Showing posts with label Guppies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guppies. Show all posts

Monday, August 25, 2014

Guppy lunch, pics, and contest win at Killer Nashville

Hey Everybody! I had a blast at #KillerNashville and have a ton of pics to share. First up, though, is my amazing contest win. My Aug 2013 release from Five Star Publishing, DIME IF I KNOW, which is book 3 in my Cleopatra Jones series, won a Silver Falchion Award for Best Novel: Cozy/Traditional. I am delighted, awestruck, and humbled by this placement. Thank you to everyone who loves this story as much as I do!

 Due to volunteering, critiquing, panels, and the contest win, I didn't get to too many other panels. I did catch the tail end of the New Author Panel and saw nearly all of the Using Forensic Psychology to Craft Believable Characters. I hope to get around to writing up my Forensic Psychology notes in a few days. Mostly what I have to offer are Guppy Lunch photos, so here you go! With many apologies to folks whose names I've missed!!!

Bill Hopkins sees from a different perspective

Sharon Hopkins, Cyndi Pauwels, and Carolyn Mulford

Bill Hopkins, Marjorie Brody, Debra Goldstein

Carolyn, Michael, Sharon, Cyndi

..., Kaye George, center, Carolyn Mulford right

Lisa Alber, ..., Michael Guillebeau, Lisa Wysocky, Amy Denton

Cyndi Pauwels, Ken Vanderpool, Bill Hopkins

Debra Goldstein and her buds, Kay Kendall and Marjorie Brody


And more photos of KN folks...
Maggie with Clay Stafford, organizer and founder of KN

Deni Dietz, acquiring editor at Five Star for my Dime If I Know

Kay Tyler with Sharon Hopkins

some of my registration buddies!

Kay Tyler, Maggie, and Sharon Hopkins

Maggie and Beth "Jaden" Terrell

Maggie with Stacy Allen

Stacy Allen gets the pic

Don Bruns joins the band for a number!

And lastly, my two panels.
Building Characters panel: Frankie Bailey, Maggie, David Burnsworth, Neil R Howard, and panel leader Michael Sears

Exploring the Human Condition. Mike Tabor, Maggie, Sallie Bissell, and Jamie Mason. I led this one.
That's about it, picture-wise for me. It was so fabulous seeing everyone at the conference. Killer Nashville is one of my favorites!

Please join me for the release of my romantic suspense, ROUGH WATERS, this Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Facebook. The addy is: https://www.facebook.com/NewReleaseParty

The ebook is available for pre-order on Kindle and the print book is already available at Amazon and The Wild Rose Press. Buy links for Rough Waters: Kindle and Print Book

That's all. Hope to see everyone on Friday at the Virtual Launch Party. Lots of prizes offered!

Maggie Toussaint
www.maggietoussaint.com  

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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