Tag: Renaissance

Categories
Book Club

#iwsgbookclub Apr. 2022 Check-in

It’s time for a monthly check-in. We, at the IWSG Book Club, invite you to share your thoughts and or progress on our current member spotlight books via the social media platform(s) of your choice. I’ll be sharing my thoughts below and encourage you to share in the comments below, if you’re not up for heading to social media.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Any amount I make goes towards my dream to host a book fair in Hampton Roads, VA. Please see my About page for more details. Thank you for your support.

Amazon.com | Bookshop.org

It’s been a slow reading month for me, but I’m around the 75% mark of this book. It’s been enlightening, so far, to discover many cultural differences between U.S. and European citizens when it comes to daily life, travel, marriage, and more. Plus, I’m learning about life on a boat. It’s not shocking to discover the many ways in which the U.S. government seems to be designed to hold people down and strip them of their peace of mind. I’m proud to be a U.S. citizen, I just wish the U.S. was more caring of its citizens and its visitors.

Amazon.com

Being the one to read multiple books at a time, I too am just around the 75% point with this book. It’s not what I was expecting. I don’t want to say too much right now because I’d rather lay it all out in my review. Plus, it seems there is an update for this book, so I may read that to do a comparison, but I’m not sure. I am very much looking forward to the discussion of this book next week. I’ve seen the questions and they are good.

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 #blacklivesmatter

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG April 2022- Are there #audiobooks in your future?

IWSG

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

This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Any amount I make goes towards my dream to host a book fair in Hampton Roads, VA. Please see my About page for more details. Thank you for your support.

Optional Monthly Question: Have any of your books been made into audiobooks? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?

None of my books have officially been turned into audiobooks, but I have published, on YouTube, read-along, “story time” videos of some of my children’s picture books (click here if you’d like to see them). I’ve looked into the process of audiobook production and know that it’s definitely something I will be seeking down the road for some of my other publications.

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IWSG BOOK CLUB ON GOODREADS

Member Spotlights

#iwsgbookclub

The books we’ve chosen to spotlight in the month of April are Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary by Liesbet Collaert (Amazon.com & Bookshop.org) and BETRAYED (Renaissance Vampire Vipunin 1) by Denise Covey (Amazon.com). Please check these out and consider giving one or both of these a read this month. If you’re not up for reading them, no worries, you can still help spread some love for these publications and or participate in the book club activities.

In honor of her spotlight, Liesbet Collaert has decided to discount her ebook for a limited time to $3.99. And, Denise Covey has just released an update to her book. Hope you try and enjoy both of these.

Feel free to share this image on social media to help spread the word.

My co-mods and I have done a lot of research into the books written by IWSG members to help facilitate the current direction the book club is taking. In the process, I’ve learned about how readers find and don’t find books by our members. So, I’ve put together some, hopefully, helpful tips I like to call…

Ways to Make Your Book(s) “Findable”

…and increase their chances to be featured and discovered.

8) Get on social media. I am not advocating for you to try out every platform that’s available. I encourage you to try one or two that you feel comfortable with and connect with people. Don’t just promote and spam all the time. Really connect with people. I’ve had several people discover me through social media, and some weren’t even looking for my books. They were interested in my videos and other things I’d done only to find out that I also write. If you are on social media, make sure the links for each platform are directed to your profile. I came across several blogs that linked to Twitter.com or Facebook.com, instead of someone’s actual profile. *Make sure readers have a way to reach you if that’s something you are interested in. I’ve tried to contact several of the featured authors and never got a response back.*

Reminder: Here’s our spotlight schedule.
IWSG blog list 1-50 = Feb, Jun, Oct
IWSG blog list 51-100 = Mar, Jul, Nov
IWSG blog list 101+ = Jan, May, Sep (IWSG Anthologies)
IWSG Registry = Apr, Aug, Dec

Remember, if you are not currently on the IWSG blog hop list and don’t plan to join, the registry is the only way for your books to have a chance to be spotlighted by the book club. If you are on the blog hop list, please don’t join the registry. We want to be fair and give everyone an opportunity to be featured, which means some of us will have to wait our turns, including me (the book club admin) and the co-mods.

Please click this hyperlink to fill out the form to be added to the IWSG Book Club Spotlight Registry, and please help us spread the word.

Now, on to the personal updates.

I am so excited to announce that I’ve signed up for and have been accepted as a Bookshop.org affiliate. After seeing this amazing post (What is BOOKSHOP.ORG?) by Chrys Fey, I had to jump on this. I love the idea of being able to offer readers an alternative to Amazon when it comes to ordering print books online. While many people I’ve met face-to-face refused to buy my books unless I could prove they were available on the mega-site (I know, what’s their problem), I know that others are looking for alternatives. I hope to announce an alternative ebook affiliate soon, but one step at a time. For now, I’ll stick with the Zon and the Shop as the source of my promoted links.

I was putting off announcing this for a while but since it’s happening, I decided to go for it. I have been taking a very slow path to redistribute my ebooks wide. It’s a process and I’m just getting started, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. When I began my publishing journey, I was widely distributed but became exclusive with Amazon because it was easy to manage. My writing career has shifted many times and while the future is unknown, I’ve decided to put the extra effort into making sure that I’m offering readers good options and aren’t placing all my eggs in one basket. You will not see me bash the Zon on this blog despite every justification to do so on many levels. Yes, I wish they were better in many ways and used their influence and power to be more helpful than they sometimes are, but I don’t ignore the fact that the Zon has provided me and so many other writers opportunities and a source of income when no one else could or would. I guess you could say I have a “Love-Hate” relationship that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Lastly, I’m so excited about how much writing I got done in the month of March. It was my biggest word count in a long time, though still not much in comparison to others. Still, I’m happy with it. Plus, I’ve also hand-illustrated 13 pages in a book I’ve been working on about my rescue dog, Margie.

Here’s the latest on my YouTube series, The Read Local Show (Hampton Roads, VA, USA) and The Read All Over Show (global). I’ve been having so much fun with this. I’m so excited to have a chance to interview one of my all-time favorite authors, later this month.

If you’re interested in being featured, check out the Read Local/All Over Sign-up form here.

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Do you listen to audiobooks?
Have you tried audiobook publication?
What are your thoughts on going wide?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog. My response time has gotten slower but I’m still making my rounds.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Joylene Nowell Butler,
Jemima Pett,
Patricia Josephine,
Louise – Fundy Blue, and
Kim Lajevardi!

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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 #31).

Categories
Movies

Renaissance Review – Mock Squid Soup No.10 #cinephiles #film #review

Wikipedia

This review will consist of me asking myself 10 questions and answering them to the best of my ability. However, before I do that, let’s take a look at my clues from last week.

#1 This is an awarding winning French film that, like so many others, did not do well at in U.S. box offices, but has since built up a cult following.

#2 The story is a dark tale of the future that cleverly ties into the fictional past of (the release year of the film) 2006 to help explain the mystery that’s being solved in the movie.

#3 This is a black and white film of a different caliber, with some well-known actors lending their talents this relatively low budget (for its type) film that has an awesome tagline: Paris 2054. Live forever or die trying.

Sorry about that last clue. I worried I made the clues too vague, but just coming out and saying that the film was animated seemed too easy.

New: see my viewing experience notes here.

1. What is this film about?

Like many sci-fi or futuristic movies, this film is about the pursuit of eternal youth or eternal life, two completely different things. It starts with a female scientist, Ilona, who seems to be in search of something, but before you have a chance to even wonder what it is, she gets kidnapped. This isn’t a spoiler; it’s the premise of the movie’s trailer. So in comes Captain Karas and the reckless sister, Bislane (I assume these are common French names.) to solve the case. With the investigation on, it doesn’t take long to realize that the company Ilona works for might have something to do with her disappearance I mean their name is Avalon and their slogan is “Health. Beauty. Longevity. Avalon. We’re on your side. For life.”…Right.

2. What did I think of the title, poster, and or trailer?

I’m not crazy about the title; I think it’s too vague. I guess it’s supposed to represent the genetic Renaissance of the future that makes people look and feel younger longer, but I feel like the movie didn’t emphasize that. Maybe the title means something else entirely and I just missed it.

I liked the trailer the first time I saw it which is why I wanted to see the movie, but I didn’t have a firm grasp on what the story was really about. I just thought it looked cool. I mean it’s an animated black and white movie made for a mature audience; how is that not cool? It turns out that the movie is more about Captain Kara’s investigation, but I won’t give away any details.

3. What did I think of the main character(s) and how the actors performed them?

Honestly, I didn’t think there was anything that really stood out about the voice work. Daniel Craig’s voice is distinctive, but that’s it. It sounds like trained actors reading lines in character. Nothing spectacular, but the animation is amazing. I feel like this was supposed to be a character-driven story, but I didn’t really connect with the characters. However, I didn’t dislike any of them and was able to easily follow along with Karas’s investigation. BTW- Karas’s character does have a very interesting back story.

4. What did I think of the direction and cinematography?

There are times when the images are hard to see, but that’s when you figure out how to look at the shadows around the light. The graphic artists were the real stars of this film and I guess the director helped all that come together.

5. What did I think of the soundtrack and score?

There were times when the music was a bit surreal and then there were times when I felt like James Bond was about to step onto the scene. The geek in me really liked that.

6. What did I like about the story as a whole?

I thought it was clever how the mystery of this story was tied into the past, the year 2006, which was the release year of the film. Overall I thought the story was really good and appreciated the little twist at the end.

7. What did I not like about the story?

I thought the relationship development was rushed and almost unnecessary, but people just don’t release movies without some kind romantic link. Also, I’m not sure if I picked up on a goof or glitch or what. There is one quick scene that I keep going back over, but I still can’t make sense of it.

8. Would I recommend this movie to others?

Yes, but I’d be picky about who I’d share it with.

9. If yes, who? What would I rate this movie?

Some people just don’t connect to animation and forget about black and white. I’d be sure to share this with an open-minded crowd. At least there are no subtitles, so that by itself will increase my audience.

On a scale of 1 to 5 movie reels, I give this film 4 reels.

MLikeIt

10. Was there anything in this movie that could be related to me or anything I have written?

I haven’t written anything like this, but I have penned a few thoughts and or cautionary tales of the future. I think what I learned most from this film is that no matter how much time passes, some people will always be greedy and someone will always have to keep them in check.

Watch, rent, or buy this movie here.

Mock Squid Soup – Film Society

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MOCK! and The Armchair Squid are proud to introduce Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society. Each month, on the second Friday, we shall host a bloghop devoted to movie reviews. We invite others to participate and post their reviews…Don’t be shy; come join the fun! 😀

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