I’m happy announce that fellow mystery writer Lois Winston has just released her Crafty Mystery, Drop Dead Ornaments, featuring amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack.

An author has to know her main character as well as she knows herself: their likes, dislikes, passions, fears, and motivations. A character, especially, if he/she appears in a series, has to grow and change and it is the author’s job to make that happen in a realistic way. This is Lois Winston’s seventh Crafting Mystery and I’m interviewing her protagonist Anastasia Pollack so you can get to know her if you’re new to this series or if you’re a devoted fan, reflect on how she’s changed.

In this interview, Anastasia tells us about how she became involved in criminal investigation, what her greatest fear is, and what motivates her to go after the bad guys.

Welcome, Anastasia.

  1. You’ve gained quite a reputation for solving murders. How does an editor of a crafting magazine become an amateur sleuth?

It certainly wasn’t by choice. I’m more of a reluctant amateur sleuth than someone who deliberately pokes her nose into police business. But what choice do I have when author Lois Winston insists on dropping dead bodies at my feet and accuses innocent people of their murders?

  1. I’ve heard through the grapevine that your communist mother-in-law lives with you and makes your life miserable. How do you keep from taking inspiration from the killers you’ve dealt with and bumping her off?

Since I have the worst luck in the world, there’s no way I’d ever get away with murder. Given the choice of putting up with the mother-in-law from Hades or going to prison for her murder, I’ll opt for keeping my freedom. I’ve seen Orange is the New Black. Besides, my author is a bit of a sadist. She’d never allow me to bump off Lucille. She claims the woman is the character her readers love to hate and that she has the fan mail to prove it.

  1. With all of your sleuthing experience, have you noticed similar traits in the killers?

Definitely. They all have little regard for human life and an inflated sense of their own superiority. They also think they’ll get away with the crime.

  1. Have you ever felt so much sympathy for a killer that you considered turning the other cheek and letting them “get away with murder?”

No, that would definitely go against my sense of justice. No one has the right to take the law into his or her own hands. We have a legal system for dealing with people who commit heinous acts.

  1. What’s the most difficult part of solving a murder?

My biggest problem is dealing with all the red herrings my author puts in my path. I have to sort out which clues are really clues and which have nothing to do with the crime.

  1. Tell us about the most frightening experience you’ve ever encountered?

When you’re trying to solve a murder, and the murderer decides to make you his next victim, your life passes before your eyes. That’s not cliché. It really does happen, and it’s an extremely frightening experience because in a split second you’re filled with regret for all the things that might have been and won’t be if the killer succeeds. This has happened to me on more than one occasion, and I really wish Lois Winston would cut it out. Why can’t she go back to writing romance?

  1. Have you ever been a suspect in any of the crimes you’ve investigated?

That’s how I got involved in this sleuthing business to begin with. In Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, someone killed the fashion editor at the magazine where I work and glued her body to my desk chair. Circumstantial evidence pointed to me as the killer. What choice did I have other than to do whatever I could to clear my name?

  1. What motivates you to go after the bad guys/gals?

This goes back to my sense of justice. Bad people should have to pay for their crimes. If they get away with them, they’ll just keep on committing more and more crimes. That’s not fair to those of us who live law-abiding lives and play by the rules. People who lie and cheat and steal and kill think laws are meant for others, not them, and that makes me mad. Besides, too often people I care about wind up being suspected of the crimes committed by the bad guys. How can I let that happen?

Drop Dead Ornaments

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 7

Anastasia Pollack’s son Alex is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the students to make Christmas ornaments they’ll sell at the town’s annual Holiday Crafts Fair.

At the fair Anastasia meets Sophie’s father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when the woman turns up dead, Sophie’s father is arrested for her murder.

Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She’s also not convinced of Shane’s innocence. Besides, she’s promised younger son Nick she’ll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?

Buy Links

http://Amazon https://amzn.to/2MBo1xS

http://Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drop-dead-ornaments

http://iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/drop-dead-ornaments/id1431548050?mt=11

http://Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drop-dead-ornaments-lois-winston/1129345148?ean=2940161937181

Bio: USA Today 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.

Website: www.loiswinston.com

Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

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