Lois Winston, author of Seams Like the Perfect Crime, a Anastasia Pollack Crafting mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to share with us how life can be stranger than fiction, and how she uses this in her writing.

Welcome, Lois. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Have you ever read a book and thought, “No way would that ever happen in real life!”? I know that many readers will think exactly that when they read about the idiosyncratic behavior of Barry Sumner, a character in Seams Like the Perfect Crime, my fourteenth and latest Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. However, I’m here to tell you that I didn’t have to rely on any fictional enhancements when I decided to incorporate into my newest mystery the extremely odd habit of a very peculiar neighbor who lived across the street from me decades ago.

Who among us hasn’t come across an odd neighbor at one time or another? According to the Oracle of Google, the average American moves 11.7 times in a lifetime. Chances are, at least one of those moves will place you next door, down the block, or across the street from a neighbor you will deem weird, eccentric, or unusual in some way.

Many people shy away from such individuals, but as an author, I’m fascinated by human nature in all its forms. Besides, up until three years ago, I lived most of my life in New Jersey, a state that defines weird. We even have a magazine devoted to all things weird within the state, including some laws still on the books. For instance, it’s unlawful to frown at a police officer. That one made it into Sorry, Knot Sorry, the thirteenth book in my series.

When my husband and I moved twenty-seven years ago, I became mesmerized by the unusual behavior of the man who lived across the street from us. In the back of my mind, I always knew he’d one day show up as a character in one of my books. And now he has. Unfortunately for him, he becomes the victim of a killer. Fortunately for him, this fate didn’t befall him in real life. At least, not that I know. He moved about twenty years ago, but he was still very much alive when I did bump into him at one point. I didn’t ask about his lawnmower, though.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Lois, and good luck with Seams Like the Perfect Crime, the latest book in the Anastasia Pollack mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Lois Winston by visiting the author’s website, Booklovers Bench, and The Stiletto Gang, as well as her Bookbub and Goodreads pages. Readers can also follow her on Twitter/X.

The book is available online at the following retailers:

Amazon    Kobo     Barnes & Noble    Apple Books

About Lois Winston: USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous fish-out-of-water novel about a small-town girl going off to the big city and the mother determined to bring her home to marry the boy next door. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception.

Then Lois’s writing segued unexpectedly into the world of humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, thanks to a conversation her agent had with an editor looking for craft-themed mysteries. In her day job, Lois was an award-winning craft and needlework designer, and although she’d never written a mystery—or had even thought about writing a mystery—her agent decided she was the perfect person to pen a series for this editor.

Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes fourteen novels and three novellas. Lois also writes the Empty Nest Mysteries and has written several standalone mystery novellas. Other publishing credits include romance, chick lit, and romantic suspense novels, a series of romance short stories, a children’s chapter book, and a nonfiction book on writing, inspired by her twelve years working as an associate at a literary agency.