Guest Blogger Maggie Thom, author of Captured Lies

Maggie Thom made the hard decision to leave her successful, twenty year career in management, to write full time. The leap was easy, the freefall was adventurous and very enlightening. When she’s not running her children around or spending time with her best friend, her husband, she’s writing – anywhere, anytime. Give her five free minutes and you’ll find her busy scribbling down ideas. She lives in the real world but loves to get lost in the lives of her characters – who live, love and laugh and are all figments of her imagination. She is thrilled to release her first novel – Captured Lies – filled with suspense, murder, mystery and romance – available October 2012. She is busy writing her second novel to be released, spring of 2013.

And now for her post:

Stories have always fascinated me. I love being taken on a journey, it can be real, mythical, outrageous, I don’t mind as long as it takes me somewhere. I know when I was a child I read a lot. We always had books in our house and we used the library a number of times. I remember once, I was reading a Dr. Seuss book, Cat in the Hat, I think, I liked it so much I cut the words out of the book. Needless to say my mother wasn’t amused.

Reading was a big part of my life and at some point I began to write stories. I never showed them to anyone, they were just for me. When I was about ten, I was going to write the smallest book about a knight who charged in, only to have the princess save him. And when I mean small, I was writing it on yellow paper, which had been a pad that I cut it up to 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch squares. When I was in my twenties I found some of it, I ended up throwing it out. I’m not sure it made much sense.

When I was in university, I started to write poetry. Some I shared which I got really good feedback to, but since I knew the people, I didn’t believe that anyone beyond them would be interested in what I wrote. After I graduated, I was too busy with a career for several years. Then one spring we moved, and I found myself unemployed, so I started to write again. I hand wrote a 90,000 word romance. I then typed it up, although somewhere along the way, it has gotten lost. From there I continued to write for myself. At one point though and with encouragement from my husband, I decided to work at improving my writing. I wanted to write for kids, so I wrote some children’s stories. Then a couple of young adult novels and then back to writing romance. Somewhere during this time I joined a writer’s group and started to expand my writing skills. I took writing courses and started to pay attention to the books I was reading. How the stories were put together. What made them good. And I started to read about plotting, stories, anything that would help me craft better novels.

Captured Lies was my first venture away from romance. I had always enjoyed a good romance and for some reason thought that was how you became a well known writer, if you were female. Not sure why, except Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown did it and I guess they were writer’s I wanted to emulate. I loved reading science fiction but didn’t think I had it in me to create whole other worlds, so I steered clear of that.

At some point, I decided I wanted to write something with more to it than just romance. I wanted it to be a novel with all the elements – to mainly be a suspense but with murder, mystery and some romance. So when the idea came to me for this book, Captured Lies, I really focused on making it a deeper story.

I have always been interested and saddened when I hear someone is kidnapped, especially when it is by their own family. I’ve heard of kids growing up with one identity only to discover they are truly someone else. I can’t imagine what that would be like. So to find out, I created Bailey’s story around that premise. What if she had been kidnapped but not just once, twice? Might as well make it really hard for her to find her roots. How would she hear that she wasn’t who she thought she was? How would she solve that mystery? The plane crash part, came about because a plane flew over us on its way to the airport. It was flying lower than usual and it just got me to thinking, what if it crashed? What if someone survived it? What if a baby survived? What if there was no record of that baby? How would they trace who it is? What if that baby was taken from the crash and given a whole new name? The two ideas along with several others kind of melded together. Captured Lies was the result.

I didn’t do much with the book for a couple of years. It just sat. Which bothered me to no end. The book meant a lot to me but I wasn’t sure if it was just because of all I had gone through at that time or if it was really good. So I asked several people to read it and give me their feedback. With encouragement from several people, I started the journey to publish it.

The journey has been long but very rewarding, which I would never have known had I not conquered my fears and stepped out. What has compelled you to move beyond your fears?

Now… more about Captured Lies…

BLURB:

She was kidnapped not once but twice and now someone wants her dead because of it….

Her life was a lie!

Bailey knew her upbringing wasn’t normal but she’s worked hard to stabilize her life. At 29, she finally has a good business, a stable home; her life is miles from that of her childhood. Then suddenly her mother dies, leaving a gaping hole and a discovery that they may not even be related. If Guy, the private investigator is to be believed, her life is a lie. Using the skills she learned on the streets, Bailey travels back through a sketchy and dangerous past, to find answers. Dodging bullets, staying ahead of those who want her dead and convincing Guy she can do it alone, are making it difficult to discover not only the secrets of her mother’s past but that of a family claiming she is theirs.

Everyone seems to have a story… but who’s telling the truth? And who wants her dead? Is Guy part of the solution? Or part of the problem? To discover the facts, she’ll have to untangle a web of deceit, lies, and secrets, dating back over thirty years.

But can she do it in time…..

EXCERPT:

“I don’t know what to say. She’s the only single thing that was constant in my life. We moved a lot. She was paranoid about everything. I assumed for a long time that it was just being a parent but other parents weren’t like her. She’d come and get me in the middle of the day, from school and I’d never see it again. Sometimes, it would be in the middle of the night.” She stood up and went over to her bed, flipping back the covers, she pulled out the tattered Miss Piggy.

“I cried for a month when I thought I’d lost her. My mom told me to get used to it. I’d lose lots in my life. Why? Why did I have to give up everything?” Her voice became thick with emotion. She hugged the doll to her chest. “There were only two things I ever asked for in my life – this,” she held up her doll, “and a home.”

“You know I was such a good kid. I did everything she ever asked of me. I was loyal to a fault. I did every scheme. Everything she wanted. And what the hell did I get in return.” She jumped up and started pacing.

“What do you mean by schemes?”

“Oh my god. My mom was a master at getting what she wanted from people. I’d play nice to old men and they’d give me money.”

His hand fisted around the cup. “What does playing nice mean?”

Links:

http://www.maggiethom.com

http://www.facebook.com/authormaggiethom

http://www.twitter.com/authormaggiethom2

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6549592.Maggie_Thom

Book is currently available through:

Amazon – http://tinyurl.com/cp2go24

Kobo – http://tinyurl.com/dxs82ld