Friday, February 1, 2019

Muddy Waters cover reveal, Author Edition

As is the way with books and publishers, from time to time, rights revert to the author. That's what's going on here with the forthcoming Author's Edition release of Muddy Waters, the first book in my Mossy Bog Romantic Suspense series. It will soon be available from all digital venues.

My first priority is to reissue ebooks of the five romances that I just had rights reversion on. After that, I will see if issuing print books are warranted.

Meanwhile, please enjoy this new cover, put together with the loving hands of my friend Polly Iyer. My goal is to use the same font and font placement for all three books in this series to create a series look.




Originally issued in 2010, this book has been edited from front to back to update the content.

Muddy Waters is currently up for pre-order at Amazon, to go live on Tuesday, Feb 5. Other vendors have already pushed the listing through their sales channels so there's no waiting at Nook, Kobo, or iBooks.

Here's the new blurb:

Real estate broker Roxie Whitaker is juggling skittish clients, an anxious bride, and her wayward brother. She’d very much like to sell some property, soothe her friend’s wedding jitters, and knock some sense into her party-boy brother’s head. Meanwhile, she needs a date for the wedding. In walks Sloan Harding, the town’s former bad boy and now an Atlanta security expert, and Roxie believes he’s the answer to her dreams.

Sparks fly as he escorts her to the wedding and asks her advice about his property. While he’s home, Sloan hunts for his missing inheritance. Sloan’s search uncovers family secrets and painful memories. To make matters worse, someone in the shadows is after his inheritance, someone who will do whatever it takes to walk away with the fortune.

Also, reviewers from before loved Roxie and Sloan's story. Here are a few snips from those earlier reviews: 

“Great book, wonderful mystery and a red hot love story underlying it.  Roxie and Sloan really mix it up in and out of the bedroom and that is what makes for a great romance.  You can’t ask for more than that now can you?” –  Mary Gramlich, THE READING REVIEWER

“Toussaint pens a pleasant read for a nice fall afternoon. With its home realty and repair subplot, the author obviously knows her stuff.” – Cindy Himler, ROMANTIC TIMES

Buy Links:

Ready now:   Nook    iBooks    Kobo  

Pre-order for Feb 5 delivery    Kindle

More information at my website, including an excerpt!  Click here for the website listing.

Thanks, readers, for demanding more in this fun series that blends cozy mystery and romantic suspense. Hot Water and Rough Waters will be reissued next.

Happy Reading!
Maggie
 


Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Permanently bad hair and a fiery tale

Hi friends and fans!

I have a guest post up today at Paranormal Romance Guild. They invited me to help launch their new feature "Tell Me More Tuesday."  https://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/tell-me-more-tuesday-maggie-toussaint-shares-new-release-confound-it/



I'm very excited to have the opportunity to share my Dreamwalker Mystery series, which has a strong romantic subplot, with paranormal romance readers. My sleuth Baxley Powell has some serious psychic mojo going on!


Many new-to-a-series readers are purists, so that's why, even though Confound It is a really cool, ultra-absorbing book, I'm giving away a copy of the first book in the series, Gone and Done It. To have a chance to win, you must comment on the post at   https://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/tell-me-more-tuesday-maggie-toussaint-shares-new-release-confound-it/


The Dreamwalker Mystery Series in order from first to last are: Gone and Done It, Bubba Done It, Doggone It, Dadgummit, and Confound It. There will be 7 books in this series, with Dreamed It slated for release next summer. To find out more about my books, visit https://maggietoussaint.com/books/

But to have a chance at winning Gone and Done It, you must comment on the Tell Me More Tuesday post at Paranormal Romance Guild. See you over there!!!


Sunday, September 16, 2018

No Quarter steps out on its own!

My Cleopatra Jones Mystery novella, "No Quarter," is out now as a standalone in digital format. It was previously released in the Sleuthing Women II Anthology in 2017. The anthology is no longer available and so No Quarter got its own cover and is now out through Muddle House Publishing.

Here's the blurb for the novella: Amnesia, the doctor says when accountant Cleopatra Jones wakes in a distant hospital. Hours later, most of her memory returns. Detective Jack Martinez visits Cleo’s nearby wealthy client, only she’s dead and broke. To Cleo’s horror, she’s a murder suspect. Will she totally recover her memory before the killer returns?


This novella is available across many platforms: 

Kindle           Kobo            iBooks          Nook

I'm excited to have an entry in this Cleopatra Jones series, and I thank fans of the Cleo series for being so patient. Please let me know if you like this new direction for her, and if you want more Cleo. Also, if you previously read the novella in the SWII anthology or if you're just now picking it up, please feel free to leave a review wherever you post your online reviews.

The entire Cleopatra Jones series looks like this:



To celebrate the release of the "No Quarter" novella, I will give away at least one hardcover copy of the first book in this series, In For a Penny, which may be a collector's item by now! Entry for the drawing (US only) may be made by leaving a comment on this post. The contest ends September 26, 2018. Please leave contact info. If you don't want to leave your email or your Facebook name, plan to check back after the 26th. Prizes unclaimed after a week will be forfeited.

Thanks for enjoying my books! 
Maggie

ps The monthly Booklover's Bench contest is ongoing through September 18. Enter for a chance to win a $25 gift card from Amazon or B&N. Visit the contest page.

Friday, July 20, 2018

Maggie Toussaint's Podcast Interview


I'm delighted to share a link to a podcast interview by Tyler Wagner of Business Insights. This brief podcast is a great way to get to know me and my mysteries. You'll learn why Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham was a sentinel book in my childhood.

Best of all, the audio interview is concise and only 5 minutes long.

Please check it out!   https://tinyurl.com/y9nf522r

Maggie Toussaint https://maggietoussaint.com

Monday, July 9, 2018

Book Club Questions for Confound It

Is your Book Club interested in reading Confound It, a paranormal cozy? Here are discussion questions to get the party started! (This book is available through Ingram, through Baker and Taylor, online vendors, and Epicenter Press.) I am also available to Skype into your meetings!



1. We are often quick to judge others. For instance, what if a young mother found a lucrative way to provide a future for her son, but then couldn’t get out? Soon she becomes a homicide statistic. We automatically look at what she did-making drugs-and label her a bad person. Now that you know character Mandy Patterson’s backstory, do you feel empathy for her? Do you think others care if a meth cook dies?


2. A man she met on vacation, Deputy Sam Mayes, visits my sleuth Baxley Powell and her family. Like her, the man has extrasensory abilities, and she wants to learn from his experiences. He, on the other hand, is abiding by her lets-be-friends decree, but he’s made it clear he’s interested in a romantic relationship. As a woman, would you pursue the friendship?


3. For the longest time, Baxley has lived in relationship limbo. Her elite soldier of a husband went missing on a military mission. After a year went by, the Army declared him dead. As someone who can traverse the Veil of Life, Baxley knows he isn’t dead, only she can’t find him in the land of the living either. She worries he’s hurt. That’s the only way she knows that he wouldn’t come home to her and their young daughter. People say she should start dating again, but Baxley is married. Her honor and integrity demand that she honor her vows. What would you do in that situation?


4. In-laws and Outlaws is a phrase I’ve often heard applied to some extended families. In Confound It, discord rules amongst the victim’s family members. There’s love, but there’s also envy, greed, jealousy, and lust. Does your family always get along? What’s the usual bone of contention? Examples: curfew, bedtime, heirloom, elder care, employment, authority, money, respect…


5. We expect those who care for us to comfort us when troubles occur. But Confound It’s Mandy Patterson is trapped in a desperate situation, and she’s afraid of her boyfriend. What advice would you give someone like Mandy?


6. In Confound It, Mandy’s sister makes no bones that she wants what her sister has, only June is mostly talk and no action. Plus, she believes the world owes her. She gets mad when Mandy won’t continue to give her money. Do you believe in Tough Love? Why or why not?


7. My sleuth Baxley Powell is a Dreamwalker. She taps into her extrasensory abilities to learn more about a person, place, or thing in this world or the next. In reality, psychics often have one strong extrasensory skill. In the Dreamwalker Series, I take liberties so that Baxley explores a new paranormal aspect in each book. Confound It is book five in this series. Usually in other books, she must hold an item of the victim to make contact with his or her spirit. In this book, Baxley has several spontaneous visions causing her no end of confusion. What characteristic of Baxley’s do you most admire and why? (Her traits include loyalty, adaptability, courage, patience, composure, self-sufficiency, perceptiveness, honesty, fairness, or her curiosity).


8. Deputy Sam Mayes is a Cherokee. He carefully treads his way in both his native world and the white man’s world. Baxley doesn’t understand the issues he faces, doesn’t know how hard he is to appear to be solidly in both worlds, or that it costs his tribes when he is less than fully theirs. Assimilation used to be the American Way. Our society is a melting pot of immigrant groups. Why does assimilation hurt Native American tribes? Don’t people have to live and make a living in the twenty-first century?


9. Baxley’s household has a menagerie of animals: a Shih-Pooh named Muffin, a chihuahua named Elvis, black lab named Maddy, a Maine Coon cat named Sulay, and a tabby named Ziggy. Her ghost dog, Oliver the Great Dane, puts in appearances now and then. Occasionally, one of her pet-sitting clients leaves their animals with her, so she has even more animals at home. With such a variety of dogs and cats, which animal is the boss and why?


10. In a series mystery like this one, as the series goes along, the amateur sleuth gains more of a familiarity with the criminal world, though she still says firmly grounded in her community. Although Baxley has gained experience as a dreamwalker, one of her abilities, being able to perceive lies, happens automatically. This can be a bonus for her police work, but this (and her other skills) makes people leery of her. If you had a special skill that made people nervous, would you use it or hide it?


This book is currently available in print and ebook formats. It will be released in Large Print at a later date still to be determined.

Don't delay! Get your copy today!

Kindle     Nook     Kobo     iBooks



Thanks, and I hope you love reading this mystery!

Maggie Toussaint



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

Friday, June 1, 2018

Confound It is now Available

I'm happy to report my latest Dreamwalker Mystery, Confound It, book 5 in the series, is out now at the venues listed below.

Here's the book blurb:

While hosting out-of-town guests at her Georgia home, Dreamwalker Baxley Powell is called upon to help investigate a suspicious fire. One of her guests, close friend and fellow dreamwalker Deputy Sam Mayes, accompanies her to the scene.

A meth cook is dead, and when Baxley visits her beyond the Veil of Life, she determines that the woman was murdered. Baxley pities Mandy Patterson, a single mother with aspirations for her teenage son Doodle. Unconcerned about the death of a criminal, the authorities pursue the drug-supply chain angle. Baxley worries about Doodle and vows to find out who killed his mother.

As the case grows more baffling, Baxley struggles against her attraction to Sam. Although her husband is missing and declared dead, she does not feel free to love again until she is sure of his fate.

Two suspects have the strongest motive, but Baxley has reason to believe they are pawns in a deeper game. And unless she can stop them, the world will never be the same.

This book is currently available in print and ebook formats. It will be released in Large Print at a later date still to be determined.

Don't delay! Get your copy today!

Kindle     Nook     Kobo     iBooks