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One of my favorite things about ReaderCrate is getting to introduce readers to authors who are not only talented writers, but genuinely fascinating people. Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with bestselling cozy mystery author Lois Winston for a ReaderCrate interview, and it was such a fun conversation.
If you love cozy mysteries with humor, creativity, quirky characters, and clever twists, Lois’s Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series absolutely deserves a spot on your TBR pile.
And honestly? After hearing how her writing journey began, I’m convinced readers are going to love her even more.
Lois shared that she never actually planned to become a novelist. In fact, she says it all started because of a dream. Literally.
While traveling for trade shows during her years in the craft industry, she began having a vivid recurring dream about complete strangers. Night after night, the story continued unfolding “like chapters of a book.” Eventually, she decided to write it down just to get it out of her system.
That “little experiment” turned into a 50,000-word manuscript.
Lois laughed while describing how she believed she had written “the great American novel,” only to later realize it was, in her words, “the great American drivel.”
But instead of giving up, she spent the next ten years learning the craft of writing, studying publishing, revising her work, and eventually landing both an agent and a publishing contract.
Honestly, I think every aspiring writer needed to hear that part.
Lois’s crafting mystery series came from a very smart observation.
When researching cozy mysteries, she noticed most crafting cozies centered around shop owners, quilting groups, or scrapbook clubs. She wanted to do something different.
So she created Anastasia Pollack — the crafts editor of a women’s magazine.
That choice allowed her to feature a different craft in every book while creating a unique world that stood apart from other series in the genre.
And perhaps the best part?
The title Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun came after Lois literally burned herself with a glue gun one day and jokingly told her husband she had been “assaulted by my glue gun.”
That may honestly be one of my favorite cozy mystery origin stories ever.
If you’ve ever wondered whether authors always know who the killer is before they start writing… apparently not.
Lois admitted she is a complete “pantser,” meaning she writes entirely by the seat of her pants. She actually gets bored if she outlines too much because then she already knows what happens.
Even more interesting?
Sometimes she thinks she knows who the villain is… only to discover halfway through that the supposed villain really wants to be a red herring instead.
As a fellow author, I found that incredibly relatable.
One of the things I loved most about our conversation was hearing how Lois finds inspiration.
She described herself as a “newsaholic” and explained that many of her plots come from real-world headlines, crimes, scams, and strange stories she encounters while reading or watching the news.
Her newest release, Embroidered Lies and Alibis, incorporates cryptocurrency scams and elder fraud — topics pulled straight from current events.
She also shared that one of her earlier books was inspired by the infamous unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist in Boston.
Her advice to writers?
Keep your eyes open because “everything is plot fodder.”
Naturally, we had to talk about characters.
Lois revealed that Anastasia’s curmudgeonly communist mother-in-law was inspired by her real-life mother-in-law.
Some readers apparently beg her to kill the character off.
Others absolutely adore her.
That’s probably the sign of a truly memorable cozy mystery character.
Lois is currently working on the sixteenth book in the Anastasia Pollack series, tentatively titled A Crafter’s Guide to Malice and Murder.
This time, Anastasia is heading to an upstate New York ski lodge for Thanksgiving… which of course means there will be dead bodies involved.
As one does.
I was especially excited to feature Lois in our June ReaderCrate theme:
🎨 Art & Alibis
Everyone’s got a creative side… and something to hide.
Her crafting mysteries were honestly the perfect fit for this crate’s cozy art fair vibe.
If you’re new to Lois’s books, she recommends starting with:
📚 Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun
And if you love:
…you’re probably going to fly through this series.
You can learn more about Lois Winston and sign up for her newsletter through her website. She also offers a free Anastasia Pollack mini mystery for newsletter subscribers.
A huge thank you to Lois for joining me for such a fun conversation. Interviews like this are exactly why I love the cozy mystery community so much.
And if you’d like to join us inside ReaderCrate and discover more wonderful authors like Lois, you can learn more at ReaderCrate.com.
