Toi Thomas's Blog, page 98

Mira’s Closet: 9/30/13

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’ve noticed that when I write a story and I do all that I do to develop my characters, I don’t spend a lot of time on their attire. It seems that what my characters are wearing from scene to scene is one of those things I’d rather leave to the imagination of the reader. There are times, though, when what a character is wearing is very important or vital to a scene and therefore must be described. I’ve determined that because I’m such a visual person, anything that I can’t actually see, I’d rather imagine…Wonder how others feel about that?

Now here are some style tips from

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

From the Daily Dish 09-20-13 white, alternating bottoms, accessorizing

images provided by Tori Jones

If you like this, be sure to stop by Tori’s Fashionplate to see what else she has to share and don’t be afraid to leave comments and ask questions.

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, fashion, life, links, try this

Sample Sunday 14

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 These samples of published and unpublished works are protected under the U.S. Copyright agreement.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 (wip)

Mira didn’t know if she was truly terrified or compellingly intrigued. Was this all real or was she just dreaming? Mira slowly began to fade back into reality as she heard a deeply thunderous angelic voice call out to her, “Mira…Mira are you all right?” The sound of that voice calling out her name almost resembled the poetic melody and chorus of a love song. Her eyes opened with a glare in her vision as she began to focus and stare carefully. Finally, with clear wide-open irises, she realized that she had not been dreaming at all. It was all actually happening and he was actually real.

To see previous Sunday Samples featuring Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, please visit the Eternal Curse Series blog.

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

ToiBox Blog Weekly Recap 9/28/13

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

I started out the week with Sample Sunday 13- It’s Like the Full Moon, chapter 2.2

Next I offered my Author Insights on a non-book related issue: I don’t feel Saf3.

After that, Stefan Vucak, stopped by to share “How to Avoid the Slush Pile”.

I shared my third Listogrphy post: Cities I’ve Lived In.

I added to my character files as biography of Teddy.

Then I posted my long awaited Blogdom post to share what I’ve been reading.

I counted my blessings and discussed creativity.

Then one of my favorite guests, Darlene Jones, returned to talk about “Near Death Experiences and Writing”…

And today, I’m guesting over at “Is History the Agreed Upon Lie?” blog, putting my geekiness aside for just a little while…and I’ll be there all week.

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

Near Death Experience and Writing by Darlene Jones

provided by D. Jones

Being a pedestrian hit by a car means multiple injuries and critical condition, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Well, okay, 99.9% of it is, but there are a few bright humorous moments.

I know I’m lying on the ground in the middle of the road. “Where are my kids? Where are my kids?” I open my eyes and see my son bending over me.

“It’s okay, Mom. We’re right here.”

“Where’s my purse? Where’s my purse.”

I can’t see my daughter, but I hear her say, “It’s okay, Mom. I have it right here.”

So, you see, I have my priorities in the right order.

In the emergency room, I say, “I wear contacts.”

A nice young intern hovers over me. “It’s okay, we took them out.” He holds a contact lens case a couple of inches from my eyes. “See, I have them right here.” Maybe he’s not so nice after all. Or, maybe I’ve been babbling a little too much?

Weeks later I’m transferred from the trauma unit to the rehabilitation hospital. I lie in bed with casts from the top of my legs to the tips of my toes. My right arm has been so badly dislocated that it’s useless.

A nurse comes in to tell me I’ll be going to physio and occupational therapy. Physio first. I’m taken to a room that looks like something out of the Spanish inquisition. Weird contraptions on the walls, with belts and straps and hooks that menace the helpless patient.

“Mrs. Jones, what are you doing here?” says a bright young thing I recognize as a former junior high student.

“Sandra, what are you doing here?”

“I’m your physiotherapist.”

I look again at the instruments of torture. “Oh, God, I hoped you liked me.” Turns out we get along just fine.

One evening the tall skinny nurse’s aide who is my favorite staff member offers to give me a shower.

“How can we do that?” I ask gesturing to my casts. Not a problem for her. She wraps both my legs in green garbage bags, wheels me on a gurney to the shower room, proceeds with a shampoo, and sprays the top half of my body. Never has a shower felt so good…

To see the rest of this article and learn more about Darlene Jones, visit the ECS blog.

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, being overwhelmed, belief, break down, illness, life, near death, stories, writing

Count Your Blessings 04

Creativity

Creativity is a blessing, though many may not know it. Creativity and intellect are not guaranteed counterparts. Some people are very smart, but lack creativity to produce something using their intellect. There’s no question that even the simplest of minds is capable of creating amazing things even if only through artistic expression. Creativity is the one defining factor that has made our world, maybe not better, but more appealing and more comfortable. Creativity can arise from necessary, but it doesn’t have to. I’m blessed to a creative person, but even if I wasn’t, I’d still be blessed to live in a world with so many other creative people.

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: blessings, creativity, gratitude, life

Blogdom Aug. 23-Sept. 25 ’13

Oh boy, do I have loads to share from my Blogdom (my personal realm of the Blogosphere)!

As you may or may not know, my blogs have been going through a transition, so this Blogdom post has been a long time coming. This list is much longer than usual, so feel free to take your time looking around and even to only seek items of interest to you.

(Aug.23-Sept.25, 2013)

Book Reviews

-From Serendipity Reviews, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

-From MyBookAddictionReviews, CARNIEPUNK by Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep…

-From Katherine Givens, A Song of Ice and Fire series [Game of Thrones]

-From Kindle Daily Post, New Skin for the Old Ceremony

-From Must Read Faster, Blog Tour: Speakeasy

-From Silk Screen Views, Dancing with the Devil ~ Keri Arthur

-From Faerie Book Loft, BOOK REVIEW – Homecoming Ranch by Julie London

-From MyBookAddictionReview, LITTLE FISH: A MEMOIR FROM A DIFFERENT KIND OF YEAR by Ramsey Beyer…

-From Bookaholics, The Testing

-From Beauty in Ruins, Weathering the CassaStorm with Alex J. Cavanaugh (#bookreview)

-From Tynga’s Reviews, Omens by Kelley Armstrong

-From Edi’s Book Lighthouse, Spotlight: CassaStorM by Alex J Cavanaugh

-From JeanzBookReadNReview, BRIAR ROSE BY JANA OLIVER

-From On Starships and Dragonwings, 4.5 Stars: Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff ARC

Interviews

-From Caffeine’s not a crime, Author Interview: Junying Kirk – Journey to the West Trilogy

-From The Masquerade Crew, How to be a Best Seller by @tobywneal

- From Authors to Watch, Interview with Linda Cadose

- From JeanzBookReadNReview, AUTHOR INTERVIEW – INGER IVESON

- From 4Covert2Overt, An Interview with Author A.K. Kuykendall

-From Sallie’s Book Reviews and More, Kirthi Jayakumar’s Stories of Hope

-From Bookaholics, Lisa Becker

Book Trailers

-From 4covert2overt, Michael Thal “Honorable Mention” for Goodbye Tchaikovsky

-From Crownbooks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvis9Sj2eVM

-From Emma Right, Keeper of Reign Book1

-From Chronicle Books, THE CLOCKWORK SCARAB: A Stoker & Holmes Novel…

-From Workman Publishing, The Trolley Problem, or Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off …

Blogging

- From Tying Tiara, Top Ten Tuesday: Handy Tools

- From On Starships and Dragonwings, Where do you post reviews?

Writing

-From Faerie Book Loft, Great Points to Keep in Mind when Doing your Rewrite

- From Live Write Thrive, Are You Sure It’s Ensure?

-From Words Engineer, Difference Between CONTENT WRITING – COPY WRITING – CREATIVE WRITING

-From Live Write Thrive, Are You Inferring or Implying?

-From Gabriel Lucatero, Self-sabotaging: How To Kill Your Own Success Story

-From FiveRings.com, Misunderstood Quotes from Famous Authors – “Write What You Know”

-From Alex J. Cavanaugh, The Storm Continues! Science Fiction and Movie News, GI Joe Retribution Review, Naming Characters, and Ninja News

-From Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy, Sequels, Sagas, and Trilogies…Oh, My! by Nicole Dunlap

Marketing

-From Monetize Pros, 45 Ways To Make Money With LinkedIn

- From ProBlogger, Introduction to Autoresponders…

-From CloudTactix.com, Infographic: The Ultimate Social Media Size Cheat Sheet

-From BookMarketingBuzzBlog, Making Your Book More Promotable

News

-From The New York Times, A Novelist Who Made Crime an Art, and His Bad Guys ‘Fun’

-From The Masquerade Crew, Self-publishing Stigma – Together, we will get rid of it! (reposted from @epublishabook)

-From SpiderWorking.com, Facebook Competition Rule Changes – What You Need To Know

-From The Telegraph.com, Nobel-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney dies at 74

-From Digital Book World, Oyster Launches Spotify for Ebooks

-From Dave Hakkens, Phonebloks

Movie Reviews, Trailers, & More

-From Zany Zach’s Blog, My worst films ever made

-From The Phoenix Exposition, Movie Monday 7/22/13

-From MOVIECLIPS Trailers, The Book Thief Official Trailer #1 (2013)

-From MTV.com,VMA 2013 Exclusive: ‘Divergent’ First Look

-From PARADOX – Series of books, City of Bones – The Mortal Instruments, what did you think?

-From Adopting James, Villains We Love to Hate

-From Hollywoodstreams, ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’ Trailer

-From Deadline.com, Hot Trailer: ‘Great Expectations’

Entertainment

-From The Wizard’s Cauldron, Are you a DINOSAUR?

-From Andy Blanton, Georgia Tech – Freshman Convocation – Epic Welcome Speech

-From Deadline |Hollywood, Idris Elba To Star In Cary Fukunaga-Helmed ‘Beasts Of No Nation’

-From Bree Schapper, Just funny-no title: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152642257355300&set=vb.776790299&type=2&theater

-From Mary Ann Bernal, Time Machine Special – Arrows “I Love Rock N Roll”

-From Alex J. Cavanaugh, Cloaked in Fur-What kind of animal would you be?

-From BookMarketingBuzzBlog, Is It All Fiction, Or Is It True?

-From Funniest Video Ever, The Coolest Ad I Have Ever Seen…

-From A Curious Gal, DARK AND MYSTICAL SEA

-From The Between, Picture it & Write/First Hunt

-From L.A. I’m Yours, Where Shall We Meet? Skylight Books with Dan Kusunoki

-From The Artificial Selection Project, The Legend of Korra

-From Inspirationenergy, In Search of Purposeful Greatness: A Review of the Websites & Blogs Most Likely to Get Us There

-From Tossing It Out, Alex J Cavanaugh on Morality in Writing

-From Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy, Opening the Steampunk Toolkit by Emma Jane Holloway (Giveaway)

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: Memes Tagged: blog roll, blogging, books, interviews, links, movies, news, reviews, trailers, try this, writing

Character Files from the ToiBox 28: Theodore aka Teddy – Bio

 

Biography:  Subject FM 3-Teddy

Teddy is Rebecca’s younger brother and second best friend. Because of his age, Teddy handled his parent’s divorce much better than Rebecca, but he’s not without his own “father” issues. Teddy is a humorous and charming guy with youth on his side.

An aspiring lawyer and businessman, Teddy hasn’t had much time to think about or experience love, but he knows it’s out there somewhere. When he’s ready, he’ll go looking for it. In the meantime, he’s got things to doing and people to see.

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

Listography of Toi 03: Cities Lived In

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.

Cities I’ve Lived In

-Dallas County, TX (too many to name or remember)

-Virginia Beach, VA

-Wise, VA

-Suffolk, VA

-Chesapeake, VA

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: About Me Tagged: author, biography, city, life, lists, travel

How to Avoid the Slush Pile by Stefan Vucak

First of all, what is as slush pile? Well, in the golden days of publishing, it used to be a large waste bin next to the submission editor’s desk where he would dump your book. Today, it’s likely to be the delete button on his e-mail Inbox. Either way, it’s bad news.

You have written your masterpiece and you are all fired up to mail it to every agent and publisher in the world, traditional or e-book. If you are self-publishing, you needn’t bother reading further.

Someone told me a long time ago that writing the book is the easy part. I spent a better part of six to nine months writing the damned thing. How can it be the easy part? All right, let’s look at your book using a very simple checklist.

Is it finished? Amazing how many writers approach an agent or publisher with a half-baked potato.
Is the book properly formatted? An agent or publisher may have specific requirements. Before submitting, it is prudent to make yourself aware of what they are.
Is the internal layout correct? This means, do your chapters start on a new page using Word’s page break function? Do you have tabs, extra spaces at end of a last sentence in a paragraph, manually centered headings, not spell checked? Starting a paragraph using the Tab key?
Has the book been thoroughly edited? Lots can be said about what ‘thoroughly’ means, but I think you get the idea.

If your Page One has any of these tripwire items, you can guess what will happen. Editors and agents get dozens of submissions a day. Even if your book is the next Gone with the Wind, if you haven’t presented it correctly – slush pile.

Having been diligent and done everything right, you’re still not ready to send the thing off. You have just done the easy part. Okay, so what’s the hard part? Making the submission, of course. What’s so hard about that? Churn out a letter and post the damned thing. Time for another checklist.

Do you have a polished submission letter that will sweep that agent or editor off his feet?
Does the submission letter contain the agent or editor’s correct name? Not much good if all it says ‘To whom it may concern’, or ‘Dear Sir’. It tells the person you haven’t bothered to research the agency or publisher.
Have you written a short and long blurb for your book? You’ll need this with your submission letter or e-mail.
Is your book synopsis done? This is where many writers suffer agonies of withdrawal symptoms. They can write a Gone with the Wind, but they cannot write a two-page synopsis even if their life depended on it.

The above items will be the first thing an agent or editor sees. If you cannot get past the submission letter – the slush pile. Let’s leave the submission letter and talk about the book blurb. You must write a paragraph, boiling your book down to about 100 words or so, that tells somebody what the book is about, injecting drama, suspense, tears, a shootout – whatever is the theme. Think about making a sauce. Your pot has all the necessary ingredients and is half full of water. To make the sauce, you boil the mess until only a gooey residue is left on the bottom. That’s your book blurb…

To see the rest of this article and learn more about Stefan Vucak, please visit the ECS blog.

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, being overwhelmed, book, dos and don'ts, editing, marketing, submission

Author Insights 08: I don’t feel Saf3

I don’t feel Saf3 :/

I very rarely speak up about pop culture matters in this way and especially not TV related things, but…

OH MY GOODNESS! Yesterday, Saturday September 21, 2013, I lost 43 minutes of my life I will never get back. I stumbled upon a new CW show called SAF3. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen and some people will probably love it, but I am scared for life.

One blogger, Major Daily, was kind enough to refer to this new show as BayWatch 2.0…they wish. I might have, strange as it sounds, liked it more if they had run down the beach in swimsuits. I’m not one for needlessly and hatefully bashing (especially since I don’t feel a sense of hatred of this) so I’ll explain why I didn’t like this show in a nice calm manner.

I seriously hope this was an episode one, one time only, phenomena because that was the longest intro ever. I kept waiting for the Enegizer Bunny to come strolling through.
The idea of the show really has such good intentions and potential, but failed to deliver in terms of acting, location, cinematography, script, and more.
I was excited to see Dolph Lundgren in a major U.S. television role, but unless he’s a bad guy or making me laugh, I don’t think I take kindly to his acting technique.
Did I mention script yet, specifically the plot? There were so many clichés in the first episode that watching it to the end seemed a little silly, but I kept waiting to be surprised. Also, it seems like someone on staff could have taken a few minutes to actually speak to some rescue professionals to make some of the procedures and details a little more believable…but maybe I’m wrong on this count. Maybe it’s perfectly acceptable to not only move, but swim against a wild current, when carrying a possible neck injury victim who could possibly end up with permanent paralysis.
Halfway through the show I told myself that this was going to be one of those shows that was sooo bad, that it was actually good. I’d somehow find myself entertained by the absurdity of the show, but that didn’t happen.

The last thing I’d like to say is that it’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and actually tried to watch new television programming and that maybe I’m just out of touch. Also, this was episode one, maybe it will get better, but I don’t plan on finding out for myself. I’ll wait to hear about it through the grapevine and stick to my books.

For now, I’m still screaming on the inside, “What the crap did I just watch?!”

For more on Saf3, visit the links below.

Teaser promo: www.youtube.com

From Major Daily: ChicagoNow

IMDB: Saf3

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: BayWatch2.0, CW, Dolph Lundgren, reviews, shows, tv