October 25, 2025 • 34 mins
Chicago charismatic author with a teaching background versed in the publishing industry Gwen Tolios talks about her latest release “Fae Deals & Other Tales” as a fantasy short-story collection exploring the give & take between the fantastical and the not, with a positive or not-so-positive outcome! From treasure-hunting contracts to the barters you make for spellwork at the night market, one must be careful in dealing with Fae! Gwen talks about how she began her career with a passion for reading, travel and many ranges of creative pursuits, plus discusses other works including “Tomorrow & Beyond”, “Healing Crystals”, “Returning to You” and more! Check out the amazing Gwen Tolios and her latest release on all major platforms and www.gwentolios.com today! #podmatch #gwentolios #author #chicago #faedealsandothertales #teachingbackground #publishingindustry #fae #fantasyshortstories #treasurehunting #tomorrowandbeyond #healingcrystals #returningtoyou #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnergwentolios #themikewagneshowgwentolios
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Also in fifty podcast platforms her over one hundred countries.
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, also iHeartRadio, Spotify, Speaker, YouTube,
and more. We're hearing the amazing charismatic author with a
(01:36):
teaching background, first in public publishing industry and a passion
for reading, travel, and range of creative pursuits. Currently in Chicago,
and she discusses a number of topics Treasure behind contacts
and the bars you make for spell work at the
right market and of course fantacy short stories, a sexuality
and a quareness. And also a new book is a
(01:58):
fantacy short story collection exploit the give and take between
the fantastical and the not so fantastical and a positive
spin or not positive outcome, negative outcome. It's treasure behind, contracts, arters,
spell work, and a lot more. The book that's called
Fay Deals and other Tales Live Lads and Gentlemen, plus
(02:19):
studios from Beautiful Outside Chicago. The Amazing Chicago charis author
with the teaching background, verse in the publishing industry with
the book Faye Deals and Other Tales, the multitwn Gwen
Toyos Gwen, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Thanks for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Indeed, thank you for having me on. I'm excited to
talk to you.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What's great to have you on board, Gwen. So, you're
a char author from Chicago with a teaching background. Your
verse in the publishing industry of passion for reading, travel
in a range of creative pursuits. You also discuss asexuality
and queerness in your own top expression of books. You
have a new book which is a fantasy short story
collection exploring the give and take between the fantastical and
(03:00):
the not so fantastical with a positive outcome or not
so positive outcome evolves treasure hunting, contracts, barters, spell work,
and a lot more. You hat books called them Tomorrow
and Beyond, Healing Crystals, Return to You and others. You
have a book that's called Faye Deals and other tales
for getting like when tell us I first got.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Started, How I first got started writing?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
First, first first in your career, go way back, way.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Back, way way way back. It's actually probably would be
like way back, Sherman.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Way back, or into the tartists. You go, good doctor
and to the tartists.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
So third grade, for sure, I had a teacher who
during English class, we had to write a story, and
I remember being so excited that my story was long
enough where I could work on it multiple days in
the row, but also meant I got out of future assignments.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So I was like, that's wanted to get off the
hard work, right.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Because then I could just continue with the story, which
was just a retelling of the Shekre and the elves.
But I've always been fascinated by fantasy and fairy tales,
and so if I could use that to just get
out of some work and just have fun. So that's
definitely how I got started, Like as a writer way
back then, I got just started seriously writing. Though when
(04:16):
I was in college, joined a critique group outside of
the college, so with older authors, and they taught me
a lot and then sold my first story because I'm
primarily a short story writer. Oh good gracious, I should
do the math on this seven eight years ago. Now,
actually a podcast, a podcast was my very first sale.
(04:38):
So then they turned that story into an audio episode.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Nice, okay. What was the end of that podcast?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
What's called the overcast?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The overcast? Okay? Now what was that hosted by Sombary
or was that hosted by you?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
It was hosted by someone else. I wish I could
remember his name. Like I said, it's been like eight
years ago in the podcast longer exists. But it was
a science fiction and fantasy podcast based out of the
Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Nice, okay. I got some good people, I know in
out the Pacific Northwest. True crime, everything like that, which
you can reach all over, which is great. And what
was it one exact, precise moment to simply influence you
into what you do in the rest of your career.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
That is a very good question. The first thing that
bumped to my mind, So let's say that that's the
one is I have always had a social media presence
as an author, and I like to share short stories
that I have written on that social media, and so
I had one short story that sort of went viral
(05:43):
to the point where friends found screenshots on Pinterest and
then sent it to me.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I was like, is this you?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And I was like yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But that made me realize a few things. One that
I could actually quickly collect a bunch of my short
stories that I had written previously and publish it via Amazon,
so then allowing people to read my work. And two
that people were actually really interested in my short stories.
So up until then I was really just writing for me.
(06:13):
And knowing that there was people who were interested and
willing to support me to do it was really a
pivot in my writing career and made me realize that
I could actually focus more time on it and get
better produce more work. So and that would have been
twenty twenty, I think now, oh.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Wow, twenty twenty. Okay, And what were some of the
short stories that you mainly a written about?
Speaker 5 (06:37):
So I've written about a variety of things. That specific
story was about a money laundering deal with the tooth Fairy,
so people seem to have liked it. But I have
written a whole bunch of stuff since I have written
so stories a lot of times based off of mythology.
So that first story that I saw to a podcast
(06:59):
was actually about selkies. I have written stories about Baba Yaga.
I have written stories about also some sci fi horror
sometimes if I'm feeling a little spicy. So and a
few stories also inspired by Greek myths. If my last
name wasn't a super big giveaway, I am Greek. So
(07:23):
I know it's a short Greek name, but it's because
we're from the.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
North, gotcha. Okay, So you've got a lot to cover
and everything like that. And who are so of my
your favorite authors and writers growing up?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
So, I was a huge fan of Diane Doane. I
don't know if because like I have like someone of
her collections behind me, actually specifically her, So You Want
to Be a Wizard series. I loved how it combined
science fiction and fantasy. That was really inspiring to me.
And also how the magic system is based off of
the power of words and how you say things. So
(07:57):
definitely really got inspired by that. Also Susan Cooper so
and tamaor Peers so old school eighties children science fiction fantasy.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I would say, Okay, it sounds like you cover a
lot of ground as well too. You've got some work
yourself too, with Tomorrow and Beyond Healing Crystals. You also
got Returning to You and Sidel's Ghost Hunt end written
with Pride and Triple Visual. We get to that with
Gwen Toyos along with her latest Fay Deals and other tales.
(08:28):
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We're here an amazing charisma author from Chicago. The teaching background,
Gwin Tellio's here on The Mic Wedder's Show, and you
have you before we talk about bitch of Books. You've
been teaching us for quite some time, and tell us
more about that.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
So it's actually been a while since I just taught,
but I think the lessons that I learned teaching have
really just kind of stuck with me. So I started
teaching actually in special ed classrooms, so, which was kind
of a shock for me. I signed up to be
a substitute teacher, and then I ended up just fitting
really well with the with the programs that the high
(11:14):
schools around me had, or my county also had nearby
schools dedicated to help people learn life skills. So I
feel like I learned a lot there how to communicate
with different people. And then I actually went on and
continue teaching as a Peace Corp volunteer. Oh yeah, So
I ended up spending a little more than two years
(11:36):
in Ethiopia. And how the Ethiopian program worked is it
wasn't teaching in the classrooms. It was actually teaching methodology.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
To the teachers that a teacher, what's that?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
So they have a continuing education program. So in order
to continue to be a teacher, you have to show
that you're making that you're learning like new ways of teaching,
deepening your pertiase in the subject that you're teaching in
the schools. So I was there to serve as a
sort of teaching expert to say, here are different methodologies
(12:09):
that you could use for teaching. I would work with
the English teachers to teach them some of the methods
of how we teach reading in English here in the States,
the idea of phonics, for example, and helping them learn
how you could use phonics to teach English versus just
teaching the native language. Coming up with teacher aids those
(12:29):
type of deals. So and again, it's one of those
situations where teaching really made me feel of understanding different
points of views. Having really clear and precise writing was
very important in both of those situations. I think that
has come across my writing. A lot of people have
told me it's very tight. I tend to do a
lot of stories as well because it's meant for I mean,
(12:54):
part of is because it's really hard for me to
hold an epic fantasy in my head. But it's also
helps me be very concise in my writing and make
sure everything that I need is there. And now I
actually currently teach around at local libraries, so I will
do writing workshops and publishing workshops for adults primarily. That's
(13:15):
what I do now, and again that experience teaching has
helped by writing. You mentioned one of my books, Adelle's
Ghost Hunt. I had specifically written that for children or
middle schoolers. He don't really like to read so it's
written as a chapter book with older protagonists, but it's
a little more simple language to encourage kids to read
(13:36):
and shorter. Yeah, and it's a little shorter than a
typical chapter book because if kids don't like to read,
giving them something shorter provides a confidence boost. Say, oh, yes,
I was able to finish.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
This, okay? And how long was Sidel's Ghost Hunter Rock
came out?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So that came out.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
It was the first one that I ever saw a
polished that came out in twenty August of twenty one,
if I remember, yep, So that's been a while, but
it's still out there. And she's got a sequel at
this point too, about Sadelle's adventure at a drama camp.
And there they are shorts of like novel atte links
(14:14):
but those are both available.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
On Amazon okay, And we're able to take some of
the books. And you used to have connections with the
Ethiopian teachers community and all that, like you can send
them books and everything like that. And I was going
to ask you about teaching Ethiopia at that most of
the African communities actually have high respect for teachers. To
surprise you that they showed a lot of reverence for
(14:37):
you as a teacher in Ethiopia.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I think a lot of the reverence that I got
in Ethiopy was lessed with me being a teacher and
more of me just being a foreigner. So there was
a lot of privilege that came with that, I would say.
And some teachers were very respectful of me. Others were
not because at the time I was twenty two and
some one of those teachers had already been working for
(15:02):
twenty years. Wow, okay, right, so that was a little
awkward sometimes, right, They're like, who's this white girl that's
going to teach me things? So it really did depend
teach teacher, I would say. But there were definitely English
teachers that I worked closely with, and they were just
they were so excited and very willing to learn, which
was good to see.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
And plus you buy some of the books as well too,
besides Cidel's Skills Hunt, which is basically geared towards you know,
kids I'm willing to reluctance to read, have a hard
time reading, And how about Written with Pride and tell
us about that one.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Yeah, So With Pride is a anthology released by a
small publisher. So that's the situation where I am one
of several contributing authors and everyone involved in the project
is queer. So myself is one of the contributing authors,
the editors, the guy who owns the publishing house, and
that was released in response to Florida's Don't Say a bill,
(16:01):
and so proceeds with that will actually go to Florida
and queer organizations. And I have one story in that,
and that's about a astronaut preparing for a solo mission
from Mars. So she is going through isolation training and
really missing her partner.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh really, how is that?
Speaker 5 (16:20):
So?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I thought I was sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I thought I messing with a partner.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I'm sorry, No, no, missing her partner?
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Yeah, so because she's facing a situation which she'll have
to be by herself, not even with crewmates for two years.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right, Yes, that's totally understandable as well. The oops, okay, hell,
a little bit of technical difficulties here on the Mike
Wayner Show. So let's see. Okay, now we'll get the
bugs straighten out here. I thought was the Florida bugs
that were coming in too. So can you hear? How
can this one? Now? Yes? I can perfect okay, all right,
and then you also had you know, Triple Vision as well,
(16:57):
and tell us more about that one.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So for Visions is another anthology where I'm one of
the contributing editors. What's unique about Triple Visions is that
it is all local Chicago authors. So my writers group
tends to do a workshop every year where you submit
a story and it goes through four rounds of drafts
so we could tique each other's work. You can see
it to improved from draft one all the way to
(17:20):
the final draft four. And then we published an anthology
every year, and Triple Visions was one of our recent ones,
all around the theme of three And in my case,
my story is based off of the a Baba Yaga
tale with three writers a red writer, red writer, a
white writer, and a black writer representing different parts of
(17:42):
the day, and a girl trying to find Baba Yaga
to ask her to teach her how to be a witch?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
What is that, Baba Yaga? What is that?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Oh yaaa yeah, sorry.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
So if this is one of those situations where I
realized I'm probably know a lot more about fairy tales
and folks seeing most people, it's just an interest of mine.
So Babaya is a Slavic tale. So she is a
witch who lives in a house on chicken legs that
moves around. Sometimes she'll move around her mortar and pestle,
(18:15):
so she'll sit in the mortar and she'll use the
pestle to walk around. She is frequently seen as a
witch character who gives lessons to girls or is also
just can be a villain in some of the other tales,
depending on what version you're reading. Just like there's different
(18:36):
versions of like Animal Bride tropes or Cinderella, there's different
versions of Baba Yaga.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And plus she also had healing crystals as well too,
and tell them more about that.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Yeah, so that is my longest short story collection and
actually the only one, oddly enough, that has anything inspired
by the Greek myths, because it took me a while
to feel comfortable enough to write those. But I'm excited
for that one. So that is a lot of stories
about things that break, sometimes intentionally sometimes not so. For example,
(19:08):
I have a story about someone who's realizing maybe the
gods aren't real, so her faith is being broken. I
have another story about a superhero who is realizing that
his powers are starting to fail him because he's supposed
to be in vernable and now he's breaking bones. And
then of course crystals that people are trying to use
to heal the party members and then they're no longer
a reliable magical tool. So lots of good stuff in there.
(19:33):
It's also some of my longer pieces. That's one of
the reasons why it's my biggest anthology. A lot of
uh the Stories and Tomorrow Beyond and fay Deals are
flash fiction, so under a thousand words, Healing Crystals has
stuff that are more towards the three thousand mark.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
That's really interesting. And this just came to mind as
well too. And I forgot to ask you earlier, what
was that first moment that you got that you got
involved with fantasy and princesses prayer tales? Now, what was
that one moment that really got you interested.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
In I don't remember a moment, and so I think
it probably would have just had to been the fact
that I am Greek. It was a distinguishing feature that
I had as a child, like, hey, I'm Greek here
all of these Greek myths, so especially my mother's name
(20:26):
is Athena, which is you know, one of the Okay,
have a cousin named Arthi, which is the Greek version
of Artemis. It just kind of I feel like it
was a natural thing for me to fall into. I
don't remember falling into it. I was always interested in
the Greek mythology. I will blame Susan Cooper and some
(20:49):
of those books that I mentioned before for getting me
into like the Welsh and Arthurian legends, and then from
there I just kind of divulged into everything.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
What is difference with Susan Well, she talked about that.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
So Welsh is depending on how you want to break
it up, right, like Through's Welsh fairy tales and his
Irish fairy tales, and then Irish fairy tales are a
lot more Faye based. Well, Welsh fairy tales are a
lot more of That's actually where the origin of the
Arthurine Legends came from. So there are some Fay elements
(21:23):
in there, but it's more about war lowers and trips
to the in the world and king leaders.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay, and of course speaking of uh Fay deals as
well too. You've got failed deals and other tales to
talk about. The gwenellyos you listen to The Mike Wider's
Show at the Mic Winners Show dot com, powered by
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(21:56):
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author Gwentella of Fadels and other tails after this time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
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Speaker 6 (22:32):
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(22:55):
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The Mike Wagner Show is brought to you by Serena
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(23:23):
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(23:44):
Tuned into the Mike Wagner Show. You heard me Rebecca,
author Gwen Toyos of Chicago with FAA, Dil's and other
tales here on the Mike Wagner's Show. And before we
get to that, we have one we forgot to mention,
returning to You and tell us more about that one.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Oh yeah, so Returning to You is actually my only
novel I can mention before. I'm primarily a short story writer.
So that is a sapphic romance between two bisexual women.
And it's about a woman, Monica, who was a digital
nomad and in doing so, her relationship with her father
really started to deteriorate. So she comes back to Chicago
(24:26):
hoping to repair that relationship. It doesn't go very well
and as a result, instead of staying with her dad,
she moves in with her best friend from college, only
to realize the college crush that she had never went.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Away, So no, right, and now she's.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Living with her So it gets a little awkward. So
there is the romantic plot element of it, and then
there's also the family drama portion of Monica trying to
re kindle the relationship she had with her dad.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, and how did you first get her? Said that subject,
So a few things.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It was a combination I think of stuff that had
just been happening in my life. For the risk of spoilers,
what ended up happening with Monica's dad is he has
early onset dementia, So that's what's kind of been deteriorating
the relationship between them. And at the time, I actually
(25:26):
had a friend whose mother was going through that when
I was writing the book, where the mom would actually
be calling me convinced that we were still in college
and so we thought that I could get a hold
of her daughter, and it just wasn't quite working out.
It had been a few years at that point, so
that was definitely one of the point of contexts that
I was kind of working my way through there. The
(25:49):
other thing is, I will admit returnity You originally started
as a friendship breakup novel, a lot of romance. I
had wanted to write about friends on opposite sides of
a spectrum and see and kind of talk through what
would happen and if you can no longer see the
eye to eye. Except all of my better readers were like, no,
(26:11):
this actually reads like a romance. So I had to
make some twe and now it's a romance. But that
hadn't been the original intention of the book. It just
morphed and turned into a romance as I went through
all the writing of it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh my gosh, that is rarely interesting how I came about.
I mean, I mean, your friends could use some healing
crystals right now, right, sell through Fay indeed, yes, indeed
as well, and you will get to the book with
Fay Deal's and other tales and tell tell us more
about the book as well, treasure rye, contracts, barters, spell
work and everything like that, and tell us more about
(26:46):
the book.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Yeah. So, Faye Deals and Other Tales is a collection
of short stories, mainly with the Faye. So. I mentioned
a story before about getting into a money laundry deal
with the tooth Fairy, so that is one of them.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
There's also a.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Story about asking fairies for spell checkers, so kind of
like the idea of right now, I consider myself a
spell check child. I'm writing and I have a word
do spell.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Check for me? All the time.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
It's the idea of having a magical device that will
check your spell work for you physically alter the words
that you were saying as the element. There's stories about
which is performing spells successfully or not successfully, so as
well as back alley deals to buy things from suspicious
(27:34):
characters that may or may not be cursed. So there's
a whole bunch of fun stories in there. I am
also working on an audiobook. I have it recorded, but
the editing of files has been taking a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
We've been there, done that, believe.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, it's a little more difficult than I thought it
would be, but yeah, that's essentially what Faye deals is.
So lots of fantasy stories. There are twenty two in total.
Of everyone.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Oh wow, okay, which one? Which one's your most favorite
of all?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Probably the one about the money laundering deal with the
tooth fairy. So it's just a cute idea and it's
something that I would like to go back to one day,
maybe expand and have it be a longer story. But
there's another story that I also like. Get's put shorter.
It's flash fiction about someone who casts a spell for
the perfect lover and she gets a cat.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh that was fact, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Yeah, so yeah, I mean that's what happens if you
use a cat toy in your spell.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
But yeah, oh yeah, or play with nine lives and
everything like that, that will take on different meaning. What
happens with your curage about nine lives? Well, I guess
that's another short story right there. And working Fay Deals
and other tales are your worksack, Gwen.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
So it's actually pretty wide. You can find it on Amazon,
but you could also find it on Brindes. On mobile,
you can find it on Cobo. Faydeels is also if
you're a library person, it's on Hoopla, so you can
download it from the Hoopla app and read it there.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Okay, And what's your website and how do people get
a hold of you? Yep?
Speaker 5 (29:16):
So my website is www dot Gwen Tolios dot com.
So it's just my name, and I am on social
media primarily on Instagram, Blue Sky and Tumblr as Gwen Tolios.
I do also have a TikTok, but I'm not there
very often and if you google my name you will find.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Me, all right, We'll certainly do though. Here with the
amazing author Gwen Toyosa Fadeels and other tales here on
the mic Weeness Show, Gwen, just a few more things?
What else can we expect me twenty twenty five and beyond?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
So I'm actually working on a series of stories called
Chicago's Grim, which is a reimagining of the Grim's fairy tales.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Oh ye, yes, that's Claver. Maybe a fairy tale about
the Cubs or the White Sox or Blackhawks, anything like that,
or the Bears.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Right, So that's actually I'm releasedeing stories for free and
my substack so people can read that now. I'm currently
the process of writing the story based off of rumble Stiltskin,
so that's coming up.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
But that's what's next for twenty.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Twenty five for me, focusing on that one.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And certainly I can imagine rumbel Silkskin trying to let
down a hair from the Serious Tower. I still call
it the serous Tower some people, Paul Willis, I can
imagine let down your hair from the serious Tower, babe.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Right, So but I'm with you, it's always going to
be the Serious Tower for me.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It does. You're right, and certainly looking forward to it.
Who do you consider biggest influence in a career.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
In career, I have always been impressed by Rick Reordan.
So he's a middle grade fantasy author who is very prolific,
but has also been very good to the community, to
the point where he started his own imprint to give
a space for marginalized voices to have their works published.
So he's been a good advocate as well as a
(31:02):
good writer. And that's inspiring.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Okay, what's the best advice you can get to any
boy at this point?
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Join a writers group. There's a lot that you could
learn from a writer's group, so how to write, how
to publish. They also just provide really good accountability, even
if it's just hey, let's set up time and meet
up at a coffee shop once a month. Knowing that
you're not going at something alone and that you have
someone to bounce ideas off of is amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
And certainly amazing as well too. Here with author Gwen
Toyo's of fay Dials and other tales here on the
Mic Writers Show, Gwen a very big thanks for time.
You've been absolutely fantastic, learned a lot.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Sure keeps up today, keep in touch, laugh at you back,
and what's your website. How do people contact you, bring
people purchase or check out your books?
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Yep, so you can find me anywhere as Gwen Tulios.
So Gwen Tullios dot com would be the website and
any of my socials will be Gwen.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You can find me on.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Amazon, you can find me on Hoopla, you can find
me on Barnes and Noble and Cobo any place books
are sold.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We'll certainly check that out. Once again, Gwen, a very
big thank you time you've been appsite, fantastic looking forehead
and soon gives up today. Keep in touch, leve at back.
We wish our best and Gwen you definite have a
great fit you. Hey, you thanks.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
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(32:35):
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Speaker 6 (32:45):
Hey, there, Dana Laxa here, American news anchor. Hey, let
me ask you something real quick. Why do you read
a book.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
You're buying a story.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
A thought, a message, and a good book entertains and inspirers.
And that's exactly what miss By Award winning author me
On the Zia does. I have his book right here,
and it's based on real events with relatable characters that
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It's super powerful and meaningful through You can actually get
(33:14):
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Hi.
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This is Mia.
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Morsons are also known as Mea No Time for Love.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Check out my latest book Missing, available on Amazon.
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The Mike Wagner Show also brought to by The Sweet
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It's now time for The Mike Wagner Show powered by
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So sit back, relax, and enjoy another great episode of
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Speaker 2 (00:51):
Every bye'es Mike from The Mike Waigner Show powered by
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Also in fifty podcast platforms her over one hundred countries.
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, also iHeartRadio, Spotify, Speaker, YouTube,
and more. We're hearing the amazing charismatic author with a
(01:36):
teaching background, first in public publishing industry and a passion
for reading, travel, and range of creative pursuits. Currently in Chicago,
and she discusses a number of topics Treasure behind contacts
and the bars you make for spell work at the
right market and of course fantacy short stories, a sexuality
and a quareness. And also a new book is a
(01:58):
fantacy short story collection exploit the give and take between
the fantastical and the not so fantastical and a positive
spin or not positive outcome, negative outcome. It's treasure behind, contracts, arters,
spell work, and a lot more. The book that's called
Fay Deals and other Tales Live Lads and Gentlemen, plus
(02:19):
studios from Beautiful Outside Chicago. The Amazing Chicago charis author
with the teaching background, verse in the publishing industry with
the book Faye Deals and Other Tales, the multitwn Gwen
Toyos Gwen, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Thanks for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Indeed, thank you for having me on. I'm excited to
talk to you.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What's great to have you on board, Gwen. So, you're
a char author from Chicago with a teaching background. Your
verse in the publishing industry of passion for reading, travel
in a range of creative pursuits. You also discuss asexuality
and queerness in your own top expression of books. You
have a new book which is a fantasy short story
collection exploring the give and take between the fantastical and
(03:00):
the not so fantastical with a positive outcome or not
so positive outcome evolves treasure hunting, contracts, barters, spell work,
and a lot more. You hat books called them Tomorrow
and Beyond, Healing Crystals, Return to You and others. You
have a book that's called Faye Deals and other tales
for getting like when tell us I first got.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Started, How I first got started writing?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
First, first first in your career, go way back, way.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Back, way way way back. It's actually probably would be
like way back, Sherman.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Way back, or into the tartists. You go, good doctor
and to the tartists.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
So third grade, for sure, I had a teacher who
during English class, we had to write a story, and
I remember being so excited that my story was long
enough where I could work on it multiple days in
the row, but also meant I got out of future assignments.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So I was like, that's wanted to get off the
hard work, right.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Because then I could just continue with the story, which
was just a retelling of the Shekre and the elves.
But I've always been fascinated by fantasy and fairy tales,
and so if I could use that to just get
out of some work and just have fun. So that's
definitely how I got started, Like as a writer way
back then, I got just started seriously writing. Though when
(04:16):
I was in college, joined a critique group outside of
the college, so with older authors, and they taught me
a lot and then sold my first story because I'm
primarily a short story writer. Oh good gracious, I should
do the math on this seven eight years ago. Now,
actually a podcast, a podcast was my very first sale.
(04:38):
So then they turned that story into an audio episode.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Nice, okay. What was the end of that podcast?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
What's called the overcast?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The overcast? Okay? Now what was that hosted by Sombary
or was that hosted by you?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
It was hosted by someone else. I wish I could
remember his name. Like I said, it's been like eight
years ago in the podcast longer exists. But it was
a science fiction and fantasy podcast based out of the
Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Nice, okay. I got some good people, I know in
out the Pacific Northwest. True crime, everything like that, which
you can reach all over, which is great. And what
was it one exact, precise moment to simply influence you
into what you do in the rest of your career.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
That is a very good question. The first thing that
bumped to my mind, So let's say that that's the
one is I have always had a social media presence
as an author, and I like to share short stories
that I have written on that social media, and so
I had one short story that sort of went viral
(05:43):
to the point where friends found screenshots on Pinterest and
then sent it to me.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I was like, is this you?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And I was like yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
But that made me realize a few things. One that
I could actually quickly collect a bunch of my short
stories that I had written previously and publish it via Amazon,
so then allowing people to read my work. And two
that people were actually really interested in my short stories.
So up until then I was really just writing for me.
(06:13):
And knowing that there was people who were interested and
willing to support me to do it was really a
pivot in my writing career and made me realize that
I could actually focus more time on it and get
better produce more work. So and that would have been
twenty twenty, I think now, oh.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Wow, twenty twenty. Okay, And what were some of the
short stories that you mainly a written about?
Speaker 5 (06:37):
So I've written about a variety of things. That specific
story was about a money laundering deal with the tooth Fairy,
so people seem to have liked it. But I have
written a whole bunch of stuff since I have written
so stories a lot of times based off of mythology.
So that first story that I saw to a podcast
(06:59):
was actually about selkies. I have written stories about Baba Yaga.
I have written stories about also some sci fi horror
sometimes if I'm feeling a little spicy. So and a
few stories also inspired by Greek myths. If my last
name wasn't a super big giveaway, I am Greek. So
(07:23):
I know it's a short Greek name, but it's because
we're from the.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
North, gotcha. Okay, So you've got a lot to cover
and everything like that. And who are so of my
your favorite authors and writers growing up?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
So, I was a huge fan of Diane Doane. I
don't know if because like I have like someone of
her collections behind me, actually specifically her, So You Want
to Be a Wizard series. I loved how it combined
science fiction and fantasy. That was really inspiring to me.
And also how the magic system is based off of
the power of words and how you say things. So
(07:57):
definitely really got inspired by that. Also Susan Cooper so
and tamaor Peers so old school eighties children science fiction fantasy.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I would say, Okay, it sounds like you cover a
lot of ground as well too. You've got some work
yourself too, with Tomorrow and Beyond Healing Crystals. You also
got Returning to You and Sidel's Ghost Hunt end written
with Pride and Triple Visual. We get to that with
Gwen Toyos along with her latest Fay Deals and other tales.
(08:28):
But first listen to the Mike Whider's Show at the
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We're here an amazing charisma author from Chicago. The teaching background,
Gwin Tellio's here on The Mic Wedder's Show, and you
have you before we talk about bitch of Books. You've
been teaching us for quite some time, and tell us
more about that.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
So it's actually been a while since I just taught,
but I think the lessons that I learned teaching have
really just kind of stuck with me. So I started
teaching actually in special ed classrooms, so, which was kind
of a shock for me. I signed up to be
a substitute teacher, and then I ended up just fitting
really well with the with the programs that the high
(11:14):
schools around me had, or my county also had nearby
schools dedicated to help people learn life skills. So I
feel like I learned a lot there how to communicate
with different people. And then I actually went on and
continue teaching as a Peace Corp volunteer. Oh yeah, So
I ended up spending a little more than two years
(11:36):
in Ethiopia. And how the Ethiopian program worked is it
wasn't teaching in the classrooms. It was actually teaching methodology.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
To the teachers that a teacher, what's that?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
So they have a continuing education program. So in order
to continue to be a teacher, you have to show
that you're making that you're learning like new ways of teaching,
deepening your pertiase in the subject that you're teaching in
the schools. So I was there to serve as a
sort of teaching expert to say, here are different methodologies
(12:09):
that you could use for teaching. I would work with
the English teachers to teach them some of the methods
of how we teach reading in English here in the States,
the idea of phonics, for example, and helping them learn
how you could use phonics to teach English versus just
teaching the native language. Coming up with teacher aids those
(12:29):
type of deals. So and again, it's one of those
situations where teaching really made me feel of understanding different
points of views. Having really clear and precise writing was
very important in both of those situations. I think that
has come across my writing. A lot of people have
told me it's very tight. I tend to do a
lot of stories as well because it's meant for I mean,
(12:54):
part of is because it's really hard for me to
hold an epic fantasy in my head. But it's also
helps me be very concise in my writing and make
sure everything that I need is there. And now I
actually currently teach around at local libraries, so I will
do writing workshops and publishing workshops for adults primarily. That's
(13:15):
what I do now, and again that experience teaching has
helped by writing. You mentioned one of my books, Adelle's
Ghost Hunt. I had specifically written that for children or
middle schoolers. He don't really like to read so it's
written as a chapter book with older protagonists, but it's
a little more simple language to encourage kids to read
(13:36):
and shorter. Yeah, and it's a little shorter than a
typical chapter book because if kids don't like to read,
giving them something shorter provides a confidence boost. Say, oh, yes,
I was able to finish.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
This, okay? And how long was Sidel's Ghost Hunter Rock
came out?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So that came out.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
It was the first one that I ever saw a
polished that came out in twenty August of twenty one,
if I remember, yep, So that's been a while, but
it's still out there. And she's got a sequel at
this point too, about Sadelle's adventure at a drama camp.
And there they are shorts of like novel atte links
(14:14):
but those are both available.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
On Amazon okay, And we're able to take some of
the books. And you used to have connections with the
Ethiopian teachers community and all that, like you can send
them books and everything like that. And I was going
to ask you about teaching Ethiopia at that most of
the African communities actually have high respect for teachers. To
surprise you that they showed a lot of reverence for
(14:37):
you as a teacher in Ethiopia.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I think a lot of the reverence that I got
in Ethiopy was lessed with me being a teacher and
more of me just being a foreigner. So there was
a lot of privilege that came with that, I would say.
And some teachers were very respectful of me. Others were
not because at the time I was twenty two and
some one of those teachers had already been working for
(15:02):
twenty years. Wow, okay, right, so that was a little
awkward sometimes, right, They're like, who's this white girl that's
going to teach me things? So it really did depend
teach teacher, I would say. But there were definitely English
teachers that I worked closely with, and they were just
they were so excited and very willing to learn, which
was good to see.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
And plus you buy some of the books as well too,
besides Cidel's Skills Hunt, which is basically geared towards you know,
kids I'm willing to reluctance to read, have a hard
time reading, And how about Written with Pride and tell
us about that one.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Yeah, So With Pride is a anthology released by a
small publisher. So that's the situation where I am one
of several contributing authors and everyone involved in the project
is queer. So myself is one of the contributing authors,
the editors, the guy who owns the publishing house, and
that was released in response to Florida's Don't Say a bill,
(16:01):
and so proceeds with that will actually go to Florida
and queer organizations. And I have one story in that,
and that's about a astronaut preparing for a solo mission
from Mars. So she is going through isolation training and
really missing her partner.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh really, how is that?
Speaker 5 (16:20):
So?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I thought I was sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I thought I messing with a partner.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I'm sorry, No, no, missing her partner?
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Yeah, so because she's facing a situation which she'll have
to be by herself, not even with crewmates for two years.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right, Yes, that's totally understandable as well. The oops, okay, hell,
a little bit of technical difficulties here on the Mike
Wayner Show. So let's see. Okay, now we'll get the
bugs straighten out here. I thought was the Florida bugs
that were coming in too. So can you hear? How
can this one? Now? Yes? I can perfect okay, all right,
and then you also had you know, Triple Vision as well,
(16:57):
and tell us more about that one.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So for Visions is another anthology where I'm one of
the contributing editors. What's unique about Triple Visions is that
it is all local Chicago authors. So my writers group
tends to do a workshop every year where you submit
a story and it goes through four rounds of drafts
so we could tique each other's work. You can see
it to improved from draft one all the way to
(17:20):
the final draft four. And then we published an anthology
every year, and Triple Visions was one of our recent ones,
all around the theme of three And in my case,
my story is based off of the a Baba Yaga
tale with three writers a red writer, red writer, a
white writer, and a black writer representing different parts of
(17:42):
the day, and a girl trying to find Baba Yaga
to ask her to teach her how to be a witch?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
What is that, Baba Yaga? What is that?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Oh yaaa yeah, sorry.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
So if this is one of those situations where I
realized I'm probably know a lot more about fairy tales
and folks seeing most people, it's just an interest of mine.
So Babaya is a Slavic tale. So she is a
witch who lives in a house on chicken legs that
moves around. Sometimes she'll move around her mortar and pestle,
(18:15):
so she'll sit in the mortar and she'll use the
pestle to walk around. She is frequently seen as a
witch character who gives lessons to girls or is also
just can be a villain in some of the other tales,
depending on what version you're reading. Just like there's different
(18:36):
versions of like Animal Bride tropes or Cinderella, there's different
versions of Baba Yaga.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And plus she also had healing crystals as well too,
and tell them more about that.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Yeah, so that is my longest short story collection and
actually the only one, oddly enough, that has anything inspired
by the Greek myths, because it took me a while
to feel comfortable enough to write those. But I'm excited
for that one. So that is a lot of stories
about things that break, sometimes intentionally sometimes not so. For example,
(19:08):
I have a story about someone who's realizing maybe the
gods aren't real, so her faith is being broken. I
have another story about a superhero who is realizing that
his powers are starting to fail him because he's supposed
to be in vernable and now he's breaking bones. And
then of course crystals that people are trying to use
to heal the party members and then they're no longer
a reliable magical tool. So lots of good stuff in there.
(19:33):
It's also some of my longer pieces. That's one of
the reasons why it's my biggest anthology. A lot of
uh the Stories and Tomorrow Beyond and fay Deals are
flash fiction, so under a thousand words, Healing Crystals has
stuff that are more towards the three thousand mark.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
That's really interesting. And this just came to mind as
well too. And I forgot to ask you earlier, what
was that first moment that you got that you got
involved with fantasy and princesses prayer tales? Now, what was
that one moment that really got you interested.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
In I don't remember a moment, and so I think
it probably would have just had to been the fact
that I am Greek. It was a distinguishing feature that
I had as a child, like, hey, I'm Greek here
all of these Greek myths, so especially my mother's name
(20:26):
is Athena, which is you know, one of the Okay,
have a cousin named Arthi, which is the Greek version
of Artemis. It just kind of I feel like it
was a natural thing for me to fall into. I
don't remember falling into it. I was always interested in
the Greek mythology. I will blame Susan Cooper and some
(20:49):
of those books that I mentioned before for getting me
into like the Welsh and Arthurian legends, and then from
there I just kind of divulged into everything.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
What is difference with Susan Well, she talked about that.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
So Welsh is depending on how you want to break
it up, right, like Through's Welsh fairy tales and his
Irish fairy tales, and then Irish fairy tales are a
lot more Faye based. Well, Welsh fairy tales are a
lot more of That's actually where the origin of the
Arthurine Legends came from. So there are some Fay elements
(21:23):
in there, but it's more about war lowers and trips
to the in the world and king leaders.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay, and of course speaking of uh Fay deals as
well too. You've got failed deals and other tales to
talk about. The gwenellyos you listen to The Mike Wider's
Show at the Mic Winners Show dot com, powered by
Sound Crab Studios. Write to Byrofessional sponsor The Mike Waiders Show, internuts, worring,
outh and media. Most is the Missing. The sweet Songs
best Aerena Wagoner are based on life of David cleeen Thiry,
Squizite Pains and Kid David Salm's Amazon dot com keywords
(21:56):
sweet SMIs Serena Wagoner. We'll be back you, Ma'll tell
author Gwentella of Fadels and other tails after this time.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
The Mike Wagner Show is powered by Sonicweb Studios. If
you're looking to start or upgrade your online presence, visit
www dot Sonicwebstudios dot com. For all of your online needs.
Call one eight hundred three oh three three nine six
zero or visit us online at www dot sonicwebstudios dot com.
(22:23):
To get started today, Mention The Mike Wagner Show and
get twenty percent off your project. Sonicweb Studios take your
image to the next level.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Hey there, Dana Laxa here, American news anchor. Hey, let
me ask you something real quick. Why do you read
a book you're buying a story, a thought, a message,
and a good book entertains and inspires. And that's exactly
what a Missing by Award winning author me On Zia does.
I have his book right here, and it's based on
real events with relatable characters that hook you from start
(22:55):
to finish. I personally love this book. It's super powerful
and meaning. Fall three and you can actually get it
on Amazon right now.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
The Mike Wagner Show is brought to you by Serena
Wagner's book The Sweet Sawmist, now availed on Amazon. This
book includes thirty exquisite paintings by well known and unknown
painters and King David Psalms. The Sweet Sawmist gives us
a new perspective on his life in this book through
the songs he wrote. His time as a shepherd in
the field is where the book starts, and it goes
on to describe his complicated and turbulent relationship with King Saul,
(23:23):
as well as other events. It's a story of love, betrayal, repentance,
and more. It also offers advice and approaching God and
living a life that pleases him. Check out the book
The Sweet Salmist by Serena Wagner, now available on Amazon.
Keywords sweet Salmist. Sorena Wagner. Hey, Hey, this is Ray
Powers and boy are you in luck? Right place, right time?
(23:44):
Tuned into the Mike Wagner Show. You heard me Rebecca,
author Gwen Toyos of Chicago with FAA, Dil's and other
tales here on the Mike Wagner's Show. And before we
get to that, we have one we forgot to mention,
returning to You and tell us more about that one.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Oh yeah, so Returning to You is actually my only
novel I can mention before. I'm primarily a short story writer.
So that is a sapphic romance between two bisexual women.
And it's about a woman, Monica, who was a digital
nomad and in doing so, her relationship with her father
really started to deteriorate. So she comes back to Chicago
(24:26):
hoping to repair that relationship. It doesn't go very well
and as a result, instead of staying with her dad,
she moves in with her best friend from college, only
to realize the college crush that she had never went.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Away, So no, right, and now she's.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Living with her So it gets a little awkward. So
there is the romantic plot element of it, and then
there's also the family drama portion of Monica trying to
re kindle the relationship she had with her dad.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Okay, and how did you first get her? Said that subject,
So a few things.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It was a combination I think of stuff that had
just been happening in my life. For the risk of spoilers,
what ended up happening with Monica's dad is he has
early onset dementia, So that's what's kind of been deteriorating
the relationship between them. And at the time, I actually
(25:26):
had a friend whose mother was going through that when
I was writing the book, where the mom would actually
be calling me convinced that we were still in college
and so we thought that I could get a hold
of her daughter, and it just wasn't quite working out.
It had been a few years at that point, so
that was definitely one of the point of contexts that
I was kind of working my way through there. The
(25:49):
other thing is, I will admit returnity You originally started
as a friendship breakup novel, a lot of romance. I
had wanted to write about friends on opposite sides of
a spectrum and see and kind of talk through what
would happen and if you can no longer see the
eye to eye. Except all of my better readers were like, no,
(26:11):
this actually reads like a romance. So I had to
make some twe and now it's a romance. But that
hadn't been the original intention of the book. It just
morphed and turned into a romance as I went through
all the writing of it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh my gosh, that is rarely interesting how I came about.
I mean, I mean, your friends could use some healing
crystals right now, right, sell through Fay indeed, yes, indeed
as well, and you will get to the book with
Fay Deal's and other tales and tell tell us more
about the book as well, treasure rye, contracts, barters, spell
work and everything like that, and tell us more about
(26:46):
the book.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Yeah. So, Faye Deals and Other Tales is a collection
of short stories, mainly with the Faye. So. I mentioned
a story before about getting into a money laundry deal
with the tooth Fairy, so that is one of them.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
There's also a.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Story about asking fairies for spell checkers, so kind of
like the idea of right now, I consider myself a
spell check child. I'm writing and I have a word
do spell.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Check for me? All the time.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
It's the idea of having a magical device that will
check your spell work for you physically alter the words
that you were saying as the element. There's stories about
which is performing spells successfully or not successfully, so as
well as back alley deals to buy things from suspicious
(27:34):
characters that may or may not be cursed. So there's
a whole bunch of fun stories in there. I am
also working on an audiobook. I have it recorded, but
the editing of files has been taking a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
We've been there, done that, believe.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, it's a little more difficult than I thought it
would be, but yeah, that's essentially what Faye deals is.
So lots of fantasy stories. There are twenty two in total.
Of everyone.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Oh wow, okay, which one? Which one's your most favorite
of all?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Probably the one about the money laundering deal with the
tooth fairy. So it's just a cute idea and it's
something that I would like to go back to one day,
maybe expand and have it be a longer story. But
there's another story that I also like. Get's put shorter.
It's flash fiction about someone who casts a spell for
the perfect lover and she gets a cat.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh that was fact, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Yeah, so yeah, I mean that's what happens if you
use a cat toy in your spell.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
But yeah, oh yeah, or play with nine lives and
everything like that, that will take on different meaning. What
happens with your curage about nine lives? Well, I guess
that's another short story right there. And working Fay Deals
and other tales are your worksack, Gwen.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
So it's actually pretty wide. You can find it on Amazon,
but you could also find it on Brindes. On mobile,
you can find it on Cobo. Faydeels is also if
you're a library person, it's on Hoopla, so you can
download it from the Hoopla app and read it there.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Okay, And what's your website and how do people get
a hold of you? Yep?
Speaker 5 (29:16):
So my website is www dot Gwen Tolios dot com.
So it's just my name, and I am on social
media primarily on Instagram, Blue Sky and Tumblr as Gwen Tolios.
I do also have a TikTok, but I'm not there
very often and if you google my name you will find.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Me, all right, We'll certainly do though. Here with the
amazing author Gwen Toyosa Fadeels and other tales here on
the mic Weeness Show, Gwen, just a few more things?
What else can we expect me twenty twenty five and beyond?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
So I'm actually working on a series of stories called
Chicago's Grim, which is a reimagining of the Grim's fairy tales.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Oh ye, yes, that's Claver. Maybe a fairy tale about
the Cubs or the White Sox or Blackhawks, anything like that,
or the Bears.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Right, So that's actually I'm releasedeing stories for free and
my substack so people can read that now. I'm currently
the process of writing the story based off of rumble Stiltskin,
so that's coming up.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
But that's what's next for twenty.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Twenty five for me, focusing on that one.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And certainly I can imagine rumbel Silkskin trying to let
down a hair from the Serious Tower. I still call
it the serous Tower some people, Paul Willis, I can
imagine let down your hair from the serious Tower, babe.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Right, So but I'm with you, it's always going to
be the Serious Tower for me.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It does. You're right, and certainly looking forward to it.
Who do you consider biggest influence in a career.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
In career, I have always been impressed by Rick Reordan.
So he's a middle grade fantasy author who is very prolific,
but has also been very good to the community, to
the point where he started his own imprint to give
a space for marginalized voices to have their works published.
So he's been a good advocate as well as a
(31:02):
good writer. And that's inspiring.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Okay, what's the best advice you can get to any
boy at this point?
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Join a writers group. There's a lot that you could
learn from a writer's group, so how to write, how
to publish. They also just provide really good accountability, even
if it's just hey, let's set up time and meet
up at a coffee shop once a month. Knowing that
you're not going at something alone and that you have
someone to bounce ideas off of is amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
And certainly amazing as well too. Here with author Gwen
Toyo's of fay Dials and other tales here on the
Mic Writers Show, Gwen a very big thanks for time.
You've been absolutely fantastic, learned a lot.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Sure keeps up today, keep in touch, laugh at you back,
and what's your website. How do people contact you, bring
people purchase or check out your books?
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Yep, so you can find me anywhere as Gwen Tulios.
So Gwen Tullios dot com would be the website and
any of my socials will be Gwen.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You can find me on.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Amazon, you can find me on Hoopla, you can find
me on Barnes and Noble and Cobo any place books
are sold.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We'll certainly check that out. Once again, Gwen, a very
big thank you time you've been appsite, fantastic looking forehead
and soon gives up today. Keep in touch, leve at back.
We wish our best and Gwen you definite have a
great fit you. Hey, you thanks.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
The Mike Wagner Show is powered by sonicwebs Studios. If
you're looking to start or upgrade your online presence, visit
www dot sonicwebstudios dot com. For all of your online needs.
Call one eight hundred three oh three three nine six
zero or visit us online at www dot sonicwebstudios dot
(32:35):
com to get started today, Mention The Mike Wagner Show
and get twenty percent off your project. Sonicweb Studios take
your image to the next level.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
Hey, there, Dana Laxa here, American news anchor. Hey, let
me ask you something real quick. Why do you read
a book.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
You're buying a story.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
A thought, a message, and a good book entertains and inspirers.
And that's exactly what miss By Award winning author me
On the Zia does. I have his book right here,
and it's based on real events with relatable characters that
hook you from start to finish. I personally love this book.
It's super powerful and meaningful through You can actually get
(33:14):
it on Amazon right now.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The Mike Wagner Show is brought to you by Serena
Wagner's book The Sweet Sawmist now availb on Amson. This
book includes thirty exquisite pintings by well known and unknown
painters and King David Soalms. The Sweets Aalmist gives us
a new perspective on his life in this book through
the songs he wrote. His time as a shepherd in
the field is where the book starts, and it goes
on to describe his complicated and turbulent relationship with King Saul,
(33:36):
as well as other events. It's a story of love, betrayal, repentance,
and more. It also offers advice on approaching God and
living a life that pleases him. Check out the book
The Sweet Salmist by Serena Wagner, now available on Amazon
keywords Sweet Salmist, Serena Wagner.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Thanks for listening to The Mike Wagner Show powered by
Sonic Web Studios. Lisit online at Sonicwebstudios dot com for
all your need. The Mike Wagner Show can be heard
on Spreakers, Spotify, iHeartRadio, iTunes, YouTube Anchor, FM Radio Public,
and The Micwagner Show dot com. Please sport our program
with your donations at the Mike Wagner Show dot com.
(34:14):
Join us again next time for another great episode of
The Mike Wagner Show
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