Showing posts with label Dadgummit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dadgummit. Show all posts

Monday, June 18, 2018

Dadgummit Wins Award!

I'm thrilled to announce that Dadgummit, Book 4 in my Dreamwalker Mystery Series, won the honor of finalist in the Detective/Mystery category on June 16, 2018, at the Georgia Author of the Year Awards.
The stiff competition had me sweating in my boots! Out of 19 category entries from the entire state of GA, Dadgummit came in second (finalist). A good friend, Roger Johns, took top honors in the category, and I highly recommend his book, Dark River Rising. Thank you, Georgia Writers Assn., for honoring Dadgummit. I am most appreciative!

Pictured above, the event emcee Michelle Khouri presents me with a certificate. GA Writers Assn also presented finalists (and winners) with cool stickers to place on our winning books.
I had a brief moment at the podium to thank my new publisher, Camel Press, for picking up this ongoing series. I did my best to sound rational and coherent but it wasn't easy. My heart was racing from excitement, and the room was crowded - somewhere between 150 and 200 people in attendance. Still, for an introvert, I did pretty good.
By now you must be wondering what the certificate looked like! I posted a photo holding the certificate above. All of these lovely photos are courtesy of my brother, Clifford Watson. He and sister Virginia Baisden accompanied me to the award banquet.
It was a great night of celebration, of making new friends, of finding a long-lost cousin, and of reminiscing with my brother and sister. Somehow Cliff managed to get these nice photos without a flash (something about bouncing the light off the wall) and I was impressed with his photography skills.
Now I just need to decide where on the book cover to place the Georgia Author of the Year finalist sticker. Decisions, decisions!

I hope you'll check out Dadgummit and all the Dreamwalker Mysteries at my website.

Maggie Toussaint
https://maggietoussaint.com

Sunday, December 3, 2017

JUST REDUCED! DADGUMMIT

Some exciting news! My publisher lowered the price for DADGUMMIT to a bargain price of $2.99. This paranormal mystery is just the ticket for an exciting getaway from all the holiday hustle and bustle.
BUY NOW
 
Many of you fell in love with this series with Gone and Done It, Bubba Done It, Doggone It, and now you have Dadgummit for your reading pleasure. In this installment of the Dreamwalker Series, amateur sleuth Baxley Powell goes on vacation in the Georgia Mountains and runs into a psychic vampire, aka an energy thief. (These types of critters have been around for a long time, only the real life ones just exhaust you instead of killing you, but that's another story.)


Baxley needs extra help, so she calls on her Other World mentor, Rose, and her ghost dog, Oliver. Here's Oliver in full manifestation. He's a Great Dane.
While this is the 4th book in the series, you can start with this book. It's very easy to get into the flow of the story. Here's what readers have to say about Dadgummit:
 
 
"Plenty of suspense and a surprise twist" -- RT Reviews
 
"Boasting a wonderful cast of characters, engaging dialogue and a supernatural atmosphere, this is one of the best books in the terrific series and I look forward to more adventures with Baxley and her friends." -- Dru Ann Love
 
"I loved Baxley and her dreamwalking gift and how this gift plays a central role in her investigation. The plot is tight, well developed, and well paced to keep the reader turning the pages. Dadgummit is a rare story that will have readers completely engrossed in the plot and in the characters." -- Readers Favorite
 
BUY LINKS for Dadgummit on all platforms available at my website.
 
Happy Reading, All!
 
Maggie Toussaint


Saturday, August 5, 2017

Suicide survivors and grief

This is such a difficult topic. Anyone who has been touched by suicide is forever changed by that loss. I've felt it, and if you're reading this, maybe you've felt it too.

I've been touched by suicide twice in my life: once by a family member and more recently by a high school classmate. In my experience, processing these intense feelings doesn't get any easier with time. Raw is raw no matter how you slice it. The stages of grief sound clinical but they are anything but.

With denial, it's typical to feel shocked and overwhelmed by life. It's hard to cope and process something that isn't understood. Anger can coat us with guilt for not recognizing the signs and for the victim leaving us to deal with their loss. The bargaining stage is full of what-ifs for how things could be different if-only... Depression is the mantle of sadness many survivors wear. And then there's isolation and shame that make us want to hide our hurt from the world and bury our emotions. That fog of sadness oft times becomes a lens through which we now see the world. Accepting the reality of what happened is difficult for many survivors. Even if they accept what happened, that doesn't make it right or okay. It just becomes a fact. This grieving process varies for each individual.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention states that 44,193 Americans die each year from suicide. That's a rate of about 13.6 for every 10,000 individuals. For every suicide, 25 were attempted. (https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/)

With suicide being widespread and painful for the survivors, you may wonder why I'd include any mention of suicide in a cozy mystery. One of the things I try to do through my writing is to make some sense of this world. Oftentimes, events don't have happy endings, and I use fictional characters to ensure justice is served and to create a happier resolution.

The inception of my dreamwalker series was influenced by my loss over the natural deaths of two relatives. Unwilling to believe they were completely gone, I created a fictional spirit world in this series based on multiple influences in my life. My amateur sleuth Baxley Powell is a person whose spirit traverses worlds. Her goal in every book is to get justice for the dead, solace for the living.

 
Dadgummit, my latest paranormal mystery, centers around an energy thief, also known as an energy vampire, who steals people's energy, taking them to the point of death. Without revealing the whole plot, there are minor characters who are star-crossed in love. He's caught up in the energy thief's world, she's finally found someone who understands her. The energy thief takes the life of the young man, and the distraught young woman makes the choice to join her boyfriend in death via energy thief, in the vein of Romeo and Juliet. Her family is crushed, just as you'd expect them to be. But because of the dreamwalker, they receive an assurance. This pair gets a happy ending in the spirit world. Better yet, the energy thief gets what's coming to him.

Does that make suicide right? No. It doesn't. This is one person creating a scenario where the pain of suicide is lessened by a fictional resolution. Our reality is that we live in a broken world. Through religion or faith we have a belief system that may (or may not) help us through this time of trial.

How can we help suicide survivors? Here are some tips from the Survivors of Suicide website: listen, be compassionate, respect their need to grieve, be aware of support groups, be open and nonjudgmental, and more. http://www.survivorsofsuicide.com/index.html There are many more resources on the internet just a click away.



Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Release day for Dadgummit!

Happy Book Birthday to Dadgummit! Thanks to the wonderful folks at Camel Press, I am able to present book 4 of my Dreamwalker mystery series to readers. In this story, my psychic amateur sleuth tangles with an energy thief who has gone too far.



Read what the pros are saying about Dadgummit:

“Dadgummit is a stunning entry in the Dreamwalker Mystery Series by Maggie Toussaint, a mystery that explores murder and the unusual investigative skills of amateur sleuth, Baxley Powell.” – Readers Favorite

“This is one of the best books in the terrific series and I look forward to more adventures with Baxley and her friends.” – Dru’s Book Musing

“Plenty of suspense and a surprise twist.” – RT Reviews

“Highly recommended for both fans of paranormal and for those readers who just like a great story!” – InD’Tale Magazine

“Maggie Toussaint has a colorful writing style that takes readers from one venue to another with ease and total writing expertise.” – Mary Gramlich, the Reading Reviewer

Where to buy:

Amazon: Kindle and Print

B&N:  Nook and Print

iTunes:  iBook

Books A Million:  Print

I hope you'll click over to my website for more about Dadgummit: WEBSITE

Happy Reading,

Maggie Toussaint

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Cover Reveal for Dadgummit

I'm very happy to present the cover for my upcoming Dreamwalker Mystery series novel, Dadgummit. We were looking for an image of a mountainside lake with a bit of atmosphere. I think we nailed it!


In this 4th book of the series, my sleuth Baxley Powell goes on vacation to the mountains with her family and friends. What could be better, right?

For starters, there's an armed guy running around the mountains claiming he's on patrol. His visit the first evening puts our sleuth on notice that there's no relaxing around here.

Secondly, the cops have an unusual case, a case wherein they can't see any obvious means of death on a very healthy appearing young man. During a sweep of the area, they come across Baxley and friends, run their names, and realize they have a bona fide psychic police consultant on hand, one with a 100% solve rate.

So, Baxley's vacation turns into a work-cation for her, but her encounters with the paranormal have never been anything like this! Soon she's hanging out with some "people" straight out of Cherokee mythology and trying to figure out who killed Haney, the young man by the lake. As if that's not enough something is running around stealing people's energy. Oh my my.


Dadgummit releases August 1, 2017 from Camel Press. The trade paperback is available for preordering at Amazon, and it will be available in both print and ebook format at multiple venues upon release.


To read an excerpt, visit my website at http://maggietoussaint.com/dadgummit/

Happy Reading!

Maggie Toussaint

ps Don't forget our monthly contest at Booklover's Bench! We have a $25 gift certificate to Amazon or B&N up for grabs! Contest runs through the 18th of the month. http://bookloversbench.com/win-a-gift-card-march-2017/