Authors are always asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” I’m a news junkie. The ideas for all my stories, from the first book I wrote back in the last century to Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth and latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, sprang from news and human-interest stories in newspapers or magazines or from watching TV news shows.

However, other than my protagonist dealing with her crazy communist mother-in-law’s quixotic antics, I’ve always steered clear of politics. That’s one topic I won’t touch, even with the proverbial ten-foot pole! Although I write about murder, my books are humorous cozy mysteries. They’re meant to provide some laughs and an escape from the real world, even though the plots are influenced by real crimes.

The series begins with Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun and opens with Anastasia discovering her recently deceased husband has gambled away her family’s future—having cashed in his retirement account and life insurance policy, taken out a second mortgage, maxed out their credit cards and home equity line of credit, and drained the kids’ college funds. The one thing he has left her with is his bookie. He’s demanding Anastasia pay off the fifty thousand dollars her husband owes him.

Now, you might think this would never happen to anyone in real life. Surely, Anastasia is too unbelievable a clueless wife. Wouldn’t any woman in the real world known her husband had a gambling addiction? Wouldn’t she know to pay attention to the family finances? Well, think again. I came up with the premise for the series after reading accounts of gambling addicts and how adept they are at hiding their addiction from their families.

Now, why a glue gun? How does anyone get assaulted with a glue gun? Me, that’s who! Although I’d been asked to write a series about a crafting sleuth, the title of the book popped into my head before I came up with either a plot or characters. It happened after I burned my finger on a glue gun. Even though I’d assaulted myself, the finger fiasco led me to wonder if any serious crimes had ever been committed with glue guns. A search of the Internet turned up assaults and robberies that led to arrests and convictions.

For Death by Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series, coverage of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme filled the news. The scandal made its way into the book.

Revenge of the Crafty Corpse took shape after reading about a series of nursing home murders, but it was also influenced by a news story I watched on Sunday Morning. The feature was about an artist who crafted pictures from dryer lint. Hey, I write humorous cozy mysteries. Dryer lint? How could I not incorporate that into my book?

Decoupage Can Be Deadly is about the murder of a former rapper turned style influencer and entrepreneur à la the Kardashians, a family who was always making the gossip pages and entertainment news shows back when I wrote the book.

An article I read about a court case involving salt poisoning and Munchhausen by Proxy plays a role in A Stitch to Die For, the fifth book in the series.

For Scrapbook of Murder, the sixth book in the series, I had to look no further than my own neighborhood where the story about the Watcher House took place and made headlines around the world.

Drop Dead Ornaments was influenced by news reports of how huge lottery wins can adversely impact the winners’ lives.

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide was based on a murder that occurred about twenty miles from where I’d previously lived.

For some time, I had wanted to set a book on a cruise ship. When I began researching crime on cruise ships, I came up with plenty of news stories that found their way into A Sew Deadly Cruise.

Never, though, had I incorporated an actual cold case crime into one of my books. However, for years, I’d been fascinated by the unsolved 1990 art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The plot of Guilty as Framed revolves around that actual art theft.

Both the explosion of podcasts and the recent Bitcoin scandals made their way into the plot of A Crafty Collage of Crime, the twelfth book in the series.

In Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth and latest book, the podcast theme continues, but I also introduce an artificial intelligence thread to the story. And talk about being current! The book went up for preorder at about the same time the British monarchy was hit with a scandal over a doctored photo released by the royal family. That photo was digitally edited, not A.I. generated, but it hasn’t stopped social media from blowing up about it.

We live in interesting times. And it’s all plot fodder for this cozy mystery author. Except for the politics.

Sorry, Knot Sorry, An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Book #13
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack may finally be able to pay off the remaining debt she found herself saddled with when her duplicitous first husband dropped dead in a Las Vegas casino. But as Anastasia has discovered, nothing in her life is ever straightforward. Strings are attached. Thanks to the success of an unauthorized true crime podcast, a television production company wants to option her life—warts and all—as a reluctant amateur sleuth.

Is such exposure worth a clean financial slate? Anastasia isn’t sure, but at the same time, rumors are flying about layoffs at the office. Whether she wants national exposure or not, Anastasia may be forced to sign on the dotted line to keep from standing in the unemployment line. But the dead bodies keep coming, and they’re not in the script.

Craft tips included.

About the author
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. Connect with Lois at loiswinston.com.