USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother determined to bring her home to marry the boy next door. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception.
Then Lois’s writing segued unexpectedly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job, Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor.
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 fourteen novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries and has written several standalone mystery novellas. Other publishing credits include romance, chick lit, and romantic suspense novels, a series of romance short stories, a children’s chapter book, and a nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency.
Learn more about Lois and her books at www.loiswinston.com where you can find links for her other social media sites and sign up for her newsletter to receive a free download of an Anastasia Pollack Mini-Mystery.
Playing with the Space/Time Continuum – By Lois Winston
I recently celebrated my birthday, and with each passing year, I wonder how I ever got so old. In my mind, I’m still forty. I don’t know if it’s because I’m living in denial, or because I spend so much time in the head of my protagonist. In the fourteen years, fourteen novels, and three novellas since the publication of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, Anastasia has only aged little more than a year and a half. If I can play with the space/time continuum when it comes to my characters, why can’t I do so with myself?
To be honest, I never gave much thought to my characters’ ages when I began writing the series. I wasn’t thinking long-term, and that was a big mistake. I’d given Anastasia two teenage sons. It wasn’t until the first book was in production and the second book close to being finished that I realized I had a problem. I should have made Anastasia’s sons younger at the start of the series. However, changing their ages during the page proof stage wasn’t an option because it would have entailed a major rewrite of the story.
All my previous books had been standalones that spanned a few weeks or months. I’d never had to consider aging any of my characters beyond a single book. That changed after I was offered a three-book contract for the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun takes place during a few weeks in the winter. Death by Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series, takes place in May and June.
Since my plan was to write the series for as long as I enjoyed writing it and readers enjoyed reading it, I needed to figure out how I was going to keep Anastasia’s kids from growing up too soon. Family dynamics play a huge role in my series, and I didn’t want Anastasia’s older son going off to college any time soon.
Some series authors advance their timelines by a season or a year with each consecutive book. Some keep their characters frozen in time with the main characters never aging. That’s much easier to do if all the characters are adults. Not so easy when kids are involved.
I realized I needed to start compressing my timeline. I ended Death by Killer Mop Doll in a way that set up the plot of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in the series. Revenge of the Crafty Corpse opens days after Death by Killer Mop Doll ends.
I continued using a shortened timeline as the series has progressed. Some of the books take place a few weeks after the preceding one, but sometimes the next book in the series opens as little as the day after the previous book ends. Fourteen years have now come and gone since the release of the first book in the series, but in Anastasia’s world the calendar has only advanced twenty months.
In Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the fourteenth and newest book in the series, Anastasia’s oldest son is finally off to college. In real-life years, he’d now be thirty, and Anastasia would be in her mid-fifties and probably a grandmother. Luckily, fiction isn’t real life, and as an author, I can manipulate time any way I want. That said, I’ve also convinced myself I really am only forty.
Seams Like the Perfect Crime
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 14
When staffing shortages continue to hamper the Union County homicide squad, Detective Sam Spader once again turns to his secret weapon, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. How can she and husband Zack Barnes refuse when the victim is their new neighbor?
Revolutionary War reenactor Barry Sumner had the odd habit of spending hours mowing a small patch of packed dirt and weeds until his mower ran out of gas. He’d then guzzle beer on his front porch until he passed out. That’s where Anastasia’s son Nick discovers his body three days after the victim and his family moved into the newly built mini-McMansion across the street.
After a melee breaks out at the viewing, Spader zeroes in on the widow as his prime suspect. However, Anastasia has her doubts. There are other possible suspects, including a woman who’d had an affair with the victim, his ex-wife, the man overseeing the widow’s trust fund, a drug dealer, and the reenactors who were blackmailing the widow and victim.
When another reenactor is murdered, Spader suspects they’re dealing with a serial killer, but Anastasia wonders if the killer is attempting to misdirect the investigation. As she narrows down the suspects, will she jeopardize her own life to learn the truth?
Craft projects included.
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George, thanks so much for hosting me on your blog today!
Will be 40 myself later this year. In the unpublished series of novellas I’m writing, I had four of five years between the first two novellas. And I realized as I went along, the characters aged too fast. So I went back and had the characters only age a year between each installment. Things seem to be more even now.
Justin, my husband often quotes a line from Indiana Jones: It’s not the years, it’s the miles.
;-D
Interesting story of your evolution as a writer. Doing needlepoint is sort of like writing a novel. Best of luck to you.
That’s so true, Michael. Every needlework is one stitch at a time. Every novel is one word at a time.
I think your evolution as a writer is fascinating, and so are your characters.
Thanks so much, Saralyn! Much appreciated!
Lois, I thought we were the same age. You’re 40? As you know I’m a huge fan of your series, and the timeline is working. xoxo
LOL, Donnell! Only in my head!
George and Lois, you are both so very generous. Thank you, thank you, for all you do.
You’re very welcome, Pam! There have been many people who have helped me throughout my writing journey. Paying it forward has always felt like the right thing to do.