Please join us in welcoming Lois Winston back to Chicks on the Case: Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction! Her latest publication is book 15 in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series: Embroidered Lies and Alibis.

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A Life in Several Acts

I have a degree in graphic design and illustration. After graduating college, I worked at two different advertising agencies before landing a position as a department store layout artist.

Then I got pregnant. Without trying. My husband and I had just bought our first house, but we weren’t thinking of filling up the spare bedrooms with babies anytime soon. The universe had other ideas. Turns out I’m one of those women immune to the magical powers of the IUD.

Childcare back then was both scarce and costly. I had a very sweet, albeit old-school boss who believed mothers should stay home with their babies. However, he also realized I needed to work, both for the salary and my sanity. We worked out a freelancing arrangement that enabled me to work from home—until the department store was sold to a conglomerate.

Needlework was one of my hobbies, and while in a needlework shop one day, I learned that a kit manufacturer was headquartered not far from my home. I had always designed my own pieces. I called the company to schedule an interview. A few days later, I walked out with six assignments.

That was the start of my career as a designer in the consumer crafts industry. During the 70s and 80s, I juggled several dozen freelance accounts. Then came the home computer. Suddenly, instead of crafting, people were spending their free time online. By the 90s, craft companies were going out of business. Magazines folded. And my income plummeted—at a time when my husband was out of work, and we were juggling two tuitions.

We all deal with stress in different ways. Some people run marathons, others run to therapy, and still others run to the mall for retail therapy. None of these were viable options for me.

After years of a daily mandatory outdoor mile run in gym class each day, I’ll only run to escape a killer hot on my heels. As for therapy, retail or otherwise, we were eating macaroni and cheese most nights to stretch the food budget. No way could I afford a new pair of socks, let alone a shrink.

One day the idea for a story popped into my head. I hadn’t written any fiction since Freshman Comp in college, but I started typing away. Writing relieved my stress. Losing myself in my characters enabled me to escape my own problems, if only for a short time. Before I knew it, I had completed a novel. I then began a decade-long journey toward publication. My first book debuted ten years, almost to the day, that I first began writing.

Throughout the 90s and into the new millennium, I designed less (not by choice) and wrote more. After my first book had sold, I was offered a position at the agency that repped me. Turns out, even though it took ten years for my first book to sell, I had a knack for finding gems in the slush and working with authors to polish their manuscripts.

My first books were romances, but when my agent suggested I write a crafting-themed cozy mystery (she knew an editor looking for one), I used my experiences in the craft industry to create my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, debuted in 2011. I’ve been writing about Anastasia ever since. Last month saw the release of Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth book in the series.

Throughout the series, I’ve incorporated many of my own experiences in the crafts industry into my plots. With one exception. Unlike Anastasia, in all my years as a designer, I never came across a single dead body. However, revenge being sweet, I have vicariously killed off certain people from back in my designing days in some of my plots (wink-wink!).

If you’re a writer, have you incorporated your day job into your books? Readers, do you enjoy reading about characters who work in the same profession as you? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook of any of the available Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest Mysteries.

 

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Embroidered Lies and Alibis: Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 15

A Stitch in Time Could Save a Life…

When Anastasia’s mother Flora is offered a free spa vacation from Jeremy Dugan, a man connected to her distant past, Anastasia and husband Zack suspect ulterior motives. After all, too-good-to-be-true often spells trouble. Their suspicions are confirmed when the FBI swoops in to apprehend Dugan. However, Dugan isn’t who he claimed to be, and his arrest raises more questions than answers.

The Feds link Dugan to a string of cons targeting elderly single women across the country, but his seemingly airtight alibi leaves investigators stumped. Then, shortly after his release on bail, he’s kidnapped. A certain segment of New Jersey’s population is known for delivering deadly messages, and the FBI believes Dugan received one of them.

Meanwhile, bodies begin showing up in the newly created public garden across the street from Anastasia and Zack’s home. With two baffling crimes, no clear suspects, scant evidence, and every possible motive unraveling, both the FBI and local law enforcement are once again picking Anastasia’s brain. This time, though, her involvement is far from reluctant. Will she stitch together enough clues before she or someone she loves becomes the killer’s next victim?

Craft project included. Available now:  Amazon / Nook  / Kobo  / Apple Books

 

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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.

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. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.