Today you all get to spend some time with author Maggie Thom.
The Right to Write Different ~ By Maggie Thom
I think the goal of every author, well besides being published and making lots of money J, is that their books, their stories are different. It almost seems impossible to think that with the millions and billions of books out there that an author really could make their writing different but I truly believe they can. I think every author has a unique voice but it's whether they truly find it or not.
Writing really is an interesting process, you string words together and hope that how you string them together is different than how the next writer/author does it. Not all that easy when you think about it. I mean really with a billion books and untold stories out there you have to come up with a unique way of saying it. Is that truly possible?
I believe it is. I think the best compliment I've received as a writer and an author is 'your stories are unique', 'your stories aren't cookie cutter', 'you write different', 'I've never read anything like your book'... To me that means the hard work I put in to writing different stories and having a different voice is working.
Probably the best advice that I can give to another writer/author is to practice with several different types of stories and genres. Test yourself as to what you truly do like to write and how you write. When I decided in the '90's that I was going to get serious about my writing, I thought I wanted to write for kids. So I did. Then I thought I wanted to write young adult stories. So again I wrote some stories. Then I thought I'd write the type of stories that I was reading at the time, romances. Then I discovered my really true love, reading and writing suspense/thrillers. Now that got me excited and challenged me in that I wanted my stories to be true to me, to be interesting, to be compelling... so what did I do to get there?
The truth is that writing in all of the other genres, showed me a different side to writing, a different depth because I had to use very different language and words depending on my audience. That really helped me to understand a lot more the impact my writing had on readers. It also forced me to really get to know my setting, the language I used, how I put the words together and my characters. And I had to get to know them through the eyes of my readers. If I'm writing for an eight year old and I don't have that character acting like an eight year old expects, the setting how they would see it or the words ones they understand, then I've lost them. If I'm writing for an adult, the characters have to be identifiable, the story has to have depth, the setting has to be believable and it all has to be something they can connect with. It really helped me to pay more attention not only to the story I was writing but how I was writing it, how I was putting my words together, who the people were that were in my stories and to find my voice to tell it. I really started looking at what I liked, what appealed to me and I added that in with keeping in mind what the reader, me, wanted.
So whether you're writing for a child, a teenager or an adult, the language used, the setting and the depth of the characters, matter. And how you string your words together really does make a difference. As a writer it is now your job to find your words, your voice that will convey that to the reader... in a way that is compelling. Not only do you have the right to write different but I think it will bring a new passion to your writing.
What do you find makes your writing different?
Award winning author, Maggie Thom, took the challenge and leapt off, leaving a fulltime, twenty year career in management, to write full time. After publishing her first suspense/thriller book Captured Lies, October 2012, she published her second novel, Tainted Waters, April, 2013. Tainted Waters went on to win 2013 Suspense and Thriller Book of the Year through Turning the Pages Magazine and Captured Lies won book of the Month through LAS Reviews (February 2014). She published her third novel, Deceitful Truths (The Caspian Wine Series - Book 2), March 2014. An avid reader and writer her whole life, she decided to break the monotony of wishing to be an author by making it happen. She is a wholehearted nature lover and likes nothing better than to take a book, hike to a remote spot by a river or waterfalls and read. Married to her best friend, she is learning that humor, love and patience help her navigate her way through her twins’ teen years. Her motto: Escape to read and Read to escape. "Maggie Thom writes a fast paced thriller laced with romance that keeps the reader interested and on edge!" InDtale Magazine
Suspense/Thriller
Date Published: April 2013
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 offense 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.
Book of the Year 2013 - Suspense and Thriller Turning the Pages Magazine
And now, enter the tour wide giveaway!
