Guest Post Tonya Barbee 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer

This is one of my stops during the two month tour for The Little Girl Inside: Owning My Role in My Own Pain by Tonya Barbee. This virtual book tour is organized by Write Now Literary Book Tours. This tour runs October & November.  Follow the tour here.  Book your own tour here WNL

Book Title: The Little Girl Inside: Owning My Role in My Own Pain

ASIN: B00VJFVN5Q

ISBN-10: 0692564802

ISBN-13: 978-0692564806

Genre: Non-Fiction

Tonya Barbee

10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer-

Take classes.

Improve on your trade. 

Read books from authors you would like to be more like, or learn from. 

Be clear and specific. 

Prepare an outline first before you get started. 

Do a mind map of your outline.

Plan your writing.

Research what you are writing about so your book will have correct information. 

Write the first draft without editing what you write. 

Write as you would want to read about what you write about. 

Be relaxed and in a good place when you’re writing.

About The Author

TONYA BARBEE is a novelist and aspiring playwright. Her most recent published work is titled, The Little Girl Inside Owning My Role in My Own Pain. She is currently working on another project that complements this book. Tonya grew up in Durham, NC, a family of four daughters and one son. Her father, Woodrow served his country for twenty years as an Army officer, retired then taught ROTC for another twenty years and her mother, Doris, a college administrator. She is a proud 1980 graduate of Frank W. Ballou High School in Washington, DC. She worked in operations and management for Department of Agriculture for twenty years. For the past ten years, she’s worked as a project manager for Department of Defense in Washington, DC. She studied at National-Louis University where she earned her Masters in Business Administration in 2009.

Although she’s worked her way up the ladder in the federal government, she had no idea she would end up writing professionally however she has always enjoyed sharing her personal life through story telling with those she thought she could help. Then something clicked. As she writes, she is in hopes that her work reaches her readers that have been through something and have contemplated giving up. Her goal is to enable her readers to become empowered to keep moving forward to accomplish their dreams no matter what challenges they have been faced with.

Tonya resides in Bowie, MD with two of her youngest children, Christian and Zachary. Her eldest two, Andrew and Jessica left the nest years ago and have blessed her with seven beautiful grandkids.

About The Book

The Little Girl Inside is a prolific story of triumph and discovery of inner peace. With each page, the reader will be captivated while the author uses the writing pen as a sowing tool-seaming a garment of praise, banner of victory and fabric of joy. With imaginative color, the book is a perfectly designed combination of patterns expressing the maturation of a woman.

A uniquely designed transparent jewel every woman should own in her jewelry box. The Little Girl Inside is a ministry resource tool for women in search for transparency in the human heart. The author shows us how to overcome the inner battle of doing the right thing the wrong way, going from finding love in the wrong places to allowing love to be revealed in the right time and in the right place.

 Excerpt

I made room for Sir Intellectual to bring what I thought were the remainder of hi things. I also made room on my health insurance policy just in case he didn't have any. Too bad it didn't occur to me to ask him. My ability to confront was non-existent. I decided not to wait until I returned to work to handle it. I contacted my carrier and updated my policy to include my new husband. The whole time I felt sad that he wasn't contacting his carrier to include me. I had a husband, though what caliber of husband, I wasn't sure. Sometimes I wanted to slap myself for being so needy that I overlooked important things and ignored flags, bells, and whistles.

Social Media Contacts

Website: http://www.iamstillarose.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamstillarose

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paes/I-am-Still-a-Rose/1429623497335690

Purchase Links

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/y768n67m

Amazon ebook: http://a.co/7V9fOx6

Amazon paperback: http://a.co/b9qsRcs

Tour hosted by Write Now Literary

Mommy Loves You by Dr. Dyoni Cole

                

Hello! This is one of my tour stops during my week book tour for Mommy Loves You by Dr. Dyoni Cole. This virtual book tour is organized by Write Now Literary Book Tours. This tour runs October 30 – November 3, 2017.  Follow the tour here.  Book your own tour here WNL

Book Title: Mommy Loves You

Genre: Children's Book

Author: Dr. Dyoni Cole

Paperback: 26 pages

ISBN-10: 197619881X

ISBN-13: 978-1976198816

About The Author

Dr. Dyoni Cole is president of Dyoni, Inc., a consulting organization that specializes in leadership development in the areas of Education, Management, Organizational Leadership, and Dance Leadership.

Dr. Dyoni has a passion to see others exceed their own expectations and reach high levels of excellence. She believes in going beyond the call of duty to help others maximize their full potential and become who they have be predestined to be.

Dr. Dyoni earned her doctorate from Argosy University in Business Administration with a focus of management and organizational leadership. She earned her MBA from University of Phoenix and is currently earning a MS in Psychology.

Dr. Dyoni lives by these words" Always be a student of your craft, as each day is an opportunity to LEARN, to LOVE, and to DANCE."

About The Book

Mommy Loves You is a children's book about a mother's love for her child expressed through words of affirmation. Mommy Loves You is also an educational tool as well as a self-esteem and self-love booster.

For ages 1 - 5 years.

Connect Socially

Website: http://www.dyonicole.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dyoni11

Purchase Link

Amazon paperback link: http://a.co/8qGPtl3

Tour hosted by WLN Book Tours www.wnlbooktours.com

What inspired you to write this book?

YOU ARE, BUT YOU SHALL BE!!! This phrase is something that I think about often. Each day we are becoming.  We, as individuals are all working to become who we are predestined to be. We're all different, unique, and rare; Beautiful and handsome in our right. We all have a God-given purpose; a purpose that was explicitly given to you and given to me. Only you can accomplish your purpose, and just I can achieve my purpose.  This fact brings me to the concept of self: SELF-LOVE!

It is essential first and foremost that we know who we are as individuals and that we love who we are as individuals. You and I were perfectly and wonderfully created.  Everything about you, everything about me is a perfect fit to fulfill our purposes. It is crucial that we know and understand this. In recognizing and following this, we will embrace our uniqueness and our differences. We will no longer look down upon ourselves or compare ourselves to others. We will genuinely celebrate the accomplishments of others and not be secretly jealous and envious of others.  We will confidently stand on this truth that what is for you is for you and what is for me is for me.  This brings me to SELF-ESTEEM and SELF-VALUE, which all aligns with the concept of self.

How we carry ourselves depicts how we see ourselves, which in turn teaches others how to treat and interact with us.  As an adult, I recognize that social media is very influential in subliminally conveying the essence of what beauty looks like, what success looks like, and how one should go about becoming beautiful and becoming successful. Social media is subliminal in teaching us how to despise where we are in life and who we are as individuals. Social media is subliminal in showing us how to become the status quo and how to blend in when we were never designed or created to blend in;   blending in makes us merely ordinary. With this in mind, I can only imagine the difficulties children face with understanding who they are and the difficulties of learning how to become comfortable in their own skin.  This is why Mommy loves you was written. It is vital that children are affirmed by those who love them. It is essential that children know they were correctly created; that everything about them from their little toes, their little legs, their little hands, their nose, and their eyes are loved by those that love them; that they need not change anything about them to be loved.  

A Pain Less Ordinary by L.V. Pires

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads

Becca's life is anything but ordinary. 

At fifteen, she's already experienced her share of pain. With a mom who drinks too much, a revolving door of father figures, and struggles at school, Becca wonders if she'll ever have a chance at a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane is her little sister, Chloe; that is, until her mother's breakdown leads to her sister's disappearance.

A PAIN LESS ORDINARY follows Becca as she figures out life on her own while searching for her family and her new role in the world. 

In this powerfully moving novel, L.V. Pires explores Becca's struggle with abandonment, drug abuse, homelessness, relationships, and how pain connects her to others.

My Thoughts

This is an amazing book.  I kept thinking that Becca could be any one of my students. The problem is I could name some of them who have been in a situation similar.  As I was reading this story I thought back to two years ago when a student came and talked with me. She was extremely depressed.  She lived with her aunt and her mom was trying to re-establish contact. She didn’t know how to feel about it. Her mom had been an alcoholic and a drug user.  She and her younger sister, who was two years old,  were always hungry. Her younger sister tried to open the open the oven door. The stove was propped up in the back and was unstable enough it fell on her crushing her. This young girl spoke of trying to lift the stove off of her sister. She spoke of trying to wake her drunk mother up and hearing her mother blame her.  I had not thought of that until I read this book. There are so many Becca’s out there. Their story is just as heart-wrenching.  Yet there is hope for them. Sometimes it comes from the unexpected.  In this review, I am not going to speak more about the book.  This was one of those that caused me to make a connection to real life. Enough said.  I would highly recommend this book and will purchase it for my shelves at school. Like I said, there are other Becca’s out there or people who know Becca’s and they need to read this story.