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Par for the Curse
Meet Toyi Ward, author of Par for the Curse
Toyi Ward is a freelance writer, author & media host who specializes in contemporary issues that affect working women. After ten years as a Fortune 100 sales & marketing executive, she launched Toyi Ward Communications, LLC, a writing/consulting company focused on the enrichment of working women. TWC contracts with e-magazines, websites, and print media to create fiction and non-fiction projects that examine issues pertaining to today’s woman.
Toyi draws upon her life experience and corporate training to facilitate workshops and lectures that enhance the lives of women at work and in their personal lives. She is the host of "TOYi Talk-Authenticity with Attitude" on the Blog Talk Radio Network. When asked, she credits her tenacity for tackling women’s issues from her name. "It’s one half of the South African toyi-toyi, the dance of protest. My parents named me well."
ABOUT THE BOOK
Stormy has grown up with the warning that she is cursed. Raised in a family of eight women with twenty-four husbands among them, she has managed to escape the family’s legacy thus far. Things begin to change once she is given the details concerning a hex that was cast upon her great grandmother over eighty years ago.
Managing the antics of her adulteress young cousin, Riley, exhausts Stormy. Comforting the heartbreak of her older cousin Lourdes, angers her. After a devastating turn of events on par with her birthright, Stormy decides to seek a remedy for the family’s plight. She travels to New Orleans determined to find answers. Along the way she faces a quilt of obstacles and a set of choices that challenge her reality. Will she reveal the information or continue playing the hand she was dealt by an angry young woman in the Bayou?
Par for the Curse reveals the influence of voodoo and the impact of generational secrets on family, life, and love.
CHARACTER PROFILE: Q & A with Riley Briggs
Q. What is your favorite thing about yourself?
RILEY: Oh that's easy. I like the fact that I love me. What's not to love? I'm beautiful, saavy, fun, with the skinniest ankles of any women I've ever met. And I know how to work what my mama gave me.
Q. What mark do you want to leave on the world?
RILEY:I don't need to leave a mark on the world. I'm planning on sliding into the grave with a bottle of Hennessey and a bag of french fries.
Q. So you plan on taking Hennessey to heaven with you?
RILEY: Now there you go. No. I don't plan to take Hennessey to heaven with me. And yes, I plan to get in. I don't need to be all up in the spot. I'll probably just get inside the gate, but I'm cool with that. [laughs]
Q. Lourdes is so sweet and beautiful. Stormy is smart and ambitious. Where do you fit?
RILEY: For starters, I'm the prettiest. People say Lourdes is because she's so nice but I've always had more men than both of them. I'm fine. They are pretty. There's a difference. True, Stormy is ambitious but she doesn't do much with it. I've been all over the world and built my real estate business by myself. She has done alot with MY social network. MY influence is why she has done well. Nobody knows her. It's me they respond to.
Q. Wow! Okay. Tell me about your husband, Damon.
RILEY: What about him? Nothing much to tell. He's nice enough. He loves me more than I love him and that's most important. But you know Kendall is my man.
Q. Doesn't it bother you that he's married?
RILEY: No. His wife is crazy. She totally mistreats him and he deserves someone like me. We have a real connection. When you read the book you'll see that. He loves me.
Q. Speaking of the book, how did you like it?
I like the story, but I don't know if I agree with my portrayal. I mean, it made me look so selfish. I mean I guess it's about my family so that makes sense, but the next book needs to be about me.
Purchase Par for the Curse to read Riley and her family's story.
Follow the Par for the Curse Blog Tour schedule at http://bitly.com/ParfortheCurse.
