By Lois Winston

It occurred to me recently, that I’ve been dodging disaster for most of my life. Although, I never realized it at the time, I’ve always been one or two degrees of separation ahead of disaster.

Dodging Disaster #1

I was a young teen the first time I dodged disaster. I had run a quick errand to return a pair of pants at a department store downtown. The day seemed perfectly normal. Less than 24 hours later, I sat in front of the television, watching the Newark riots unfold on the very streets where I’d walked the day before.

Dodging Disaster #2

Five years later, I flew into Da Vinci Airport in Rome – at the same time terrorists arrived on their way to Tel Aviv, where they opened fire in the airport, killed 26 people and injured another 80.

Dodging Disaster #3

Three weeks after arriving in Rome, I cut my trip short and boarded one of the last flights out of Paris before the pilots went on strike to protest rampant hijacking that were taking place across the globe.

Dodging Disaster #4

In 1983, my family and I were returning from a trip to Connecticut. The next day, the I-95 bridge we’d driven over collapsed into the Mianus River, killing three people and injuring three.

Dodging Disaster #5

On the morning of September 9, 2001, my husband and I were walking through the World Trade Center complex on our way to the South Street Seaport. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what happened there two days later.

Looking back on all of this, it’s a wonder I never curled up in a ball under the quilts and refused to come back out. After each incident, life went on, and I went on with it, parking each of those dodged disasters in some deep recess of my brain. I never forgot them, but I never grouped them together. Until now.

I never thought I was a very lucky person. I’ve never won more than a few dollars playing the lottery. For most of my life, I’ve always thought of myself as more the bridesmaid than the bride, the also ran who might occasionally win a brass ring but was never quite good enough to score the Golden Ticket. But maybe that’s not the case. Maybe when it comes to what really counts in life, I’m one of the luckiest girls alive. After all, one or two degrees of separation is sometimes all it takes to avoid disaster.

And that got me thinking about my writing. Maybe that’s why, with all the murder and mayhem I’ve dumped on my reluctant amateur sleuth over the years, she doesn’t let it get to her. She dodges one disaster after another, meeting each with backbone and a sense of humor that gets her through the worst of times. Has writing about strong female characters been my subconscious way of not dwelling on the near misses of my own life? I wonder what Freud would say about that.

Have you ever discovered you’d dodged a disaster? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the available Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest Mysteries.

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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. Her latest release is Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth book in her Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.