There’s nothing we Chicks love more than great books with a strong dose of humor (even more than coffee!). So of course we’re delighted to welcome the hilarious and massively talented Lois Winston to the blog today. Enjoy, Everyone–and take it away, Lois! Please.

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How the Girl Who Couldn’t Tell a Joke Wound Up Writing Comedy

If someone in my past had told me one day I’d not only write comedy, but I’d win a Best Comedy Award, I’d wonder what planet they came from. Me? Surely not on Earth One. In my entire life, I’ve remembered exactly one punchline: “There’s no plates like chrome for the Hollandaise,” which I heard decades ago in my early twenties. Don’t ask me why I remember this particular punchline. I have no idea. Maybe it’s because I enjoy a good pun, as evidenced by the titles of some of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. However—and this is a huge however—I’ve never been able to remember the setup to that joke!

I started my writing career penning angst-driven romances and romantic suspense. Much to my agent’s surprise, we racked up an impressive pile of rejection letters along the way to a sale. What one editor loved, another cited as the reason for the rejection. No two or ten or twenty opinions were ever the same. And every time we came close to a sale, fate had other ideas. The editor who loved a book couldn’t convince the editorial board. Another editor who loved a book left one publishing house for another that didn’t buy the genre I wrote. One publishing company was bought out by another that immediately canceled the line. I was amazed that my agent stuck with me.

When the chick lit craze hit after the publication of Bridget Jones’s Diary, my agent suggested I try my hand at writing chick lit. Suddenly, the girl who couldn’t tell a joke to save her life discovered a deeply buried talent for writing humor, and I scored my first book deal with Talk Gertie to Me, a fish-out-of-water tale about a young woman from Iowa who moves to New York and the mother determined to bring her home to marry the boy next door.

On day my agent called and asked if I’d ever thought about writing a cozy mystery series. I wasn’t even sure I knew what a cozy mystery series was. I’d never read Nancy Drew back in the day. I was more a Cherry Ames girl and for a few years wanted to become a nurse.

However, my agent had just come from having lunch with an editor looking for a humorous cozy mystery series with a crafting theme. In my day job I designed craft and needlecraft projects for craft manufacturers, magazines, and craft book publishers. And thanks to my first sale, I’d already proven I had a funny bone, even if only in print. So I agreed to give it a try.

Inspiration hit when, klutz that I am, I burned my finger on my hot glue gun. The result was Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in what was to become my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, currently at fourteen novels and three novellas.

I still can’t remember a joke or tell one to save my life, but we’ll keep that secret between us, okay? And that Best Comedy award? That came last August when A Crafty Collage of Crime won Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Best Comedy.

How do you feel about mixing humor with murder and mayhem? Post a comment to win a promo code for a free audiobook of any of the available Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

Seams Like the Perfect Crime

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 14

When staffing shortages continue to hamper the Union County homicide squad, Detective Sam Spader once again turns to his secret weapon, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. How can she and husband Zack Barnes refuse when the victim is their new neighbor?

Revolutionary War reenactor Barry Sumner had the odd habit of spending hours mowing a small patch of packed dirt and weeds until his mower ran out of gas. He’d then guzzle beer on his front porch until he passed out. That’s where Anastasia’s son Nick discovers his body three days after the victim and his family moved into the newly built mini-McMansion across the street.

After a melee breaks out at the viewing, Spader zeroes in on the widow as his prime suspect. However, Anastasia has her doubts. There are other possible suspects, including a woman who’d had an affair with the victim, his ex-wife, the man overseeing the widow’s trust fund, a drug dealer, and the reenactors who were blackmailing the widow and victim.

When another reenactor is murdered, Spader suspects they’re dealing with a serial killer, but Anastasia wonders if the killer is attempting to misdirect the investigation. As she narrows down the suspects, will she jeopardize her own life to learn the truth?

​Craft projects included.

Buy Links

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lois Winston, a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, middle-grade, and nonfiction, sold her first book to a NY publishing house in 2005. Currently she writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, along with a supporting cast of characters that include Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law, her self-proclaimed Russian princess mother, and Ralph, the Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Learn more at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and receive a free Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.