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Sunday, October 1, 2017

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--AUTHOR LOIS WINSTON ON RELEASE DAY FOR SCRAPBOOK OF MURDER

Today is the official release day for Scrapbook of Murder, the sixth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. As a special gift to readers of this blog, I’m offering a limited time $2.00 discount on the paperback edition. Click here and enter the coupon code 9JTW6733 at checkout.

As the crafts editor for American Woman, a women’s magazine sold primarily at supermarket checkout aisles, Anastasia is tasked with showcasing easy-to-execute craft projects in each issue of the monthly magazine.

In Assault Witha Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, I featured several different crafts. Beginning with Death By Killer Mop Doll, I chose to highlight one craft per book: dollmaking in Death By Killer Mop Doll, fabric yo-yo crafts in Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, decoupage in Decoupage Can Be Deadly, and knitted and crocheted baby blankets in AStitch To Die For

Before I became an author, I was a craft and needlecraft designer and editor for manufacturers and publishers. The craft industry has gone through some drastic changes over the last twenty years. Most consumers no longer have the time or willingness to spend days, weeks, or months working on a single craft project. They want something they can complete in a few hours at most. For that reason, when you walk into a craft store nowadays, you’ll find shrinking needlework sections with a huge percentage of the store devoted to scrapbooking supplies. Once there were cross stitch and needlepoint shops in just about every town in America. Now there are entire states without a single shop. Stores devoted entirely to scrapbooking have taken their place.

With that in mind, I chose scrapbooking as the craft to feature for Anastasia’s latest adventure. And in Scrapbook of Murder, the craft of scrapbooking plays a pivotal role in the book’s plot.

If you’re someone who has boxes of family photos stored on a shelf in a closet—or worse yet, in an attic or basement—Scrapbook of Murder will also give you good reason to protect and preserve those photos.

Scrapbook of Murder
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

Crafts and murder don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but normal deserted craft editor Anastasia Pollack’s world nearly a year ago. Now, tripping over dead bodies seems to be the “new normal” for this reluctant amateur sleuth.

When the daughter of a murdered neighbor asks Anastasia to create a family scrapbook from old photographs and memorabilia discovered in a battered suitcase, she agrees—not only out of friendship but also from a sense of guilt over the older woman’s death. However, as Anastasia begins sorting through the contents of the suitcase, she discovers a letter revealing a fifty-year-old secret, one that unearths a long-buried scandal and unleashes a killer. Suddenly Anastasia is back in sleuthing mode as she races to prevent a suitcase full of trouble from leading to more deaths.

Buy Links:
Paperback  (Don’t forget to enter coupon code 9JTW6733 at checkout!)
Kobo 
Nook 

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 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.

3 comments:

Anne Louise Bannon said...

Congratulations on the release. Just bought the Nook version and am looking forward to reading it.

Sylvia A. Nash said...

Congratulations, Lois! Sometimes I think "release day" should be called "relief day" because you made it!

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

Thanks Anne and Sylvia! Not sure it was much of a relief for me today, though, Sylvia. I sent out a newsletter, and even though all the links worked in the test email, the link for the paperback with the discount coupon code was corrupted, and the Facebook share button didn't work. I just had to send a new newsletter out with the corrections. It's been one of those days...