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Very Inspiring Blogger Award #gratitude

veryinspiringblogaward

My buddy, the motivator of my journey into movie reviews, The Armchair Squid has nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award and I am almost speechless. It took me a few days to wrap my head around this and now I’m sharing it with the world. Thank you so much Squid for nominating me and providing me with a level of encouragement I didn’t realize I needed. You have made my week! 😀

Here are three things that have inspired me recently:
1)
Lemons. To me lemons have always symbolized opportunity, ever since I understood the phrase “make lemonade”. I’ve been dealt plenty of lemons recently, but have chosen to make lemonade at every turn. I just hope I don’t end up upsetting my tummy.

2) This driving dog inspires me for three reasons.

1. This is just so cute 8D.
2. Dogs are so willing to do things above and beyond, maybe even unnatural, to please the people they care about. I want to be more like dogs in that they can be so selfless.
3. If a dog can learn to drive a car, surely I can figure out a way to write a story that reaches into people’s hearts and makes them feel good. That’s all I really want, but it may be a bit much.

3) My sister who is also one of my nominees. Tori J. Jones inspires me in more ways than I have time or space to write here, and on top of all that, she’s the physical inspiration for the main female character in my book Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel. Tori is a full-time mom, a full-time art student, a full-time cyber entrepreneur, daily –weekly blogger, and she volunteers her time at Church, the PTA, and women’s shelters. Maybe I should just write a story about her; it’s bound to me a phenomenal read.

My nominations:
I am well aware that these awards aren’t for everyone and also realize that some of the people I’d like to nominate may have already been nominated. In any case, I’m taking lemons and using them as an opportunity to honor and or promote a few bloggers who inspire me daily and weekly. Even if they wish not to participate, I’m proud to give them a shout out and say, “Thanks for inspiring me.”

M.C.V. Egan – an amazing promoter and advocate for peace; an all-around fun person
Stacy Rourke – wonderful sense of humor, wonderful promoter and author
Wiz Green – wonderful sense of humor and great promoter, makes everyone feel like a friend
Brian Feinblum – knows his stuff about the industry, excellent blogger
Tricia Drammeh – an amazing supporter of indies, all around wise and peaceful person
Derrick Ferguson – Mr. cool to me, excellent movie reviewer, blogger, and writer
John H. Byk – great entertainer providing interesting and fun audio interviews
The Geek Twins – my goto for geekess, fun stuff, but also thought-provoking
Beth – excellent book reviewer and blogger, the reason I check out many books
Bethany – a true blessing and reminder of the good things in life
Andrew Hess – another cool guy, great critiquer and promoter
Tori Jones – A renaissance woman (my sister)

The Rules for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award:
1. Thank the person who nominated you, and link to their blog.
2. Display the award logo.
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers (more or less) and provide a link where they may be found.
4. Go to their blog, leave a comment to let them know they have been nominated.
5. Mention three things that inspired you the most during the past few weeks.

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

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Author Insights

The Celebratory Trifecta!

The year 2025 is a long time to wait for a missed opportunity, but what else can I do? Life and circumstances had me so busy and tired that earlier this month I missed out on truly embracing two geek holidays and one vastly underrated U.S. observance that I feel needs more attention.

Saturday, May 3, 2014 was Free Comic Book Day. While I did download a free comic that day, I didn’t have a chance to get out and mingle with my  peers and help spread the word and importance of comic books in our culture, society, and literacy.

Sunday, May 4, 2014 was May the 4th Be With You. I have no idea how this day in honor of the influences of Star Wars went over. Being sick, I slept through most of it. Don’t let me paint a wrong picture for you; this is basically a commercial ploy to increase retail sales, but I still like it.

Wikipedia

Finally, Monday, May 5, 2014 was Cinco de Mayo. Being from Texas and having a bit of Hispanic ancestry, this has always been a day of celebration for my family. This year we all had too much going on to get together for a family dinner. Sadly for most, this day is simply another opportunity to go out and over indulge on cheap alcoholic beverages (True Irish descendants can relate to this as well with the “celebration” of St. Patrick’s Day). Unfortunately, Cinco de Mayo is still not considered a U.S. national holiday, though if you ask me, without the Battle of Puebla, to which it commemorates, Texas and much of southwestern U.S. could be in the hands of the French today (but that’s a history lesson for another day).

So I guess from here, I’ll simply be waiting. I’ll be waiting for the rare opportunity to have fun times and celebrate for three days in a row and perhaps share it with the ones I love most.

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