News Flash: Crystal is Korina’s lucky winner! Congratulations, Crystal, and please check your email.
Edith here, a month through Fall and finally accepting the season!
I’m delighted to welcome my Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen blogmate back to the Wickeds. She has a new Cheese Shop Mystery out, and one lucky commenter will win a copy of Fondue or Die! Check out this yummy cover.
Here’s the blurb: In Korina Moss’s Fondue or Die, the lazy, hazy, dairy days of summer are coming to a close in the Sonoma Valley. . . and so is someone’s life.
The small town of Yarrow Glen’s neighbor, Lockwood, hosts an annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days. And Willa Bauer and her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, refuse to miss out on the fun. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing—she is a cheesemonger after all—and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge. When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who steps in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who.
Inspired by the Big E
I’m very excited for Fondue or Die to release tomorrow, October 22nd. It’s the fifth book in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, so readers often ask how I continue to come up with ideas for my books. It always starts with the cheese. Besides the fact that my protagonist, Willa Bauer, is a cheesemonger and cheese shop owner, I also try to find a way for cheese to play a central role. Thus, I chose a Dairy Days Festival for Fondue or Die.
I love fairs and festivals, so I took a lot of inspiration from the annual September fair I’ve been attending for the last 20 years, The Big E.
The Big E is a large fair representing all the New England states, but at heart, it’s an agricultural fair, so some of the fun stuff in Fondue or Due came straight from The Big E – the butter sculpture, the dairy cows, sheep, and goats, mac and cheese cones, and the milk and cookie bar.
The singing refrigerator with milk and cheese wrapped in a feather boa didn’t make it into my book, but it was always a highlight of our time at The Big E.
Making up new dairy-related games like cow chip bingo and a musical udders contest (with fake udders, of course), was also fun.
The best part about writing Fondue or Die was getting to spend so much time at my fictional festival. Since I’ve been promoting my book for months now, I’ve had an excuse to break out my old photos and keep my fair memories alive. I hope reading Fondue or Die stirs up some happy fair memories for you, or at the least, sends you in search of some cheesy fair food!
I’m giving a signed paperback copy of Fondue or Die to one lucky reader who comments on this blog. Share your favorite thing about the fair – it can be a memory, a ride, a game, an animal, fair food… I’ll randomly choose one winner, U.S. only. Giveaway ends at midnight ET October 22nd.
KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Website: korinamossauthor.com
Facebook: facebook.com/korinamossauthor/
Instagram: instagram.com/korinamossauthor/