Fiction, Fashion
We promote the books and songs of African American writer Janet Walker. We also celebrate elegant fashions from a bygone era.
Discover the creative mind of a novelist
Our Goal
To showcase the talent of a restless tomboy writer and the feminine fashions of 1950s Paris.
(Pictured: The author in Saint-Denis, France, 2019.)
Who We Are
The Toni Breland Agency (pronounced BREE-lund) is an online entity begun in 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia, to promote the creative efforts of U.S. Southern writer Janet Walker. These efforts include Walker's three-book novel, Amazed by Her Grace, with its controversial themes and complex main character; her melodies and lyrics, many of which educate children or honor outstanding women; and her Amazon.com bestseller, What You Didn't Learn In Trucking School: The Trucker's Little Book of Etiquette.
Our Other Mission
To promote the vintage haute couture of 1950s Paris, a look the author admires on others and which, to some degree, adorns a few of her fictional characters.
Songs, Books, and Videos
Original Songs
As a hobby, Walker creates songs for children and sings them a cappella. One, "TheJanWalker's 50 States (Without D.C.)," has received half a million views on YouTube. Children across the United States, and in countries such as New Zealand, have written to thank Janet for the song. (Children can access her songs on the MissJanWalker YouTube channel.)
Walker also creates melodies and lyrics about women who are powerful in life and deeply missed when they have left this life. (Click photo to hear a playlist honoring the two women pictured.)
Trucking Writer
Walker has worked for many years in the trucking industry. The result of that experience is the delightful What You Didn't Learn In Trucking School: The Trucker's Little Book of Etiquette.
Thanks to U.S. publishing strategist Martha Bullen, the book debuted in 2020 with best-selling rank in five Amazon.com categories.
The Toni Breland Agency logo photo at the top of the page taken for LIFE Magazine by Gordon Parks, a 20th-century Renaissance man. To learn more about Parks and exquisite style, go to the last page of this site (here).
WHO OR WHAT IS TONI BRELAND?
"Toni Breland" is a concept created by Janet Walker and is best personified, the author believes, in the photo she selected as her website's logo.
Toni is a symbol of the high fashion that was dominant during the 1950s. This decade, along with the latter part of the preceding decade and early part of the 1960s, is noted for its striking international haute couture images and overtly feminine fashions.
These decades also promoted the version of ladyhood (Toni's First Lady look) seen in the wardrobes of such prominent women as Coretta Scott King, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and 1950s supermodel Suzy Parker.
The Toni philosophy supports the belief that, contrary to the thinking of too many designers today, a woman's sex appeal often finds best expression when she is artfully draped rather than when she is overly exposed.
