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s, please try my companion guide, 40 Days and Nights of Eternal Curse. This is a FREE ebook with promo code GW22H at Smashwords.com until the end of  August 2014, however, if you wish to purchase a paperback copy of this book, please click on the following link. *Also, if you’re not Smashwords savvy and would like to purchase a Kindle copy of this book for $1.59, click on the link provided.

40 Days and Night of Eternal Curse Copyright © 2012

Toinette Thomas

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

Visit all the stops on this blog hop by clicking here.

Check out the amazing Rafflecopter giveaway for a Sony Touch E-reader with a bunch of pre-loaded ebooks. The winner will be announced November 1, 2013.

Filed under: EC: Giovanni's Angel, Samples, Uncategorized Tagged: blog hop, sample, scary, souls, things that go bump in the night

Awaken by Nina Soden

provided by author

Book Title: Awaken

Series: Blood Angel

Author: Nina Soden

Publisher: Self-published

-eBook: http://www.BookTango.com

-paperback: http://www.createspace.com

Reading Level: Teen & YA

Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural

Content Rating: PG

Number of Pages: 376 pages

Purchase Links: Kindle | Amazon

 

Book blurb provided by author

Awaken is set in a world very much like our own, yet Atlanta isn’t just an ordinary city and Alee Moyer isn’t just an ordinary girl. Having barely survived her childhood it will take the death of her father for the truth of her true bloodline to come out. Even if it means losing her life, or at least her identity she won’t be able to escape her true destiny as the first surviving Dhampir in history. Surrounded by a new world where the horror films she grew up watching have become reality and the most unlikely characters have become her lifeline, Alee will struggle to find herself and her purpose.

Part horror thriller – part tender romance, Awaken will leave readers wanting more!

Come back next week, October 7th to learn about the second installment in this series.

provided by author

Author Bio

Nina has always been creative, be it art, theatre, film – anything but singing – you don’t want to hear that! She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Military Science from EMU where she spent most of her time either on stage, rappelling down buildings, or working one of three jobs. After college she moved to Los Angeles, like so many other actors, in pursuit of her dreams. In 2008, after some major life changes, Nina self-published her first book PRIVATE WORDS UNSPOKEN, a compilation of poetry. Since then, her dreams have gotten bigger and she likes to think her storytelling ability has gotten better. She has done everything from secretarial work to business development to being the Director of a private preschool. She has fired a M16, jumped out of a C130, and given birth – TWICE – but she always returns to her art.

Though she’ll forever be a Michigan girl at heart, she now lives in Alabama with her husband and two beautiful children. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her lounging with a good book, playing with her kids, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Starbucks coffee.

Author Links: Blog | FaceBook | Twitter

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: author, book, fiction, guest post, promotion, YA