the blog of Anastasia Pollack, crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth
Featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.
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Showing posts with label Christmas cozy mysteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas cozy mysteries. Show all posts
You Get a Mystery! And You Get a Mystery! And You Get a Mystery!
‘Tis the season for holiday cheer, getting together with friends and family, festive parties, and exchanging gifts. I love this time of year because my author, Lois Winston, is too busy with holiday festivities to dream up new ways to torment me with assorted murder and mayhem. She says it’s her holiday gift to me.
But this year she’s also got a gift for all our blog readers.
Back in August, Lois attended the Killer Nashville Mystery Conference. One of the workshops she went to was about how to grow your newsletter subscribers list through Reader Magnets. Lois decided to give Reader Magnets a try.
What’s a Reader Magnet, you ask? It’s a freebie, usually a short story or novella, that readers receive as a thank-you for subscribing to an author’s newsletter. If you subscribe to Lois’s newsletter, you’ll receive a free e-copy of Mosaic Mayhem, one of the three Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini Mysteries that are connected to the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series (otherwise known as those books Lois writes about me.)
A reluctant Amateur sleuth, bumbling kidnappers, mistaken identity. What could go wrong?
So much for a romantic getaway...When cash-strapped mom and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack is offered an all-expense paid three-day trip to Barcelona, her only worries are whether her passport is still valid and arranging care for her semi-invalid mother-in-law during her absence. However, within hours of landing in Europe, she finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun and needing to convince a Spanish crime syndicate they’ve kidnapped the wrong person. Why do people on both sides of the Atlantic keep trying to kill this pear-shaped, middle-aged single mom, and magazine crafts editor?
Clickhereto join Lois’s newsletter and get your free copy of Mosaic Mayhem.
Lois is also taking part in the “Detectives (Who Aren’t Detectives)” promotion this month, which features stories by authors who write about amateur sleuths. If you subscribe to any of the participating authors’ newsletters, you’ll receive a free mystery from them. This is a great opportunity to fill your virtual stocking with stories to read throughout the cold winter months ahead. And hopefully, you’ll find some new favorite authors. Click hereto find all the participating authors and their free books.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for some holiday-themed mysteries, Drop Dead Ornaments and Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, the seventh and eighth books in that series Lois writes about me, are sure to put you in the holiday spirit. Both books are available as ebooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, and audiobooks, as well as in a 2-book ebook bundle. They also make great gifts for the mystery lovers in your life. So grab your beverage of choice and curl up in your favorite chair to join me as I’m once again involved in solving a murder or two (or possibly more!)
We Need a Little Christmas…Right This Very Minute…
Yes, Christmas. And yes, I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. However, today I’m channeling my inner Auntie Mame. If you don’t get the reference, click below to listen to Angela Lansbury singing the song from the musical Mame.
With everything going on in the world, who doesn’t need a little Christmas right this very minute? I know I do. The other day I stopped at a large home décor store in-between errands for the sole purpose of soaking up some Christmas vibes by wandering around their various holiday displays for a few minutes. Ornaments. Wreaths. Nutcrackers. Reindeer. It all taps into my inner child, puts a smile on my face, and makes me think of…
…MURDER AND MAYHEM!
Yes, thanks to my author, I will now forever associate the holidays with dead bodies. That’s because Lois Winston wrote me into not one, but two holiday murder mysteries. Honestly, she couldn’t even cut me some slack at Christmas time?
The answer, of course, is no, she couldn’t. She told me it’s because cozy mystery readers love holiday-themed mysteries. So, if you’re one of them, you’re in luck because both of those books featuring me dealing with holiday homicides are bundled together and now on sale for a limited time for only .99 cents. It’s Lois’s gift to her readers.
As far as I know, she hasn’t yet written me into a New Year’s Eve murder, so maybe I can look forward to toasting in 2022 minus any dead bodies. And with any luck, maybe 2022 will be a huge improvement over 2021.
Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 7-8
Drop Dead Ornaments
Anastasia Pollack's son Alex is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the students to make Christmas ornaments they'll sell at the town's annual Holiday Crafts Fair.
At the fair Anastasia meets Sophie's father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when the woman turns up dead, Sophie's father is arrested for her murder.
Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She's also not convinced of Shane's innocence. Besides, she's promised younger son Nick she'll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?
Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide
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?
Years ago, I worked with a woman who retired and moved down South. The thing she missed most were the changing seasons, especially around the holidays. As far as she was concerned, Christmas lights should be strung on evergreens, not palm trees. And snow was essential, even though a white Christmas was never a guarantee, other than watching the iconic movie every year. It was the principle of the thing.
To compensate for her lack of a traditional Northeastern holiday, she’d be the first to admit she went more than a little bit overboard. First, she bought an artificial Christmas tree and left it up year-round. But that wasn’t enough. She then decided to buy artificial trees for each room of her new home. Some were small, some large. Some traditional, others, like feather trees, not so much. She strung lights and hung wreaths in every room and interspersed other holiday decorations throughout the house. Each room had a specific Christmas theme, such as Santas, or snowflakes, or angels. It was like living in a year-round Christmas shop. Or an extremely scaled down version of the Biltmore Estate at Christmas.
But it made her happy. And that’s all that mattered.
Has this anecdote made you want to get a jump on your holiday-themed reading? Christmas in July sales are just around the corner, but now through May. 19th you can grab an e-copy of the 2-book Christmas bundle of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 7-8, which include Drop Dead Ornaments and Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide,for only $.99. After the 19th, the set goes back to the regular price of $7.99.
Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 7-8
Drop Dead Ornaments
Anastasia Pollack's son Alex is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the students to make Christmas ornaments they'll sell at the town's annual Holiday Crafts Fair.
At the fair Anastasia meets Sophie's father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when the woman turns up dead, Sophie's father is arrested for her murder.
Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She's also not convinced of Shane's innocence. Besides, she's promised younger son Nick she'll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?
Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide
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?
