Today I welcome Toi Thomas to my blog! I “met” Toi through the Insecure Writers Support Group, and she has just finished a blog tour to promote It’s Like the Full Moon (written under the name Glorie Townson). Today she joins us on a special post-tour stop.
If you want to visit the other tour stops to learn more about Toi, click here for a complete list. The giveaway is over, but the fun continues!
It’s Like the Full Moon is my first foray into contemporary romance as a writer, and even my readership of the genre is fairly young. For as long as I could remember, romance as a genre seemed to be overly simplified into either erotic, dramatic, and or naïve subplots mashed together to bring “the boy and the girl” into each other’s arms at the end. While this is true for some stories, I soon realized just how wrong I was in my narrow-minded assumptions.
Romance is more than the stuff that happens to bring upon a happy ending; it’s the journey of love and the discovery of all the different paths people can take to find it. To be able to tell the story of how people overcome the obstacles of life in order to share themselves with someone else is no easy task and is in many ways a great responsibility. Writing romance is a platform for relationship therapy and self-discovery.
While the entertainment value of these stories is unquestionable, the deeper meaning and the ability to connect to reader’s baser instincts is an empowering experience. Some people never develop a passion for politics, never comprehend the appeal of superpowers, never feel invested enough to track clues in hopes of solving the crime, and so much more, but everyone on some level identifies with love and the pursuit of it. Romances take these pursuits and focuses them on uniting soulmates, kindred spirits, convenient companions, bold lovers, and more.
I write romance because it gives me a chance to tell the world that making love is worth ending all other pursuits and battles; and for those fortunate enough to freely pursue happiness, hopefully romance is part of the package.
Glorie Townson is more than just a pen name for the author, Toi Thomas; she’s an entirely different personality. Glorie is the softer side of Toi, who puts down her comic books and picks up a volume of Robert Frost poems. Like Toi, Glorie is happily married to her wonderfully supportive husband, and together they share a home with their pet turtle, Betty. This is Glorie’s first publication, but she’s already feeling the inspiration to pen another tale, to which she’ll gladly share with the world.