Launch Day
+ The Toby Baxter Book 4 Cover Reveal
Toby’s Book Four Cover Reveal plus excerpt below!
Expanded vocabulary… thinking skills… Writing skills… Bonding time with parents… Problem solving… Increased imagination. Some of the 19 benefits of reading.
Who doesn’t want that for their kids?
Today (on my 67th Birthday!) I’m inviting you to join me in one of the most important Quests of our lives: Reading!
If you’re a parent of young developing readers, a reading advocate, a teacher, or a book lover, today is the official launch of my invitation to you to help support my mission of bringing the joy of reading to my readers through this Substack and through the launch of Toby’s fourth adventure: EyeHeart RiverHome.
Here’s the cover!
Each of my Toby Baxter books is written to engage middle-school readers (essentially 9 years old and up) and adults with the joy of reading, the power of imagination, along with some subtle, but powerful insights into character development.
Here’s an excerpt from Book 4, followed by the 3 paid subscription tiers and the big, boffo incentives for helping get Toby’s Fourth Quest published in February.
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Is This a Kissing Book?
Normally, Friday was a pizza and movie night at the Baxter household. However, since Thomas and Jan Baxter, Toby's parents, were celebrating their 15th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, they decided to move pizza and movie night to Sunday. Because it was their special day, they chose the movie, which usually fell to Toby. Their film of choice was apparently their all-time favorite film, one they had apparently watched over and over again when they were dating. On something called a Blu-ray? And they were so excited for Toby to see it. They just knew he was absolutely going to love it! Even Grandma Baxter joined them, apparently also a big fan of this particular movie, which is a lot of apparentlys in an opening paragraph. As Toby had a big day coming up the next morning—the end-of-the-school-year trip to Minnehaha Falls—they started the party early.
Once the food was delivered—one large deep-dish pepperoni pizza, one large thin-crust Hawaiian pizza, two jugs of root beer, and a dessert pizza—they settled in. Thomas hit the "Play" button and The Princess Bride came to life on the TV screen. Toby groaned. Out loud. With a few little pizza crust crumbs flying out of his mouth. With a title like that, he was pretty sure it was going to be one of those syrupy romance or rom-com chick flicks his mom loved. But Grandma Baxter assured him that he really would love it.
The movie started out with a grandpa visiting his sick grandson who was in bed in his bedroom, missing a school day. Grandpa offered to read him a story called The Princess Bride. And like Toby, the boy in the movie didn't seem all that excited about it. It didn't get any better as Grandpa read the opening paragraphs of the book. A girl named Buttercup liked to order the farm boy, Wesley, to do her bidding. Wesley always responded with a smile and said, "As you wish."
Buttercup soon discovered that whenever Wesley said, "As you wish," he really meant, "I love you." And Buttercup found she loved him, too.
Toby started to squirm. His gut instinct had proved right. This was going to be one of those sappy love stories.
As the grandpa was about the read the next line, his grandson stopped him and said exactly what Toby was thinking, "Wait! Is this a kissing book?"
Dad intentionally paused the movie at that point and kissed Toby's mom.
Gross!
"Toby, did we ever tell you about that time I was dropping your mom off at her parent's house after a date and we sat in the car talking? Jan's dad came out in his pajamas. He turned on the hose, leaned up against the car, and started watering the lawn? It must have been what, 11:30 at night?"
"Only a zillion times," Toby muttered. However, he always found the story pretty funny as he could picture his grandpa doing that.
"Thomas," Jan said. "We'll never finish the movie if you keep interrupting it with dating stories." She leaned into his shoulder, kissed him on the cheek, and hit the play button on the remote.
Yuck!
When the movie was done, Toby had to admit that he didn't hate it. In fact, he really did love it. It was funny, filled with great one-liners, entertaining, and featured lots of action. Even the kissing in the movie wasn't awful. However, Mom and Dad's kissing was disgusting.
Thomas drove Grandma Baxter home and Toby headed to his room to get ready for his school trip. The 7th graders would be spending the day at Minnehaha Falls for some fun and a bit of science. Toby's family often had picnics there with his cousins during the summer. He especially loved running down the stream to the Mississippi River and skipping rocks.
As he was about to turn off the lights and call it a night, Toby noticed a sealed envelope sticking out from under his bedroom closet. He reached down and picked it up.
The envelope read:
An Invitation
Inside was a card:
Phoenix and Roxie Request
That you save the date
For their upcoming wedding
Toby turned the card over looking for a date. Nothing. Not a surprise. How could he save the date when RiverHome time didn't match time in his world? It was a timey-wimey thing.
He was excited for Phoenix and Roxie. In RiverHome time they'd been together for a boatload of years. Boatload of years? On the other hand, there would probably be lots of kissing at the wedding!
Ick!
He placed the invite on his desk and climbed into his bed. Excited as he was about the school trip in the morning, he felt a familiar nagging. Like something bad was about to happen. The nag had been nagging him since his last visit to RiverHome. As a result, it took him a while to fall asleep. When he finally did, he had nightmares about his friends Sid and Rainie, a girl Toby liked.
On the other side of his closet, another envelope sat on the floor, too thick to squeeze under the closet door. It began to buzz. But then, sensing the portal opening behind it, fell silent. The intruder didn't see it. But as he eased the closet door open slightly, he did see Toby, sound asleep.
He smiled and slid back into the closet. This was not going to be a good day for Toby Baxter.
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Be a Part of the Adventure
I’ve built in what I hope are some fantastics incentives for you to make it worth your investment. Yesterday, for example, I shared an excerpt from an exclusive Toby Baxter story where you (or a young reader in your life) can play the starring role. That’s just one of many incentives you will receive for joining me on this reading Quest. Read on.
I’ll start with the best deal! The River Elf Clan. $60 per year.
With this special tiered subscription you will not only get the free emails, you will also receive:
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Prequels (4 epubs)
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Books (3 epubs)
A link to the new Toby Baxter book 4 upon its release (epub)
An exclusive monthly behind the scenes email
(I’m really excited about this one). An exclusive—You Star in a Toby Baxter Story! Your name, or the name of someone you love, will be featured in a new Toby Baxter short story: Finding Toby Baxter.
If you choose this subscription tier by January 14 I’ll include your name in Toby’s newest book along with other River Elf Clan members.
(These last two benefits are not available via the other tiers!)
The next best (but still) good deal: Yearly Subscription for $55.
With this special tiered subscription you will not only get the free emails, you will also receive:
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Prequels (4 epubs)
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Books (3 epubs)
A link to the new Toby Baxter book 4 upon its release (epub)
An exclusive monthly behind the scenes email
The third tiered subscription: A monthly $5.00 subscription.
(This is identical to the $55 subscription but since it’s a monthly payment it’s $60 per year vs. $55). With this tiered subscription you will not only get the free emails, you will also receive:
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Prequels (4 epubs)
A link to each of the Toby Baxter Books (3 epubs)
A link to the new Toby Baxter book 4 upon its release (epub)
An exclusive monthly behind the scenes email
Thank you so much for your consideration and support.
Merry Christmas!