Global Belly Laugh Day

GLOBAL BELLY LAUGH DAY

Today is the fifth anniversary of Global Belly Laugh Day. No kidding. According to the official website -- http://www.bellylaughday.com -- it’s listed in Chase’s Calendar of Events published by McGraw Hill. Why January 24th? Apparently, it’s the most depressing day of the year, again, according to the website, but they give no reason. Since Global Belly Laugh Day is celebrated worldwide (hence, the “Global” part of their name), I have to wonder just how depressing January 24th is in the southern hemisphere. After all, it’s summer down there.

Nitpicking aside, though, as global days go, I think it’s a great idea to celebrate laughter. After all, I write humorous amateur sleuth mysteries, and my goal on January 24th and every other day of the year is to make people laugh when they read my books.

Some people think it’s a bit odd to have humorous mysteries. Mysteries are all about finding the heinous people who commit murder and mayhem and bringing them to justice. Serious business, right?

I won’t disagree. However, the classic “fish out of water” story by its very nature is humorous. And what is an amateur sleuth mystery if not a fish out of water story? In ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series, Anastasia is the crafts editor for a women’s magazine. She doesn’t know the first thing about murder and mayhem, yet she finds herself plopped down right in the middle of both. On one hand, she’s the prime suspect in the murder of the magazine’s fashion editor. On the other, she’s being shaken down for fifty thousand dollars by her dead husband’s bookie. Not your normal day at the office for someone far more comfortable with pompoms and felt squares than hit men and Glocks.

And if that weren’t enough, dead hubby has left her up the wazoo in debt AND stuck with his curmudgeon of a communist mother and her devil dog. Add two teenage sons, a mother who thinks she’s descended from Russian royalty, Catherine the Great white Persian, and a Shakespeare quoting parrot, and how can you not laugh as Anastasia stumbles her way through trying to catch the real killer to prove her innocence?

ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and Kirkus called it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Since we all could use a little more laughter in our lives, and since today is Global Belly Laugh Day, I hope you’ll give ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN a try.

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Lois Winston is an award-winning author and designer as well as an agent with the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.

In celebration of the release of ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN, Lois is doing a blog tour throughout January. You can find the schedule on her website, http://www.loiswinston.com, and at Anastasia’s blog, http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Everyone who posts a comment to any of the blogs over the course of the tour will be entered into a drawing to receive one of 5 copies of ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN. (If your email isn’t included in your comment, email Lois privately at lois@loiswinston.com to let her know you’ve entered. In addition, she’ll also be giving away an assortment of crafts books on various blogs, so look for those if as well.