We’re celebrating the upcoming release of my third Food Lovers’ Village mystery, BUTTER OFF DEAD (July 7—save the suspense and pre-order it now!), with a glimpse of some of your favorite authors’ prized collections.

If you know the delightful Sheila Connolly or her books, you won’t be surprised that she’s got some amazing collections. Killer collections. I’ll let her explain:

“If one is good, more is better, right? If I like something, I don’t stop with just one—I’m always on the hunt for a better, different, more interesting example of whatever it is (not that I get rid of the earlier ones). It probably started with books, but if you snoop around my house you’ll find collections of rocks (all from interesting places, but none labeled), coffee mugs, t-shirts (100+), antique bottles (dug out from under our house), three generations worth of sewing notions, and no doubt more that I can’t even remember.

Then there’s the antique cookware collection. I didn’t mean to start that one, but one Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago I walked into a small local auction (housed in the basement of my town’s Elks Club) and there it was: a table full of antique cookware. A single lot of 52 pieces, looking as though it had been stuffed in a cupboard in 1900 and forgotten. I had to have it.

But of course I had a dark motive: I looked at the food choppers (fourteen of them) and they cried out to be used as murder weapons. I had only to pick one up, test the blade with my thumb, and take a few practice swipes, and I realized how easy it would be to slash someone’s throat with one (not that I said that out loud!). I bid on the lot; I won it. Now I am the proud owner of that dozen choppers, a hand-turned wooden bowl to go with them, seven egg-beaters of varying design, a lard bucket, a handmade wooden rolling pin (that I use and love, because nothing sticks to it), and a whole lot more that I can’t even remember, and a few items I can’t begin to identify.

 I used that wicked sharp chopper in the next Orchard Mystery, A Gala Event, where a member of the Historical Society in Granford is unpacking a collection of antique cookware to put on display when she’s startled by an intruder and takes a swipe at him with a handy chopper—and draws blood.

And if you like all things food related (as I do), you should order Leslie Budewitz’s newest Food Lovers’ Village book, Butter Off Dead, ASAP!” (Do as Sheila says, kids—she’s got weapons!)

Connect with Sheila on her website or Facebook.

A Gala Event (Orchard Mystery #9, Berkley Prime Crime) will be released October 6, 2015.

Leave a comment on my Facebook page or blog for a chance to win a SIGNED copy the AN EARLY WAKE, the third in Sheila’s County Cork Mysteries, set in Ireland. Ruff the Cat will choose a winner at random—check back in the morning to find out!

(Hint: if you subscribe to the blog, you’ll receive the posts by email and you won’t have to hunt for them on FB.)

(This contest is not sponsored or endorsed by Facebook.)

#butteroffdead