It’s my pleasure to welcome back fellow Sister in Crime Lois Winston, who is here today to share her take on dysfunctional families. Take it away, Lois:

As authors, we’re often told to write what we know. That’s not always possible for those of us who write mysteries filled with murder and mayhem. Certainly, there are “those” people in our lives we may fantasize about eliminating, but unlike the romance writer recently convicted of killing her husband, we tamp down those urges. Like many mystery authors, I instead get plot ideas from world and local news, not by committing my own crimes in the name of research.

However, the same is not true for my characters. Since I began my writing career seventeen years ago, I’ve written more than thirty novels, novellas, and short stories. I’ve relied on people in my own life for most of the characters I’ve created. Sometimes a character is a composite of various people I’ve known. Other times, the character is inspired by one person. Throughout my life, I’ve come across many people who belong between the covers of a novel, and sadly, I’ve had the misfortune of being related to quite a few of them.

I grew up in a family that was unlike the families portrayed on television during my early childhood. Nowadays TV families are more realistic. Back then, they were idealized representations dreamed up by scriptwriters. However, as a kid, I didn’t know that. I longed for parents like the Cleavers, the Andersons, and the Stones. Instead, I was born to parents who never should have had one child, let alone four.

More than anything I wanted to be part of a loving family. I swore I’d never get involved with anyone whose family didn’t measure up to my ideals. When I met my future husband, I not only fell in love with him, I fell in love with his family.

But sometimes people hide their true selves, and such was the case with my future in-laws, especially my mother-in-law. Within a short time after my marriage, our relationship began to deteriorate. It’s not easy dealing with a bully who believes she’s always right, and you’re always wrong—about everything. As she grew older, her nastiness and bullying grew exponentially.

And did I mention she was a card-carrying communist?

My mother-in-law became the inspiration behind Lucille Pollack, my amateur sleuth’s mother-in-law in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. The situations I create for Lucille may be totally fictitious, but her personality is true to the woman who inspired her.

Although my mother-in-law died seventeen years ago, the psychological wounds she inflicted on those around her live on. But that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? I may not have had a storybook childhood or married into the family of my dreams, but the people who have caused me the most grief in my life have also inspired me to create unique and interesting characters.

There are now eleven books in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Lucille’s role in each story varies. Sometimes she’s present in much of the plot; sometimes she has a minor role. In the newly released Guilty as Framed, she manages to wreak havoc in unexpected ways for Anastasia and her family.

Guilty as Framed

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 11

When an elderly man shows up at the home of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, she’s drawn into the unsolved mystery of the greatest art heist in history.

Boston mob boss Cormac Murphy has recently been released from prison. He doesn’t believe Anastasia’s assertion that the man he’s looking for doesn’t live at her address and attempts to muscle his way into her home. His efforts are thwarted by Anastasia’s fiancé Zack Barnes.

A week later, a stolen SUV containing a dead body appears in Anastasia’s driveway. Anastasia believes Murphy is sending her a message. It’s only the first in a series of alarming incidents, including a mugging, a break-in, another murder, and the discovery of a cache of jewelry and an etching from the largest museum burglary in history.

But will Anastasia solve the mystery behind these shocking events before she falls victim to a couple of desperate thugs who will stop at nothing to get what they want?

Find the book:

Paperback (available 9/6/22)

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3tLnT3d

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/guilty-as-framed

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/guilty-as-framed/id6442846272

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guilty-as-framed-lois-winston/1141500980?ean=2940185728703 

About Lois Winston: USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.