Hello? Is anyone out there?
With a blogging rotation that assigns me the fourth Wednesday of every month, I’m always stuck blogging the day before Thanksgiving. Hello? Is anybody out there? Probably not. I imagine you’re all either busy prepping in the kitchen or spending the day traveling over the river and through the woods or in the air on the way to grandma’s (or some other relative’s) house.
Not me. Our older son and his family have established their own Thanksgiving tradition on the other side of the country, and our younger son and his family rotate every year between spending Thanksgiving with us and his wife’s family in upstate New York. It’s the New York contingent’s turn this year.
My husband and I are hosting another couple without family in the area, and the four of us have decided to split the cost of a catered meal from one of the local supermarkets. No stress, no slaving in the kitchen, and enough leftovers for at least one additional meal for both couples. My kind of Thanksgiving.
Many people will tell you that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. For me, over the course of my life most Thanksgivings have been anything but Norman Rockwell pleasant. Thanks to my father, Thanksgiving tensions ran high when I was a child. To say he was disliked (and rightfully so) by other members of the family, would be an understatement.
When I married, my mother-in-law insisted on hosting Thanksgiving every year, forcing us to suffer through undercooked turkey and raw piecrust. It’s a wonder no one ever got food poisoning. One year we accepted an invitation from friends. I figured at some point our ptomaine-free luck was going to run out because her cooking was growing worse with each passing year.
My mother-in-law hit the roof and refused to speak to us for months. No great punishment, as far as I was concerned. That may sound harsh until you realize she’s the inspiration behind my sleuth’s communist mother-in-law in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Lucille Pollack is the character my readers love to hate.
Once my mother-in-law passed on to the great communist commune in the sky, I began hosting Thanksgiving. We had some very enjoyable ones with other family members and friends, and for the first time in my life, I began to look forward to Thanksgiving. But then we moved from New Jersey to Tennessee a year and a half ago, and the only family nearby are the ones currently enjoying Thanksgiving in the snows of upstate New York.
But on the bright side, Christmas is right around the corner. As an early holiday gift, if you are reading this post, I’m giving away one audiobook (US or UK residents only) of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. To enter, post a comment about one of your own memorable (or not so memorable) Thanksgiving experiences.
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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.
Let’s All NaNoWriMo… or Not
by Bethany “NaNoWriMo” Maines
NaNoWriMo Wha?
I don’t really believe in NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month. Partially just because I object strenuously to the clunky abbreviation. But also because the goal of writing fifty thousand words in a month reduces novel writing to a very basic component—words. Writing fifty-thousand words is an accomplishment of a sort, but having the right fifty-thousand requires a bit more of a skill. However, the NaNoWriMo community supplies great camaraderie and inspiration to a multitude of writers, and if an artificial deadline and contest get some people to put fingers to keyboard then I raise my glass in cheers. And usually that’s it.
Soooo why am I doing this?
This year the fates have conspired to arrange my projects to have a novel that needs to be written this month. I would really like to put out the next trilogy in my Supernatural paranormal romance world next summer. The Rejects Pack is a fun, Indiana Jones / The Mummy inspired series featuring more wolves, warlocks, romance, and an ancient Egyptian artifact or two. Also maybe a mummy that comes back from the dead. (Shhh. Don’t tell anyone.) And with Book 1 out to my beta readers already, you would think I wouldn’t feel the need to rush book 2 and 3. Butttt…. I keep eyeballing the amount of plot I’m intending to shove into book 3 and I’m just a little bit worried that my trilogy is going to become a tetralogy.
Tetralogy means a four book series. In case you don’t want to have to google it like I did.
And then…
And then there’s the fact the holidays are almost here (YAY!!!) and I have a new novella coming out this month! I’m busy is what I’m saying. So I’m trying to hedge my bets and leave myself time for a book 4 by cramming book 2 into November. And of course it will be fun to watch the NaNoWriMo communities progress. You can keep up with my progress and learn about Killian and Moira and their hunt for the long lost Library of Alexandria on Facebook and Instagram.
But Speaking of Christmas
If you’ve got a hankering for a Christmas mystery rom-com check out Winter Wonderland!
ORDER (all retailers): books2read.com/Winter-Wonderland
WINTER WONDERLAND: When Marcus Winters, a photographer with a bah humbug take on the holidays, meets Larissa Frost, a set designer who loves all things Christmas, sparks are destined to fly. But when a famous diamond goes missing from the shoot they’re working on Larissa finds that Marcus may be the only one who can keep her from being framed for a crime she didn’t commit.
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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.
No Fur or Feather Babies
By Lois Winston
When I was asked to write a cozy mystery series, I knew I should include a pet. Cozy readers love books with pets, especially dogs or cats. Sometimes the pet is even an integral part of helping to solve the mystery. I also have many friends who write cozy mysteries, and most of them are pet owners.
I’m the outlier. I don’t have a fur baby. Instead, I have allergies. Allergies to just about all pets. At least the kind you can pet, cuddle, and play with. Tropical fish would probably be safe, but I consider those pretty things to watch swimming around rather than pets. If it has fur or feathers, I need to steer clear, and chances are, I’d probably also have issues with amphibians and reptiles. I’m even allergic to certain people—or at least to some of the grooming products they use.
I used to have pets. When I was a teenager, we had a dog. I walked around sneezing and coughing and suffering with horrible sinus headaches for several years until I left for college. Once I had my own apartment, I tried kittens. What was I thinking? The headaches, sneezing, and coughing returned with a vengeance.
When my kids were young, we got them a pair of gerbils. Even though I stayed far away from the cage, I still suffered.
So, unfortunately, I remain petless. My protagonist in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries is far from petless, though. Not only does Anastasia’s household include her mother-in-law’s French bulldog Mephisto and occasionally Catherine the Great, her mother’s Persian cat, but Anastasia has also inherited her great-aunt Penelope Periwinkle’s African Grey parrot.
However, Ralph is no ordinary parrot. Having spent most of his life in Great-aunt Penelope’s classroom, listening to lectures on the works of William Shakespeare, Ralph possesses a unique talent. He has the uncanny ability to squawk situation-appropriate quotes from the Bard of Avon.
Is this even possible? Some African Greys do have huge vocabularies, but even though I’ve read up on the species, I’m no parrot expert. It doesn’t matter, though. I write fiction, humorous fiction. If readers can suspend their disbelief enough to accept a protagonist who stumbles across more murders than the average cop in an entire law enforcement career, why not a Shakespeare-quoting parrot?
Ralph is also very protective of his adoptive family. I hope you’ll check out how he proves his worth in Guilty as Framed, the 11th book in my humorous Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.
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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.
Lessons From Live Theatre
I had the privilege of going to see a fun new play called “The Shark is Broken,” written by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. The play details the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the filming of the 1975 blockbuster movie, Jaws. The play was short (90-minutes) and anything but sweet, but overall a funny, very enjoyable show for any die-hard fan. There were only three actors on stage and a pretty basic set, serving as a great reminder of how to nail a story, be it a play, a movie, or a book.
Character is key! Plot is important in any story, but to grab the reader, the author must have a great set of characters. From the second the first actor entered the stage during the play, I had no doubt he was playing Richard Dreyfuss, based on mannerisms alone. Each character should possess distinct traits that make it easy not only easy to identify, but to create and add conflict to a play or a book. A rollercoaster of emotion keeps a story fun, and nothing is better than the tension felt between opposing characters.- Action Needs Reaction! “The Shark is Broken” took place entirely on a small set, without any big action scenes. But it kept my attention because of the dynamics created by the characters. The myth
surrounding the filming of Jaws is all about the tension between the actors on set. The verbal tug-of-war between Richard Dreyfuss (played by Liam Murray Scott) and Robert Shaw (played by real-life son, Ian Shaw), had the viewer fully engaged from start to finish. There was no shark needed to heighten the tension on set between these two! - Real Life Inspiration! It’s been so long since I’ve been to a city (Toronto, in my case) to see a play, I’d almost forgotten how much fun it can be to leave home. From the train ride to the pre-dinner grub, nothing beats character building than going out and watching people in action. For me it was the restaurant staff, the sports fans roaming about (The Toronto Maple Leafs had just won a hockey game in over-time), and even the people passing me on the sidewalk. Everyone is unique, just like each character in a story. Subtle details like the scent of someone’s perfume, the slow-gait of a two lovers holding hands, even the feel of the wind tunnel created from nearby skyscrapers. All these details matter. Don’t even get me started on snippets of conversations overheard at nearby tables or close-by theatre goers… There’s always something to see, hear, smell, or feel.
Where do you find inspiration? Any other Jaws fans out there?
Twenty-seven Years Later, Twenty Novels & Now an Audiobook
By Lois Winston
I’ve had a busy September. Guilty as Framed, the 11th book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, officially released on September 6th. My virtual promo tour for the book began before the release date and will extend into next month, but beginning October 1st, I plan to start writing the next book in the series. I’ve given Anastasia enough of a break from murder and mayhem. Now all I need is a plot, but hey, it’s only September 28th. I’ve got three days to figure this out!
And now Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is an audiobook with the other books in the series to follow.
Guilty as Framed marks my twentieth published novel since my first book debuted in April of 2006. I’ve also published five novellas, a middle-grade book, a nonfiction book, and several short stories during that period. But that’s not the entire story. I began writing back in 1995. It took me nearly ten years to the day I first set fingers to keyboard to sell a book.
My first attempt at writing a novel was the result of a weird dream I had one night while on a business trip. Weird because I normally don’t remember my dreams and weirder still because it didn’t involve anyone I knew. Or even me! And the dream continued to grow every night for a few weeks, unfolding like the chapters in a book.
Eventually, I decided to commit the dream to paper, and by the time I’d finished, I’d written 50,000 words of a highly emotional romance that spanned thirty-five years. I gave it to a friend to read, and she was in tears by the time she’d finished it. From her reaction and encouragement, I thought I’d penned The Great American Novel and began the search for a literary agent.
However, I quickly learned I’d written The Great American Drivel. But I’d enjoyed the process of writing so much that I wasn’t discouraged. I set out to learn what I’d done wrong and how to do it right. I read books, joined writing organizations, and attended workshops and conferences. Eventually, I signed with an agent and sold my first book, Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous tale of a mother, a daughter, and a buttinsky imaginary friend. The second book I sold was the novel formerly known as The Great American Drivel. In the ten years since I’d first written it, I’d revised it into Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, a 90,000-word romantic suspense that spanned a few months instead of thirty-five years.
Then, encouraged by my agent, who loved the humorous voice I’d employed in Talk Gertie to Me, I began writing a humorous amateur sleuth mystery series, giving birth to Anastasia Pollack, my reluctant amateur sleuth.
Looking back over the last twenty-seven years, I’m amazed at what I’ve accomplished. There have been major stumbling blocks and roadblocks along the way, some of my own making and some completely beyond my control. But with encouragement from fellow writers who have become lifelong friends, my late agent, and my own stubbornness, I persisted and persevered. One of those dear writing friends used to add a quote from Galaxy Quest to the bottom of all her emails: Never give up! Never surrender! I’m glad I didn’t.
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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.
Mint Chocolate Wordplay
by Shari Randall/Meri Allen
Do you Wordle? Do crossword puzzles? Enjoy Words with Friends?
I love word games, so when I was asked to make an anagram from the words in the title of my latest Ice Cream Shop mystery, MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER, I jumped at the chance. It was a fun to do – but challenging. So many O’s! But it was an enjoyable exercise and it made me think about my book in new ways.
M – Mysterious supermodel with a royal secret
I — Ice cream social to die for
N — New England village of your Hallmark dreams
T — Teashops and treachery
C — Crafty clues and red herrings
H — Haunted Scottish castle
O — Obsessions turned deadly
C — Cat who needs therapy
O – One hot veterinarian
L — Locked room mystery
A – Art world gossip
T – Tantalizing twists
E – Enemies and frenemies
M — Malicious suspects
U – Unrequited love
R — Race against the clock
D — Danger in the dungeon
E – Extra sprinkles!
R — Riley Rhodes, my main character, an ice cream shop manager and former CIA librarian with plenty of secrets of her own
Readers, I hope you’ll find something here that intrigues. Writers, give it a try with one of your titles!
Do you enjoy word games? What’s your favorite?
Meri Allen is the pen name of Shari Randall, who loves playing Scrabble. She lives in New England, where she’s looking forward to the fall foliage.
So You Want to Write a Book – Part 5: Bumps in the Road
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
~ Thomas Mann
Welcome back to another chapter of So You Want to Write a Book!
This month we’re going to review where we’ve been and then discuss potential problems with getting those pages written and arriving at the finish line.
A quick recap. We started with an idea notebook and began the work around determining what kind of book you wanted to write and exploring that chosen genre. Next, we moved on to some creative brainstorming and last month we covered strategies for how you will approach the actual writing. Remember plotters, pantsers, and plansters? We hope the steps so far have helped to put you on the path to a finished book.
So, now you’re moving forward getting words on the page, right? But sometimes the writing goes great and other times it feels like you’re slogging through a swamp. Don’t get discouraged. It happens.
The reasons why writers get stuck may vary, but here on some things we’ve found helpful when you are struggling.
- Go back to the beginning. Pull out that notebook and remember why you wanted to tell this story. What’s the core story your book will tell? Have you lost that main idea along the way?
- Spend some time with your characters. You need to be clear on your main character (in fiction) and main idea (in non-fiction) and make sure you have not wandered too far away from the goal. If you’re a pantser perhaps you didn’t have the character goal completely defined when you started out. Or if you’re a plotter, maybe you’re moving forward to that goal too quickly. Or too slowly.
- Check your conflict. Remember most stories are about a journey. There’s something your main character wants and a reason they want it (Goal, Motivation) and also a number of reasons they can’t have it right away (Conflict). Have you provided realistic conflict/barriers? You need resistance.
- Examine what you have so far. Often if you’ve been writing and are struggling with moving forward, the problem is with the structure. Write out a quick sentence or two about the scenes you’ve already written. This different look allows you to see the flow of your story. You are better able to tell if you’ve thrown in unnecessary scenes that don’t move the story forward, skipped an essential scene that has created a gap in the momentum, or just plain took a wrong turn.
- Step away from the keyboard. If you can, walk away from the story for a day or two. Write something else, read something new, go somewhere. Fold the laundry or take a shower—don’t laugh, it works for some of us. It may be that your creative brain just needs a break and the refresh of not thinking about your story for a couple of days will allow you to come back to it with fresh perspective.
Hopefully, the words flow and you rarely get stuck as you work on your project, but if you find yourself not moving forward try one or more of the above ideas to put you back on the path.
We’d love to hear from you on what other techniques you’ve found to get you (or keep you) moving forward. And as always, if you have any questions, please let us know.
Next month, we’ll discuss what’s next After the First Draft. Until then, happy writing!
Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.)
They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website
How to Keep a Longstanding Cozy Mystery Series Fresh
By Lois Winston
Have you ever fallen in love with a series only to discover that the author stopped writing it? Some writers get tired of writing about the same characters and move on to writing other books. Others fall victim to the fickleness of the publishing industry. Authors are dropped if their sales don’t continue to increase or increase enough, others because the editor who championed the series changes jobs or is laid off. Lines folds. Publishing houses merge or goes bankrupt. The reasons are myriad.
Those of us who have walked away from traditional publishing to “go indie” no longer have to worry about holding our breaths, waiting to hear if our current contract will be extended or a new one offered. We’re free to keep alive the characters we love for as long as we want to write about them. The challenge that confronts us is how to keep a longstanding series from getting stale.
Guilty as Framed, my eleventh Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, will release in less than two weeks on September 6th. Keeping a series fresh after that many books (plus three novellas), is a challenge. After all, there are only so many ways the victim can die, especially in a cozy mystery where you need to keep the gruesome stuff off the page. There are also just so many ways an amateur sleuth can insert herself into a crime without readers becoming incapable of suspending disbelief.
To keep my series fresh, I decided early on that I’d periodically introduce new characters into Anastasia’s world. I began in Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Book 3, where I introduced Ira Pollack, Anastasia’s deceased husband’s previously unknown half-brother, and his brood of spoiled kids. Also, in that book readers first meet Lawrence Tuttnauer, Anastasia’s future stepfather. In the following book, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, I introduced ex-Special Forces, IT expert, and bodyguard Tino Martinelli. All three men have had recurring roles in subsequent books.
In Drop Dead Ornaments, Book 7, I gave Anastasia’s son Alex a girlfriend. She and her father also play pivotal roles in Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide and A Sew Deadly Cruise, books 8 and 9.
Not every character makes an appearance in every book, though. Sometimes only a passing reference is made to them, sometimes not even that. Other times they once again become major secondary characters in the story. It depends on the book. But these additional characters I’ve created throughout the series enable me to come up with interesting character arcs and fresh plots.
I also didn’t want my series to succumb to Cabot Cove Syndrome, something the writers of Murder She Wrotebegan to become aware of as the popular series continued. Given the size of the town and the rate of murders, eventually Jessica Fletcher would wind up the only citizen left in the tiny hamlet. So the writers wisely decided to send Jessica off on various adventures. Of course, the dead bodies kept piling up no matter where Jessica went, but at least the murders were no longer all occurring in Cabot Cove.
I’ve done the same with Anastasia. Some of the books in the series center around her workplace, others around her home. In Death by Killer Mop Doll, Book 2, the setting is a television studio in New York City. A Sew Deadly Cruise is a “locked room” mystery with the murders taking place when Anastasia and her family are on vacation. Stitch, Bake, Die! is another “locked room” mystery, taking place at a conference center during a storm.
In Guilty as Framed, the story once again centers around Anastasia’s home, but in this book, the plot involves an actual unsolved crime that took place in Boston in 1990. Not only do I need to keep my stories fresh for my readers, I need to challenge myself with each new book. As much as I enjoy spending time with my characters, I need a creative challenge to keep from falling into the same old/same old abyss.
Guilty as Framed was quite the challenge! Not only does the plot center around a thirty-two-year-old cold case, but the crime occurred more than 250 miles from where Anastasia lives, and most of the persons of interest and suspects have long since died, from either natural or unnatural causes.
Mysteries provide a challenge to the reader to figure out whodunit before the end of the book. Guilty as Framed proved a huge challenge to me as the writer. I hope readers find it as satisfying to read as I did to write.
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 11
When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.
Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He doesn’t believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.
A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.
But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?
Buy Links
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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.
Do You Wordle?
By Lois Winston
A few years ago, I got hooked on crossword puzzles. I attribute this addiction to my dear friend Janice. She passed away in 2019 after an eight-month battle with Stage 4 cancer. I spent much of that time taking her to doctor appointments and chemo treatments and visiting with her during several hospitalizations. Janice always carried around crossword puzzles. As a retired R.N., she knew the importance of keeping her mind sharp, and she did so by exercising her brain in two ways: She was a voracious reader of mysteries and romances and a diehard crossword puzzle fan.
Having sat with her during hours of chemo, I know how difficult it is to concentrate on a book during these sessions, given the constant chatter from fifteen other chemo patients, their accompanying friends or family members, the nursing staff, and a TV always blaring in the background. So Janice passed the time working crossword puzzles when she tired of conversation.
I worked my first crossword puzzle after returning from her memorial service. It had been an extremely emotional day, especially since, as her oldest friend, I was one of the speakers. Perhaps she was somehow sending me a subliminal message from Heaven that day. She had always believed in angels, ghosts, and premonitions. I’ve always pooh-poohed the supernatural. Was this her way of telling me she was right, and I was wrong? Maybe. Because ever since that day, I’ve worked the online crossword puzzle in my daily newspaper as a way of honoring her memory and our lifelong friendship.
A few months ago, that newspaper purchased Wordle. I’d heard about Wordle, but I’m not someone who spends time playing games on my phone or computer. I have books to write, and contrary to my reluctant amateur sleuth’s hopes, I have no intention of refraining from dumping dead bodies at her feet.
I also have a staggering number of unread books piling up on my bookshelves and in my Kindle. I’ll need to live well past the century mark before I get to them all. And yet, I keep buying more books! Then there’s life in general, including family responsibilities, and of course, the need to sleep at least several hours a night.
Yet, there it was—Wordle, the word game taking the world by storm. Wordle beckoned like a Siren. Of course, I got hooked. I even learned a secret for helping solve the puzzle in the allotted six attempts: always begin with “adieu.” The word contains all but one of the five vowels. My next word will always include a word using the green letters from “adieu,” plus an “o.”
My mornings now begin with a cup of coffee, the daily crossword puzzle, and the daily Wordle. How about you? Do you start your day with a word puzzle, work one while taking a break, or reward yourself with one at the end of the day?
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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. Her latest book in the series is Guilty as Framed, currently available for pre-order. 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.