My Multi-tasking Sleuth

The LadyKillers welcomes guest poster, award-winning author LOIS WINSTON.

Several years ago I heard about a study regarding multi-tasking, especially as it concerns today’s youth. The report made it sound like this was a new phenomenon, something invented by Gen Y kids who are simultaneously plugged into their iPods and surfing the ‘Net while they’re Tweeting, texting, updating their Facebook pages, and doing homework.

Really? I couldn’t help but think the scientists running that study had to be all guys. Multi-tasking is nothing new. Women have been multi-tasking since the beginning of time. That’s why we have two X chromosomes. We’re born as clones of ourselves, able to multi-task from the moment of conception.

Sigmund Freud hypothesized that the reason men became the hunters and women stayed back at the cave, tending the fire, was because males had an uncontrollable urge to pee on the flames. Women may have wanted to pee on the flames, too, but their physiology kept them from doing so. This was back before our ancestors learned how to make fire. All they could do was keep the home fires burning. So it was really important to make sure the guys stayed beyond peeing distance of the flames. Hence, the division of labor.

Freud got it all wrong, though. The reason men went off in search of saber-toothed tigers and other gastronomic delicacies while the womenfolk stayed back in the cave was because the women could tend the fires, tan the hides, sew the clothing, look after the little ones, and tidy up the cave all at the same time. Men are incapable of doing more than one thing at a time because they have no double “anything” chromosome.

Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, is a consummate multi-tasker. She has to be, given the state in which her dead louse of a spouse left her. In Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the latest addition to the series, Anastasia is moonlighting teaching arts and crafts on weekends at the assisted living and rehabilitation center where Lucille, her cantankerous communist mother-in-law, is convalescing after surgery for a brain tumor.

Holding down one full-time job and one part-time job isn’t enough for this multi-tasker, though. When her mother-in-law’s roommate winds up strangled and Lucille becomes the prime suspect, Anastasia devotes what little free time she has to trying to catch the real killer.

Not that Anastasia wouldn’t be glad to be rid of Lucille permanently, but her sense of justice is too ingrained to let the woman go to prison for a crime she’s certain Lucille didn’t commit. The Bolshevik pain in the derriere might be many things, but Anastasia knows she’s not a killer.

Remember the Helen Reddy song: “I am WOMAN – double-U O M A N.” It could be Anastasia’s theme song. The poor woman really does need a break. I’m thinking of finding a way to send her on a little R&R if she gets out of this latest fracas alive, but since she’s got no money for a vacation, I’ll have to think of some way to whisk her away without benefit of Benjamins.

Any suggestions?

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738725862/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0738725862&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20

 

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews dubbed it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series also includes Death By Killer Mop Doll and Crewel Intentions, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery. Revenge of the Crafty Corpse is a January 2013 release.

Lois is also published in women’s fiction, romance, romantic suspense, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. In addition, she’s an award-winning crafts and needlework designer and an agent with the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency. She’s also the author of the recently released Top Ten Reasons Your Novel is Rejected. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at http://www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers character blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.

 

 

Comments

[camille minichino]

What would you know about multi-tasking, Lois? I won't be impressed until I see you leaping tall buildings. :)

Really, thanks for posting on LadyKillers! I think Anastasia should find a pile of money in Lucille's mattress and take off on a world tour. Either that, or let's have fund to free Anastasia . . . or . .. sorry, I just feel so bad for her.

[Susan Shea]

Thanks for such a lively guest post, Lois. I'll give you my turn anytime. Sounds like a fun series and I'll check it out as soon as I finish packing, editing my third book, cleaning the kitchen, and peeing on the...oh, wait, no.

[Lois Winston]

Hey, Camille, how about a fund to send Lois on a world tour? The heck with Anastasia! ;-)

LOL, Susan! Glad to see you have your priorities straight!

[camille minichino]

But Lois lives in New Jersey, a stone's throw from Manhattan . . . no sympathy! That's better than a world tour. (Okay, except for the terrible storm . . .)

[Terry Shames]

Lois, thank you for the lively post. Couldn't agree more.

Now, about getting Anastasia on a vacation. Does she know anyone with money? Maybe they were going on vacation and the nanny got sick at the last minute and they beg Anastasia to take her place.

Or she decides she has to take a weekend off and goes to a nearby town for a "Dress Up Your Poodle Festival," or...the possibilities are endless and I expect she can manage to get into trouble wherever she goes.

[Lois Winston]

Camille, you're welcome to come visit any time.

Terry, please don't tell me there really is such a thing as a "Dress Up Your Poodle Festival"!

I did send Anastasia off to western Pennsylvania for a weekend in CREWEL INTENTIONS, the first mini-mystery that came out a few months ago, but it was hardly a vacation. I can see I'm going to have to come up with some way of giving the poor woman a bit of R&R.