Tag Archive for: Lois Winston

Hitting Double Digits

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By Lois Winston

My agent called me one day back in 2004. She’d had a conversation with an editor looking for a cozy mystery series with a crafting theme and told the editor she had the perfect author to write such a series. Of course, she meant me with my background as a designer of craft projects for manufacturers, craft book publishers, and magazines. 

 

However, at the time I’d only written romance, romantic suspense, and chick lit. I had never even heard of cozy mysteries that featured crafters. My idea of a cozy mystery was Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. However, always up for any challenge, I agreed. Then I rushed over to the library and filled my arms with every crafting cozy they had on the shelves. Who knew there were so many?

 

Thus, was born my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Unfortunately, the sale to that editor never went through. In the middle of contract negotiations, the publishing house was sold, and the new publisher immediately canceled the cozy mystery line. However, shortly after that setback, my agent sold my chick lit book and a romantic suspense. I really couldn’t complain, except that I’d fallen in love with writing that crafting cozy. I’d found my true author voice and really didn’t want to continue writing romance and romantic suspense.

 

Publishing is all about the right book landing on the right editor’s desk on the right day. It took nearly five years from the time I’d finished Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, for the series to sell to another publisher. Now, seventeen years after first carrying all those crafting cozies to the library check-out desk, Stitch, Bake, Die!, the tenth book in the series is up for pre-order.

 

Stitch, Bake, Die!

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 10

 

With massive debt, a communist mother-in-law, a Shakespeare-quoting parrot, and a photojournalist boyfriend who may or may not be a spy, crafts editor Anastasia Pollack already juggles too much in her life. So she’s not thrilled when her magazine volunteers her to present workshops and judge a needlework contest at the inaugural conference of the NJ chapter of the Stitch and Bake Society, a national organization of retired professional women. At least her best friend and cooking editor Cloris McWerther has also been roped into similar duties for the culinary side of the 3-day event taking place on the grounds of the exclusive Beckwith Chateau Country Club.

 

Marlene Beckwith, wife of the multi-millionaire pharmaceutical magnate and country club owner, is both the chapter president and conference chairperson. The only thing greater than her ego is her sense of entitlement. She hates to lose at anything and fully expects to win both the needlework and baking competitions.

 

When Anastasia and Cloris arrive at the conference, they discover cash bribes in their registration packets. The Society members, few of whom are fans of Marlene, stick up for the accused and instead suggest that Marlene orchestrated the bribes to eliminate her stiffest competition. 

 

The next morning when Marlene is found dead, Anastasia questions whether she really died peacefully in her sleep. After Marlene’s husband immediately has her cremated, Anastasia once again finds herself back in reluctant amateur sleuth mode. 

 

With the help of Cloris, Marlene’s personal assistant Rhetta, and a laptop someone will stop at nothing to find, Anastasia soon unravels evidence of insurance scams, medical fraud, an opioid ring, long-buried family secrets, and too many possible suspects. And that’s before she stumbles over the body of yet another member of the Stitch and Bake Society. 

 

Can Anastasia piece together the various clues before she becomes the killer’s next target?

 

Crafting tips included.

 

Pre-order (available 10/4)

Kindle 

Kobo 

Nook 

Apple Books 

~*~

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.

 

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Pumping My Own Gas and Other Firsts

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By Lois Winston

It’s official. This Jersey Girl is no longer a Jersey Girl. I have the Tennessee driver’s license and license plate to prove it. And it’s a very strange feeling. For one thing, I now have to pump my own gas, something I could previously only do when driving out-of-state. I think it’s been about ten years since I last used a gas pump. New Jersey has a weird law that doesn’t allow ordinary citizens to fill their own gas tanks. Even if you happen to be the person who invented the modern gas pump, you have to leave the filling to the attendant. Oregon is the only other state that doesn’t allow you to pump your own gas. What century are we living in? 

It’s been so long since I pumped my own gas that on the drive down to Tennessee, I first grabbed the diesel nozzle. Luckily, they’re designed in such a way that you can’t accidentally fill your tank with diesel if you don’t drive a diesel automobile, but it took me a minute or two to figure out why I couldn’t get the nozzle into the gas tank. Then I managed to dribble gasoline on my hand and shoe. This experience will definitely go into a book at some point. It’s the author’s way of turning lemons into lemonade.

 

I’m experiencing many more firsts with this move. Our new home is the newest house we’ve ever owned, only seventeen years old. Prior to this, our newest house was built in 1939. The oldest was built in 1893. And the first home we ever bought was a Sears house kit. (No, we didn’t buy the kit from Sears. I’m not that old!)

 

This is the first house I’ve ever lived in without a basement. Even as an apartment-dwelling city kid, we had a basement. But this is also the first house with an attached two-car garage. I think I’m going to like that, if I can navigate in and out without sideswiping either my husband’s car or the garage wall.

 

There are many things I’m going to miss about living in New Jersey—being so close to Manhattan theaters and museums, living less than an hour from the ocean, being able to walk to shopping, instead of having to jump in the car for every errand. And some really good friends.

 

However, I’m certainly not going to miss snowstorms and the power outages they generally entailed. I did suffer through a four-day outage a few summers ago while visiting family in Nashville, but it was nothing compared to the nine day-outage we endured during Superstorm Sandy and the freak early snowstorm that followed, or the countless blizzards and Nor’easters that have brought down power lines over the years. 

 

If the power goes out in the summer, you can walk around the house in your underwear or a bathing suit and cook your meals outside on the grill. It’s far worse to wear seventeen layers of clothing indoors and have to shovel your way through three-foot high snow drifts to get to that grill in winter.

 

I’m also looking forward to making new friends and exploring my new state—once all the cartons are unpacked. I’m just not sure I’ll ever make the leap to saying, “Y’all.”

 

~*~

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.

 

Website: www.loiswinston.com

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Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

TO TELL THE TRUTH–AUTHOR EDITION

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By Lois Winston 

Gameshows were once a staple of daytime TV. I remember being no more than a toddler in the 1950s and watching Queen for a Day with my grandmother.

 

I’ve been a huge Jeopardy! fan ever since the show first debuted with Art Fleming in 1964. I miss spending half an hour each night with Alex Trebek. I don’t envy the producers when they finally forego the guest hosts and choose a replacement for him. As those guest hosts have shown, Alex is a tough act to follow.

 

With only a brief hiatus, Jeopardy! has been around almost nonstop since its inception. Not so for most other gameshows. However, for the past several years, many of the classic gameshows of the 50s and 60s have been revived as summer replacements on network TV. One such show is To Tell the Truth.

 

So I thought it might be fun today to play To Tell the Truth—Author Edition. What follows are ten statements about me—or maybe not. Can you figure out which ones are true and which are false?

 

1. I can name all of Shakespeare’s plays in alphabetical order.

2. I can play 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon in 2 degrees.

3. I can speak three languages fluently.

4. I graduated 32nd in a class of 803.

5. While still in college, I designed a poster for Sesame Street.

6. I hate peanut butter.

7. I run three miles a day.

8. I’m a USA Today bestselling author.

9. I own a parrot.

10. I backpacked across Europe.

~*~

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.

 

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Kill Your Darlings

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By Lois Winston 

Most writers are familiar with the phrase, “Kill your darlings.” It’s been widely attributed to William Faulkner but actually comes from a Cambridge University lecture given by English writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch about a century ago when he advised, “Murder your darlings.”

 

However, neither Faulkner nor Quiller-Couch was talking about the characters that populate a novel. They were referring to the need to be ruthless when it comes to eliminating anything that we may personally love in our writing but which has no reason for being in our stories.

 

Quiller-Couch’s full quote is, “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”

 

One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received is that everything in a book, whether narrative action, internalization, or dialog, must do one of two things—either advance the plot or tell the reader something she needs to know about the point of view character at that moment. In other words, rid your stories of filler.

 

However, the same is not necessarily true of the characters who populate our stories. Yes, as mystery authors we need dead bodies. Otherwise, there would be little need for our sleuths to figure out whodunit unless our mystery is about who stole the cookies from the cookie jar. And we all know the answer to that—Cookie Monster.

 

I have a friend who loves my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, with one exception. She absolutely hates (with a passion bordering on obsession) Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law Lucille. She has begged me on numerous occasions to kill her off or barring that, ship her off to Russia. Lucille is like fingernails on a blackboard to this friend.

 

Yet, Lucille is the character many of my readers love to hate. Yes, she’s irritating, but along with providing both tension and comic relief in my series, she also provides me with some much-needed catharsis. You see, Lucille is based on my relationship with my own (now deceased) communist mother-in-law.

 

Hey, write what you know, right? So as much as my friend would prefer otherwise, Lucille will be hanging around for as long as I keep writing about Anastasia. Besides, you never know how readers will react to an author killing off an ongoing character. I remember the backlash when Elizabeth George killed off a beloved character several years ago. Now, I doubt any of my readers would classify Lucille as a beloved character, but as I’ve already stated, she is the character many love to hate.

 

Are there characters you’ve come across that you wish the author would kill off? What about characters you wish an author hadn’t killed off?

 

~*~

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.

 

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Toilet Paper Origami and Absolutely No Wastepaper Baskets Allowed!

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My Curated Bookcases

By Lois Winston 

Last month I blogged about how my husband and I were getting ready to move from New Jersey to Nashville to be closer to family. We’ve since taken another step toward that goal—our home for the last twenty-three years is now on the market.

 

In the course of my married life I’ve lived in four different houses. However, the last time we moved HGTV wasn’t part of the American consciousness. No flippers, renovators, or stagers brainwashed the public about the necessity of open-concept, tray ceilings, and hardscaped yards with outdoor kitchens. Hardwood floors aren’t enough. They have to be wide-planked hardwood. And of course, the cardinal sin these days is the dreaded popcorn ceiling. Buyers have been conditioned to take one look and immediately do an about-face, as if a popcorn ceiling is in the same category as termites and radon.

 

We’ve always lived in older homes. We love the charm of Victorian and Craftsman architecture. The oldest house we’ve lived in was built in 1891, the youngest in 1939. Our current house is a 1935 Craftsman Bungalow. It isn’t open-concept with twelve-foot ceilings. It doesn’t have a Carrera marble waterfall island in the kitchen.

 

There are forty-four photos online along with floor plans and room sizes. Any interested buyer has the ability to see the house from top to bottom and inside out from the comfort of their own home before deciding whether they want to see it in person. No one looking for a new home with an open concept plan, spa bathrooms, and huge walk-in closets would even consider an in person trip to our house. Or so you would think. Yet by some of the feedback we’ve received, that’s exactly what is happening. I would imagine the realtors are not happy with having their time wasted in this manner.

 

Nor am I happy, because each time a tour is scheduled, I have to race through my house, hiding wastepaper baskets, toiletries, bathroom floormats, and dishtowels. I have to make sure there are full rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom dispenser and that the top sheet is folded into a point a la upscale hotels. Nothing can be left on kitchen and bathroom countertops. No shampoo bottles and soap in the showers.

 

All of this and more was on orders of the house stager hired by the realtor. She walked through our home before it went on the market and handed us a homework list. Then she returned to make sure we had complied. Now, I’m all in favor of making my house as presentable as possible to secure a sale. A cluttered house doesn’t show well, but I don’t like clutter. So my house was not in need of lots of work prior to going on the market. 

 

Not according to the stager, though. She insisted I buy lemons to float in a clear pitcher of water to be put on the picnic table on the deck. She insisted the flowers I had planned to place on the dining room and kitchen tables were only white and in clear vases. She even insisted I curate my bookcases, getting rid of ninety percent of my books. I’m an author. I have a lot of bookcases throughout my house, and they hold a lot of books, most of which are now squirreled away in cartons hidden in the back of closets—along with the wastepaper baskets. (It’s spring allergy season. Do you know what a pain it is to dig through the back of a closet for a wastepaper basket every time you need to discard a tissue?)

 

I’m wondering if buyers are that gullible. Will they not make an offer on a house because there are too many books in the bookcases? Or because I forgot to fold the toilet paper into a point for one showing? Time will tell. Meanwhile, I now have all sorts of plots rolling around in my head for future mysteries. Want to guess the identity of the victim in many of those plots? So maybe all that work is worth it, whether it increases the price someone is willing to pay for our house or not. At least I now have ideas for future books.

~*~

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.

 

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From Broadway to the Grand Old Opry?

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By Lois Winston

Two years ago my younger son, his wife, and their two little boys moved to Nashville when my daughter-in-law’s company decided to transfer their corporate headquarters from Manhattan to Nashville. When that happened, my husband and I no longer had any family we could rely on in the NY Metro area. What would we do if one of us became ill or infirmed? That was a sobering thought.

 

When I was in my thirties, I helped care for a good friend who had developed Lou Gehrig’s disease. I know all too well what it’s like to single-handedly maneuver a six-foot man from a wheelchair into a car. I could barely manage the feat back then. I’m quite a bit older now, and I know there’s no way I could do what I did back then at this stage in my life.

 

When we moved to our current downsized house twenty-three years ago, we thought we’d live out the remainder of our days here, but we were now confronted with the prospect of moving out of state. We have two sons—the one in Nashville and his older brother, who lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay area. Real estate dollars go much further in Tennessee than they do in California.

 

We had decided we’d put our home up for sale once we both had secured vaccinations and the pandemic was behind us. The universe laughs at me at lot, though, and this was one of those times. The first week in March saw multiple news stories about the booming real estate market in towns with good schools and an easy commute into Manhattan. We live in such a town. Demand is high, especially for smaller homes like ours, and inventory is extremely low. Multiple offers and bidding wars are now the norm. The next thing I knew, we were getting our home ready to put on the market.

 

I’m a Jersey Girl, born and bred. Other than a stint in Philadelphia and its suburbs, I’ve lived my entire life in the Garden State. I love Broadway theater and spending hours wandering through Manhattan’s many museums. I much prefer the Metropolitan Opera House to the Grand Old Opry. Don’t get me wrong, Nashville is very nice. We’ve visited quite often the last two years. But it’s just not where I’d prefer living if I had my druthers.

 

And then there’s Anastasia. What am I going to do about her? She’s also a Jersey girl. All of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries are set in New Jersey and Manhattan. Will she and her family make the move to Nashville? Personally, I think she’s going to dig in her heels and demand to stay put. However, I have time to figure that out. I’m not quite halfway through writing the tenth book in the series. For now, unlike her author, Anastasia doesn’t have to worry about becoming a southern transplant.

~*~

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.

 

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Bookbub

On Birthdays, Bucket Lists & Shots in the Arm

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By Lois Winston

Have you ever noticed the older we get, the swifter the years go by? I can remember walking home from school and bemoaning the fact that summer vacation was still six weeks away. Six weeks seemed like an eternity to eight-year-old me. Now six weeks often flies by at warp speed.

 

I bring this up because February is my birthday month, and I’m wondering how I ever got this old. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I gave birth to my first son? I remember the day as if it were yesterday. Yet now he’s the father of three, the oldest of whom recently turned seventeen. 

 

Who knows where the time goes?

 

Judy Collins once asked that question in a song. I’m asking it a lot lately. Back in the sixties the Boomer Generation suggested no one should trust anyone over thirty. Now we’re confronted by the derisive insult of “OK, Boomer” by those under thirty. To quote from another songwriter of my generation, the times they are a-changin’.

 

Once upon a time birthdays were something we looked forward to—parties, gifts, cake and ice cream! Yea! So many of those birthdays connoted milestones we looked forward to—Sweet Sixteens, getting a driver’s license, voting, ordering that first legal glass of wine. Wishes were often fulfilled on birthdays, the one other day of the year besides Christmas or Hanukkah when you might receive that new bicycle or pair of skates.

 

Now at this point in our lives, if we want something, we buy it for ourselves. Most of us have too much stuff already. We’re at the point in our lives where we’re thinking of downsizing and getting rid of those things we haven’t used in decades. Why on earth did I keep a soup tureen I received for Christmas thirty years ago and still have never used? Does anyone ever use soup tureens? And when was the last time we used that fondue pot? 1980-something? Those and more—much more—recently made their way to a donation center.

 

Bucket Lists are now more important than soup tureens and fondue pots. Whittling down the Bucket List had begun to take priority, but then all those Bucket List items were sidelined, thanks to the pandemic. I still haven’t gotten to Scandinavia or Great Britain, and I really would love to see the Terra Cotta Warriors in China. But now all that has to wait. Top priority on my Bucket List these days is getting an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccination. So far, I’m striking out.


Meanwhile, like so many people I’m living a virtual life these days. Recently, I was interviewed on the Chatting with Authors YouTube Channel, the brainchild of husband and wife writing team Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zellinger. Check it out.

 ~*~

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.

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Neighbors and Critique Partners

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By: Donnell Ann Bell

Hello! I am the newest member of the Stiletto Gang, and as a mystery writer and a woman who loves shoes, I will do my best to fit in. I
wrote an article for Stiletto Gang way back in the day https://donnellannbell.com/characters/
 Call me biased, but I still think it’s relevant.

Much has changed since that article, however. I’ve
written more books, I’ve relocated from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Las
Cruces, New Mexico, and with the exception of COVID-19, so far so good. This
city, thirty minutes from El Paso, Texas, has an amazing culture and some of
the kindest people I’ve ever met. Imagine (pre-COVID by the way), walking into
the grocery store when somebody sneezes, and from every surrounding aisle,
people shout, “God bless you.” Also, while I may miss Colorado’s green, you
can’t beat New Mexico’s sunsets.

Land of Enchantment’s Sunset 

One of the hardest things about leaving Colorado after
thirty-plus years was saying goodbye to lifetime friendships. Las Cruces has a
way to go to compete, but my next-door neighbor is working hard at making the
list. She arrived on my doorstep with cookies (my downfall), and our friendship
quickly became reciprocal. Like me, she has a creative side. Where I write, she
paints.  

Tuscany Village by Carol Oxford 

One of the things I love about my new home is my front courtyard. But it was kind of sparse, so I went to work decorating. I found this adorable chihuahua and put him just out my front door. Wouldn’t you know it, though, my artistic neighbor pointed out something was missing.

Every chihuahua needs …
… a friend

One person I didn’t have to say goodbye to although we live
1,882 miles apart is my critique partner, Lois Winston, who I’d met online,
then in person on a transport van that delivered us to a conference. We’ve
exchanged chapters and brainstormed for years. We walk while we talk (because
we’re notorious multitaskers), and I can’t tell you how many “aha” moments we’ve
had via our treks.

I’m also close to Stiletto Gang member Cathy Perkins. She’s
a great conference roommate, by the way (Portland as I recall), and she and her
husband have visited Las Cruces. She’s a major talent, and one day I hope to
see her gorgeous home in the Pacific Northwest. 

Donnell, Cathy & spouses

That’s basically my introductory blog in a multi-cracked
nutshell. Looking forward to sharing thoughts, ideas and hopefully a little
laughter.

 Do you have a
neighbor you love and/or a valued critique partner? In my opinion, they make
the world a whole lot brighter.

About  Donnell’s latest book: A cold case
heats up when a 9-1-1 call puts police at a Denver murder scene pointing
investigators to the abduction of a Colorado teenager fourteen years before.
The connection? A calling card—a single black pearl—is found on the newest victim. Is the murder
a copycat? Or has a twisted serial killer, thought dead or in prison, returned
to kill again?

The hunt for a multi-state killer is
on and brings together an unexpected team: a Denver Major Crimes police
lieutenant; an FBI special agent who investigated the previous murders, a
rookie FBI agent with a specialty in psychology; and the only living victim of
the Black Pearl Killer is now a cop.

For Special
Agent Brian DiPietro, the case is an opportunity to find answers. For Officer Allison
Shannon, the case will force her to face down the town that blamed her for
surviving when another did not. And for both DiPietro and Shannon, it’s a
chance to find closure to questions that have tormented them both for years.


Bio: Donnell Ann Bell gave up her nonfiction career in
newspapers and magazines because she was obsessed with the idea she could write
a mystery or thriller. An award-winning author, including the 2020 Colorado
Book Award finalist for her latest release Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense,
Donnell’s other books have included Buried Agendas, Betrayed, Deadly Recall and
The Past Came Hunting, all of which have been Amazon bestsellers. Currently
she’s writing Book Two of her Cold Case series. For further information or buy information, please go to www.donnellannbell.com
 

 

 

 

First Sunday! New Releases by the Stiletto Gang Members

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New Releases by the Stiletto Gang Members!

Join us in celebrating the latest books written by our blog mates! 


A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL – A million stories beyond the flagpole…

A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL starts when a maverick principal
comes in with a student-centered agenda, and there’s no more business as usual
at Lincoln High School. Killing the principal is just the beginning…

Someone sets fire to Lincoln High and kills its new principal.
Chaos threatens to overtake the urban school. Assistant Principal Sally Pearce,
hired by the deceased principal to help him revamp and change the culture, vows
to carry on the mission. In doing so, she gets caught up in gang threats,
racial tensions, grievances, sexual harassment complaints, and the murder
investigation, as well.

Sally never dreamed, when she stepped up to lead this culturally
diverse school, that she would be faced with solving a mystery and returning
the school to order. When a second murder happens on school grounds, Sally
realizes she is trapped in a cycle of violence that must be stopped.

Universal book link:  https://books2read.com/u/3yz0nl

Learn more at Saralyn Richard’s website:  http://saralynrichard.com 


MALBEC MAYHEM – Mix
a Spanish chef with an Italian winemaker and create some mayhem…Malbec
Mayhem!

Successful
restaurateur Alex Montoya’s charmed life has hit a snag. His trusted business
partner turned out to be not exactly trustworthy, and Alex could be facing jail
time over some of his partner’s shady financial deals. As if that weren’t bad
enough, creditors are calling in loans he didn’t know he had and he’s desperate
to prove his innocence before all his businesses are repossessed. 

After a
career-building stint in Napa Valley, Sofia Pincelli has returned home to
eastern Washington to take over the family’s winery. Running the family
business, however, means dealing with her ailing father’s constant
micro-management—and his disapproval of Alex. Her father’s condemnation of
Alex’s rumored involvement in his business partner’s schemes runs so deep, it
threatens Alex and Sofia’s blossoming romance…along with the Pincelli family’s
signature red wine. Sofia needs Alex’s crop of Malbec grapes to show her father
she has what it takes to make award-winning wine—and save the reputation and
finances of the Pincelli winery.

When the Malbec
grapes go missing, Alex and Sofia must join forces to find the fruit before it
spoils—or risk destroying both of their businesses and their hearts.

Universal book link: https://books2read.com/u/3n8xjP

Learn more at Cathy Perkins website: https://cperkinswrites.com  


MOMS IN BLACK – A Mom Squad
Caper

When Cassandra
Davenport applies for a job at www.savingtheworld.us, she expects to find a
‘green’ charity. Instead, she becomes the newest member of a covert
organization run by ex-government officials. Dubbed the Mom Squad, the
organization is the brainchild of three former college roommates—attorney
general Anthony Granville, ex-FBI agent Gavin Demarco, and tech billionaire
Liam Hatch—all of whom have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists.
Financed by Hatch, they work in the shadows and without the constraints of
congressional oversight, reporting directly to Granville.

Demarco heads
up one of the six groups that comprise the new operation. He hires Cassandra as
the newest member of his New Jersey based team. In the course of monitoring
possible terrorist threats, the Mom Squad discovers a link to Cassandra’s
ex-husband. Before she’s fully trained, Cassandra is thrust into a world where
her ex may be involved with radicalized terrorists bent on killing as many Americans
as possible.

Universal book link:  https://books2read.com/u/3n8RQR  

Learn more at Lois Winston’s website: www.loiswinston.com

And Now for Something Completely Different…

/in /by

By Lois Winston 

With only a few breaks, my life since late 2009 has been consumed by Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. That’s when I signed a contract for the first three books in the series, the first of which debuted in 2011. In 2013, the publisher and I couldn’t come to mutually acceptable terms for more Anastasia books and a second series, The Empty Nest Mysteries. I turned down both contracts and decided to indie publish. Ever since, it’s been all-Anastasia, all the time, with one exception.

 

In 2015 I was invited to take part in a new venture from Amazon. Kindle Worlds was a foray into fan fiction where anyone could write novellas that tied into handpicked existing series. To get the project up and running, Amazon invited additional authors, many recommended by the series authors, to create the first novellas. 

 

There were few rules we had to follow in creating these companion novellas. Authors could use as little or as much of the existing series world as they wanted. We could even change the tone of the original books in the series.

 

I was asked to write a novella based on author CJ Lyons’ Shadow Ops Series. CJ writes what she calls “Thrillers with Heart.” I write humorous amateur sleuth/cozy mysteries. No problem. Mom Squad reimagined her domestic thriller series as a humorous caper.

 

The Kindle Worlds program disbanded a few years later. The novella authors were allowed to republish their work as long as they received permission from the series author and all references to the original series were removed or changed.

 

I’m not the fastest writer, and Anastasia tends to keep me busy. I finally got around to updating my novella a few months ago after the release of A Sew Deadly Cruise, the ninth and latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. However, I held off publishing the novella so it wouldn’t compete with the release of that book. 

 

Mom Squad was expanded and rebranded as Moms in Black, a Mom Squad Caper. The book is more tongue-in-cheek humorous romantic suspense than cozy mystery. If the novella does well, I plan to write two more Mom Squad Caper novellas for a 3-novella series.

 

Moms in Black

A Mom Squad Caper

 

When Cassandra Davenport applies for a job at www.savingtheworld.us, she expects to find a ‘green’ charity. Instead, she becomes the newest member of a covert organization run by ex-government officials. Dubbed the Mom Squad, the organization is the brainchild of three former college roommates—attorney general Anthony Granville, ex-FBI agent Gavin Demarco, and tech billionaire Liam Hatch—all of whom have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists. Financed by Hatch, they work in the shadows and without the constraints of congressional oversight, reporting directly to Granville.

 

Demarco heads up one of the six groups that comprise the new operation. He hires Cassandra as the newest member of his New Jersey based team. In the course of monitoring possible terrorist threats, the Mom Squad discovers a link to Cassandra’s ex-husband. Before she’s fully trained, Cassandra is thrust into a world where her ex may be involved with radicalized terrorists bent on killing as many Americans as possible.


And while they’re saving the world from an imminent attack, what in the world will Cassandra do about all that sexual tension simmering between her and her new boss?


Click here to read an excerpt.

 

Buy Links (pre-order now; available 2/8/21)

Kindle 

Kobo 

Nook 

Apple Books 

Paperback (coming soon)


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.