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

Like me on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MaggieToussaintAuthor#

PW review is a mag Christmas gift

fab new cover quote from
Publisher's Weekly

I kept wondering what I would get myself for Christmas this year. I'm oh-so-tempted to buy a little here and there as I'm working down my Christmas list, but this year I'd held back. Then  Publisher's Weekly surprised me with a great review.

I was anxious about this book, my first mystery not in my popular Cleopatra Jones series. Would the reviewers like it as much as my other titles? Would it tank, and there'd never be another Maggie Toussaint cozy sold? So many things go through your head when you send a book out into the world, almost like putting your child on the school bus for the first time.

Anyway, if my "gift" of a review for Death, Island Style from Publisher's Weekly is a portent of things to come, I think I can relax and let go.

My publisher was so pleased with the review that the cover was changed to incorporate the new PW quote" "exciting whodunit."

Here's their entire review:

Widow MaryBeth Cashour, a former Maryland resident, makes a fresh start on the tiny coastal island of Sandy Shores, Ga., after the mysterious drowning death of her husband and her mother’s death from cancer in this exciting whodunit from Toussaint (In for a Penny). Running a souvenir and gift shop gives MaryBeth purpose, income, and a good reason to tackle crafting and shelling. When she discovers a dead body bobbing along the seashore, the police are suspicious of a newcomer with so much death in her recent past. When the corpse is linked to MaryBeth’s former life, the heat really turns up. Fortunately, there’s also heat from a handsome pharmacist in a neighboring storefront. MaryBeth realizes that if she’s ever going to drop off the police radar, she’ll have to figure out some things for herself.

Permalink: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4328-2566-9 (978-1-4328-2566-9)

gingerbread cookies
are a family favorite

I haven't figured out how to wrap this one up and put it under my tree, so I'm glad to have the Mudpies blog to showcase this wonderful gift. My publisher notified me that Death, Island Style would also release in large print, so that's two gifts in one!

To read the first Chapter of Death, Island Style, visit the Bookshelf page of my site, www.maggietoussaint.com.

Death, Island Style by Maggie Toussaint.

Five Star, $25.95 (262p) ISBN 978-1-4328-2566-9

Available March 9, 2012 from all online and bricks and mortar vendors

Wishing everyone the merriest Christmas ever!

Maggie Toussaint

A bit of holiday cheer
on my door

Money Money Money



Maggie's office - with Madonna's new puppies!

  

  Greed is one of the biggies, one of the “Thou Shalt Nots,” but human nature continues to err on the side of “I want more.”

Not so good if you desire peace on earth, but great news if you’re a mystery writer like me. Using people’s foibles is a time-honored means of moving a story along.

My Cleopatra Jones mystery series is based on a small town amateur sleuth who has expertise in accounting. Her insider knowledge comes in handy when she’s on a case.

In my brand new book in the series, On the Nickel, Cleo is propelled into action when Mama’s nemesis, the church lady from hell, is found dead by hit and run – and Mama’s Olds has a person-sized dent in the front.

Tension between the two seniors had been rising of late, and the church lady had even filed a police report citing Mama with terroristic threats. Cleo is in a bind. She knows that when people get cornered, they strike out and do terrible things. The church lady had cornered Mama, that’s for sure, but had Mama lashed out?

Cleo needs to know. The clock is ticking because the police are closing in on Mama. The only thing Cleo knows is that Mama is lying to her.

While Cleo digs around in the church lady’s life, she finds financial discrepancies. Money is a problem – the church lady is flat broke. The more Cleo digs, the more the noose tightens around Mama’s neck. Can she save her mother from the slammer?

Here’s a snip from the story:

The events of the day returned in a rush as I locked my car. I ticked them off on my fingers.

One, there had been a vehicular accident at the church. Two, Erica Hodges was dead. Three, Mama had a history of run-ins with Erica Hodges. Four, on Monday I listened to Mama and Erica Hodges exchange insults in public. Five, Mama’s whereabouts today were a mystery and her over-the-top behavior even more of a mystery.

I don’t know what made me look at her Oldsmobile. Honestly, I don’t know why I looked at all. But I did. And then I wished I’d gone straight inside the house and minded my own business.

The motion-detector light on the corner of the house had activated when I pulled into the driveway. The parking pad was now brightly illuminated.

I touched the jagged safety glass of Mama’s shattered headlight cover. A suffocating sensation tightened my throat at the large indentation in her not-so-shiny bumper. The hood of her car mounded in the middle, pushed back from the leading edge. This car had hit something.

Or someone.

Dread charged through my veins, taking my breath away. Fear clawed at my heart, dragging me down to a place where I didn’t want to go. Dazed and bewildered, I staggered over to my Volvo for support. The hood warmed my cold fingers.

This was very, very bad.

Unthinkable.

The pieces of the puzzle resolved in my head. With each connected piece, the picture became clearer. Mama and Erica. Rivals and combatants. Mama alive. Erica dead. Mama’s car damaged. Erica dead.

Even to a rank amateur like me, the evidence pointed to a devastating conclusion. I shook my head in disbelief. This was Mama I was talking about. She was stubborn, opinionated, and bossy, and those were her finer qualities.

Stars twinkled in the night sky overhead. Crickets chirped in the darkness. A light went on in my next-door neighbor’s kitchen. A diesel pickup truck rumbled past on Main Street. And I stood beside my mother’s damaged car in my driveway.

Ordinary things. Trivial things

But my life wasn’t ordinary or trivial any longer.

A cold-blooded killer lived under my roof.

--

Maggie Toussaint

On The Nickel

Five Star / Cengage ISBN 9781594149542

Available for order at Amazon, $25.95

www.maggietoussaint.com http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/

Maggie Toussaint is a native Georgian who had a nearly 30-year sojourn in Maryland. While there, she tried her hand at golf and spent many hours chasing white balls in the woods. That experience imprinted on her vivid imagination and had her thinking, what if there was a dead body out here? That idea led to the first Cleopatra Jones book, In For A Penny. On The Nickel is off to a great start with reviews by Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly. Maggie also writes romantic suspense, with four books out now. Check www.maggietoussaint.com for excerpts, reviews, stunning covers, and buy links for each title.

Request these titles at your library!

Ta Da!!! Fab new cover

I had a wonderful knock-my-socks-off moment today when I opened the email containing my brand new bookcover. On The Nickel won't release until late March 2011, but still, I have a "face" to go with it.

In the story, the murder happens at the church. Mama's car runs over the church lady. The cops think Mama murdered her rival, but Mama swears otherwise. Sleuth Cleopatra Jones isn't about to let her mother go to prison, so she takes action.

This is the second book in the Cleopatra Jones series. The first book, In For A Penny, is out in hardcover. Visit www.maggietoussaint.com for buy links, reviews, and an excerpt.

And now, without further ado, my beautiful cover for On The Nickel:



Maggie Toussaint
doing the happy cover dance
www.maggietoussaint.com