Celebrate Lit / September 22, 2020

About Face, Rest, and Intents & Purposes

About the Book About Face, Rest, and Intents & Purposes

Book: About Face, Rest, and Intents & Purposes

Author: Tonia Colleen Martin

Genre: Illustrated Poetry

Release Date: 2019 and 2020

The terrible accident happened too long ago to remember the specifics. Having lost what she doesn’t remember owning, it takes the miracle of crossing paths with Hush, Shush and Silence, to reveal the truth. The shock of realizing she struggled to maintain an identity never meant to be hers, floors her. From a position of surrender, the surface of her tears mirrors who she has always been but hasn’t seen and does not know. Unimaginable possibilities, surprising choices and thrilling freedom ensue.

At the core of all anxiety is mistaken identity. About Face invites readers to consider who they might be apart from other people’s expectations and who they might become.

Click here to get your copy of About Face!

A perennial gift book for the stressed and beleaguered. Falling into the growing category of children’s books for adults, Rest: An Invitation to Freedom, lures readers out of frenzied productivity into a state of peaceful contemplation. Written for exhausted high achievers, this story is suitable for office lobbies, coffee and bedside tables.

“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. At its best, the fairy story or fantasy is far from being a flight from reality; it is, rather, a flight to reality.”- JRR Tolkein

“The trumpet of imagination, like the trumpet of the Resurrection, calls the dead out of their

graves.” – GK Chesterton

“Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” — C.S. Lewis

Click here to get your copy of Rest: An Invitation to Freedom!

This story took longer to live than to transcribe. For daydreamers, truth-seekers, joy-feeders, and those longing to let your heart instruct your mind, this little book is for you. Falling into my own stylized category of children’s book for adults, Intents and Purposes, chronicles the path of a life abandoned by disconnection and loneliness as it moves to the threshold of hope and contentment.

Both text and illustrations are mine. Although countless versions reside in my constantly reconfiguring memory, this compilation seems to be its truest version.

Click here to get your copy of Intents and Purposes!

My Thoughts on About Face, Rest, and Intents & Purposes:

When I first received this set of books I wasn’t sure what they’d be like. The covers were more abstract than I’m used to though still unique and pretty. This is a new to me author and a trio of books that go together. I did enjoy that we got all three and not just one to review because then I would definitely be lost.

Another factor that I enjoyed about the books is that they are written for everyone. That said, I would not just leave them lying around my house because there are multiple images that are reminiscent of Renaissance paintings. While I know this is a part of art it’s something we do limit in our house unless we are studying the art of the time period.

About Face focuses on being still and seeing who God has made us to be. God created us into being, He made us, and we need to remember this when we are looking at ourselves with a critical attitude. We need to do an about face from the common way of looking at ourselves as being flawed and never good enough and realize that God made us just who we are and He did it for a purpose.

Rest takes you to the journey of realizing that you are not required to prove yourself and you don’t have to be doing all the time. God tells us to stop and rest. By stopping to rest we are actually not falling behind but allowing ourselves to catch up. I love the premise behind this one and it was my favorite of the three books. We all have the voices in our heads that we’ve heard over and over that shape us. This book focuses on letting go of the bad voices and letting God’s voice be the one that comes through.

Intents and Purposes is the last book in the trio of books. It focuses on another season of life, marriage. The couple marries and has a rough go of it. They fight and pull apart instead of coming together like God has made marriage to be. It takes a bad event of loss to bring them together.

These three books are each short. They do go together but do not have to be read together. The illustrations and words don’t really seem to go together in any of the books. Normally I would find the illustrations to work with a certain point or theme. All of the pictures are together through all the books. Drawn by the same hand and following a theme but I didn’t find them exactly relevant to the content of the book.

Personally, these books are not my style and though I did find them to be good books, they are not ones that I would pick up again and again.

I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received through Celebrate Lit. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.

About the Author of About Face, Rest, and Intents & Purposes

I earned my MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, received the Hallberg Award for Art; Best of Show, Blue Line Gallery, Membership Medley; published in The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies; Ruminate Magazine; Metonym; Sierra College Journal.

More from Tonia

They are ready! Finally! These three illustrated books are condensed chronicles of various phases of my spiritual development. Over the years, I’ve learned that the deepest matters of the heart seem to be resistant to the confines of words. Images aid in the capture of emotions, but even still, the heart is shy. It runs from impatience and requires a concentration of listening and a suspension of judgment.

Each one of these books hovers over distinct territories and touch down in depths most avoid. I struggle to put my experiences into a kind and beautiful package, hoping to lure readers into places of feeling many might avoid. Not realizing they would be officially released during this unnerving pandemic, I am now so grateful for the message of hope that invites readers into possibilities and faith in our merciful Father of Lights who brought all things into being and is, even now, administering Peace to those who simply ask and expect.

For those who suffer in the unknown, as I have and often do, I invite to include the reading of these missives of encouragement and their distribution of the message of Hope hidden in their pages. They were written to uplift you on the days when you can find no words for your longing, no relief for your uncertainty and a deep desire for encouragement. I am eager to get them out in the world.