Messages

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What I'm Writing / Re: The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries

« on: June 06, 2020, 08:50:36 am »

Okay, now this sounds like a darn good series to check out. Adding it to my list for sure.

And Lois, welcome to the Mystery Scene Forum!

Thank you, JRob! Hope you enjoy it.

And Becke, thanks again for the invite!

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What I'm Writing / The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries

« on: June 05, 2020, 05:24:03 am »

Becke Davis invited me to stop by to say hello and talk about what I'm writing. My name is Lois Winston, and I'm currently working on the 9th book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. Anastasia is the crafts editor at a women's magazine who finds herself becoming a reluctant amateur sleuth upon when her husband dies unexpectedly. Turns out the guy was a closet gambler who owed tens of thousands of dollars to loan sharks and left Anastasia with debt greater than the GNP of your average Third World nation. The wife is always the last to know. He also left her stuck with his communist mother as a permanent house guest. And that's before Anastasia finds herself the prime suspect in the death of a coworker, found glued to her office chair. Throughout the series Anastasia moonlights to dig her way out an enormous financial quagmire while dealing with two teenage sons, her aforementioned mother-in-law, her multi-married mother, and various pets, including a Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Throughout June the first book in the series, Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, which received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, is on sale at Amazon for only .99 cents https://amzn.to/308gAVb

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Welcome and General Discussion / Re: February Feature at the Forum: Curl Up with a Cozy!

« on: February 24, 2020, 07:16:42 am »

Hi Becke! Thanks again for inviting me to join you here at Mystery Scene. I haven't been to a conference in several years, either. Life and grandchildren have gotten in the way. Forgot to mention, another series I really enjoy is Amy Stewart's Kopp Sisters Series. It's based on the true life adventures of the first female deputy sheriff in NJ in the early years of the 20th century. The first book is Girl Waits With Gun. I think there are now 5 or 6 books in the series.

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Welcome and General Discussion / Re: February Feature at the Forum: Curl Up with a Cozy!

« on: February 23, 2020, 06:33:28 am »

Thanks so much, JRob! Hope you enjoy it.

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Welcome and General Discussion / Re: February Feature at the Forum: Curl Up with a Cozy!

« on: February 22, 2020, 06:18:29 am »

Hello, Everyone! I'm Lois Winston, and I want to thank Becke for inviting me here. I'm the author of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries (8 books and counting, plus 3 novellas) and the Empty Nest Mysteries (2 books). Both are humorous amateur sleuth/cozy series. For those of you unfamiliar with my series, you can learn about them (and me) at my website: http://www.loiswinston.com.

As for favorite reads, I'm currently reading Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series about an 11 year old amateur sleuth with a penchant for poisons in England in 1950. I just finished the second book and am about to start the third. I also loved, loved, loved Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series, which takes place during the time of Henry II.

For contemporary cozies and amateur sleuth series, I'm a big fan of Camille Minichino/Margaret Grace/Ada Madison/Jean Flowers/Elizabeth Logan (she writes under lots of pen names!), Cindy Sample, and Shelley Noble/Shelley Freydont (who also writes historical amateur sleuth mysteries), to name a few. And of course, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series (although they're capers, not cozies).