I’m absolutely thrilled today to have author Lois Winston round to visit. Besides writing novels, Lois is an award winning craft and needlework designer, and I’ve been really excited about meeting her for ages. So, I’ve put the kettle on, cut us some slices from my Advent stollen, and now I’m getting out my knitting needles and my balls of wool.
Let’s stitch ‘n’ bitch!
Where do you live, Lois? New Jersey
Where is your favourite place in the world? Hmm…that’s a hard one to answer. I love living so close to Manhattan and wish I could afford to live in the city. However, that’s never going to happen unless I win the lottery or sell a gazillion books. For places I’ve travelled to, it used to be Florence, Italy, but after visiting Barcelona, Spain this past spring, it’s now a toss up between the two cities.
Florence is one of my favourite cities. I’ve never been to Barcelona, but now it’s definitely on my list.
Being a writer is a great job. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Working in advertising when I first got out of college. My bosses were lying, cheating, chauvinists straight out of Mad Men.
And I bet none of them looked like Jon Hamm :(
What book do you wish you’d written? All the Stephanie Plum and Harry Potter books
What’s your favourite song? Defying Gravity
What a lovely choice! I haven’t seen the musical yet, but I’d really love to next time I’m in London
If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you say to them?
It’s the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, and we’re being bombarded with documentaries, interviews, and renewed speculation regarding what really happened in Dallas that day. I’ve never believed Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I’d like the chance to find out the truth by speaking with not only him but also Jack Ruby.
What’s your happiest childhood memory? I have none. I had the childhood from hell.
I’m sorry that’s so, Lois, and I wish I had the answer to why bad things happen to good people. I really admire you for turning your life around in such a creative way.
If you had to marry a fictional character, from film, television, or books, who would it be? Logan Crawford from Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. I fell in love with him while writing him and have been in love with him ever since.
What’s the most important lesson life has taught you? Nothing is ever black or white. Life is made up of multiple layers of greys, and we need to look past the obvious to learn the truth about issues and people.
That’s the lesson learned by all good writers :)
And finally, please tell us about your latest book, where we can find it, and where we can find your blog/website
My latest release is Decoupage Can Be Deadly, the fourth full-length novel in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it’s a humorous amateur sleuth series featuring a women’s magazine crafts editor. Anastasia has been compared favourably in starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist to both Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon character from 30 Rock.
When her husband permanently cashes in his chips at a roulette table in Vegas, her comfortable middle-class life craps out. She’s left with two teenage sons, a mountain of debt, and her hateful, cane-wielding communist mother-in-law. Not to mention stunned disbelief over her late husband’s secret gambling addiction, and the loan shark who’s demanding fifty thousand dollars. In each book Anastasia tries to find ways to supplement her income to pay down her debt. Unfortunately, each moonlighting foray turns up dead bodies.
In Decoupage Can Be Deadly Anastasia and her fellow American Woman editors are steaming mad when minutes before the opening of a consumer show, they discover half their booth usurped by Bling!, their publisher’s newest magazine. CEO Alfred Gruenwald is sporting new arm candy—rapper-turned-entrepreneur and Bling! executive editor, the first-name-only Philomena. During the consumer show, Gruenwald’s wife serves Philomena with an alienation of affection lawsuit, but Philomena doesn’t live long enough to make an appearance in court. She’s found dead days later, stuffed in the shipping case that held Anastasia’s decoupage crafts. When Gruenwald makes cash-strapped Anastasia an offer she can’t refuse, she wonders, does he really want to find Philomena’s killer or is he harboring a hidden agenda?
Decoupage Can Be Deadly is available in both print and as an ebook.
Buy Links
Amazon (ebook) / Amazon (paperback) / Nook / Kobo / Bookstore without Borders / iTunes
* * *
Bio: Award-winning author Lois Winston writes romance, romantic suspense, mystery, chick lit, women’s fiction, and non-fiction 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. Visit Lois at www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth and Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/anasleuth
*
Lois, I love the crafty title of your latest novel! It’s been absolutely fabulous having you here, and I wish you could stay for longer and help me out with all the crafty projects I have in mind for Christmas – that would be fun! Thanks for coming by, and have a safe trip home!
If you’ve enjoyed hearing about Lois’s new novel, or if you have any questions or comments at all, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
Helena Fairfax 
Leave a Reply