Sorry, Knot Sorry (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery) by Lois Winston
About Sorry, Not Sorry
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 always 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 Guest Post by Lois Winston
By Lois Winston
I write humorous amateur sleuth murder mysteries. Some people think that’s an oxymoron. Mysteries are all about finding the heinous people who commit murder and mayhem and bringing them to justice. Serious business, right? Definitely not something to laugh at. Or is it? As far as I’m concerned, it’s all in the telling.
Think about the classic “fish out of water” story. By its very nature it’s humorous. Now, what is an amateur sleuth mystery if not a fish out of water story? In my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, my protagonist is the crafts editor for a women’s magazine. She doesn’t know the first thing about murder and mayhem, yet she finds herself plopped into the middle of both. If she were in law enforcement, she’d have a Glock or a .357 Magnum on hand, but as a crafts editor, her tools of the trade include pompoms, felt squares, and chenille stems. Not exactly your average deadly weapons!
The humor in my series comes from how my characters, especially my sleuth, cope with life. I’ve dumped a heap of trouble on Anastasia. The series opened with her discovering her recently deceased husband has gambled away their life’s savings, leaving her deeply in debt with a loan shark breathing down her neck. She’s also stuck with her mother, a woman who believes she descends from Russian royalty, and her communist mother-in-law, a woman incapable of a kind word for anyone, especially Anastasia. They’re both living under Anastasia’s roof, along with Anastasia’s two teenage sons and a menagerie that includes a Shakespeare quoting parrot, a cat named for a Russian empress, and a dog named for the Communist Manifesto. Throwing polar opposites together creates conflict.
Zany characters + conflict = humor.
Having a sense of humor helps us get through much of what life throws at us. I try to convey that philosophy in the ways my characters approach life. I also prefer to read books that make me laugh, rather than having me constantly checking the locks on all my windows and doors! That’s why I write humorous amateur sleuth mysteries.
The problem with writing humor, though, is that you never know if readers will “get” it. Humor is very subjective. I’ve written scenes where I’ve laughed out loud as I’ve typed, but I always hold my breath, fingers crossed, hoping readers will also laugh. Some do; others don’t. All I can hope is that more readers laugh than don’t.
I hope if you pick up Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth and latest book in my other Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, you’ll find yourself not only hooked by an engaging whodunit but also, from time to time, chuckling along the way.
About Lois Winston
USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career in 2006 with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous novel about a small-town girl in Manhattan and the mother bent on bringing her home. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. Lois wrote her first mystery thanks to a conversation between her agent and an editor looking for a crafting-themed cozy series. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes thirteen novels and three novellas. To date Lois has published twenty-two novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by the twelve years she worked as an associate at a literary agency. Learn more about Lois and her books at http://www.loiswinston.com.
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