Showing posts with label SINC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SINC. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2012

I've got news!

Nothing like news to put a spark in our heart and pep in our step. I've been sitting on my news waiting for just the right moment and here it is.

Granddog Missie stars in this series
BIG NEWS for me: I've signed a new contract with Five Star for the third book in my Cleopatra Jones series. Since Cleo's an accountant, my books have a money theme. DIME IF I KNOW follows On the Nickel and In for a Penny. This time around Cleo's golf pro boyfriend is suspected of murdering a former girlfriend. The release date is still to be announced, but it's party time in Maggie-World!

Maggie, on left, with Polly Iyer
GOOD NEWS - the fourth outing of my pacing workshop, this time at the Upstate SC Sisters in Crime monthly meeting, was met with smiles all around. My friend Terri Ridgell prompted me to create this workshop for the Amelia Island Book Festival in 2007. Since then, I've given it at the Florida Heritage Book Festival, the Ancient City Romance Writers, and now, SINC. I get a big kick out of showing things with terrible pacing and then taking them apart to make the pacing better.

Here's an example of poor pacing from my workshop: On December 24, no, wait, I think it was the 23rd. No, I was right the first time, it was the 24th because that's the day Amy skinned her knee. Anyway, my insomnia was acting up again. My wife was sound asleep. The kids were snoozing. Even Benjie's teenage anorexic mouse was sawing zees.

If you get rid of the extraneous stuff to keep it in the moment, it pares down to: On Dec 24 I couldn't sleep. My wife, kids and the mouse were out cold. -- bottom line, not very interesting. More fun before, but too dithery for an opening of my work. (The opening of a story is a promise from the author that the rest of the work will be written in the same style)

If you look at the word choices and consider meter and beat, you might end up with something like Clement Moore wrote: Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse... It's all about the word choice.

There's a place and a time for having wandering prose. The secret is knowing when and where to be lean and when to dally. That's the whole point of pacing.

The end of my workshop is a creative writing exercise and folks really get into it. I hope you enjoy the photos of some of the group at work. And thanks, SINC Upstate SC, for such a warm welcome.

MORE GOOD NEWS - My work-in-progress has been through the plot edit, the characterization edit, the Margie Lawson color-coded edit, and most of it has been critiqued. Now I'm letting it rest a week while I work on the synopsis. Then it will get another read, this time on my Kindle, before it heads out to my editor. I'm pretty psyched about this story. It follows the adventures of the cop from Muddy Waters and a hunky arson investigator. Lots of action and romance in HOT WATER!

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS - The large print edition of Death, Island Style is available now. Here's the listing at Amazon if large print is your thing: http://tinyurl.com/7r7vagc. I've ordered postcard mailers for library notification, and those should arrive any day now.

This book is flying off the shelf (big smile here) with great reviews like these:


“an exciting whodunit” – Publishers Weekly
“Toussaint creates a gutsy heroine whose struggles with murder and romance add up to a very enjoyable read” – Kirkus Reviews
“Eccentric and fun, this book is definitely worth a read” – Romantic Times
“Toussaint's feel-good stand-alone flies by as her initially wimpy heroine develops a backbone and comes out a winner on all fronts. Nice regional flair.” – Library Journal

Thanks for sharing in  my good news! Wishing everyone a happy June.

Maggie Toussaint
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Maggie does Malice

Maggie, left, with Barbara Graham
This was my second year of attending Malice Domestic as a published author. For those who aren't familiar with this event, it's a mystery fan conference, which is a great treat for mystery writers.

Canadians RJ Harlick and Vicki Delany
Like 2011, the conference was held at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, Maryland. For intrepid travelers, it was a stop off the DC Metro. For the rest of us, it was a shuttle ride from the airport or a threading-the-Beltway adventure by automobile.

My roommate Barbara Graham shares the same publisher, Five Star Cengage with me, and we're both members of Sisters in Crime and members of our respective Mystery Writers of America chapters. You might think a gal from Cody, Wyoming would have little in common with a gal from Darien, Georgia, but we both speak "writer" so all was good.

From our breakfast with the Canadians and a very nice fan named Lexa, to the popular Malice Go Round, Friday morning passed in a blur. The ladies from breakfast became familiar faces that we would meet and dine with throughout the conference.

Barbara Graham, center
Malice Go Round is a speed-dating format where authors get two minutes to pitch their book to tables of fans. There were 20 tables and 40 authors, so it was an intense hour and some change. I partnered with Barbara, and by the midway point I could have pitched her Murder by Music and she could have hit all the high points of my Death, Island Style.

We went right from Malice Go Round to the Guppy lunch over at Booeymongers. How fun to connect with this group of friends from the Guppy chapter of SINC.

Erika Chase, Janet Bolin, Maggie, and Barbara
There was all kind of stuff going on at the conference in the afternoon, but I was toast. Being on grandma duty for the two weeks prior to the conference had taken a toll on my energy reserves. I emerged for dinner, but I wasn't good for much else that day.

Saturday was an easy day for me because my panel wasn't until the next day. We went to the new authors breakfast and enjoyed hearing about their books. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon chatting with authors, shopping in the bookstore, and enjoying the author panels. Barbara earned a gold star for doing everything, including donating an item for the charity raffle and staying all the way through the Agatha Tea on Sunday.

Guppies - Maggie and Liz Zelvin
The conference offered box lunches on Saturday. Barbara and I grabbed ours and joined the throng listening to the Poison Lady. She offered insider knowledge on ways to kill people - in books. The astonishing thing is that she was able to purchase an item at the dollar store for under $2 that would have been enough liquid to wipe out more than a dozen people. Because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about this, I'm not mentioning the item. Suffice it to say that this was an eye-opening session.

We enjoyed a nice walk outside prior to the banquet. Luckily, we wore our rain jackets because it started raining during our walk.

Lisa Wysocky, Maggie, Nancy Cohen
The banquet was lovely. We enjoyed the company of Canada's RJ Harlick, who sponsored our table. She handed out favors, and I was lucky enough to receive a dreamcatcher, which I've added to the pull of my office ceiling fan. Award winners on this night included Chris Grabenstein, Best YA; Dana Cameron, Best Short Story; Leslie Budewitz, Best nonfiction; Rhys Bowen, Best Historical Mystery; Sara Henry, Best first novel; and Margaret Maron, Best Novel.

Sunday morning I realized I'd forgotten to sign up for the SINC breakfast, so it was breakfast on my own, panels, and networking. Right before my 11:10 a.m. panel, I realized I needed a snack. Lisa Wysocky had the same idea. We were eating and chatting and I lost track of the time, dashing off to my panel at the last minute.

"Down the Shore" panel at Malice 2012 - I'm second from left!
I was so rattled. The entire panel was assembled and there I was, dead last! Fortunately our moderator for "Down the Shore," Trish Carrico, had sent her questions ahead of time, so I had written out my answers in very large print, which I placed on the table before me.

Maggie, Michelle L. Johnson, Trish Carrico
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to sound coherent when you're rattled? I had 100 proof adrenaline surging through my veins and no telling what was coming out my mouth. Thank goodness for my speaking notes or I would have gotten completely off track.

I was especially nervous about the special question Trish had planned for each of us. Through time I've realized I don't do "unplugged" very well, and I approached this question with all the enthusiasm one has for a pop quiz.

But my fears were soon alleviated. Trish asked me about my stream of consciousness style of writing for MaryBeth, my protagonist in Death, Island Style. She said how engaging that style of writing was to her. I was elated that I knew the answer. Even better, people in the crowd nodded their heads in understanding. Thank you, Trish, for being so kind.

After the booksigning time, we had lunch at la Madelaine, and it was time for me to go. I said goodbye to my roommate and good friend, and headed to my daughter's house to see that precious grandbaby again before the long trek back to Georgia.

You know what? I'm already looking forward to next year.

Maggie Toussaint
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