Fabulous Guest Post by Lois Winston - Rules? Who Needs Rules?

Rules? Who Needs Rules?
Once upon a time there were very strict “rules” to writing genre fiction. Certain plots, characters, settings, language, etc. were allowed; others were huge no-no’s. For example, when I first started writing romance, no romance editor would consider an athlete hero. Then Susan Elizabeth Phillips came along and had huge success with her football heroes. Rachel Gibson followed with her hockey-playing heroes, and all of a sudden it was okay to have athlete heroes. A rule is only a rule until someone has a breakout success after breaking that rule. Fiction is loaded with rule breakers who were once rejected but have since gone on to have great success.
I started out writing romance. Several years ago, at the suggestion of my agent, I switched to writing a cozy mystery series, The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. The cozy mystery genre began with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books. As the genre grew, publishers took their cue from Dame Agatha, setting up rules for the genre: no graphic violence, no foul language, no killing of children or animals, no romance, and positively no sex. The books also needed to be set in a small town or village where everyone knew everyone else. Think Jessica Fletcher in Cabot Cove, Maine.
However, as the genre inched toward the dawn of the twenty-first century, many authors began bending some of these rules. Spurred on by the success of both Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series (considered a caper, not a cozy) and the popularity of chick lit in the late 90’s, mystery authors began putting a modern day spin to the cozy, moving their female sleuths to the city and allowing them a love interest. Thus was born a new genre—the amateur sleuth.
Because I’m a Jersey girl, the traditional cozy tropes weren’t going to work for me. I’m a city girl (although currently exiled to the suburbs.) I don’t do quaint little towns in the middle of Maine or Vermont. I also believe in tailoring dialogue to the character. My Mafia loan shark isn’t going to say, “Gosh darn it!” His language is going to be more colorful—or off-color. My heroine’s teenage sons might occasionally use a word their mother would rather they didn’t. Boys will be boys, and I want my characters to be as real as possible.
And then there’s the romance. I’ve dumped a lot on my poor heroine. The series opens in Book One, Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun , with Anastasia learning her recently deceased husband had a longstanding affair with Lady Luck. He’s left her in debt up the wazoo and a loan shark demanding repayment of his sizeable debt. She’s also stuck with her annoying and belligerent communist mother-in-law. And all this before she stumbles over her first dead body and is compelled to turn amateur sleuth to prove her innocence.
With all that going on in her life, I had to give Anastasia something to make life worth living, didn’t I? Enter photojournalist (and possible spy) Zachary Barnes. Anastasia rents the apartment above her garage, which she had been using as a studio, to him. From the very beginning their hormones start tap dancing around each other.

I’ve recently released A Stitch to Die For , Book Five in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Each book has seen the relationship between Anastasia and Zack progress. I’m still closing the bedroom door because I don’t want to alienate my core readership, but as the series continues and times and tastes change, you never know what may happen next.
A Stitch to Die ForEver since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.
A Stitch to Die For is available in paperback and as an ebook.  


Buy LinksPaperback http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1940795303/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1940795303&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=LBEMP6U7TVMCBQMT
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010M9U5Q2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B010M9U5Q2&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=ZRX4XIA2N5VX6ARK
Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-stitch-to-die-for-lois-winston/1122259040?ean=2940150965928
iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-stitch-to-die-for/id1014678389?mt=11
Kobohttps://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/a-stitch-to-die-for
Google Playhttps://play.google.com/store/books/details/Lois_Winston_A_Stitch_to_Die_For?id=XZEbCgAAQBAJ&hl=en
BioUSA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and non-fiction 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 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. Visit Lois/Emma at www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Tsu at www.tsu.co/loiswinston, on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/anasleuth, and onTwitter @anasleuth. Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.MyAuthorBiz.com/ENewsletter.php?acct=LW2467152513






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