When I decided to call the next Willow Creek mystery Secrets and Scones, I created a small problem for myself.

Now I need the scones.

Not just any scones, either.

If they’re going to come out of the ovens at Claire’s Curious Confections, I want them to feel like something Claire would actually make and serve in her bakery.

And that means Skip and I have some very important research ahead of us.

The Food Is Part of Willow Creek

One of the things I enjoy about writing the Willow Creek books is that the bakery gives me another way to make the town feel real.

Claire isn’t simply an amateur sleuth who happens to own a bakery. Baking is part of who she is.

The bakery is where she works with Emily, where people gather, where conversations happen, and where Willow Creek wanders through the door every day.

So when I mention something coming out of Claire’s ovens, I want to be able to picture it.

With Secrets and Scones, the pastry is right there in the title.

The scones need to earn their spot.

So How Do I Choose?

I could simply sit at my computer and decide.

Blueberry lemon sounds good.

Cranberry orange sounds good.

Apple cinnamon sounds really good.

But where’s the fun in that?

Instead, we’re turning this into a little experiment.

Skip and I are going to choose several scone flavors and conduct our own blind taste test.

Neither of us gets to be influenced by knowing which flavor we’re trying. We’ll taste them, compare them, and decide which one deserves the top spot.

And yes, I realize that eating multiple scones in the name of book research is an unusually convenient occupational hazard.

I’ll endure it somehow.

The Winner Goes to Willow Creek

Here’s the fun part.

The winning scone won’t just get bragging rights in our kitchen.

It gets a place in the book.

Whichever flavor wins our taste test will become one of the scones served at Claire’s Curious Confections in Secrets and Scones.

That means something Skip and I actually taste at home will eventually make its way onto the bakery counter in Willow Creek.

I love little details like that.

They’re completely unnecessary to solving the murder.

But they’re part of what makes Willow Creek feel like a place rather than simply a setting.

And You Get to Come Along

This is where I’m inviting you into the kitchen with us.

Over the next few weeks, Skip and I will bake and taste our scone contenders until we find the one that deserves a place at Claire’s Curious Confections.

And you can bake along with us.

Next week, I’ll share our first scone contender along with the recipe so you can make it at home and taste it for yourself.

We’ll keep trying new flavors until Skip and I conduct our final blind taste test and crown the winner.

There may be disagreements.

There will definitely be crumbs.

But by the time Secrets and Scones reaches readers, we’ll know exactly which scone belongs in Willow Creek.

Next week, we start baking. 🧁