Tag Archive for: Lois Winston

Author Lois Winston on the Battle of Author Versus Character

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author versus character

Image created from graphics courtesy of Depositphotos and Pixabay

By Lois Winston

It’s Their Story, not Ours

There’s a battle going on where author versus character. Authors often talk about how their characters sometimes blindside them. We think we know where our story is going when suddenly, a character refuses to do what we want her to do.

Authors think we’re the ones in charge. Characters know they’re really the ones in charge. It’s their story, not ours. We’re only documenting it.

Ignore Your Characters at Your Own Risk

At first, we reluctantly ignore those voices in our head, otherwise known as our characters. We try to power through the plot, holding fast in our belief that we’re the ones who know how to write and know the direction the story should take. After all, when it comes to author versus character, we’re the ones who have studied and honed our craft.

We’ve mastered goal, motivation, and conflict. We’ve learned about The Hero’s Journey and plot arcs. If we’re writing a murder mystery, we know we need means, method, and opportunity. Then, much to our surprise, we hit a brick wall. We discover our characters have joined forces with our muse. And much to our horror, they’ve unionized and called a strike!

Our Characters have Turned Against Us

They’re making demands! And threats! If we hold firm and don’t give in, we suddenly find ourselves suffering through a massive case of writer’s block. Those wonderful characters that sprang from our imagination have us over the proverbial barrel. We reluctantly realize we have no other recourse than to negotiate.

This Battle of Author Versus Character is a Battle the Author Can’t Win

However, they refuse to negotiate. We’re forced to accept that when it comes to author versus character, we can’t win. Have our creations taken over? Or were they always in charge, but we never realized it? Does writer’s block occurred because authors try to force square pegs into a round holes, but our characters refuse all our attempts?

Acceptance is not Defeat

I now have fifteen novels and three novellas in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. When I wrote the first book in the early years of this century, I never expected the journey to last this long or take me to the places it has. I’ve learned to listen to my sleuth. She’s forced me to take risks with my writing and travel to literary places I never expected. She continually kicks my butt if I try to take the easy way out. So, I’ve learned to let her lead, and I follow. It’s a humbling experience to accept that you’re not in charge of your own creations, but in the end, I’ve found it to be a huge win.

Whether you’re a writer or a reader, have you ever had a similar experience in life where you’ve had to accept that maybe you weren’t right about the way you were doing something? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook of one of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest 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.

Grammar Crimes

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By Lois Winston

Like Henry Higgins, grammar crimes make me cringe. I’m sure you remember his immortal words: “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?” He then went on to add, “In America, they haven’t spoken it in years.” He wasn’t wrong.

Grammar Crimes

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Grammar Crimes

Thanks to my junior high school English teacher, I suffer from a multitude of grammar pet peeves. Throughout seventh and eighth grade, Peggy Riley Hughes drummed grammar into me. Since then, poor grammar, whether written or spoken, makes me cringe. I can’t help it. Those rules were burned into my brain.

Split Logs, not Infinitives

To boldly go where no man has gone before. Remember that opening from Star Trek? Cringe-worthy! Gene Rodenberry obviously didn’t have Peggy Riley Hughes as an English teacher. If he had, he never would have split his infinitive.

Sadly, the Oxford English Dictionary did the unthinkable years ago and declared that it’s now okay to split infinitives. It’s no longer a grammar crime. The horror! Poor Peggy! At least she didn’t live long enough to experience such a crime.

License to Take Liberties

As authors, we have license to take liberties with our writing. For instance, when I write dialogue, I don’t necessarily write in perfectly formed sentences because people rarely speak in perfectly formed sentences. We speak in sentence fragments. So do our characters, but that’s okay. We want our characters to sound real, not stilted.

Style often dictates that sentence fragments also be used in narrative, depending on the genre, the plot, the era, and the characters populating our novel. Again, that’s perfectly acceptable.

If you Break it, Own it

Deliberately committing a grammar crime is okay if there’s a reason for doing so. The foremost reason is to keep your characters believable. “Me and him were late for school.” works if the dialog is spoken by a young child or in narrative, if you’re writing the scene from the child’s point of view. It would stand out like the proverbial sore thumb if spoken by a college professor.

Breaking this Rule Doesn’t Make You Sound More Intelligent

The grammar crime that makes me cringe the most, though, is the misuse of pronouns. For some reason, even very well-educated people constantly misuse pronouns, substituting “I” for “me” because they think using the nominative case for the objective case sounds more intelligent.

There are Three Types of Pronouns

Nominative: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and who

Objective: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, and whom

Possessive: my, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs, and whose

The nominative form is used when the pronoun is the subject of a sentence. The objective form is used when the pronoun is the direct object of the sentence or is part of a prepositional phrase.

WRONG: He invited Mary and I.

RIGHT: He invited Mary and me.

WRONG: The coach had to choose between Mary and I.

RIGHT: The coach had to choose between Mary and me.

Hopefully, the OED won’t someday decide that it’s perfectly acceptable to replace the objective with the nominative. “He invited I.” “He sat opposite I.” “The coach chose I.” Holy cringe-worthy grammar crime! 😵‍💫

However, because we’re dealing with English, there’s an exception to this grammar rule. Because in English, it seems there’s always an exception to just about every rule. In this case, it’s the “to be” verbs, also known as “linking verbs.” When using am, is, are, was, were, or be, you use the nominative form of the pronoun for the direct object, not the objective.

WRONG: It was him.

RIGHT: It was he.

WRONG: It’s me.

RIGHT: It’s I.

If you’re now thoroughly confused, you’re not alone.

Never the Both of Us

Finally, there are many grammar rules I remember from my junior high days and know not to break, but I don’t remember the reason for the rule. For example, it’s either “the two of us” or “both of us” but never “the both of us.” Don’t ask me why. I forgot the reason for that grammar rule many decades ago, if there ever was a logical reason. It’s quite possible that just for fun, some grammarian at Oxford or Cambridge decided to make life and the English language more confusing for all of us. After all, they didn’t have TV, the Internet, or video games back then. They had to get their amusement from somewhere.

Do you have a grammar pet peeve? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest 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.

ePub Software Woes! Oh No!

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By Lois Winston

I have a love/hate relationship with computers. Recently I’ve been mired in ePub software woes. Oh no! Fifteen years ago, I decided to enter the world of indie publishing. I first spent time as a hybrid author, one foot still in traditional publishing while dipping a toe into the indie world. Eventually, I went all in as an indie author.

There was a learning curve involved.

Because I didn’t want to pay people to do what I knew I could do, I needed to acquire certain skills. That meant this dinosaur from another era had to venture out of the kiddie pool (where I routinely cursed Word after every update) and plunge headfirst into the deep end of more complex computer programs.

After hours of research, I found programs that didn’t require a home equity loan.

I discovered learning how to make ePub files wasn’t that hard. Mastering Photoshop was another story. Although I hold a degree in graphic design and illustration, I’m a woman of a certain age who went to art school back when we designed with pen and pencil on paper, not with vectors and pixels on a computer screen. However, after quite a bit of hair-pulling and more than a little cursing, I taught myself enough to be able to create cover art on the computer.

Of course, in the world of computers, nothing ever stays the same for long.

When Adobe moved to a subscription model, I wasn’t willing to take out that home equity loan to continue using Photoshop. I found Affinity with its modest one-time fee, free upgrades, and Mac compatibility.

Recently Canva bought Affinity, and the software went through a huge redesign. I decided to stick with Affinity Designer 2 instead of moving to the newer version because I really don’t need all the bells and whistles that they’ve introduced. I just hope Canva doesn’t stop supporting Designer 2. My woman of a certain age brain has neither the time nor patience to master new software that I only need to use occasionally.

And that brings me to what recently happened with my ePub software.

For fifteen years I’ve used LegendMaker with no problems. It has enabled me to create clean ePub files free of the odd formatting glitches I often come across in eBooks. But…

Step into the Way Back Machine to two weeks ago.

I needed to update an ePub file. I clicked on my LegendMaker software and received this popup message.

ePub Software Woe!

ePub Software Woes!

Huh? Snow Leopard is an old iOS, introduced back in 2009. Tahoe is the most recent iOS, and that’s what I use. Why couldn’t I open the program? It had worked fine the previous week.

I sent off an email to the software developer. The few times I’d contacted him years ago, he’d responded within hours, but I hadn’t needed customer support in more than a decade. He still hasn’t responded. Why? Because Google has been unable to deliver the email. Had he not survived Covid? Retired? Gone bankrupt?

After further online research, I discovered that LegendMaker was developed using Intel/64-bit processors and is no longer compatible with Macs. But as I mentioned above, it worked fine only a week earlier!

Aaargh!!!!

Now, for all future ePub files and older ones I want to update, I have to use different software. My pre-computer dinosaur brain is vociferously voicing its objection. But I’ve soldiered on because I have no choice. I found another program and after more hair-pulling and cursing, reformatted the ePub I wanted to update. Hopefully, now that I figured out how to get the results I wanted, future file updates won’t take as long.

I’m convinced, though, that the computer gods are currently rolling around up in clouds LOLing their bums off at my expense.

Do you have a love/hate relationship with technology? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest 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.

Spamalot (Not the Musical)

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I’m thinking about venturing into a career as a stand-up comic.

I already have a enough material for a routine full of laugh-out-loud absurdity, delivered to me in the form of dozens of spam emails that arrive in my inbox every month, specifically, the ones that offer me fame and fortune as a best-selling author. All for a handsome fee, of course.

I could riff on every one of their offers, like the one from “Elena” that promises Category optimization | Review velocity strategy | Long-term discoverability.” Wow, she’s really got her corp-speak language down!

*Chloe” tells me that my readers are in the “wellness and niche communities,” whatever that means.  “Lewis,” from the Author Credibility Society, says he’s “creating meaningful conversations in my field.” And “Tim,” from The Philosophical Zurich Club, “an international literary community,” is deeply moved by my writing.

Their real names should be something like A.I. Scam or Chat-Gee P. Tee.

In my new act, I could deliver zingers about the idiots who, after scraping tidbits from my website and other urls where my author info resides, still get it wrong. Yes, “Rachel,” I did once work at a prestigious film organization, but it was not the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Next comes one of my favorites so far, from “Samuel, a literary advisor at QuantumCreative.digital.”

Hi Gay,

I came across your Facebook author page and I have to say — a feature in D Magazine, an author interview, a series with a title as sharp as Sorry Knot Sorry — this is an author with genuine credibility and a clear voice. The work you have done to build visibility in the Dallas literary community is evident and impressive.”

I agree that my esteemed colleague, Lois Winston (the actual author of a book with that clever title), has genuine, award-winning credibility. However, I am the one who earned that national literary award for a series of articles I did for D Magazine in Dallas, back when I was its managing editor.

All of this seemingly unceasing, unscrupulous, and pitiful effort to scam unsuspecting authors is big a waste of time, especially my time, when I could be working on my next book instead of having to daily flush this spam down the toilet. Anyone with a working idea of how to eliminate the constant barrage, please let me know. There may even be a free book in it for you.

And, speaking of free books…

This June is the time for the Stiletto Gang Annual Summer Book Bonanza, when lucky readers can win free e-books from our participating authors. First Prize winner receives one book from each of us. Two runners-up will get 3 books by the Stiletto authors of their choosing. Just sign up on our homepage, and in July, you could be a winner!

In the meantime, if you know any of the aforesaid e-scammers personally, please kick ’em un the shins for me.

Thanks!

Read more about this award-winning author at GayYellen.com…

… and remember to sign up for your chance to sample some of our books. Winners announced next month, Happy Reading!

 

Biscuits and book cover of Risky Biscuits book

Coffee Shops & Books plus a #giveaway for June

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by Mary Lee Ashford

photo of interior of coffee shopI love coffee shops and so when one of my favorite local coffee shops asked if I’d do a pop-up book signing in the shop, how could I resist?

It was a busy Saturday morning. They made biscuits. I brought books.

Different waves of people came throughout the morning. Some people with their kids. Some with their pets. One guy carried a beyond adorable miniature dachshund in a sling, talking to it as he stood in line.

A lady with two young boys had her hands full as she waited to give her order. One of them leaned against her legs while the other twirled her long skirt like a maypole – wrapping himself up and then unfurling himself to scare his brother.  I had two boys and I’ve been there.

“Lady,” I thought to myself. “You’re going to need a really big coffee.”

The downtown Farmer’s Market was going on so some came with flowers and vegetables tucked in bags. People with their pets and produce. Families meeting up over coffee. Friends on a Saturday outing.  Biscuits and book cover of Risky Biscuits book

There was also a 5K going on (my husband was running that) and we weren’t far from the finish line so that brought another wave of people.

A lady stopped by to look at my books and we talked scone recipes and travels. A few readers of my series stopped by to ask when the next book will be out. Sign up for my newsletter, if you’d like to be notified when that happens.

Of course, I also had to have a Honey Bee Latte, which is my favorite from their coffee menu.

All in all, it was a wonderful time and a great kick off to June and summer events. Which speaking of…

Did we mention that The Stiletto Gang is doing a Summer Book Bonanza Giveaway?

Details are below:

Enter to Win the Summer Book Bonanza #Giveaway!

WHERE: sign up at https://www.thestilettogang.com/home-giveaway/

WHEN: June 1 – 30, 2026

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: July

 

Graphic of all books included in the giveaway.

Grand Prize Winner receives… 9 E-BOOKS

Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston

The Second Shot by Bethany Maines

Murder in the One Percent by Saralyn Richard

The Body Business by Gay Yellen

Skeletons in the Attic by Judy Penz Sheluk

House of Rose by T.K. Thorne

Night of the Living Bread by Mary Lee Ashford

Deadly Recall by Donnell Ann Bell

With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying by Debra H. Goldstein

Two runners up will receive 3 e-books and may select from the list above.

Skeletons in the Attic #giveaway

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It’s June and that means it’s time for another Stiletto Gang multi-author e-book #giveaway. That might sound simple on the surface, but most (if not all) of us have authored multiple books. Deciding which book to giveaway is step 1 in the process. Step 2 is a bit of shameless self promotion for the promotion (details at the end of the post) and the book selected.

For this year’s #giveaway, I decided to offer my bestselling “cold case cozy,” Skeletons in the Attic, book 1 in my Marketville Mystery Series.

Here’s the official retail blurb:

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know he had. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.

Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who hopes to expose the Barnstable family secrets herself. Determined to thwart Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?

So, where’s Marketville?

Just as the setting of Lount’s Landing in my Glass Dolphin Mystery Series is loosely based on my former community of Holland Landing in Ontario, Canada, so too is Marketville loosely based on the town of Newmarket, which is situated just south of Holland Landing. Of course, I have taken great liberties with both locations as well as the surrounding area, and the characters are entirely fictitious.

The idea…

The idea for Skeletons in the Attic came to me while I waited with my husband, Mike, in our lawyer’s office. We were there to update our wills, and his goldendoodle kept us company while our lawyer was detained at court. The opening scenes of the book are culled directly from that experience. (Let that be your takeaway from this: everything that happens in a writer’s life may end up in one of their stories.) Anyway, here’s the opening paragraph:

I’d been sitting in the reception area of Hampton & Associates for the better part of an hour when Leith Hampton finally charged in through the main door, his face flushed, a faint scent of sandalwood cologne wafting into the room. He held an overstuffed black briefcase in each hand and muttered an apology about a tough morning in court before barking out a flurry of instructions to a harried-looking associate. A tail-wagging goldendoodle appeared out of nowhere, and I realized the dog had been sleeping under the receptionist’s desk.

What about the skeletons?

I thought you’d never ask! Turns out, there really was a skeleton in the attic, and Callie was the one to find it (along with a few other old family skeletal secrets). And as soon as Callie found that skeleton, I knew I had my book title.

Available on Audible with a 4.4 overall rating.

What if I don’t win the #giveaway?

Well, that would be disappointing, but the good news is that Skeletons in the Attic is available in trade paperback, e-book AND on Audible. So really, there are no losers here… and if you’re a reader who is willing to take a gamble, the first 3 Marketville e-books are available in a box set for just $9.99.

 

 

 

About me

The Past Chair of Crime Writers of Canada and a former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the multiple award-winning author of seven bestselling mystery novels, two books on publishing, and several short stories. She is also the editor/publisher of five multi-nominated Superior Shores Anthologies. Find me on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, and on www.judypenzsheluk.com.

And now, the #giveaway deets:

Enter to Win the Summer Book Bonanza #Giveaway!

WHERE: sign up at https://www.thestilettogang.com/home-giveaway/

WHEN: June 1 – 30, 2026

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: July

Grand Prize Winner receives… 9 E-BOOKS

  • Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston
  • The Second Shot by Bethany Maines
  • Murder in the One Percent by Saralyn Richard
  • The Body Business by Gay Yellen
  • Skeletons in the Attic by Judy Penz Sheluk
  • House of Rose by T.K. Thorne
  • Night of the Living Bread by Mary Lee Ashford
  • Deadly Recall by Donnell Ann Bell
  • With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying by Debra H. Goldstein

Two runners up will receive 3 e-books and may select from the list above.

Best Marketing Idea Ever!

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Best Marketing Idea Ever!

June ReaderCrate featuring Lois Winston’s Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun

By Lois Winston

What started in Sweden in 2007, quickly made its way throughout Europe, and showed up in the US in 2011? The best marketing idea ever: subscription meal kits. Hello Fresh was the first, quickly followed by Blue Apron. Now there are countless curated services for all dietary needs for both humans and their four-legged fur babies.

The Best Marketing Idea Ever: A Genius Concept

Other companies soon adopted the business model. Once upon a time the only subscriptions we had were for magazines. Then came premium cable channels, followed by Netflix. Now? We never have to leave our homes because we can subscribe to just about anything. Or everything. From cosmetics to vitamins to…ice cream. The sky’s the limit. For many consumers, this is a good thing. We never have to run out at the last minute because we’ve run out of something. (And what parent hasn’t made an emergency midnight diaper run to Walmart?)

The Best Marketing Idea Ever: This is not a Scam

Back in January, I received an email with the subject line, “This is not a scam.” As authors, we’re all being inundated lately with scam emails from phony book clubs and publicists, trying to part us from our hard-earned Benjamins. But those emails are showing up in my author account, not my personal account. And this email came from a name I recognized. Because my email is configured to show the entire message without me clicking on a link, I didn’t immediately delete it. It turned out the subject line wasn’t a lie. The email was really from cozy mystery author Lyssa Lund, and it was legit.

Lyssa was inviting me to be one the authors showcased in ReaderCrate, a cozy mystery subscription service she had created. Once a month subscribers receive curated boxes of cozy mysteries, along with cozy-themed gifts and goodies.

The Best Marketing Idea Ever: Why Hadn’t I Thought of That?

My first thought when reading about ReaderCrate was, what a genius of a marketing idea! My second thought was, why hadn’t I thought of that?

I’m a think-outside-the-box kind of girl. When I was asked to write a crafting-themed cozy mystery series, I deliberately created one different from all the other crafting-themed cozy mysteries I came across. My series is set in an upscale suburban community outside Manhattan, not a small town.

My sleuth is the crafts editor at a women’s magazine, not a shop owner or production crafter, or hobbyist. That way I wouldn’t be confined to one craft throughout the series. Every book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries features a different craft. And most of all, Anastasia is a reluctant amateur sleuth who would like nothing better than never coming across another dead body for the remainder of her life and never again having to figure out whodunit.

Of course, I enthusiastically accepted Lyssa’s invitation. ReaderCrate subscribers will be receiving a copy ofAssault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, as one of their June box reads. I also sat down for an interview with Lyssa a few weeks ago for the ReaderCrate website. It’s also available on YouTube.

If you consume cozy mysteries as quickly as you run out of shampoo or cat food or toilet paper or just want to treat yourself (and don’t we all deserve to treat ourselves now and then?), you might want to check out ReaderCrate.

What do you subscribe to? 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.

~*~

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.

Dodging Disaster

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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.

dodging disaster

Illustration from Depositphotos

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.

~*~

Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 15USA 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.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

#1 Favorite Book of All Time

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favorite book of all time

Illustration from Pixabay

By Lois Winston

“Grandma, what’s your #1 favorite book of all time?” 

My #1 favorite book of all time?

As part of a Readathon at his elementary school, my nine-year-old grandson recently asked me this question. You might think this is a simple question with an even simpler answer. Not for me. I’ve been impacted throughout the years by different books at different points in my life. The ones that have left the biggest impressions are the ones that educated me the most. Picking one book out of a lifetime of reading would be impossible.

Unlike what’s happening at many libraries across the country today, my local library didn’t ban books, nor did they prevent children from using the adult section. It was from the library, not the classroom, where I gained a greater understanding of life and history, reading many books that are currently being banned in schools and libraries.

In the classroom, I was forced to memorize dates of battles and names of generals. By reading James Mitchner, Leon Uris, and The Diary of Anne Frank, I learned of the atrocities perpetrated by many of those generals at the direction of their leaders here and abroad, whether in the name of Manifest Destiny or the “superiority” of the white race.

In school, we had mandatory air raid drills where we sat in the hall, facing the wall and covering our heads to protect us from possible nuclear attack. On the Beach by Nevil Shute taught me the futility of such an exercise. Yet no teacher in any of my AP US History classes ever mentioned anything about what would really happen should the Soviets launch a nuclear missile at us. Nuclear winter? The term was never mentioned in the classroom. And we certainly were never shown the images of the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

School taught me useless facts that would only benefit me if I ever went on Jeopardy! The historical fiction, biographies, and autobiographies, I borrowed from the library, humanized those famous names rather than lionizing them. It showed me that no issue should ever be viewed entirely in black and white. There are always subtle shades of gray involved. History, unfortunately, has and will continue to repeat itself when we don’t learn from our mistakes. Books taught me that, not my history teachers.

Long after graduating, I’ve continued reading and gaining a deeper understanding of humanity. Roots by Alex Haley and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, although both novels, brought the horrors of slavery to light in a way no high school study of the Civil War, nor reading Gone with the Wind, ever did. As did Ron Chernow’s massive biography of Alexander Hamilton, regarding our founding fathers and the Revolutionary War.

From Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series, I learned more about the Middle Ages than I ever did in my high school course on European History. Most recently, Marie Benedict’s The Mitford Affair, based on the lives of real people in England before and during World War II, showed me how insidiously fascism took hold of many of the English elite.

As I read these books, I often became angry over the inhumane treatment perpetrated by one group against another, but at the same time I remained hopeful, knowing people are capable of change. As Anne Frank wrote in her diary, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Although, lately, that’s becoming increasingly difficult. I also worry that if these books and others are denied to us and future generations, no one will have the opportunity to learn about all the shades of gray.

It’s also made me wonder if perhaps this is why I gravitated to writing humorous cozy mysteries. I know that more and more lately, I need an escape from life, and I’m sure others do as well. Maybe if we all laughed more, the world would be a better place.

Of course, I couldn’t convey any of this to my nine-year-old grandson. I needed to give him the title of my favorite book. In the end, I settled on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, also a book about hope and believing in the goodness of others.

What’s your #1 favorite book of all time? 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 newest release is Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery.

Inspired by Real Life

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By Lois Winston

Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth and newest book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, released fifteen days ago. Like all my other novels, both the mysteries and the non-mysteries, it was inspired by real life events.

As I may have mentioned in the past, I’m a news junkie. I read several newspapers a day, along with watching the news and a few favorite “talking heads” every morning and evening. On any given day, this can be a good thing or a bad thing—especially with everything going on in the world.

Along with coffee, the news is one of my two major addictions. Some people get anxiety from the news. I develop anxiety when I don’t know what’s going on. It’s a weird form of FOMO. Besides, I view the news as research. Right now, I have enough ideas floating around in my head to serve as mystery plots for years to come.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis was inspired by real life…

For example, the spark for Embroidered Lies and Alibis came from an article I read about a carjacking that included a cryptocurrency element. Because I write by the seat of my pants (known in writing parlance as being a Pantser,) I ran with that idea and began typing. Then one evening, I saw an interview with an elderly woman who had been scammed out of thousands of dollars by someone posing as an employee of her bank. Presto change-o, abracadabra, and bibbido-bobbidi-boo! Just like that, the pieces began to fall into place, and I had my plot.

…and the next book will be inspired by real life.

I’m currently working on the next book in the series. This past November, my older son and his family arrived from various parts of the country to spend Thanksgiving with us. They rented an Airbnb nearby to stay and to hold all thirteen of us for a week of family gatherings. The house was an antebellum mansion. The moment I set foot into it, I knew I was going to use it as the setting for my next mystery.

With the last several books having taken place in Anastasia’s hometown, I had already decided it was once again time to send her off somewhere to prevent Cabot Cove Syndrome. With that in mind, I’ve moved the Tennessee mansion to upstate New York. To find out why, you’ll have to wait until the book is finished and published, but it’s going to involve research I’ve done about both the Underground Railroad and Prohibition. And of course, there will be murder and mayhem. Stay tuned…

Meanwhile, I hope you’ll find Embroidered Lies and Alibis worthy of a read.

Have you read other mysteries that were inspired by real life? Have you ever come across a person, a setting, or even an object that you thought would be perfect inspiration for a novel? 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.

 

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

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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

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