HISTORICAL MYSTERY AUTHOR D.S. LANG SHARES A FAMILY FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE

D.S. Lang started making up stories to entertain herself as an only child, and she’s still making them up. Her historical mysteries are set in small-town Ohio after the Great War. They feature amateur women sleuths determined to catch the bad guys and gals. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

In The Murdered Matron, the second book in my Doro Banyon Historical Cozy Mystery series, Doro helps plan her hometown’s annual Christmas celebration. A big part of the discussion revolves around refreshments. 

 

When I think of holiday treats, cookies come to mind—especially a family favorite sugar cookie. I do not know the origin of the recipe, but I recently found it handwritten in one of my mom’s old cookbooks. My mouth immediately watered! I have not made this cookie in many years, so I asked a friend who is a superb baker to help me figure how much flour is needed. The recipe, as you will see, calls for “enough to pat cookies out.” My friend has a similar old recipe, and she said about three cups should do the trick. 

 

In the novel, Doro and her best friend bake a batch to share with the town lawmen, who rave about the sweet treat. If you make them, I hope the cookies are just as popular with your family, friends, and neighbors!

 

Family Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

3 cups white all-purpose flour

 

Cream together the sugars, butter, and eggs. Add the buttermilk, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg.

 

Add enough flour to spoon cookies into your hand and pat out. This is tricky! Have 

3 cups of white all-purpose flour ready.

 

Bake @375-400 degrees for 10 minutes, watching carefully.

The Murdered Matron

A Roaring Twenties Cozy Historical, Book 2

 

As the fall semester ends, Doro’s hands are full as a professor, librarian, and volunteer. She looks forward to planning and celebrating her hometown’s annual Christmas festivities, but her enthusiasm is tested when the chairwoman’s dictatorial ways create dissension among the committee members. Dissension soon turns to malice, and threats fly among the matron and several others. When she is found dead, unsettling questions arise—and so do longstanding grudges. Who caused the woman’s fatal fall from a ladder? After the chairwoman’s handyman disappears, anxiety escalates among townsfolk. Doro and her best friend, Aggie, along with two local lawmen, work together to investigate. Can they catch the killer in time to save the holiday celebration? Or will others fall victim to the perpetrator?

 

Pre-order (available 12/2/23)

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--CHRISTMAS WITH ANASTASIA

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? I suspect more and more of you are doing most of your shopping online this year. Maybe by next year life will return to normal, and we’ll be able to shop in and enjoy the holiday decorations in all the local stores—assuming there are any brick and mortar stores left.  

Lois Winston, my author, hasn’t yet dropped the bombshell about the demise of Lord & Taylor. The chain was still hanging on by a thread when she finished writing A Sew Deadly Cruise, the latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. When Mama learns of the iconic department store’s demise, it will send her reeling. My mother’s relationship with Mr. Lord and Mr. Taylor has lasted far longer than any of her marriages, including the one to my father. I’m assuming Mama will learn of the bankruptcy in the next book Lois writes about me. If I’m lucky, she’ll make sure I’m out of town when Mama hears the awful news.

 

Anyway, since most holiday shopping this year will occur on our smart phones, tablets, and laptops, that leaves more time for holiday reading, which is less fattening than doubling your usual Christmas cookie output. (This pandemic is making the Freshman Fifteen look like a fond memory!)

 

There are two books in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series that take place during the holidays, Drop Dead Ornaments and Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide. The two books are available individually, both as ebooks and in print, but they’re also bundled together in one ebook set. They’ll go great with a cup of hot cocoa, tea, or coffee and a few Christmas cookies. 

 

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?

 

Buy Links
Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

iTunes
Nook 

 

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

 

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?

 

Buy Links

Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble  

iTunes 

 

Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, Books 7-8

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MURDER, MAYHEM & CHRISTMAS CRAFTS GALORE!

It’s December. Have you started your Christmas crafting? Need some quick and easy projects to decorate your home and give as gifts? Drop Dead Ornamentsand Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, books 7 and 8 in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, offer projects even the most novice and cash-strapped crafter can create with professional looking results. 

In Drop Dead Ornaments you’ll find ideas for creating pricey glass ball ornaments for pennies. The crafts in Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide utilize all those Christmas cards you’ve kept stashed away in a box for years because they’re too pretty to toss in the recycling bucket.

And in-between crafting, shopping, and baking Christmas cookies, you can grab a cup of coffee or tea, settle into your favorite reading chair, and see what sorts of trouble author Lois Winston has gotten me into in the two latest books about me. 

Plus, as a holiday gift to our readers, for a limited time the ebook edition of Drop Dead Ornaments is on sale for only .99 cents!

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?

Buy Links
Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

iTunes
Nook 

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

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?

Buy Links

Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble  

iTunes 

TWO CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Do you know what day it is? It’s forty-nine days until Christmas. Can you believe it? Have you started your Christmas shopping? What about your Christmas reading? This time of year many readers like to curl up with seasonal books. And what goes better with Christmas than a little murder? At least if you’re a fan of cozy mysteries.

Lois Winston, that devious author who’s always getting me involved with killers and dead bodies, now has two books that keep me from kicking back and enjoying the holidays. You’d think she’d give me a break, at least on Christmas, right? No such luck for this reluctant amateur sleuth. However, you can kill two proverbial birds with one stone. (Note the murder mystery-appropriate metaphor.) Those books about me make great holiday gifts for anyone on your list who enjoys a little murder with their egg nog and gingerbread. 

And don’t forget to give yourself a cozy murder or two for the holidays!

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?

Buy Links
Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

iTunes
Nook 

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

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?

Buy Links

Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble 

iTunes 

RELEASE DAY FOR HANDMADE HO-HO HOMICIDE

No recipe today. I’m giving Cloris the day off and taking over her usual Tuesday spot because, as I mentioned yesterday, today is release day for Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, the eighth book in the cozy mystery series that’s about yours truly, reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack.

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that author Lois Winston upended my extremely comfortable middle class suburban life back in 2011 with the release of Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. She hasn’t stopped messing with my life since, not even giving me a respite for the Christmas holidays, as you will see in my latest adventure.

Suspense Magazine called Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide“a laugh-out-loud, well plotted mystery from a real pro! A ho-ho hoot!” 

And from Dru’s Book Musings: “Once again, the author knows how to tell a story that immediately grabbed my attention and I couldn’t put this book down until the last page was read….This was one of the best books in this delightfully lovable series and I can’t wait to see what exciting adventures await Anastasia and her friends.”

I hope all of you will pick up a copy and take pleasure in the way Lois torments me. If so, as a Christmas present, maybe she’ll split the royalties with me so I can dig my way out of the financial mess she created for me. 

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

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?

Buy Links
Paperback

Amazon 

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble 

iTunes 

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--CROSS STITCHED POINSETTIA ORNAMENT

Do you know what today is? It's Release Eve, the day before the official release of Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, the eighth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, the eponymous cozy mystery series where author Lois Winston continues to taunt me, her reluctant amateur sleuth, with dead bodies.

To mark the occasion and since it’s never too early to begin your Christmas crafting, here’s an easy (no backstitch or fractional stitches!) poinsettia cross stitch design that can be fashioned into an ornament after it’s stitched.

The design measures approximately 2-3/4” x 2-3/4” when worked on 14-ct. fabric.

You'll find more Christmas crafts in Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide.

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

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?

Buy Links
Paperback

Amazon

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble 

iTunes