EQ Welcomes Author Lois Winston
EQ: Welcome to EQ! Tell us a little bit
about yourself!
Lois:
Hello, everyone! I’m Lois Winston. I’ve been traditionally published since
2006, first with Talk Gertie to Me,
a humorous women’s fiction book about a mother, a daughter, and an acerbic
imaginary friend. That was followed a year later with Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, a romantic suspense
novel. I then segued into writing humorous amateur sleuth mysteries. I’m
currently a hybrid author, having branched out into indie publishing under both
my own name and my Emma Carlyle pen name.
In
addition, I’m a craft and needlework designer, working for kit manufacturers,
craft book publishers, and craft, needlework, and women’s magazines. If you’ve
ever created a needlework project from a kit or one featured in a magazine,
chances are you probably stitched one of my designs.
EQ: Tell us a little bit about your most
recent release.
Lois:
I actually have two most recent releases. After receiving the rights back to Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun and Death by Killer Mop Doll, the first two
books in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, I’ve re-issued them as
both print and ebooks.
Anastasia
is the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. She’s living a typical middleclass
life with a husband and two kids until the day her husband drops dead at a
roulette table in Las Vegas. She thought he was at a sales meeting in
Harrisburg, PA. That’s when she learns her perfect life has been built on a
series of lies. She’s left with huge debt, her communist mother-in-law, and a
loan shark demanding fifty thousand dollars. Returning to work after the
funeral, she discovers the body of the magazine’s fashion editor glued to her
desk chair. When evidence surfaces that Anastasia’s husband was having an
affair with the editor, she becomes the prime suspect and must find the real
killer to prove her innocence. Subsequent books in the series (Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, and the
mini-mysteries, Crewel Intentions
and Mosaic Mayhem) follow Anastasia
as she moonlights at various jobs to dig her way out of debt. Unfortunately,
she keeps stumbling over dead bodies.
EQ: What was your defining moment as a
writer?
Lois:
Receiving a starred review from Publishers
Weekly for Assault with a Deadly
Glue Gun. About the only thing that could top that would be landing on the New York Times bestseller list. Or
hitting the lottery. Maybe someday…
EQ: Which of your characters do you connect
with the most and why?
Lois:
I connect mostly with Anastasia. She and I have had similar careers. Although I
never worked as a crafts editor for a women’s magazine, I have freelanced for
women’s magazines, and I worked as a craft book editor for a few years. I also
wound up living with my communist mother-in-law for six very stressful,
unpleasant years. Lucille, Anastasia’s mother-in-law, is drawn almost entirely
from my own mother-in-law. It’s probably why so few of my husband’s relatives
speak to me. In my defense, though, my sister-in-law loves my books, so who
cares about the rest of the relatives, right? They obviously have no sense of
humor.
Luckily,
my husband is still very much alive, and he’s not a closet gambler. Really! I
also don’t own a Shakespeare-quoting parrot, and don’t make a habit of tripping
over dead bodies.
EQ: What is the biggest risk you’ve taken
in your writing?
Lois:
By far, the biggest risk I’ve taken was walking away from traditional
publishing by turning down two contracts a little over a year ago. I worked a
long time to get published by a traditional publishing house. It took ten years
from the day I first sat down at my computer until I received my first
contract. Not all that long ago I had a very negative opinion of
self-publishing, but both times and my attitudes have changed. Did I make the
right decision? I hope so. Time will tell.
Find Lois Winston at these places:
Read these titles by Lois Winston:
Talk Gertie to Me
Elementary, My Dear Gertie (novella)
Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception
Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun
Death by Killer Mop Doll
Revenge of the Crafty Corpse
Decoupage Can be Deadly
Crewel Intentions (novelette)
Mosaic Mayhem (novelette)
Once Upon a Romance (short story
anthology)
Four Uncles and a Wedding (writing as
Emma Carlyle)
Finding Hope (writing as Emma Carlyle)
Hooking Mr. Right (writing as Emma
Carlyle)
Finding Mr. Right (part of the Love, Valentine Style boxed set)
Lost in Manhattan (writing as Emma
Carlyle)
Someone to Watch Over Me (writing as
Emma Carlyle)
