Lois Winston’s twelfth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, A Crafty Collage of Crime, will be released on Friday, June 16. She took time from her pre-publication schedule to talk about writing. Thank you, Lois.

My Two Families

By Lois Winston

I’m often asked why I began writing. The short answer is that twenty-eight years ago I had a dream that kept repeating each night, unfolding like the chapters of a book. Since I rarely remembered my dreams and because this one contained no one I knew, I finally decided to write it down. A few weeks later, I had a 50,000-word romance. Fast forward ten years, and after many rewrites, that manuscript had morphed into a 90,000-word romantic suspense that became the second book I sold.

I don’t necessarily believe that everything happens for a reason, and I’m not someone who goes through life wearing rose-colored glasses. I see the glass neither half-empty nor half-full. I just see half a glass. I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I think of myself as a pragmatist.

However, looking back, I think that dream was my subconscious mind providing me with an escape valve. I was going through an emotionally unhappy time, mostly precipitated by my mother-in-law, a truly nasty woman. Escaping into someone else’s world—one where I had total control of the outcome—was exactly what I needed, whether I realized it or not. I had never been someone who dreamed of becoming an author, but suddenly I couldn’t stop writing. Losing myself in plots and characters became my therapy.

Eventually, I segued from writing romantic suspense and angst-filled romance to writing chick lit. Thanks to a suggestion from my agent, I then began writing humorous cozy mysteries. My Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series debuted in 2011 with Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun. The twelfth book in the series, A Crafty Collage of Crime, is my newest release. There are also three connecting novellas.

At this point, I’ve spent so much time with Anastasia and her family that they’ve become my second family. Unlike real families, though, authors have complete control over their fictional families. In my books, no matter the murder and mayhem, there’s always a resolution that will leave readers satisfied and happy. After all, happily-ever-afters should never be limited only to romances.

I think that’s why readers love cozy mysteries. They know that by the last page, the amateur sleuth will prevail, and all will once again be right with the world—at least until the next book when the intrepid sleuth will once again stumble across another dead body, and the cycle will repeat.

However, I take my series a step further in that I’ve made it a humorous cozy mystery series. Why? Because we all need to laugh more, especially in today’s world. There’s quite a bit of truth in that old adage about laughter being the best medicine. Laughing releases endorphins, and endorphins are the body’s way of making us feel better. I prefer to send my readers to bed each night with a chuckle rather than repeatedly checking all the locks on their windows and doors!

Humor is subjective, though, and I know not every reader will find my books funny. However, enough have, and that’s fine by me. I know I can never please everyone. After all, I was never able to please my mother-in-law. However, she became inspiration for Lucille Pollack, Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law, who has become the character readers love to hate. How’s that for turning lemons into lemonade?

A Crafty Collage of Crime

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 12

Wherever crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack goes, murder and mayhem follow. Her honeymoon is no exception. She and new husband, photojournalist (and possible spy) Zachary Barnes, are enjoying a walk in the Tennessee woods when they stumble upon a body on the side of a creek. The dead man is the husband of one of the three sisters who own the winery and guest cottages where Anastasia and Zack are vacationing.

When the local sheriff sets his sights on the widow as the prime suspect, her sisters close ranks around her. The three siblings are true-crime junkies, and thanks to a podcaster who has produced an unauthorized series about her, Anastasia’s reputation for solving murders has preceded her to the bucolic hamlet. The sisters plead for her help in finding the real killer. As Anastasia learns more about the women and their business, a host of suspects emerge, including several relatives, a relentless land developer, and even the sisters themselves.

Meanwhile, Anastasia becomes obsessed with discovering the podcaster’s identity. Along with knowing about Anastasia’s life as a reluctant amateur sleuth, the podcaster has divulged details of Anastasia’s personal life. Someone has betrayed Anastasia’s trust, and she’s out to discover the identity of the culprit.

Craft project included.

Buy Links

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NX6O13

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-crafty-collage-of-crime

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-crafty-collage-of-crime-lois-winston/1143442079?ean=2940161008225

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-crafty-collage-of-crime/id6448801378

BIO: USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother who had other ideas. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception.

Then Lois’s writing segued into the world of amateur sleuths with her humorous Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes twelve novels and three novellas.

To date Lois has published twenty-one novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing.

Website:http://www.loiswinston.com

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