Getting Acquainted (or Reacquainted) with Lois Winston

My name is Lois Winston. I first took a seat on the Booklover’s Bench May 23, 2019. Seven years later, I’m still squeezing onto that bench along with my fellow Benchies. With the introduction of our newest benchmate CB Wilson two weeks ago, we decided it was time to reintroduce ourselves to those of you who are newer readers to our site.

I’m not one of those writers who grew up knowing she wanted to write novels. I have no idea why the writing bug took a bite out of me one night years ago, but it did. Over the next few months, I penned a 50,000-word romance that spanned thirty-five years. I thought I’d written The Great American Novel. The rejection letters that soon began flooding my mailbox made it perfectly clear that I’d written The Great American Drivel.

All those A’s I racked up in my high school Honors English class never prepared me to write a novel. But as many authors will tell you, once you’re bitten by the writing bug, you can never turn back. So I set out to learn how to write right.

It took me ten years to sell my first book. Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous novel about a young woman from Iowa who moves to New York City and the mother determined to bring her home to marry the boy next door, released in 2006. I followed that book up with the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. That book had first seen life as the unpublishable book I’d written back when I had no idea what I was doing.

Perseverance or stubbornness?

All I knew was that I didn’t want to give up on my first baby. Over the years, as I perfected my craft, I’d pull it out and work to improve it. Eventually, it evolved from a romance to a romantic suspense, from 50,000 words to 90,000 words, and from a timeframe of thirty-five years to a few months. Although the book didn’t rank up there with the great classics of modern American literature, it sold well and won some awards.

One day, shortly before my first book sold, an editor told my agent that she was looking for a humorous crafting mystery series. My agent knew I could write humor. She also knew my background was as a designer in the consumer crafts industry. Putting the two together, she told the editor she had the perfect author to write such a series—me. Forget that I’d never tried writing a mystery. My agent had faith in me, and I wasn’t about to let her down.

The result was Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in what was to become my bestselling and award-winning Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. The book became a finalist in the prestigious St. Martin’s Malice Domestic competition. Unfortunately, another finalist won the publishing contract prize. No problem. The original editor was still interested.

Unfortunately, sometimes I have rotten luck. That publishing house was in the process of being sold. My agent was told they had to wait until the sale was finalized before issuing new contracts. Once the sale went through, the first thing the new publishers did was change the name of the company. The second was to fold their cozy mystery line. The writing gods were rolling around, LOLing all over Mt. Olympus at my expense.

It took several years after that before the series finally sold. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun was released in 2011. Fifteen years later, there are now fifteen full-length Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries and three companion novellas. I’m currently writing Book 16 in the series. I’m also the author of the two-book Empty Nest Mystery series. To date, my published fiction includes twenty-four novels, five novellas, several short stories, and a children’s chapter book. As you can see, the writing bug has never stopped biting.

Have you ever found yourself suddenly traveling down a completely different and unexpected career path? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of one of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest Mysteries.

The images in this post were author submitted.