Local author enjoys writing magical stories for children

Toni Marie Blake has always enjoyed telling stories to her children, grandchildren and preschool-age children at her church.

But now she is making her magical tales available to a much wider audience.

After working in the nursing field for about 38 years, Blake of Lake Geneva has decided to put her stories into book form and establish a career as an author.

"When the kids were small, I would tell them stories. We would play Candy Land and before they went to bed I would give them a Candy Land story with all the characters and stuff like that," Blake said. "I started to think of more stories and they've been stored in the back of my mind for awhile. I never put the stories into book form before. I decided when I did retire, then I was going to go ahead and put an effort into this."

Blake has published several books during the past few years. Her first book "The Magic Puzzle" was published in July 2019.

"The Magic Puzzle" is about a group of children who get transported into a magical world by an evil wizard while working on a puzzle.

"It takes on the look of maybe like the 'Wizard of Oz' where Dorothy gets transported to a beautiful place, but it has that 'Jumanji' effect where they were playing a game and the characters get pulled into an area and it's terrifying," Blake said. "But in this one they get pulled into the magic puzzle and there's an evil wizard who has put curses on these puzzles."

Blake released the sequel to the "The Magic Puzzle" in September entitled "Return to Puzzle Land," which includes the main characters returning to "Puzzle Land" when they become older.

"There's all kinds of characters that return to 'Puzzle Land,'" Blake said. "There were so many that I had to make a list in front of the book so people wouldn't get confused."

Blake said the "Puzzle Land" books are enjoyable stories that include quality lessons for children.

"They're fun books. They're meant for children," Blake said. "They have good lessons for life like forgiveness and being more courteous, looking out for danger and not being fooled by lies. There's a lot of different life stories going on in there that are beneficial for any child like over 4, even into eighth grade."

Besides the "Puzzle Land" books, Blake also has published "Hymnal Diamonds in the Snow: Stories Behind the Hymns We Love," which is about the history of different church hymns told in the voice of their authors.

"That's an easy read because you can read about one author at a time and put it down," Blake said. "The author is telling the story in their own words to us. So that's what puts it in the fictional category. I took a lot of words from their songs to write how they felt about the issues that were going on in the country, in their life and with their family at that time."

More books in the future

Blake plans to publish more books in the future including a Christmas book and a story about a woman who becomes stranded on an island, hits her head and develops a case of amnesia.

"Not only does she have to figure out how to survive on this unknown island, but she has to try to remember who she is. So she has her own adventures going on in there," Blake said. "It's in a very rough draft right now, and all three of my grandkids have read it and they're going to illustrate it for me because they like to draw and the illustrations are very simple."

On average it takes Blake between two to three years to complete a book.

"You write it and then you go through it and write it again and you edit it as you go through and you ask advise from people and you ask people to read it and make corrections for you because you don't see your own errors usually," she said.

In the family

Blake's husband, Jack Blake Jr., is in the process of writing a book called "You Don't Know Jack," which is memoir about his father, Jack Blake Sr.

"I can't wait until he gets done. He's doing so much research on it that it's taking him quite awhile," Blake said. "It tells of his dad's life growing up in Chicago."

Blake's son, Richard Blake, is a movie writer, producer and actor, as well as the founder of Amberock Productions.

Richard Blake has written several movies including "The Rocket," "Blame" and "The Actor," which are available on various streaming services. He also has appeared in several television programs including "NCIS: Los Angeles," "Days of Our Lives" and "CSI."

"That is his career, and all of his movies are doing quite well," Blake said. "So we're kind of a writing family. It's in the blood."

Blake said her son plans to write a movie script based on her "Puzzle Land" books.

"It's just so laden with special effects that he's not quite there yet, but we're going to be doing a script for 'The Magic Puzzle' that we might be able to sell to a producer who might want to do a movie of it," Blake said. "It's got that sweet flavor of the 'Wizard of Oz' where it's got that timeless feel. It has a lot of imagination in it."

Available for book readings and school visits

Blake is available for book readings, school visits and book signings. For more information about scheduling an appearance, visit www.tonimblake.com or Blake's Good Read for Kids Facebook page.

"I'm familiar with working with children, and I've worked with children in a church setting," Blake said. "I have my own children and grandchildren, and I love reading stories. I could read them at a library or I could read them in a school setting."

How to purchase the books

Blake's books can be purchased by visiting www.tonimblake.com , www.amazon.com or www.archwaypublishing.com .

She said when purchasing her books on amazon.com people should search for Toni Marie Blake, because there is another author named Toni Blake.

"She's not from the area but she's gotten quite popular and she writes a lot of romantic novels, so it doesn't fit into my genre at all," Blake said. "If you pull up Toni Blake by itself, you will get her. But if you pull up Toni Marie Blake, my books will come up."

Blake said if people contact her through her website, they can obtain a code to receive an e-book version of "Return to Puzzle Land."

"Because 'Return to Puzzle Land' is brand new and it just came out, I have a book stub where I can give them a code and they can use the code to get a free e-book if they want to look at it first," Blake said. "But they would have to contact me on the website and follow all the prompts to the email and say, 'Hey, I'm really interested in this book stub.' I would send it to them that way."

"The Magic Puzzle" is available for check out at the Lake Geneva Public Library, 918 W. Main St., and copies of "Hymnal Diamonds in the Snow" are available at Calvary Community Church, N2620 Harris Road in Lake Geneva.

"There's several local authors in the church, so the church has decided that they're going to showcase us and they bought books from each author and put them in the welcome center," Blake said. "So people can walk right in and buy one. People see it and they go, 'Oh, what a great idea. I always wanted to know the stories behind those songs.' So that one is going really good."

The joy of writing

Blake said she enjoys writing stories and bringing them to life. She said writing a book is not much different than reading a book.

"I discovered writing a story is much like reading a story, only backwards," Blake said. "So as you're writing it, it's like the words are coming and things are happening and you get to a point where you might get stuck but then you have to take the adventure somewhere else. So it's like reading it, but you're writing it instead. So I found it really fun and satisfying and enjoyable."