Guest Lois Winston

Edith/Maddie, loving that June is busting out all over north of Boston.

I’m happy to welcome Lois Winston to the blog, whose thirteenth Anastasia Pollack mystery is out!

Here’s the blurb: Magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack may finally be able to pay off the remaining debt she found herself saddled with when her duplicitous first husband dropped dead in a Las Vegas casino. But as Anastasia has discovered, nothing in her life is ever straightforward. Strings are always attached. Thanks to the success of an unauthorized true crime podcast, a television production company wants to option her life—warts and all—as a reluctant amateur sleuth.

Is such exposure worth a clean financial slate? Anastasia isn’t sure, but at the same time, rumors are flying about layoffs at the office. Whether she wants national exposure or not, Anastasia may be forced to sign on the dotted line to keep from standing in the unemployment line. But the dead bodies keep coming, and they’re not in the script. Craft tips included.

Thirteen and Counting

Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, recently released. It’s a bit mind-boggling to me. Unlike many mystery authors, I didn’t grow up reading Nancy Drew and dreaming of becoming an author—of any genre. And yet, here I am, already mulling over plots for the next book in the series.

I began my writing career after having a dream that wouldn’t go away. I finally decided to commit it to paper. When I’d finished, I thought I’d written the Great American Novel. I quickly learned no one in the publishing industry shared my opinion.

After countless writing workshops, networking, and revisions, I eventually learned how to write right and even secured an agent. Ten years, nearly to the day I’d started writing the not-so-great American novel, my first book sold. Talk Gertie to Me was humorous women’s fiction. After that came Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, my multi-revised first attempt. It had morphed from a 50,000-word romance that spanned thirty-five years to a 90,000-word romantic suspense that took place over a few months.

Then, one day I received a phone call that changed my life. My agent had learned that an editor was looking for a crafting-themed cozy mystery series, and she thought I’d be the perfect person to write one. In my day job I freelanced as a crafts designer for kit manufacturers, crafts and women’s magazines, and craft book publishers. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, currently at thirteen novels and three novellas.

I’m someone who likes to take risks in my writing. So instead of creating an amateur sleuth who is a crafter or shop owner, as is the case in many other crafting-themed cozy series, I wanted to come up with something different. So, I channeled my own experiences and made Anastasia the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. That way, I could feature a different craft in each book, another break from other crafting cozies, which generally feature only one craft.

As the series has progressed, I’ve also occasionally introduced new characters. Not all of them appear in each book. They come and go, depending on the plot. In some books they play a minor role. In others, a major role. Sometimes they’re only mentioned in passing or not at all. In Sorry, Knot Sorry, the detective I introduced in Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, plays a major role in the story.

Poor Detective Spader is dealing with budgetary constraints and staffing shortages. Over the course of the series, his initial adversarial relationship with Anastasia has morphed into one of respect and appreciation for the way she often sees things others miss. Reluctantly, he asks for her help in solving a baffling murder with few clues.

Readers: Is there a series you read where you’ve enjoyed a character who’s made an appearance in one book and wish the author would bring that character back? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook of one of the first nine books in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

To find Buy Links and more info about Sorry, Knot Sorry, click here .

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.