MY AUTHOR'S HOLIDAY GIFT TO OUR READERS

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? 

 

Click here to 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 here to 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!)

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--LISTEN WHILE YOU BAKE CHRISTMAS BAR COOKIES!

If you’re like me (and probably most of us) right now, you’re up to your eyeballs in holiday prep. Especially if certain family members have been raiding the Christmas cookie jar, and you suddenly find yourself in need of some last-minute baking! Frazzled? Stressed? Already tired of the same old/same old Christmas music that’s been playing since before Halloween? Instead of listening to Grandma getting run over by a reindeer for the umpteenth time, why not multitask and tick a few books off your reading TBR pile while you’re elbow deep in gingerbread dough and sprinkles?

The first eight books of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series are now available in audiobook format. Put Anastasia on the case, and she’ll figure out which reindeer was the culprit in grandma’s demise as she reluctantly stumbles her way through murder and mayhem but always figures out whodunit in the end.

And speaking of last minute baking, here’s a bar cookie you can whip up in no time. You don’t even need to lug out the stand mixer!

 

Quick ‘n Easy Bar Cookies

Yield: 24 bars

 

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cups spooned and leveled all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar, either light or dark

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 room temperature lg. eggs

2 tsp.  vanilla extract

1/2 cup each mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and butterscotch or caramel chips

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts.

Christmas sprinkles

 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides for lifting bars from the pan. 

 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together. 

 

Melt the butter and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. 

 

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix together with large spoon or spatula.  Fold in the chips and nuts. 

 

Transfer dough to the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer. Add sprinkles, pressing lightly onto dough.

 

Bake for 25–30 minutes or until lightly browned on sides and top. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out mostly clean. Don’t over-bake. 

 

Place pan on wire rack and allow bars to cool at least an hour. Lift bars from pan and cut into squares. (Note: a pizza cutter works well for cutting.)

 

Remember, along with cookies, if you’re pressed for last minute gifts, don’t forget that an audiobook subscription or a gift card for ebooks or print make great gifts.

Happy holidays from author Lois Winston, her reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, and all the other characters swimming around in Lois's brain.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE A COZY AUDIOBOOK MURDER!

Halloween is still nearly three weeks away, but every store I’ve been in lately already has their Christmas décor on display and Christmas merchandise filling the shelves. Jack o’lanterns, witches, ghosts, and other ghoulies are jockeying for space with Santas reindeers, angels, and elves. Welcome to Hallowmas! Or maybe it’s Chrisween?

Not to be outdone, we here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers have decided to jump on the early holiday bandwagon. Drop Dead Ornaments, the seventh Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery is now available as an audiobook through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Are you a multitasker? Do you like to kill two birds with one stone? (Disclaimer: no birds were killed in this mystery!) Why not listen to a Christmas mystery while carving your pumpkins?

For those of you who prefer ebooks, paperbacks, or hardcovers, you can find Buy Links here.

 

Do you enjoy listening to audiobooks? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free download of Drop Dead Ornaments.

 

Drop Dead Ornaments

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 7

 

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?

MYSTERY AUTHOR KASSANDRA LAMB ON THE FUN AND CHALLENGES OF WRITING HOLIDAY STORIES

In her youth, Kassandra Lamb had two great passions—psychology and writing. Advised that writers need day jobs and being partial to eating, she studied psychology. Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist—which taught her much about resilience, perseverance, and the healing power of laughter—she spends most of her time in an alternate universe populated by her fictional characters. Learn more about Kassandra and her books at her website.

The Fun and Challenges of Writing Holiday Stories

I’ve always loved reading holiday stories, especially Christmas ones. They put me in the mood for that holiday. And I’ve discovered in recent years that I also love writing them. They’re a lot of fun.

 

There are, however, a few unique challenges to penning a story set at Halloween or Christmas or any other holiday.

 

But first, the fun!

 

Descriptions of settings

Descriptions become a lot more fun to write when you can dress them up with sparkly Christmas lights or spooky Halloween decor or red hearts for Valentine’s Day.

 

The first holiday novella I wrote was for my Kate Huntington mysteries. It’s set in St. Augustine, Florida, where Kate’s parents live. 

 

In real life, St. Augustine goes way overboard when it comes to Christmas. The town, its businesses and residents put up millions of tiny white lights to create a wonderland. Every palm tree and light post is swathed in garlands, lights, and ribbons. And even during the day, the decorations are spectacular, like the gazebo in the town plaza.

 

The descriptions of those decorations help readers be right there with Kate and her family as they prepare for the holidays and solve a mystery while they’re at it.

 

And as the plot is unfolding in The Legend of Sleepy Mayfair (in my second cozy series), the town’s riding stable is gradually transformed into a haunted house, with witches and giant spiders hanging from the rafters and a room full of creepy dolls. 

 

A little lighter

The holidays themselves tend to lighten things up. And in my holiday stories, which are all novellas, the stories are shorter, so I have to keep things a bit simpler. 

 

Little or no subplots, for example. But that’s okay, because the holiday itself becomes a subplot—the preparations for it, the anticipation, how the characters feel about that particular holiday.

 

The challenges

Lightness and fun aren’t all that intriguing after a while, though. Even in holiday stories, there needs to be tension, conflict, and dark moments to make for an interesting read. And especially in mysteries, there needs to be something, well, mysterious.

 

How to create those darker elements without making the story depressing? One way I found was to make the mystery about something other than murder. In An Unsaintly Season in St. Augustine, it’s a missing person, a friend of Kate’s parents.

 

In my Christmas novella for my second series, about a young woman who trains service dogs for veterans, I made the murder an old one. The protagonist’s quirky neighbors in Mayfair, Florida decide to build an ice-skating rink (told you they were quirky) to attract winter tourists. And during the excavation, a thirty-year-old skeleton is uncovered.

 

The themes

The themes in holiday stories, obviously, should be related to that holiday. That is both fun and challenging. For my novella, My Funny Mayfair Valentine, the mystery revolves around a budding romance (or two).

 

The themes of my Christmas stories are related to family. In A Mayfair Christmas Carol, as Marcia and her police detective boyfriend try to solve the old murder, the back story of the town’s founding family is revealed and we learn, along with Marcia, why the muumuu-wearing octogenarian matriarch is a Scrooge.

 

Bringing it home

The endings should also be related to the holiday in some way. In The Legend of Sleepy Mayfair, I re-enacted—sort of—the ride of the Headless Horseman.

 

And in A Mayfair Christmas Carol, Marcia and her boyfriend literally bring someone home to their family on Christmas Eve.

 

I love writing holiday stories so much that I’m kind of sad right now—because I’m running out of holidays. I have one more novella planned for the dog trainer series, titled Auld Lang Mayfair. (In case you haven’t guessed, it’s set around New Year’s Day.)

 

And I’m starting a new series, of police procedurals, partly so I can write more holiday stories for that series! 

 

A Mayfair Christmas Carol

A Marcia Banks and Buddy Cozy Mystery, Book 4)

 

When Mayfair, Florida’s newly minted Chamber of Commerce goes off the rails and decides to build an ice skating rink for a Christmas extravaganza, a decades-old skeleton is uncovered and its secrets threaten more than the town’s Christmas plans. Service dog trainer Marcia Banks is determined to help her police detective boyfriend solve the mystery—whether he wants her help or not. Can she and her Black Lab, Buddy, keep the ghost of Christmas past from destroying what is left of Mayfair’s founding family?

 

Buy Links

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ebook (limited time .99 cents)

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MYSTERY AUTHOR NEIL S. PLAKCY ON HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR FICTIONAL FRIENDS

Neil S. Plakcy’s golden retriever mysteries have been inspired by his own goldens, Samwise, Brody and Griffin. Neil and his partner live in South Florida, where Neil is always writing, and Brody and Griffin are either sleeping or chewing one of their collection of dozens of plastic and rawhide bones. Learn more about Neil and his books at his website. 

Holiday Gifts for Fictional Friends

Come the holidays it’s often a struggle to come up with the perfect gift for not only our nearest and dearest, but the maid, our kids’ teachers, the letter carrier, and others. When I was a kid, my mother had contacts in the jewelry business in New York, so all my teachers got gold pins in the shape of a circle, which I’m sure went over better than perfume or scarves.

Pictured above is the first menorah I bought for myself, with the Lion of Judah at its base, all ready for the start of Hanukkah. The blue candle is the shamash or leader; you light that one first, and use it to light the others. The white candle is in place for the first night-- just as Hebrew is read from right to left, that's the way we insert candles (though we always light the newest candle first.)

It takes a lot of thought to go into the perfect gift—and it’s that much harder when your friends are fictional rather than real. But when you write a cozy mystery set at the holidays, like my Dog Have Mercy, there have to be gifts. Not only do they need to be relevant to the giver and the recipient, they also ought to have some larger resonance to the plot.

A lot of work for a few words on the page, right?

The protagonist for my (now) nine-book series is Steve Levitan, a forty-something guy who served a year in prison in California for computer hacking. He returned to his hometown, Stewart’s Crossing, Pennsylvania, with his tail between his legs, and he’s been trying to rebuild his life.

His partner in crime (solving) is his golden retriever, Rochester. It’s pretty easy to come up with gifts for the dog—Steve gives Rochester ropes for tugging and bones for chewing, as I give to my two goldens.

Steve also has a live-in love, photographer and college professor Liliana Weinstock. Since both of them are Jewish, their gift-giving takes place at Hanukkah. I admit, I was a spoiled only child. I got small gifts every night for eight nights—a book, a Toblerone bar, a box of my favorite cookies. I got my big gifts on Christmas day—bicycles, chemistry sets and so on.

I decided that Steve and Lili would exchange their gifts on the first night of Hanukkah, as my partner and I do. Steve’s a computer guy, and around that time my partner had given me my first iPad. It seemed like a great gift for Lili to give Steve.

Here’s what Steve gives Lili:

I handed her the square box, which I’d wrapped in paper festooned with menorahs and dreidels. She carefully slit the seam, and I said, “Go on, rip the paper. You know you want to.”

She laughed. “Fine.” She ripped it open. “It’s a lens for my iPhone!”

“Four lenses in one,” I said. “I know you take pictures sometimes with your phone when you don’t have a camera with you. This way you’ll have a 10x magnifier, a 15x, a fish-eye, and a wide-angle, all in one.”

“I love it!” she said. I got down from the chair and we kissed. “Thank you! I can’t wait to try it out.”

“Well, there’s a dog on the stairs who loves to have his picture taken.”

*

I tried to make the gifts relevant to each character, and of course at the end to tie them back to Rochester, who believes he’s the star of the books. And no one’s going to tell him he’s not!

Dog Have Mercy

A Golden Retriever Mystery, Book 6

In the sixth golden retriever mystery, Dog Have Mercy, Christmas and Hanukkah approach and reformed hacker Steve Levitan tries to help a fellow ex-con now working at the vet’s office in Stewart’s Crossing. His curiosity, and the crime-solving instincts of his golden retriever, Rochester, kick in when liquid potassium ampoules are stolen from the vet and Steve’s new friend is a suspect.

Is this theft connected to a drug-running operation in North Philly? Or to a recent spate of deaths at the local nursing home? And can Steve continue to resist his computer-hacking impulses or will his desire to help others continue to lead him into trouble?

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