BLOG TOUR – Drop Dead Ornaments

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Drop Dead Ornaments (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
by Lois Winston

About the Book

Drop Dead Ornaments (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
7th in Series
Self Published
Print Length: 209 pages
ASIN: B07GMZ2H4B

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?

Guest Post by the Author

Character as Doppelganger

I’m often asked how much of Anastasia Pollack, reluctant amateur sleuth and protagonist of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is a thinly disguised version of me. After all, even non-writers know that authors are generally advised to write what they know. So am I really Anastasia?

Like Anastasia, I’ve worked as a crafts editor, but never for a magazine. However, I’ve freelanced as both a designer and writer for dozens of craft and women’s magazines, and I did work as an editor for two craft book publishers. So Anastasia and I have careers in common, but that’s where the similarity ends. I’ve never tripped over any dead bodies, and if I did, I’d definitely leave it to the police to find the killers.

I also have two sons, but they’re much older than Anastasia’s teenagers. Still, I do remember what it was like to raise teenage boys, and I rely on my past experiences when writing about Alex and Nick.

I don’t have a Shakespeare-quoting parrot and never did. Ralph sprang completely from my imagination. Don’t ask me why or how. I certainly don’t harbor any hidden desires to share my home with a parrot. Luckily, I have a friend who owned an African Grey, and she wrote a memoir about her experiences with the bird. Research is key when it comes to Ralph.

My husband is very much alive and doesn’t gamble on anything other than buying an occasional lottery ticket when Powerball or MegaMillions has grown to stratospheric amounts. Even so, much to our disappointment, we’ve never won more than a few dollars on a ticket.

And because my husband is still very much alive, I don’t have a love interest who’s a photojournalist—or maybe a government operative. Or both.

My mother never claimed to descend from Russian royalty, but she did descend from Russian immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island in the early 1900’s, which means she certainly was never a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And she only had two husbands, not seven and counting.

But then we get to Lucille, Anastasia’s communist mother-in-law. If anything in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries is based on real life, it’s Lucille, a character inspired by my own mother-in-law, a card-carrying Bolshevik. And yes, I did share a home with her—for six loooong years. So it’s easy for me to put myself in Anastasia’s shoes when it comes to her relationship with her mother-in-law. Aside from the fact that my mother-in-law never owned a French bulldog named after a communist treatise, the two women have quite a bit in common. In many ways writing Lucille is like exorcising my own demons.

So…am I really Anastasia? You be the judge.

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

Amazon https://amzn.to/2MBo1xS

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

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

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

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

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

About the Author

About the Author

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 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.

Author Links

Website: www.loiswinston.com

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

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Twitter at https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

Newsletter sign-up: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z1z1u5

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