Guilt and Ginataan

Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms--the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and...dead bodies?

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town's biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest--but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze...and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town's biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest--but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze...and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.

Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is an award-winning writer and book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. A lover of all things geeky, Mia spends her days procrastibaking, playing JRPGs and dating sims, reading cozy mysteries and diverse romance, and cuddling her dogs, Gumiho and Max Power.