Donnell Ann BellDonnell Ann BellDonnell Ann BellDonnell Ann Bell

When a Jersey Girl Writes What She Knows

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Please welcome my friend Lois Winston. If you haven’t read her award-winning Anastasia Pollack series, you’re missing out on some zany plots and loads of chuckles.

By: Lois WinstonLois

I’m a Jersey Girl, born and bred, complete with a Jersey Girl sensibility that includes a tendency toward puns, dry humor, and witty repartee, often including sarcasm. Those traits helped me make sense of a childhood filled with huge ironies.

My grandfather was captain of a major county police force. Over his decades-long career during the last century, he was responsible for apprehending many a gangster, including the notorious Dutch Schultz. He may have also killed a few mobsters along the way. No one ever talked about that aspect of his job, at least not when I was within earshot.

A few hours south in Atlantic City, Grandpa’s brother was a Prohibition bootlegger. He may or may not have worked for the notorious gangster and bootlegger Enoch Johnson. For those of you who watched Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Thompson was based on Enoch Johnson. No one ever talked about that particular black sheep of the family, but since Johnson’s empire stretched into Pennsylvania, and Grandpa and his siblings grew up in Philadelphia, it’s likely there was a connection. (In another ironic twist, my younger son, a CGI artist, worked on Boardwalk Empire.)

Then there’s The Sopranos, which may have been fiction but was definitely based on a reality I knew. Many of my classmates were Mafia sons and daughters. The older brother of one of my girlfriends was a good friend of the members of the Four Seasons. If you ever saw Jersey Boys, you know of their connection to various Mafia wise guys.

Rumor also has it that my uncle did business with the Mafia. Irony of all ironies, he was married to my grandfather’s younger daughter, but as far as I know, the less-than-legal business dealings began after my grandfather passed away.

When I was asked to write a cozy mystery series, it seemed a no-brainer to set the books in my home state and create an amateur sleuth with a Jersey Girl sensibility. Like me, my protagonist would have a tendency toward puns, dry humor, and witty repartee often bordering on sarcasm.

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide is the eighth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. There are also three companion novellas. Anastasia is a reluctant amateur sleuth who finds herself dealing with murder after her husband drops dead at a Las Vegas casino. That’s when she learns of his closely guarded gambling addiction and the massive debt he’s racked up. Of course, organized crime is involved. After all, the story is set in New Jersey.

And not wanting to leave out the family I married into, I’ve given Anastasia a truculent communist mother-in-law inspired by my own truculent communist mother-in-law. Through it all, Anastasia handles her “new normal” with a decidedly Jersey Girl attitude and sense of humor.

Ho Ho epub cover 72Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

Two and a half weeks ago magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack arrived home to find Ira Pollack, her half-brother-in-law, had blinged out her home with enough Christmas lights to rival Rockefeller Center. Now he’s crammed her small yard with enormous cavorting inflatable characters. She and photojournalist boyfriend and possible spy Zack Barnes pack up the unwanted lawn decorations to return to Ira. They arrive to find his yard the scene of an over-the-top Christmas extravaganza. His neighbors are not happy with the animatronics, laser light show, and blaring music creating traffic jams on their normally quiet street. One of them expresses his displeasure with his fists before running off.

In the excitement, the deflated lawn ornaments are never returned to Ira. The next morning Anastasia once again heads to his house before work to drop them off. When she arrives, she discovers Ira’s attacker dead in Santa’s sleigh. Ira becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder and begs Anastasia to help clear his name. But Anastasia has promised her sons she’ll keep her nose out of police business. What’s a reluctant amateur sleuth to do?

Buy Links

Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VG2QZXV/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=Handmade+Ho-Ho+Homicide&qid=1563673299&s=gateway&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=cbd92af3c45b1134cb5408cc8450e3b4&language=en_US

 Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/handmade-ho-ho-homicide

 Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/handmade-ho-ho-homicide-lois-winston/1132607263?ean=2940163093748

 iTunes https://books.apple.com/us/book/handmade-ho-ho-homicide/id1473711082

Bio:

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

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

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

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

 

 

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Lois Winston
Lois Winston
4 years ago

Donnell, thanks so much for featuring me on your blog today.

Jacquie Biggar
Jacquie Biggar
4 years ago

Wow, you have an interesting family! You should consider doing a memoir at some point 🙂
Congrats on the new release, it sounds great!

Lois Winston
Lois Winston
4 years ago

Thanks, Jacquie! I did consider it at one time, but there are too many things best kept private.

Vicki Batman
Vicki Batman
4 years ago

Hi, Lois and Donnell! Lois, the cover is so cute. Loved learning about the mafia stuff. Whoa.

M. E. Bakos
M. E. Bakos
4 years ago

Great blog. I think a memoir would be fascinating. Congratulations on your new release!

Lois Winston
Lois Winston
4 years ago

Thanks, Vicki. I’m super happy with the way the cover turned out.

M.E., as I mentioned to Jacquie, I don’t think a memoir is something that will ever come to pass.

PA De Voe
PA De Voe
4 years ago

This is one of the best personal background blogs yet! And your new book Handmaid Ho Ho Homicide sounds terrific, too. Best on the book and your writing future books in the series!

Jan Christensen
Jan Christensen
4 years ago

Being a Jersey girl myself, I loved reading this, Lois. And went right out and purchased the first in the series. Your covers are fabulous. I look forward to reading! And good luck with your newest!

Lois Winston
Lois Winston
4 years ago

Wow! Thanks, P.A.!

Jan, thanks so much, I hope you enjoy the book.

Skye Taylor
Skye Taylor
4 years ago

With a family history like that how could you NOT use some of it for story ideas?

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