Sisterhood of the Traveling Book featured image

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book

/in /by

Photo credits: Depositphotos and Pixabay

By Lois Winston

Welcome back to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. Books take readers on journeys. With the Sisterhood of the Traveling Book, we authors take our books on journeys, either actual or virtual.

When I came up with the idea for Sisterhood of the Traveling Book, my inaugural post featured a photo from the Underground New York Public Library series where the photographer captured readers and the books they were reading on the subway. Imagine my shock and delight when I received an email with a copy of the photo! And no, I didn’t know the photographer nor the reader she photographed on the subway platform, and I’d never heard of the series.

We’ve since decided to revive Sisterhood of the Traveling Book, but my recent book, Embroidered Lies and Alibis, takes place entirely in New Jersey, and I’m now living in Tennessee. I have no plans to return to the NY Metro area until I visit friends this coming spring. Thus, I needed a virtual solution for Sisterhood of the Traveling Book.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis opens with the aftermath of events that took place in Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the previous book in the series. If you haven’t read Seams Like the Perfect Crime, don’t worry. Although personally, I believe readers always have a richer experience reading a series in order, all the book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries can be read out of order without the reader feeling lost.

Early into Embroidered Lies and Alibis, Anastasia arrives home from work and is confronted by the following sight:

“After arriving home, I first stood on the sidewalk for a moment and stared across the street. A professionally crafted sign stood against a backdrop of a battered yellow bulldozer situated at the center of a weed-strewn pile of earth.”

As you can see, I’ve illustrated what Anastasia saw, virtually adding Embroidered Lies and Alibis to the scene for Sisterhood of the Traveling Book.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis was released on February 10th and is available as an ebook, paperback, and hardcover. The audiobook will be available shortly.

Have you ever been to a place featured in a book you’ve read? 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.

 

Embroidered Lies and Alibis

An 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.

Buy Links

Amazon    Nook   Kobo   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. 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.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book

/in /by

Greetings! I’m excited to join the Sisterhood of the Traveling Book and share where my books have been spotted.

In choosing one particular book, it occurred to me that all of my books have traveled. Many across the U.S. some internationally. In fact, I’m rather jealous. They are far better traveled than…well, me!

So, for purposes of my first Traveling Book post, I decided to talk about New Mexico, the state where I currently live, and the places my books have appeared within the Land of Enchantment.

Taos: One such place was Taos, New Mexico. A Santa Fe bookstore owner invited me to talk about Until Dead: A Cold Case Suspense with a Taos book club. Not only did this wonderful group buy my lunch; they were well prepared with their questions and perceptions about the book and the series.

Taos Book Club members

About Taos: I’d been to Taos as a young girl. Later, my family and I hiked, held family reunions and attended a balloon festival in the northeastern part of the state. There is so much outdoor activity to do in this area.

Taos Pueblo (Moreen Drake Photographer)

Taos is a historian’s dream. Located in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, the city has a history that dates back to the 16th Century when Spanish Conquistadors flooded the area in search of gold. Later, in the 1800s, Kit Carson settled here. He is perhaps the most renowned, but only one of the legends that make this area famous.

San Francisco de Asis Church, Rancho de Taos, NM (Moreen Drake Photographer)

The Taos Pueblo has a strong Native American population and is something to behold. Rich in tribal tradition, you will find Southwestern art and jewelry, witness tribal dances and enjoy authentic Southwestern cuisine (my personal favorite Indian fry bread!)

Nevertheless, if you visit Taos, pack your patience in your suitcase. It is an incredibly popular tourist destination. Its population isn’t quite 7,000, and I visited off season. Downtown has limited ingress and egress and is comprised of restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts, parks and museums. Trust me, though, the food, scenery, history, skiing, and additional things to do while you’re there will make it worth the effort.

Farmington: Another place my books have taken me is to my hometown of Farmington, New Mexico. When Black Pearl: A Cold Case Suspense was published, I was interviewed on a local radio station. Sometime afterward, I participated in a joint author signing at the Farmington Public Library.

The new library is an impressive architectural feat of glass and steel and is well organized and managed. However, I was sad not to enter the library I remembered from my childhood. The old building, long torn down, had a museum attached. Inside, I could view mannequins behind roped-off sections operating antique sewing machines, opening ice boxes, or read about the farming community for which the city is named. The honest truth is though, back in those days, I went to the museum mostly to see the two-headed calf!

About Farmington: Farmington is located in the Four Corners area, because the tip of New Mexico borders Arizona, Colorado and Utah. If you’re interested in Native American studies and artifacts, you will find the Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins close by.

Southwest of Farmington, you’ll encounter Shiprock, New Mexico, which in Navajo is Tse.Bit’a’i, for “rock with wings.”

Shiprock at Sunrise (Jim Rhodes, Photographer)

To the east of Farmington is Navajo Lake State Park, while if you travel fifty miles northwest, you’ll reach Durango, Colorado. Farmington’s climate has four seasons and outdoor enthusiasts love this area. So, whether you ski on a mountain or in the water, you can plan accordingly.

Las Cruces: I only had to drive fifteen minutes to the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library for this event. With help from the Friends of the Library, here I am pictured with my good friend, Author Bailey Herrington who interviewed me about my cold case suspense Black Pearl.

About Las Cruces: In addition to having an outstanding library, I have enjoyed living in Las Cruces. The city comes with a small-town ambiance. Further, I love the culture. It’s home to New Mexico State University, which offers cultural and educational programs as well as sporting events. Surrounded by Mesilla Valley, the Organ Mountains, White Sands National Park, we live thirty minutes from El Paso. I grant it’s hot during the summer, but the climate is generally mild in the remaining months. I’m outdoors more than I’ve ever been in my life. Everywhere I turn, I see bicyclists and runners. I walk, and my husband and I are active in the pickleball community. As for him, he’s in his element, hiking, hunting and running.

I know this blog sounds like a Travelogue. However, isn’t that what it is–to talk about the places my books have traveled? I’m still trying to alert people that New Mexico is in the United States. Ideally, this blog has mentioned some great New Mexico cities you may want to consider visiting in the future. And, of course, I hope you’ll check out my books!

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.