Author Spotlight: Tonia

Author Tonia was born and raised in Houston, but it was during her college years in Baton Rouge at Louisiana State University that her first novel “Fashionably Deceptive” began to manifest. Always an avid reader and writer, Tonia decided to try her hand at writing a novel based “loosely” around the lives, fantasies, and experiences of her college roommates. That idea manifested itself into a masterpiece of a novel that will have readers hooked from start to finish.

Since then Tonia has moved back to Houston after college graduation and is currently working on finishing and releasing other novels in the near future. Her latest work is “Punishment is Due”.  When she is not working on novel writing, Tonia spends her time writing travel articles for various publications, blogging for her lifestyle blog, the “Sparkle Files”, or mentoring teen girls through the non-profit she co-founded. Learn more about the author, educator, and travel blogger below.

Fancy: How would you describe your swagher? What makes Tonia, Tonia?

Whether it’s a personal or professional goal, I’m always someone that pursues my dreams in the face of adversity.  From self-publishing three books to leading a high-risk campus to becoming the first campus in a district of almost 50,000 students and 50 schools to be recognized for their school counseling program, if I say it, I’m dead set on making my vision come to fruition.  There are seasons where I stumble and sometimes even fall, but one of my greatest fears is leaving this world without making an impact.  In the words of Mary Mary, “No one said this road would be easy, but he didn’t bring me this far to leave me.”  With God’s favor and grace and knowing the importance of combining my faith with works, I’m always striving to become the best version of myself and to motivate others to not put limits on themselves and the things that they can accomplish through faith and hard work.

Fancy: What was your major at LSU?

Tonia: My college journey actually started at Southern A&M University, and let’s just says I was one of those students that changed their major every school year.  I went from a nursing major (that discovered she didn’t like blood and/or other people’s body fluids) to a biology major (that discovered she didn’t really like science) and graduated from LSU a History Major with a Minor in Sociology with plans to go to law school.   And needless to say, my summer break between graduation and law school turned into pursuing a career in Education.  All over the place is an understatement, but the moment I stepped foot into my first classroom a decade ago, I knew I had ended up right where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. 

Fancy: So tell us about your book, “Punishment is Due”.

Tonia: “Punishment is Due” is by far my favorite title to date.  When I wrote my first novel, “Fashionably Deceptive”, I was 21 years old and just graduating from college, so even though at the time I thought I was well versed in life, it didn’t take long to realize outside of navigating and failing at dysfunctional relationships, I had a lot to learn.  All of my characters are relatable, but I love the contrast between the two main characters in “Punishment is Due”, Diana and Jay, and the lessons they are both forced to learn even though on the surface they seem to have everything.  In this day and age, with social media making it look like everyone is a millionaire that sleeps in Chanel, it’s easy to forget that there is more to life than money, fame, and designer goods and that it is often our trials that produce the qualities and traits that are required to achieve true success. Sometimes the same things and people that we fought to escape are the same entities that led to us to the path of becoming our best selves.

You can read the synopsis of Punishment is Due below:

On the surface, Diana has the world at her beck and call. But a high-paying executive position at her father’s prestigious PR firm and enough money to make all of her problems seem virtually non-existent won’t be enough to derail the tragedies that await her.

Success has not come easy for Jay, yet even in the face of poverty and adversity, he has managed to become one of Houston’s top attorneys. And then tragedy strikes. Tragedy that threatens to pull Jay back into the same streets that he’s fought so hard to escape.

In the midst of it all, Diana and Jay are forced to face their hearts’ deepest desires while learning to live with the punishment that is due.

 

Fancy: What inspired it?

Tonia: From the time I could pronounce and string words together on paper, I’ve always been an avid reader and writer.  There is nothing that I love more than getting lost in a good book or inside my head creating the characters for my next novel.  The craziness of life might inspire my tales, but I have to pay homage to the black writers before me like Zane, Mary B Morrison, Sister Souljah, E. Lynn Harris, Terri Woods, etc, that paved the way for future writers like myself to spin the tales from their imagination to readers around the globe. 

Fancy: What was the writing process like? How long did it take you for to write?

Tonia: When I first started writing novels versus short stories, it was really just something to do just to entertain my college roommates and me.  We were all heavily invested in Black Expressions, a mail order book club and flying through books like tacos on a Tuesday. One night we decided to write our own book with characters based loosely on ourselves and the things we had done, heard, and seen in college. My roomies eventually tapped out because once I started writing, I couldn’t stop, but again, it was all fun and games and being a published author never crossed my mind.  Back in those days, self-publishing was not really a thing, especially for a college student that would rather use her money on a fit for the next party, and you had to have a literary agent to even get a major publisher to look at your books.  “Fashionably Deceptive” sat on my computer for years, and it took dozens of friends and co-workers that I’d shared it with to finally convince me that it was worth actually publishing for the masses.

When I started “Punishment is Due”, my social life and career had really taken off, so it sat on my computer, and I would write whenever I for lack of better words “felt like it.”  I didn’t create an outline, and I would sometimes go back and change entire chapters and/or scenes because I felt like I had come up with a better scenario.  By the time I published my first novel, “Punishment is Due” was done as well, but in the time between it being completed and released, it was revised several times from the original storyline.  In being transparent, my next novel, which has yet to be named, is the first novel that I have created an outline for, and it is taking me the longest to finish, even though it is basically already mapped out. 

Fancy: Where is the book be available?

Tonia: “Punishment is Due” is currently available on Amazon and the Barnes and Noble website.

Fancy: Do you plan for your future books to also be urban fiction?

Tonia: While I love to read and write urban fiction, in my years as an educator, I have also fallen in love with young adult literature and would like to one day write a few books in that genre, as well.  There have been many students that walked into my classroom hating books that were turned into true bookworms by the end of the school year, and since it always comes up that I write books (that they can never read until they get to college), I would love to be able to see my work on school library shelves.

Fancy: I see you have a blog, “The Sparkle Files”. Can you share a little about it?

Tonia: A few years ago, I found myself in a huge slump, just a perpetual state of unhappiness.  I was in an on-again, off-again situationship with a guy that had been going on for years that was dysfunction at its finest, was tired of my career as a teacher, at odds with God, and just overall unhappy with life.  And one day after a random lunch date with a high-school close friend/former blogger that was in the same boat, we decided to create the “The Sparkle Files”, a space to help us get back to doing and being all of the things that made us “sparkle” from the inside out.  And it was during that time that my obsession with travel truly began, and most of my posts begin to center around my travel experiences.  It’s amazing how God blesses endeavors, because the blog that was started solely to get me out of the dark pit that was draining me of life, has evolved into travel features on “Essence”, “Blavity”, almost every black travel IG page from Travel is the New Club to Soul Society, and recently, The Shade Room, and into launching my travel company, Travels by Tonia, where I curate trips for others to help cure their wanderlust.

Fancy: Being that you also write travel articles, can you suggest a few places to visit for fall and winter vacations?

Tonia: For those not opposed to cooler weather, I would recommend taking advantage of winter activities in places like Breckenridge, Aspen, Whistler, Park City, Vail, Lake Tahoe, or any other place known for white snow set among beautiful backdrops that you don’t have to travel out of the country to experience.  As much as I like international travel, I’m not a fan of packing a 100 pound bag filled with cool weather gear across the world; however, for those that insist, Switzerland or Iceland would be picturesque locations to enjoy the snow abroad, even though the sky is really the limit on places to go.

For those that want to escape the frigid temperatures, I would recommend Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, or any place in the Caribbean for not only great weather, but all-inclusive service to cater to your whims at the lift of a finger at a fairly low price.   It’s never a bad idea to opt for a swimsuit instead of a North Face.

Regardless of your preferred weather and/or travel location, let Travels by Tonia help you curate the trip of your dreams at a price that fits your budget.  You can view my travels by visiting my Instagram page, @toniatheauthor. 

Fancy: Do you have any upcoming events or projects that you care to share?

Tonia: I will be hosting a book signing in Atlanta soon.  Follow me on social media to be the first to know the dates. 

Follow and connect with Tonia below.

www.toniatheauthor.com

www.thesparklefiles.com

www.travelsbytonia.com

@toniatheauthor (IG, Facebook, Twitter)