Page Turning Books

What is your greatest strength as a writer? I think that I write really intriguing plots with lots of twists and turns and a tangled web that pulls the reader in and keeps them turning the pages, wanting to know what happens next.

Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it? Not really. If I’m ever writing and I don’t think something is working than I get up, walk away from it, mull it over and then come back to the story. This is usually very short term. I am finding with writing Deceitful Truths that it is a little more challenging. I have never written a sequel before and I have found it rather difficult to sort out the story with making it fresh and new but keeping some of the characters and settings from the first book, Captured Lies. I think I have it sorted out now but it was a different challenge for me.

Can you share a little of your current work with us? Tainted Waters

He didn’t commit suicide but who’s going to believe her…

Frustrated at being fired from her latest job and overwhelmed by her consolatory family, Sam decides to move to the family’s cabin at the lake. A place she hasn’t been since her dad committed suicide there twenty years before. Or did he? Snooping is something she’s good at but someone seems to be taking offence to her looking too closely at what has been happening at the lake. What she discovers is shocking. Now she must uncover what’s real and what’s not.

All that she learned growing up, may be false. Keegan who has recently moved to the area to finish his latest book is also trying to find out if his grandfather, who’d passed away ten years before, died of natural causes or was murdered? The descendants of the four families who own the land around the lagoon are dying off. Since Sam and Keegan are the only ones questioning the deaths, they find themselves working together to seek the truth.

Are people being murdered? Who would benefit from their deaths? Why would there be barricades and armed guards at the north end of the lake? To stay alive, Sam and Keegan must find the answers and convince others, before more people are killed… including them.

How did you come up with the title? I always come up with a working title, so that I have a name to call it but I know it won’t be my final title (not usually anyway). Once I was done Tainted Waters I started to play around with the name. I wanted something that had to do with water as a lot of the story is based around a lake and there is bad things happening there. After tossing out several names I finally came up with Tainted Waters. Then I sent it out to my critique group to see if it grabbed them.

Can you tell us about your main character? Sam is a kind of fly by the seat of your pants person. She is a bit rough around the edges. She does what she wants and when she wants without too much regard for others. Then she meets Keegan who is pretty easy going. She gives him wings and he gives her stability and a strong shoulder. In discovering what is going on at the lake, she learns that her dad didn’t commit suicide which really throws her but helps her to realize that she is going to have to do things a bit differently if she is going to solve his murder as well as a few others.

How did you develop your plot and characters? I have a lot of fun with characters. I like to play with a scene until it’s clear to me and is gripping and compelling and then I’ll figure out who those characters are. What is their name, physical attributes, their personalities and then I get into who they really are and why. I get a clear idea of who they are, what they do, why they do what they do. Often I will interview my characters so that I know them so well that you, as the reader, feel like you know them. Now every now and then a character will just come to me and will enter a story as I’m writing. As for the plot, I usually play around with it a lot before I ever put anything down on paper. Then after I get started I still do that. I run several scenarios through my mind as to what works and what doesn’t, then I write, then I plot, then I write….

Who designed the cover? Digital Donna designed the cover for this book, Tainted Waters and for my first book, Captured Lies. I think she did an amazing job.

Who is your publisher? I’m self published, so me .

Why did you choose to write this particular book? I’ve always been fascinated by people who have a cabin at the lake and who go there every weekend over the summer. I’m not one of those people although there are a few lakes that I like to go to swim and/or camp. Once though we went to a lake that was little more than a slough but it got me to thinking about all the sinister things that could go on at a lake that was remote and didn’t have much traffic to it. So if it was an out of the way place, who might go there, what might they be hiding, what might they use the area for?

What was the hardest part about writing this book? For this book, Tainted Waters, it was finishing it. I’m not sure why that was. Some I know was because of all that I had been doing with Captured Lies which had just been published was taking up a lot of my time but I just couldn’t seem to get myself planted in my chair to write the last ten chapters. I finally did though.

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it? That I love writing. That I really could write another suspense novel. It’s funny when I start writing a new novel I always wonder how am I going to get to 80,000 words. And then when I get to over 100,000 I think, okay now I have to cut some.

How do you promote this book? I am and will be doing a number of things. I have asked for reviews from bloggers. I am doing this book tour through Orangeberry Book Tours (thank you for the great job at organizing this). I have been invited to go back on a radio show (LA Radio – Two Talk Books with Starla Faye) that I did for Captured Lies, I am contacting the local media, I have bookmarks, I do guest blogging and I host book tours on my blog www.maggiethom.com

Will you write others in this same genre? Yes. Captured Lies was published October 2012. Deceitful Truths which is the sequel to Captured Lies will be published Fall of 2013. I also have another book outlined and some ideas written but I have no title yet. I plan to write many more suspense stories.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? There are several but I think one that has stuck with me is that family secrets are more harmful than they are good. When people think they are doing something good or are protecting someone else by not telling them the truth, it can come back in a big way to mess with their lives.

He didn’t commit suicide but who’s going to believe her…

Frustrated at being fired from her latest job and overwhelmed by her consolatory family, Sam decides to move to the family’s cabin at the lake. A place she hasn’t been since her dad committed suicide there twenty years before. Or did he? Snooping is something she’s good at but someone seems to be taking offence to her looking too closely at what has been happening at the lake. What she discovers is shocking. Now she must uncover what’s real and what’s not.

All that she learned growing up, may be false. Keegan, who has recently moved to the area, to finish his latest book is also trying to find out if his grandfather, who’d passed away ten years before, died of natural causes or was murdered? The descendants of the four families who own the land around the lagoon are dying off. Since Sam and Keegan are the only ones questioning the deaths, they find themselves working together to seek the truth.

Are people being murdered? Who would benefit from their deaths? Why would there be barricades and armed guards at the north end of the lake? To stay alive, Sam and Keegan must find the answers and convince others, before more people are killed… including them.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Suspense

Rating – PG13

Connect with Maggie Thom on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.maggiethom.com/

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