Maggie Thom's Blog, page 3

She opened her eyes...

8 days to publication of Deceitful Truths...

Does It Have to Be Perfect?

When we put something out for the first time, we are so concerned with it being just right. With everything being as it should be. The way we've been taught... trained... We are so concerned about what others think. Yet when we were children it was okay to just try, it didn't matter the outcome. It didn't matter what others thought because more often than not we would be encouraged. It was that we were doing it and it would get better with time. Or at least I think that's what the hope was.

So now the question is, what is perfect? Everyone has a different definition of what this means. And to be honest it can become an excuse not to move forward. I know because I used it a lot. I mean my stuff couldn't be perfect... because I can't write like authors like Sandra Brown, Robert Ludlum... because others were giving me suggestions of what they thought should be in there... just because... So to translate, that meant something had to be wrong with it... it couldn't be worthy of others.

There is no such thing as perfect. I know I've read books by authors I love and sometimes they get it right and sometimes they don't, at least for me. Yet someone else will love what they've put out there. The point is that they didn't wait for perfect, they published it.


Perfect is a myth. There is a point where I had a decision to make, take the leap or keep wishing and wanting. To get really good at something, we have to step into it... try it... learn it... grow with it. Because we learn by doing, not by thinking about something but by actually doing it. We really have no idea until we get into something what it's really about or how it will be received.

Here's what I've learned: I love what I'm doing; what I write isn't for everyone; I do put in a lot of time to make sure that what I write makes sense, flows, doesn't have plot holes... but here's the kicker... none of it's perfect. It sure isn't in my eyes, anyway. Every time I open one of my stories, Captured Lies, Tainted Waters, Deceitful Truths or any of the new ones I'm writing, I always think or see a better way of telling it. But at some point I had to stop doing that and decide that it was good, that it was okay to put it out there

In fact, don't tell anyone but I really like my stories. There are things that I would and do differently each time I write but I actually quite enjoy creating them and reading them. Because I read a lot and because I put a lot of time into planning out and plotting my stories, I know I've put my best effort into them. And if I like reading them, I'm sure there has to be at least one other person who does. :) Thankfully, I have found many who really love what I write.

So for anyone who is thinking of starting a new adventure in life, want to follow your dreams, jump into it - just make sure its for the right reasons and for you. I know when I leapt into publishing Captured Lies, I had no clue what I was doing or getting into. I know that if I'd waited any longer for things to be perfect I'd never have done it. And believe me that took a long time to get there but I now wouldn't have two well-received published novels with a third one out soon.

My advice... leap. You never know what's on the other side until you try it. While there truly is no such thing as perfect... you will grow into better.

An aside: a good example of perfect, as I'm writing I put leapt which wordpress didn't like so I had to look it up. I was worried that I had forgotten how to spell and wondering if that really was a word. Yes it's a word and yes it's spelled correctly. The English language continues to change (and baffle me) and with all the different countries claiming ownership as to what's correct and not, there is no way you'll get it right for everyone. :) So do it for you.

Original Post: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-yy

Tainted Waters won 2013 Book of the Year

Tainted Waters won Book of the Year in two Categories - Suspense and Thriller.





You guys are so awesome. Tainted Waters won Book of the Year in two categories – Suspense and Thriller. Yay! I don’t think my feet have touched ground since I found out. Thank you to everyone who voted for Tainted Waters, you truly helped to make my dreams come true. Thank you to Turning the Pages Magazine for hosting the event. Check out all the winners here: http://on.fb.me/19vFHgs

Writing is really a solitary venture. You need the time and space to be able to shut out everything else so that you can concentrate on figuring out your story and getting to know your characters. However it is something that really needs the support of others. They say it takes a village to raise a child well it takes a village to get a book not only published but discovered in this vast world. So thank you to my family, my friends, my beta readers, my critiquers, my editors, my writing partners, my readers, my reviewers, my connections, my fellow bloggers, my fellow authors, my blog tour organizers and hosts, and my online social media friends. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you.

Originally posted here: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-PB

Tainted Waters Nominated for Book of the Year

Hi. I just wanted to let you know that Tainted Waters has been nominated for Book of the Year at Turning the Pages Books. Yay! Whoohoo as I do my little happy dance – it might not be pretty but it’s fun. :)

Anyway now I need your votes. Here is the link http://bit.ly/1bOLKlD

The books are in alphabetical order, so if you scroll down, way down, you’ll find Tainted Waters. Once you click on it, scroll to the bottom and click continue. It will then take you to a second page and you can vote on it by category. The three categories that Tainted Waters is up for are:

Romance

Suspense

Thriller

Just click on Tainted Waters under one, two or all three categories (you can vote under all three of the categories) and then click on continue. Again the books are listed in alphabetical order under each category (which are also listed in alphabetical order). And you’re done.

Thank you for helping me and being a part of my journey. Big hugs for your support.

If you haven’t stopped by Turning the Pages before, here’s there website: http://www.turningthepagesbooks.blogs...

They put out a couple of really good magazines. Worth checking out.

Deceitful Truths Cover Reveal

Hi. I'm doing a cover reveal today for Deceitful Truths, organized by Girls Heart Book Tours.



Blurb-
He created a legacy that no one could imagine...
Tarin has lost a week of her life. She doesn't know what happened but not long after she returns to work she is suspended from her job. Confused and pregnant, she quits and agrees to marry Stephen, only to be thrown into a whole new nightmare. Desperate, she grabs her son and moves across the country to get away from her abusive husband and to avoid her unforgiving father. Thrilled at getting the job at Knights Associates, where she'll help them solve cyber crimes but also be able to use their connections and resources to find her own answers. Who stole a week of her life? And will they return to steal the secret she is now protecting?
Graham and his partner Guy, can't keep up with the demand. They are being flooded with requests at Knights Associates, where they offer a combined service of private investigator and that of solving cyber crimes. It appears that someone wants to get their attention as not only have they been hacked but Guy's family business, Caspian Winery, seems to be under attack as well. Hiring an assistant seems to be the answer but when Graham discovers she's been accessing their high-security accounts, he realizes the cause of their predicament might be closer then he thought. Is there new assistant behind the problems they're having? If she's so innocent why does someone want to abduct her?
Tarin and Graham discover that although they don't trust each other, they are forced to work together to solve several seemingly unrelated crimes that may lead to one disastrous conclusion. Can they figure it all out before Tarin's nightmare plays out? An eighty year old woman pays with her life? Or before Tarin learns a truth that may seal her fate and be the one secret that will keep her and Graham apart as neither one of them may be able to forgive or forget...
(Standalone but is a Sequel/Companion Novel to Captured Lies)

What do you think of the cover?
Originally posted here: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-MU

The Journey Across Canada Continues - Toronto Ontario

Last week in Captured Lies, Bailey and Guy were in Edmonton hoping to gain some answers only to find that one of the men trying to kill them, darn near succeeded. Now faced with a tough choice, Bailey decides to trust Guy and agrees to head east to Ontario with him. The really scary part for her is that if he is telling her the truth, she’ll meet her family for the first time in almost thirty years. Can you imagine how scary that would be?

Something I didn’t mention last week was that Edmonton is the capital of Alberta. There will be a quiz at the end of all these postings. :)

Bailey and Guy have now boarded a plane at the Edmonton International Airport and are headed to Toronto. In 2012, Toronto Pearson International Airport handled 35,000,000 people. Wow that’s a few. Ironically, my daughter was even one of them. (http://www.torontoairport.com/)

In comparison the Edmonton International Airport handled 6.3 million in 2012. Ironically my daughter was one of them as well. (http://airport-edmonton.com/) The Edmonton Airport is currently undergoing some massive building and restructuring so I’m sure that number will go up this year. I love what airports do for us, allowing us to fly wherever our heart desires but they are something to navigate, aren’t they?

The real name of the Toronto Airport is the Lester B Pearson International Airport, which it was name after our 14th Prime Minister. (http://www.toronto-airport.info/)

(http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=p...)

They land at Toronto Pearson International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Canada. Not long after Bailey and Guy land there, Guy is busy talking with his private investigative partner from Knights Associates. While they’re talking, Bailey is grabbed from behind and is being forced at knife point to go with the man. Quick thinking on her part, creates some chaos but allows her to get away and to catch up to Guy and Graham. They immediately leave but realize they aren’t as safe as they had thought they’d be.

Toronto has been around since the ice age. Okay, well it wasn’t called that back then but they do say that people have lived there since just after that period of time. So it’s a little old. The urban community only dates back to 1793 when the British colony of ‘Town of York’ was settled. It became the city of Toronto in 1834. Today Toronto is the largest urban center in Canada and is the capital of Ontario. (http://www.toronto.ca/toronto_history/)

Gorgeous picture hey?

(http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=p...)
Next week, I’ll talk more about Ontario as the finale for Captured Lies occurs about an hour outside of Toronto in wine country.

If you’ve missed any of the Journey Across Canada so far, click here:

Calgary http://wp.me/p2ydBl-D1

Jasper http://wp.me/p2ydBl-D9

Valemount http://wp.me/p2ydBl-Fo

Edmonton http://wp.me/p2ydBl-Gc

Originally posted here: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-Hq

Journey Across Canada Through Captured Lies - Edmonton, Alberta

Last week you visited Valemount, BC, a beautiful hidden Canadian gem.

In Captured Lies, Bailey and Guy have had to leave there really fast as the bad guy has found them and is intent on killing them.

So Guy and Bailey head to Edmonton, another place that Bailey had lived as a child. I'm not sure I mentioned this before but Bailey lived on the streets and on the run with her mom. Bailey never really knew why just that sometimes her mom would come and pull her from school in the middle of the day and she'd never see it or the friends, if she'd made any, ever again. By returning to Edmonton Bailey is hoping to find some answers maybe by tracking down some of the people that she remembers. She knows the odds are pretty remote that any of them are alive.

So how did Edmonton come to be? In 1795, the Hudson Bay Company built a fort on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River, which was name Fort Edmonton. It is suggested that it was named that after Sir James Winter Lake, the deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company who came from Edmonton, in Middlesex, England.

The fort was known for trading, dispatching brigades to remote outposts, planting food and grain crops in the spring, harvesting them in the fall, and hunting and fishing to obtain meat for the fort's inhabitants. In the 1840s, with the arrival of Methodist and Catholic missionaries, things slowly changed. The Methodists built a church outside of the fort walls in 1870 and started really the city of Edmonton.

With the gold rush in the 1890's many people stopped in Edmonton on their way north. Then the railway arrived in 1902, providing an easier means of travel to the remote area. The biggest change happened in 1947 when black crude oil (or as some called it black gold) was discovered just southwest of Edmonton near Leduc, the city benefited greatly and grew exponentially after that...
Continue reading: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-Gc

Introducing you to Deceitful Truths

Chapter One

She opened her eyes. Or at least she thought she had. That was her intention. But everything was black. Maybe it was still dark out. She tried again. This time there was a fuzzy blur… a shadow… a stray bit of light… and a voice. But as quick as it all came, it left.

Sometime later she became aware of sounds and sensations. Everything was still dark. She had no sense of who she was or where she was. There was a sensation of being but not of knowing anything else. It was just blank. Something brushed over her body; it was light, delicate really but something she had no real idea as to what it was or where it was coming from. She recoiled inside, pulling back, trying to shrink more into the deep, dark hole that seemed to be her companion. Fear was like a living, breathing monster wrapping her in its cloak; capturing her in a web she felt helpless to get out of.

A very distant part of her brain screamed at her, to get the hell away… to move… to do something… but it was so far away, so faint. She could feel the desperation but could barely grasp what it was telling her to do… or why. She tried to wade through the enveloping darkness to reach it. But she couldn’t move. She was trapped in a tiny black cave with nowhere to go… nowhere to hide… with nothing to see. The panic which had been so remote a moment ago was suddenly all there was. The harder she fought it, the more she fell down the dark well. She had no sensation of self, no meaning of who she was. There was heaviness but she didn’t know anything beyond the little gloomy hole that she seemed to inhabit.

She made a sound. Or at least she thought it came from her but when she couldn’t repeat it, she wasn’t sure. Something moved, maybe even touched her. She couldn’t be certain. There was a tiny sense of pain but then it receded, taking the anxiousness with it… and then there was nothing.
Sounds filtered into her little world.

“Now… do it.”

“She’s…”

Only snippets of their words drifted into her consciousness. She wanted to ask what the two men were talking about. Who they were talking about? And where was she? Who she was?

She felt a gentle breeze waft over her, a strange sensation like it wasn’t happening to her. She wanted to call out but remembered that the last time she’d made a sound or tried to, everything had disappeared. This time she kept quiet. She waited. Slowly more things started to come to her.

She was laying spread eagled on a bed. At least that was her assumption as it was something soft and cushiony, anyway and she felt exposed. Cool air brushed over her skin...
Continue to read... http://wp.me/p2ydBl-H8

Journey Across Canada through Captured Lies - Valemount, BC

In the journey across Canada through my first suspense novel, Captured Lies, you leave Jasper, Alberta and head to Valemount, BC. It is a small secluded place but is incredibly beautiful, nestled between the Rocky Mountains, the Monashee Mountains and the Cariboo Mountains. It is a popular place for summer or winter outdoor activities – hiking, fishing, snowmobiling, heliskiing, whitewater rafting – some of the popular adventures and reasons people visit.

Valemount was really discovered in the mid 1800′s, when people were passing through going from Ontario to the Cariboo Gold Fields. Once the railway made its way through the area in the early 1900′s, Valemount became a railway station in 1928. Today there are over 1000 residents who call it home. (To learn more: http://www.valemount.ca/History.htm and/or http://www.valemount.ca/Infos.htm)

So in Captured Lies, Bailey really has no idea why she has to go there she just knows that there is some answers. She is using her vague memory of when she was five and some clues her deceased mom left her. Guy and Bailey stop at a gas station right on the highway outside of Valemount and that is when Bailey takes off. Guy follows her to an old, abandoned Cabin. It is there that she finds a few clues from her past. It is also where one of the men trying to kill her catch up to her.

I had the pleasure of spending a summer there many years ago with my family. We rented a cabin a few kilometers from Valemount. We were lucky enough to be there for the Salmon run. Now that is something to see. Where you see all the splashes in this picture are the salmon. I’ve never seen so many...

Continue reading... http://wp.me/p2ydBl-Fo

The Journey Across Canada Continues - Japser Alberta

I started to introduce you to where you travel in Canada in my suspense novel, Captured Lies. Last week, we started in Calgary, which is essentially where the story really gets going. Bailey and Guy leave Calgary at night, as they are being chased by a man who is intent on killing Bailey. Only she has no idea why. She is trying to travel back in time to places that her and her recently deceased mother, lived when she was a child. As they moved a lot and usually on the street it was really tough for Bailey to figure out where she needed to travel to, to get answers.

She heads to Jasper but her goal is really Valemount, BC. (we'll visit her next week).

Jasper, Alberta is one of the most beautiful places in Canada. I love the mountains so I might be a bit biased but it is absolutely stunning. The first recorded visit to the area was that of David Thompson ( a great name if I do say so - my maiden name - no I don't think he's related), in 1810. In 1813, The Northwest Company built a settlement which became known as Jasper House, which was then abandoned in 1884. In the early 1900's the government established Jasper Forest Park which became Jasper National Park in 1930 (http://jasper-alberta.com/default.asp...).

In Captured Lies, you take a drive up Highway 93 to Jasper, sadly they do it at night so they miss...

Click here: http://wp.me/p2ydBl-D9