Tag Archive for: Cozy Mystery

New Crafting Mystery: Embroidered Lies and Alibis

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By Lois Winston

Embroidered Lies and Alibis, Book 15 in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, is currently available for preorder. Wow, right?

Back in the early years of this century, when I was first asked to write a crafting-themed amateur sleuth series, I never could have envisioned that twenty years later, I’d still be writing about Anastasia. Especially since I’d never written a mystery prior to sitting down to write Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the book that got the series rolling. I wrote romance, romantic suspense, and chick lit back then. I also never could have imagined that I’d leave those genres behind once I immersed myself in the world of cozy and amateur sleuth mysteries. But that’s exactly what happened.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis, like the other books in the series, draws on topics that are on the minds of many of us these days as we try to understand the rapidly changing world around us. The seeds of the plot sprang from an article I read in 2024 about a quarter of a billion-dollar crypto theft and a mysterious kidnapping. It grew from there, incorporating scams perpetrated on senior citizens. And of course, I added some dead bodies.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis is by no means a techno-thriller, though. It’s a cozy mystery about how one person’s greed impacts many innocent people, including my sleuth and her family, and eventually leads to murder.

If you didn’t know by now, I’m a total news junkie. I read several newspapers every day and watch both local and national news every night. “What if” is always playing around in my mind. I keep a loose-leaf binder filled with stories I’ve clipped from magazines and newspapers and downloaded from the Internet. Writer’s Block never lasts long because whenever I’m stuck, I read through those clippings until the perfect idea present itself. I’ve been inspired by everything from unethical fertility doctors to Ponzi schemes to local murders, not to mention a myriad of human-interest stories. Lately, cryptocurrency and AI have become a rich source of plot ideas due to the corruption and unethical behavior of many people connected to both.

In Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the fourteenth book in the series, I had to look no further than the neighbors who lived across the street from me decades ago. I knew they’d eventually make it into a book. Now, the aftermath of that plot has flowed seamlessly (pun intended!) into Embroidered Lies and Alibis.

Do you enjoy books with plots that incorporate current events and/or trends? 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.

~*~

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.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis

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.

Pre-Order Now. Available 2/10/26.

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Guest Author Patricia Crisafulli

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Today, we welcome bestselling and award-winning guest author Patricia Crisafulli. Her Ohnita Harbor Mystery Series launched in 2022 with The Secrets of Ohnita Harbor, followed in 2023 by The Secrets of Still Waters Chasm. Her latest in the series, The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery, released last month. Find her at www.FaithHopeandFiction.com.

The Traitor’s Map: A Mysterious Artifact That Never Was

By Patricia Crisafulli

I can picture the scene so clearly: sitting in a sixth- or seventh-grade classroom in northern New York State and listening as the teacher told the story of a map dating from the American Revolution. It was a spy map, showing all the hiding places along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

The cartographer had carefully recorded every stream, creek, nook, cove, and marsh along a craggy beachfront. Here was where the Continental Army hid its boats; there was where they concealed a cache of weapons. But in an attack of conscience, the mapmaker changed his mind and altered the depiction of the landscape to make it worthless to the British.

From my preteen years until now, I’ve held onto the memory of the Traitor’s Map. When I began writing the third novel in my Ohnita Harbor Mystery Series, I couldn’t wait to research this map—to uncover its provenance, perhaps even find a picture of it.

Except it doesn’t seem to exist. No map matches the story I’d been told so many years ago. In fact, there’s no mention anywhere of a purposefully inaccurate spy map dating from the Revolution (though plenty of accurate ones). Every time I Google “Traitor’s Map” all I get are descriptions of my own novel—The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery.

But trust me, the story of the Traitor’s Map feels like a memory of something so real, I can envision it clearly. And that’s a gift to me as a writer, making this artifact all the more authentic in my mind and I hope, in my novel.

The Story Behind the Artifact

As my protagonist, Gabriela Domenici—librarian, authenticator, and amateur sleuth—observes, artifacts are objects whose stories are waiting to be told. In fact, it’s the story that often makes an artifact valuable—who made it, owned it, cherished it, lost it, found it, stole it …

Each of my three mystery novels features an artifact. In the first book it’s a medieval cross; in the second, an early 19th century nautical schematic; and in the third, the Traitor’s Map. In the opening of The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery, Gabriela, who is also teaching a class at the community college, takes a group of students to the local maritime museum for a first-hand look at this artifact that needs authentication:

She turned to the map, which had been drawn in ink on parchment the color of autumn leaves. A heavy line showed the shoreline, with indentations for coves and inlets, and a few spits of land that jutted out into the water … As Gabriela scanned the map, her chest swelled with excitement and longing, a feeling she associated with the most compelling artifacts and documents she’d handled throughout her career.

Given that the Traitor’s Map is apparently completely fictional, I needed to invent its backstory. And so I came up with the tale of two brothers—Colonel Jacob Thorsen, a commander during the American Revolution, and his brother, Henry, a mapmaker and spy for the British. When Henry was captured, it was Jacob who condemned him to death for spying—no matter that the map he handed over to the British was worthless. Henry escaped and faded into the footnotes of history. Jacob became an even bigger hero in the Revolution and then the War of 1812.

Conflict, political intrigue, betrayal—a story as old as time. And the Traitor’s Map stands as a symbol of that deceit and deception—through the centuries and the generations. And it’s mysteriously linked to the murder of one of Gabriela’s college students who had his heart set on unlocking its secrets. The fact alone leaves Gabriela inconsolable, with feelings of guilt that, had it not been for her assignment, the student never would have been killed.

And what of my own backstory of an old spy map that apparently never existed? Perhaps one day I’ll find evidence of the Traitor’s Map that substantiates what I heard (or at least think I heard) all those years ago. In the meantime, my fictional artifact can stand as a proxy.

The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery

An Ohnita Harbor Mystery, Book 3

In this much-anticipated third book in the Ohnita Harbor Mystery Series, reuniting readers with beloved protagonist Gabriela Domenici, the smalltown librarian whose accidental sleuthing puts her on the frontlines of death and danger. At the heart of the mystery is the Traitor’s Map—a highly inaccurate spy map from the American Revolution. When Gabriela assigns the map as a research project to a group of college students, one of them is found murdered on the lakeshore—triggering a spiral of death and deceit that soon embroils Gabriela and the man she loves. The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery tells a riveting story that explores love, betrayal, murder, and a chance for redemption.

Creating Characters: Meet Levon Larroquette

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Last month, I wrote about Arabella Carpenter, owner of the Glass Dolphin antiques shop, and a main character in my Glass Dolphin mystery series. Arabella also makes brief, but important, appearance in each book of my Marketville Mystery series.

Arabella has what could best be described as a complicated relationship with her charismatic ex-husband, Levon Larroquette. Levon is an antiques picker (think of the TV show, American Pickers). In book 1 (The Hanged Man’s Noose) we find out exactly why Arabella and Levon became “best friend exes,” in book 2 (A Hole in One), we watch their relationship get a whole lot more complicated. Book 3 (Where There’s A Will) wraps up the series and I believe leaves them both exactly where they are meant to be. No spoilers here! If you haven’t read it, time’s a wasting…

In the books, Levon is described as being “drop dead gorgeous” with “shaggy brown hair and indigo blue eyes.” As a reader, you may have summoned up your own inspiration for Levon Larroquette, but in my head, Levon resembles 40-year-old Kris Kristofferson from the 1976 version of A Star is Born (yes, the remake with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga was fine, but IMHO not as good as the Babs/Kris version).

So, what do you think? Kris? Levon? Are you seeing it? And what A Star is Born version do you love most?

 

The Glass Dolphin Mysteries are available in all eBook formats, trade paperback, and on audiobook on Audible, iTunes and Amazon. Find them at www.books2read.com/GlassDolphin. 

Creating Characters: Meet Arabella Carpenter

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Of all my characters (and there are quite a few), Glass Dolphin antiques shop owner Arabella Carpenter is probably my favorite. Feisty and flawed, she’s a loyal friend who still loves her ex-husband, Levon Larroquette (even if she refuses to admit it). But what I really like about her is her motto: Authenticity Matters. Because, well, it does. Anyway, I like Arabella so much that when I began writing the Marketville Mystery series, I found a way to give her a small role as Calamity (Callie) Barnstable’s oldest friend. But who, or what was the inspiration behind her?

I was taking a creative writing course, around 2010, maybe a year or so later, and the assignment was to write a mystery with the words “blue” and “dolphin.” I started writing a story about an antiques shop called the Blue Dolphin, and for no reason I can remember, the name Arabella popped into my head. I don’t think I’d ever heard the name before (although I have since…it’s sort of like when you drive a white Honda Civic..all of a sudden, all the cars you see are white Honda Civics). The Carpenter? I was listening to the radio and Close to You,  an old song by The Carpenters came on. Arabella Carpenter, I thought. That has a nice ring to it. [Sidebar: I changed the name of the shop to the Glass Dolphin after I found out there was a real life Blue Dolphin antiques shop in Maine.]

Here’s a scene from The Hanged Man’s Noose, book 1 in the Glass Dolphin Mystery series:

Arabella surveyed the stack of unopened boxes. The thought of unpacking years of inventory might have been daunting to some, but not to her. She was determined to savor every moment.

She’d been dreaming about owning an antiques shop for ten years, first with Levon, and then without him. No one could take it away now.

But Levon had taught her well, Arabella realized with a trace of nostalgia. She remembered the days when they’d go picking together: estate sales, yard sales, auctions. Levon had an eye for finding a bargain in the rough. It was unfortunate his idea of picking things up went beyond antiques. For him, everything in life came down to the thrill of the hunt.

But he had taken her on as an apprentice when she had nowhere to go and no one to go to, and for that she would be forever grateful. Under Levon’s tutelage, Arabella learned to love antiques for the history they told, the stories they shared. Take clocks. She could pinpoint the region a clock was made simply because of the primary and secondary woods selected. The same held true for antique furniture. No cheap “Made in China” knockoffs back in the nineteenth century. Craftsmen took pride in their work, unlike today’s shoddy built-in obsolescence.

It was close to four o’clock before Arabella stopped, exhausted and hungry. She admired her wall of clocks. The styles were a nice assortment: regulators and banjos, schoolhouse and steeples, gingerbreads, and ogees. Tomorrow morning she’d hang up the vintage posters, the oil paintings and watercolors, the maps and mosaics, before the movers arrived with the furniture. Everything was going to be perfect.

She sat down on top of a stack of flattened boxes and began to cry.

And now, my favorite line of Arabella’s (so far) in response to a developer’s proposal and the standing ovation he receives from the townsfolk:

“Honestly, there are more horses’ asses than horses in this town,” Arabella shouted over the applause. “How can you people buy what that man is selling?”

Seriously, what’s not to love?

About the series:

A small town named after a nineteenth-century traitor. A feisty antiques shop owner with a passion for authenticity. A freelance journalist with a penchant for the truth. Join amateur sleuths Arabella Carpenter and Emily Garland in the not-so-sleepy village of Lount’s Landing, where secrets, subterfuge, and real estate wranglings sometimes lead to murder.

 

READERS: Do you enjoy it when characters (like Arabella Carpenter) make an appearance in another series by the same author? If so, name an example. Three of my faves are Michael Connelly, John Sandford and Tana French, who excel at this.

 

The Glass Dolphin Mystery series is available as a box set or by individual title in trade paperback and e-book. Individual titles are also available in audiobook and large print, trade paperback, and e-book.

www.books2read.com/Glass-THMN

www.books2.read.com/GlassDolphin 

 

 

 

Woman with fan

Summertime Reading

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by Mary Lee Ashford

Summer Heat Woman with Fan

Here in the Midwest it’s been hot, hot, hot recently. I know that’s been true in a lot of other areas as well. With the triple digit heat indexes making it uncomfortable outside, I find myself saying to people, “It’s great weather to stay inside and read!”

But then I realized I say the same thing when we have two feet of snow and a twenty-below wind chill as well. “It’s great weather to stay inside and read!”

Or rainy and stormy outside. Also…you guessed it…great for staying in and reading.

So I guess for me, any season (winter, spring, summer, or fall) is a wonderful season for reading.

However, there’s a lot of buzz right now about “Summer Reads” with all sorts of list to help us pick books to pack in our beach bag, read on the plane, or curl up with on the couch.

And there are some fun lists out there like:

The 2025 Goodreads Guide to Summer Reading

Summer Reads 2025  from Publisher’s Weekly

NPR’s What to Read This Summer

AARP’s 35 Summer Books to Add to Your 2025 Reading List

An article in the Guardian by Daisy Buchanan, caught my eye and proposes we should “Choose comfort, ditch boring, and prioritize pleasure” to find the perfect beach read.  In researching her book “Read Yourself Happy,” Ms. Buchanan investigates the positive impact that reading has on our wellbeing. In fact, a study published by the National Library of Medicine in 2020, indicated that reading wards off cognitive decline. But she posits that we only experience the benefits of books if we are enjoying what we’re reading.

So what books would you recommend for enjoyable reading?

I’ll start with this list of wonderful books by Stiletto Gang blog members here: The Stiletto Gang Books

What titles would you add? What books are you looking forward to reading this summer? Do you perhaps have a book you’ve been saving to read on your vacation?

I can’t wait to hear your suggestions so please share!

 

Author Mary Lee AshfordMary Lee Ashford is the author of the Sugar & Spice mystery series from Oliver Heber Books and also half of the Sparkle Abbey writing team. She is a lifelong bibliophile, an avid reader, and public library champion. Prior to publishing Mary Lee won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa as well as a member of Mystery Writers of America and Novelists, Inc. She lives in the Midwest with her family and her feline coworker.

She loves to hear from other readers and can be found on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky and BookBub.

Ad for direct from publisher sale

Also, of special note:

Game of Scones, the first book in the Sugar & Spice series is currently free in all ebook formats.

And the latest release, Night of the Living Bread, was a Barnes & Noble Top 5 Indie Fave.

Plus Oliver Heber Books is offering a “direct from the publisher” set of all four books for 50% off: Sugar & Spice Mysteries Set 

 

 

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book featured image

Sisterhood of the Traveling Book: Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun

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By Lois Winston

For my first Sisterhood of the Traveling Book post, I’m reaching back to 2012 for the best promo ever.

The Underground New York Public Library is a photo series by photographer Ourit Ben-Haim. It features riders who are reading while waiting for a train or traveling on one throughout the New York subway system. As you can see from the screen capture, photos are posted on the site along with information about the books and links for liking and sharing. This photo was originally taken on March 11, 2012, fourteen months after the debut of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Imagine the thrill I received when the photographer emailed me a copy of the photo. Of course, I framed the photo and have it displayed in my office.

Now, fast-forward fourteen years from the January 2011 series debut to this month, which saw the release of Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the fourteenth book in the series.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, and children’s chapter books. 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 a free Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.

Killing It at Killer Nashville

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At the Killer Nashville book signing

By Lois Winston

Most writers are introverts. We spend much of our days alone with only our laptops or computers (or paper and pen for those who are still old-school) and rarely step foot into the real world. We’d rather spend our time in the world of our imagination with the characters we’ve created. However, every now and then, we venture out onto Earth One and mingle with actual humans.

One of the best places to do this is at a writers’ conference. Hanging with our peeps is our happy place in the real world because they’re the only people who truly “get” us. Because they’re just like us. Writers’ conferences are a chance to spend time with others of our special community. We renew friendships, make new friends, network, learn from some, and teach others. Conferences also occasionally give us a pat on the back, validating that this odd life we’ve chosen, with all its solitary hours of clicking away at the keyboard, is worthwhile.

Such was the case this past weekend when I attended Killer Nashville. Once upon a time, I attended three or four writers’ conferences a year. Then, life changed. I made the decision to “go indie” and no longer had a publisher willing to pick up some or all the expense of attending conferences. Between the conference fee, airfare, hotel, and meals, conferences are not cheap. I cut back drastically, only attending local conferences.

And then Covid hit.

As some of you know, in the middle of the pandemic, my husband and I made the difficult decision to pack up and move to Tennessee to be closer to family. Within days of settling into our new home in July of 2021, I discovered that after a two-year hiatus, the annual Killer Nashville writing conference was about to take place less than two miles from where I now live. Serendipity!

With few exceptions, most writers are introverts. Hence, those writer caves. But I missed my writing peeps in New Jersey. Killer Nashville gave me a chance to connect face-to-face with many other writers I only knew from online writing communities. I also made some new friends and have continued to do so each year I’ve attended since 2021.

The 2024 Killer Nashville conference was this past weekend, and it was a blast, even for this confirmed introvert. On Friday, I was on a panel discussing Writing Compelling Synopsis, Back Cover Copy, and Design. Saturday, I was on two panels, One Trait at a Time: How to Build a Character and Not Just One Book: Writing a Series. I was also one of ten authors who allowed attendees to pick our brains for four minutes each during Speed Date your Way to Author Marketing Success. On Sunday, I was on the Creating an Irresistible Hook for Your Book panel and the Writing Strong Protagonists panel.

Vertically challenged Lois and Gay during an after-dinner stop for ice cream

And then there was Saturday night. Author Gay Yellen and I, along with our husbands, went out to dinner, something we’d also done last year. Upon returning to the hotel, our husbands headed for the bar while Gay and I ducked into the awards ceremony. Not ten seconds later, Clay Stafford, MC for the evening and Killer Nashville head honcho, announced the winner of the 2024 Silver Falchion Award for Best Comedy. Much to my surprise, he called my name!

I never expected to win. With few exceptions, throughout my writing career, I’ve always been the bridesmaid, rarely the bride. I hadn’t prepared any remarks because the one time I had attended the ceremony back in 2021, no one made any remarks. Winners were handed their awards, shook Clay’s hand, and a photographer snapped a picture. Maybe it was because we were all still coming out of Covid.

This time, I was expected to say something. My mind still reeling over actually winning, I stepped up to the mic and thanked whoever it was who’d determined that A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, deserved the award this year. As I walked away, I heard Clay tell the audience that I was a woman of few words and there were probably plenty of people who wished that he was! (a person of few words, that is, not a woman!)

With my Best Comedy medal the next morning

Well, at least I didn’t bore anyone in the audience by droning on and on by thanking everyone, going all the way back to my kindergarten teacher!

Writers, what’s your favorite aspect of conferences? Readers, have you ever attended a readers’ convention or other book event? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook of any one of the first ten Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery.

~*~

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 where can also sign up for her newsletter and find links to her other social media: www.loiswinston.com

With a Little Help from my Friends

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artwork from Pixabay and Depositphotos

By Lois Winston

As authors, we spend much of our days in our writer caves. Sometimes, we rarely leave the house for days as we peck away at the keyboard, increasing our word count. Living life in a vacuum is hard, though. Sometimes we need to bounce ideas off someone, and let’s face it, kids and spouses are rarely helpful when it comes to figuring out the perfect murder or choosing whodunit from several possibly suspects. That’s why critique partners, as well as writing communities, are so important. Often, they’re the only people who truly “get” us.

My latest book, Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, released earlier this month. In-between a month-long virtual book tour, I’ve been mulling over possible plots for the next book in the series.

I’ve always had a weird fascination with unusual personalities and often put them in my books. Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law is a perfect example. She’s based on my own communist mother-in-law, minus the French bulldog.

Years ago, we had some very strange neighbors living across the street from us. They’ve been parked in a recess of my brain for two-and-a-half decades, waiting to spring forth as characters in a book. I wondered, though, were they too over-the-top?

I decided this was a question, not for my critique partner nor my fellow writers. I needed to hear from my readers. So, in my May newsletter, I introduced them to the couple I had dubbed The Stoop Sitters. After relating the story, I asked if they thought The Stoop Sitters should become characters in my next book.

Everyone who responded loved the idea. I don’t know yet who these characters will be, but based on the overwhelmingly favorable responses I received, they will show up in some way in the next book.

I had already set up the possibility of The Stoop Sitters back in A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in the series. Circumstances which occurred in that book resulted in the house across the street from Anastasia being torn down and replaced with a McMansion. Since Anastasia has yet to meet her new neighbors, they could be The Stoop Sitters.

Have I piqued your curiosity? Are you dying to know more about The Stoop Sitters?

When my husband and I purchased a home in an upscale New Jersey suburb, the house across the street stood out for all the wrong reasons. It was a dilapidated mess in need of major repairs. We suspected the resident or residents were elderly with a limited income. Much to our surprise, we discovered the owners were a couple in their late thirties or early forties. They had two school-aged kids.

The parents didn’t seem to have jobs. They’d camp out on the top step of their small concrete landing for hours at a time, either together or individually. Just sitting and smoking and often drinking beer, but never conversing with each other. Often the husband would remove his shirt and lie back on the landing, his massive stomach pointing heavenward. He’d remain that way for hours, apparently napping.

When Mr. Stoop Sitter wasn’t sprawled bare-chested on the landing, he’d spend hours mowing his lawn, an extremely small barren patch of packed dirt and weeds. For hours, he’d walk behind his mower, trimming the nonexistent grass, until the mower ran out of gas. The next day, after refilling the mower, the scene would repeat. It continued each day throughout the year, except during rain and snowstorms.

I need to stop here to mention that I’m not a voyeur. My home office was situated at the front of the house with my desk positioned under the front window. It was impossible not to notice The Stoop Sitters.

One day, my concentration was broken by a cat fight between two women. I glanced up from my computer screen to find Mrs. Stoop Sitter standing on the sidewalk, accusing another woman of trying to steal her husband. The scene was right out of Real Housewives of New Jersey, minus the camera crew. Eventually, Mrs. Stoop Sitter hurled one last warning, stormed up the steps, and entered her house, slamming the door behind her. The other woman turned and walked down the street. I never saw her again.

Now, Mr. Stoop Sitter was no one’s idea of a catch, but the scene I’d witnessed proved otherwise. Obviously, there’s someone for everyone. At least in Mrs. Stoop Sitter’s mind.

Eventually, the Stoop Sitters sold their house to a developer who tore it down and built a McMansion. There’s a story to be told about the people who moved into the McMansion, but I’ll save that for another time.

So what do you think? If my readers can suspend their disbelief enough to accept a communist mother-in-law and a Shakespeare-quoting parrot (not to mention a reluctant amateur sleuth who stumbles across more dead bodies than the average big city homicide cop in an entire career,) will they buy into the Stoop Sitters?

Would you? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the currently available Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries.

~*~

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 where can also sign up for her newsletter and find links to her other social media: www.loiswinston.com

How Cozy!

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First, a happy piece of news!

The Body Next Door has just won GOLD in the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards. I am honored and happy for the recognition, the fifth one for this, my second book in the Samantha Newman Mystery Series. I’m also amazed and amused. Here’s why:

Flashback to 2014:

I’d helped someone else write a successful thriller, and just finished the first book that was all mine. I wrote it as a thriller as well: fast-moving and tense, bad guys revealed from the beginning, there’s a bomb, and good people might die.

But the publisher who loved it marketed The Body Business as a Romantic Suspense novel, not a thriller.

Then I wrote a sequel, The Body Next Door.  When it was released in 2016 (the recent American Legacy prize is for backlisted books), many readers and reviewers called it a Cozy. The first prize it won back then was a Chanticleer Mystery & Mayhem award, which, as I later discovered, is given for cozies like Agatha Christie classics. I was pleased, but confused.

So, what makes my book a cozy?

Cozies are very popular entertainment, but when I studied the genre more than a decade ago, I encountered a slew of rabid rule-keepers that strictly defined what made a book a cozy and, especially, what must never happen in one: graphic sex, cursing, and bloody violence. Not wanting to incur the wrath of the cozy police in the form of angry reviews, I laid low.

While there’s no graphic sex in my books, the bad guys in the first book do some pretty unsavory things. Also, cozies are usually set in small towns, while my series is set in a big metropolitan area. It’s common for a cozy protagonist to own a cat or other sentient pet (Samantha has none) and to manage a small business, preferably a cozy store or restaurant. Neither element is present in my books.

And yet, to my amazement and amusement, The Body Next Door has won a Best Cozy award again. Now I’m wondering if the series should be described as Cozy.

The rules seem to have loosened in recent years. Are cozy readers more forgiving?

Which brings me to Book 3, The Body in the News, which was recently released. It follows the continuing saga of Samantha Newman, who must solve yet another murder while still struggling to find her true calling. The story features the main characters and settings from the beginning of the series and adds a few colorful new ones, too.

I’m still wary of calling the book anything except a Romantic Mystery. Full of suspense, with interesting characters and a dollop of humor, whichever way someone wants to classify my books is just fine with me, as long as they have been entertained.

Do you look for certain genres to enjoy, or are you an omivourous reader?

Please comment below!

Gay Yellen is a former magazine editor and national journalism award winner. She was the contributing book editor for Five Minutes to Midnight (Delacorte), an international thriller and New York Times Notable. Her award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series includes The Body Business, The Body Next Door, and The Body in the News.

Gay loves to connect with book clubs and community groups in person and online. Contact her through her website, GayYellen.com.

 

Taste in Reading is like Cherry Garcia vs. Peanut Butter Swirl

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images from Pixabay

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how subjective taste is. What makes one person love something that another person has a hard time swallowing, let alone enjoying? The other night my husband and I sat down to watch a movie. After fifteen minutes he left the room to watch a hockey game on another television. I continued to watch the movie. It wasn’t the best movie I’d ever seen, but it wasn’t the worst, either. I found the character studies fascinating, even if the plot left a bit to be desired. And I enjoyed the movie enough to want to sit through it until the end to see how the conflicts were resolved.

Sometimes that happens to me with a book. I’ll continue reading one I don’t particularly love because I either a) find enough enjoyable about it that I want to finish it, b) am hoping it gets better, or c) am hoping that even though I figured out whodunit by chapter three, the author will prove me wrong and give me a totally different ending I didn’t see coming (and man, when that happens, I love it!)

But there are other times when I pick up a book and toss it aside after a chapter or two. Often, it’s a book that has gotten rave reviews. Sometimes it’s even a book by an author I’ve read and enjoyed previously. When this happens, one of two reactions occur. I either a) wonder if there’s something wrong with me that I don’t get what everyone else sees in the book, or b) scratch my head, wondering why everyone else can’t see the flaws in plot and character that jump off the page at me.

Then there are times where I fall in love with a book and recommend it to friends, only to have them question my taste. Or worse yet, my sanity.

For many people Peanut Butter Swirl is the perfect ice cream flavor. For me, anything with peanut butter  sets off my gag reflexes. I’m more a Cherry Garcia kind of girl. Taste. It’s one of the unsolved mysteries of the universe.

Why do you suppose that is? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of one of the first nine books in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series.

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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 under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. 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 where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

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