Author: Toi Thomas

Author and illustrator of children's books, as well as clean adult fiction and nonfiction. Toi is a geek-girl blogger, vlogger, reviewer, and advocate for a healthy reading lifestyle. She finds comfort in faith, family, and creative expression. Toi believes in the dream of world harmony and hopes all your dreams come true.

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG February 2015: Waiting & Celebrating

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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So this month a have a few things to celebrate and a few thing to try really hard not to worry about.

1) My wonderful new bud The Armchair Squid nominated me for the Inspiring Blogger Award. To say that I’m honored would be an understatement. I’ve been blogging for almost four years now, but sometimes I still feel like a newbie just trying to get a handle on this blogging thing. When I receive recognition like this, it makes my whole week; and to receive it from a blogger I truly admire is even better. Now here comes my insecurity. Tomorrow I’m going to post my response to this nomination and in turn nominate around 15 other bloggers. I will have no trouble at all finding bloggers who inspire me, I just don’t know how they’ll respond to being nominated by me. Some of them I’m very close to, but others I kinda feel like a fangirl suffering from the delusion that I’m friends with these great bloggers I follow. Plus they’ve probably all been nominated already by someone else.

2) Yesterday I posted a new little project I’ve started to help me keep in touch with some of my author buddies and blog guest. I call it “Long Time No Talk”. It’s basically a blog exchange that allows me to post an update for someone else and they post one for me. Yesterday I shared the update of author M.C.V. Egan. You can click here to see it. My plan is to reach out to others who’ve visited my blog to see what they’ve been up to in the same fashion. It was a lot of fun doing the first one and even if the guest aren’t keen on posting my update to their blog, I’ll still post theirs to mine.

3) Now it’s time to wait. I completed the sequel to my Eternal Curse Series and with help of the IWSGCC I was able to find someone to critique it for me. So I sent it off and now I’m waiting. I’m waiting to see just how much more work the manuscript needs or perhaps how much more work I need as a writer. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

4) I’m glad to announce, for the few of you who know about it, that I’ll be starting back up with my You Tube channel posts in March. Aside from picking back up my regularly scheduled programming, I’ll also be putting together a miniseries to help promote the sequel to Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel. I’m thinking a cute dog in the videos will help keep them interesting. What do you think?

So now it’s off to completing my list of nomination; do you like these kinds of awards: yes or no? Seriously, is a cute dog a good idea or not? strong>

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Gwen Gardner, Dolorah, Sarah Foster, and M. Pax!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #122).

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

Categories
Fiction Author Videos

Long Time No Talk with M.C.V. Egan #author #fiction

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Greetings humans, half-breeds, and everything in between. Today I’m sharing a very special update from one of my dearest author friends, a trend I hope to develop more. It’s been a while since I’ve hosted this special author or reviewed something of hers, but that’s just me being disorganized and frazzled as usual. Not only is Catalina, a.k.a. M.C.V. Egan a wonderful author and friend, she just a neat person to know. 

So here’s an update on what she’s been doing.

Toi: Can you believe it is 2015? Did you make any great resolutions that you know you can keep?

M.C.V. Egan: I did set a few goals/resolutions and at this stage I like to be very fluid. If I stumble, I can pick my self up and remember the set course. 2014 was full of many good moments, sprinkled with a dose of some health issues and teen drama, but it was overall a good year. I am very much looking forward to 2015, one such resolution is keeping more in touch with my friends, so be warned Toi, you will see much more of me! Another sadly is to watch my intake of caffeine….

Toi: Is there anything new happening on your blog?

M.C.V. Egan: I run three blogs in 2015 and I have fun plans for all three.
On Tumblr @ The Bridge of Deaths, I plan to interview more bloggers. I did that a few years ago, and although some bloggers are also authors, I really enjoy that exchange.
I am welcoming more diverse guests @ Is History The Agreed Upon Lie? I am also not leaving the guests on for the full two weeks. The theme is still discrepancies in history and the guests are amazing. I have a fantastic one now about The Pilgrims.
I have agreed to host for many more on-line book tours and other promotions. I feel this is a great way to learn how to best promote myself, while helping others. I have connected with many fantastic people this way. I really recommend hosting other authors.

Toi: Any books news?

M.C.V. Egan: YES, MANY BOOK NEWS ! I am working hard on a series, YES A SERIES, it is The Defining Ways series and the first book is now available on AMAZON . I will release the printed version of DEFINED by OTHERS soon.
The series book two is Climbing Up The Family Tree; Defined by Pedigree is going to be diverse, not all of the books will be considered contemporary nor will they have the same format (Surprises ahead) , they will all have the common thread of all that defines us; which is great because there is so much out there that shapes and molds us!

Toi: So, how’s the future looking? Any cool plans?

M.C.V. Egan: I am working hard on marketing strategies, both locally and in our great cyber world. As a part of that I have started using as many tools as I can find such as photofunia.com and Animoto. With this as well as with my blogs, I feel that sharing and helping others is key to success, so I am making trailers and promo videos for my artists, poets,  and author friends.
 
Enjoy my latest promotional and a bit about my new venture…Oh yes if you get a chance swing by AMAZON and FOLLOW ME Please?????
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See why I love this lady so much. She’s so positive and kindhearted, it’s hard not to like her; plus she writes some really good stories. So please, take some time to visit her blogs, follow her on Amazon, and check out her books. You’ll be glad you did. Head over to 4covert2overt to see an update from me. 
 
If you like this update of my dear friend Catalina and are wondering about some of my other past guests, don’t worry; their updates are in the works. So, humans, half-breeds, and everything in between, that’s all I have for today. 
 
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
Categories
Character Files EC: B Files EC: Battleground

Character Files from the ToiBox 84: Lilly-Opinion on Peers

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How does this character feel about his/her book peers?

Subject EC:B 4-Lilly:

…adores Tori and wishes she could be more of a comfort to her.

…sees how much Sheldon adores Giovanni and wishes she could be more of a comfort to him for different reasons.

…sympathizes with Michael more than the others because she understands what he feel like, just being able to touch the edge of this other world they all live in.

…thinks Jack is rude and reckless, but likes him anyway. She wonders if a guy like him is capable of settling down.

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