Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for A Crafty Collage of Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
A Crafty Collage of Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
by Lois Winston
A Crafty Collage of Crime (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
12th in Series
Setting – New Jersey and Tennessee
Independently Published (June 16, 2023)
Print length : 258 pages
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.
Interview with Lois Winston
Thanks for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with my readers and me!
Tell us a little about yourself.
As a kid, I wanted to be either an astronaut or a Broadway star. Motion sickness nixed the astronaut track, and sadly, Broadway producers aren’t interested in singers who can’t sing, dancers who can’t dance, and actors who can’t act. So I went to art school. I’ve worked as an art director, a freelance designer, a crafts book editor, and a literary agent. Now I write full-time.
How long have you been writing?
I began writing twenty-eight years ago and sold my first book ten years later, almost to the day I first put fingers to keyboard.
Did you always want to be an author? What made you choose the cozy mystery genre?
I never thought of writing until I was on a business trip one day and had an extremely vivid dream that involved no one I knew. Since I rarely remember my dreams, and this one stuck with me, I decided to write it down. The next thing I knew, I’d written a 50,000-word romance. A decade later, after countless rewrites, it had morphed into Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, a 90,000-word award-winning romantic suspense and the second book I sold.
I began writing cozy mystery at my agent’s suggestion, coming up with The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. The series features a magazine crafts editor whose life is turned upside down when her husband suddenly dies in a Las Vegas casino, leaving her with his communist mother, a mountain of debt, and a loan shark demanding fifty thousand dollars. And that’s before the dead bodies start piling up!
I enjoyed writing cozy mystery so much that I’ve never gone back to writing romance, romantic suspense, or chick lit.
Do you prefer to read cozy mystery books, or do you have another favorite genre? What are you reading now?
I have some favorite cozy authors, but I also enjoy several other genres, including historical novels, both mystery and non-mystery, and women’s fiction. I’m currently reading Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart.
Do you have a favorite place to write?
I have an office dedicated to my writing.
What’s on your desk (if you write at one!)?
My laptop (which is on a Varidesk on top of my desk), a monitor, a desk lamp, lots of files and papers, pens and pencils, an ever-present cup of coffee, and a box of tissues (It’s allergy season!)
What is the first book you remember reading as a child? What was one of your favorite books you read as a child?
Dick and Jane was the first book I remember reading by myself. I found it in a living room cabinet. I think it had belonged to an older cousin. I was about four years old. When I got a little older, I remember enjoying The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, which was also probably a hand-me-down from a cousin.
Do you like audiobooks, physical books, or e-books better? Why?
I’ve become partial to e-books. Publishers are using smaller and smaller type in books to cram more words onto a page to save on printing costs. E-books enable me to enlarge the type so I can read longer without getting eye strain or headaches.
If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?
Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to live in Manhattan but could never afford to do so. My second choice would be Florence, Italy.
What or who has influenced you the most as a writer?
Janet Evanovich. We’re both Jersey girls and share a Jersey girl sense of humor.
Do you have any author friends who support you while you’re writing? Do you belong to any writing groups?
I belong to several professional writing groups, and I’m a member of two group blogs, Booklover’s Bench and The Stiletto Gang. I’ve made some lifelong friend through these groups.
Finally, what are you working on now? Can you tell us a bit about it?
Having just released A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, I’m beginning to think about a plot for the next book. Inspiration has not yet struck as I write this, though. I think my muse is on well-deserved vacation.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions!
Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself to your readers, Christy!
About Lois Winston
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 unexpectedly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes twelve novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries, currently at two novels, and one book so far in her Mom Squad Capers series.
To date Lois has published twenty-one novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency. To learn more about Lois and her books, visit her at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and follow her at various social media sites.
Author Links
Website: http://www.loiswinston.com
Newsletter sign-up: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r2e9v1
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
Purchase Links:
Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble Apple Books
Enter the giveaway
A Crafty Collage of Crime TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 19 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
June 19 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – REVIEW
June 20 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 20 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 21 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT
June 22 – Jane Reads – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 22 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
June 23 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 23 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 24 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
June 24 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 25 – Indie Author Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 26 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT
June 27 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 28 – My Reading Journeys – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 29 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 30 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 30 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
July 1 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST
July 2 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
July 2 – The Mystery Section – SPOTLIGHT
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Christy, thanks so much for interviewing me today and featuring A Crafty Collage of Crime.
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping! I enjoyed reading your answers!
I am partial to ebooks now, too. They take up less space on a crowded shelf. Congrats to Lois on the release of A Crafty Collage of Crime!
Thanks, Vera! Glad you could stop by and read the interview.
I enjoyed the interview. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Rita. I’m glad you enjoyed the interview.
The book sounds good and I really like the cover!
Thanks, Linda!
Very nice interview. Sounds like a great cozy!