I’m happy to have prolific mystery writer, Lois Winston, as a guest today on Writer Wednesday.

Lois is celebrating the upcoming release of her 15th Anastasia Pollack mystery. Read more and get a peek of what’s to come.

1. It’s time to get your protagonist out of her comfort zone. You want to present her with a challenge, and you’ve given her the following choices: climb Mount Everest, run a Marathon, trek across the Sahara Desert with a tribe of nomads, or sail around the world alone. Which would she choose?

Anastasia Pollack, my reluctant amateur sleuth, has made it quite clear that exercise is a 4-letter word. She’d opt for sailing around the world because the only running or climbing you’d ever find her doing is if it involved escaping a killer. However, because she doesn’t know the first thing about watercrafts, she’d only get on a boat if it included an expert crew and a fully stocked galley with plenty of coffee, wine, and baked goods.

2. If she could change anything in her life, what would it be and why?

It’s no secret that Anastasia wishes I’d written her as the heroine of one of my earlier romance books instead of sticking in a mystery series where I constantly expose her to murder and mayhem. It’s her major gripe about me.

3. What do you and your protagonist have in common?

Anastasia and I both went to art school, after which we both decided we weren’t cut out to be art teachers. I became a designer in the consumer crafts industry while she went to work as the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. We both have two sons. She has a communist mother-in-law. I had a communist mother-in-law. And we’re both Jersey girls, although I’ve since moved to Tennessee. (You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can’t take Jersey out of the girl.)

4. If you had an argument, who would win and why?

Anastasia wins all our arguments. She always threatens to go on strike and take my muse with her if I don’t see things her way.

5. What do you want most for your readers to come away with after they read your books?

I want them to feel they’ve read a satisfying whodunit which has also given them a humorous escape from the world for a few hours, and as a result, they can’t wait to read another book in the series.

6. What is the last book you’ve read purely for pleasure?

As I write this, I’m currently reading Park Avenue Summer by Renée Rosen. It’s a fictional account of the summer Helen Gurley Brown was hired as the first female editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and how she transformed the magazine to reflect the changing mores taking place in society in 1965.

7. What was the oddest job you ever had?

I spent three weeks one summer selling Fuller Brush and quickly learned I was born without a salesperson gene.

8. Tell us about your latest book.

Embroidered Lies and Alibis is my fifteenth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. Like my other books, the plot revolves around current topics at the forefront of life today. This time Anastasia tackles a mystery that involves the prevalence of fraud perpetrated on the elderly. However, like all the books in the series, I temper the horror of the crimes that occur in the book with a huge dose of Anastasia’s humorous outlook on life.

9. How many books do you read in a typical month? Do you read in your genre while you are writing?

Numbers vary widely, depending on what else is going on with my writing and my life. I tend to do a lot of catch-up reading after I’ve finished writing a book and before I start the next one. I find I need that downtime between books to recharge my brain.

When it comes to genre, I mostly enjoy reading both contemporary and historical mysteries, women’s fiction, and historical fiction. With everything going on in the world, I’d rather not read horror or any suspense or thrillers that would keep me up at night, checking the locks on the windows and doors.

10. What themes do you regularly employ in your writing?

All my books include family dynamics and topics relevant to the world we live in today. However, I steer clear of controversial issues. I don’t want to alienate any readers who might have opposing views from mine.

11. How did you develop the idea for your most recent work?

The plot for this book came to me from two news stories. The first was an article in the newspaper about a carjacking that involved a cryptocurrency element. The second was a story on the news about an elderly woman who was scammed out of thousands of dollars.

12. What was the best writing advice you ever received, and why was it valuable?

The best writing advice I ever received is that every scene in a book and every piece of dialogue must do one of two things – either advance the plot or tell the reader something she needs to know at that moment about the point of view character. If it does neither, it’s filler and doesn’t belong in your book.

After I sold my first book in 2005, I was invited to join the agency that repped me. I began by tackling the slush pile. Over the next dozen years, I read hundreds of submissions. The majority of rejections were due to writer cramming all sorts of filler, such as unnecessary description and chit-cat, too much backstory, and unimportant research details into the novel.

Bio: 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

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.

Preorder Links (book available 2/10/26)

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