ABOUT THE BOOK
Wilderness guide Crystal Rainey leads a group of college students to a private campground amidst the awe-inspiring Olympic Rain Forest. The excursion is ruined when the charming hostess Roxie is discovered standing over the land owner's body, murder weapon in hand.
Enlisted to investigate the crime to absolve her friend, Crystal descends on the quiet city of Forks to find loggers, developers, and eco-protesters circling the property, intent on either exploiting or protecting the bastion of old-growth forest. The list of suspects is intimidating. Can Crystal find answers in a community determined to keep her in the dark?
Book Details:
Title: Spring Upon a Crime
Author: ML Erdahl
Genre:
cozy mystery
Series: A Seattle Wilderness Mystery
Publisher: The Wild
Rose Press (January 13, 2021)
Print length: 294 pages
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH ML ERDAHL
A few of your favorite things: my loving and supportive wife, my cuddly little dogs, and my purry gigantic cat.
Things you need to throw out: since I live in a cozy little home, I work hard to keep my house free of clutter, so if I find something to throw out, it goes!
Things you need in order to write: time and a quiet place.
Things that hamper your writing: noise distracts me but so does stress. If I’m worried about something, the words come painfully slowly. 2020 was not an easy year to tap the creative faucet.
Things you love about writing: I love the actual crafting of a book. Dreaming up a story, putting it to paper, and polishing it to a novel that people look forward to reading.
Things you hate about writing: I’m a perfectionist, so I re-read the nearly final version at least four times to root out the last typos. Far and away, this repetitive task is my least favorite part about writing.
Easiest thing about being a writer: the easiest thing about being a writer is having an outlet for my imagination.
Hardest thing about being a writer: the hardest thing about being a writer is putting your work out there for others to read and judge.
Things you love about where you live: the evergreen forests and ample outdoor activities. There’s always something to do if you are willing to go for it.
Things that make you want to move: the dark and wet winters in the Pacific Northwest put me in a grumpy mood throughout January and February, when I’ve finally had enough.
Things you never want to run out of: coffee. It’ll be a dark day at my house when I don’t get my morning cup of Joe.
Things you wish you’d never bought: plane tickets right before the Covid19 pandemic. I still have a credit with Delta.
Favorite foods: mozzarella sticks, pizza, and Croque Monsieur (a fancy French grilled cheese sandwich). Cheese is the reoccurring theme here.
Things that make you want to throw up: cauliflower and broccoli. Most cruciferous vegetable make my toes curl.
Favorite music: I’m a rock and roll guy when I work out, but classical music helps me write.
Music that make your ears bleed: anything that is an ear worm. I love Billy Joel’s “We didn’t Start the Fire”, but it loops in my brain for days after I listen to it.
Favorite beverage: the Aztec Mocha at Cafe Fonte next to Pike Place Market. Coffee, chocolate, cayenne, cinnamon, and black pepper. It will change your world.
Something that gives you a pickle face: tomato juice. I could never gag that stuff down.
Favorite smell: grapefruit, jasmine, and coffee.
Something that makes you hold your nose: steamed broccoli. It makes the whole house smell like farts.
Something you wish you could do: I wish I had an ounce of musical aptitude, but trust me when I say, it just isn’t there.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: this will sound weird, but learning to write. It has made me hyper-aware of typos, plot holes, and poor writing. I can’t read books or watch TV shows without evaluating the storytelling.
People you consider as heroes: enlightened and philanthropic souls. The Dalai Lama, Dolly Parton, and Bill Gates are three that come to mind.
People with a big L on their foreheads: narrow-minded and intolerant souls are difficult for me to cope with.
Last best thing you ate: a maple bar from Chuck’s Doughnuts, the best doughnuts in my hometown.
Last thing you regret eating: salmon. I know the irony of a Pacific Northwesterner not liking salmon, but I don’t like any seafood. However, my wife and I try to eat healthy, so we occasionally forget how much we dislike fish, cook it, and regret it.
Things you’d walk a mile for: a cup of coffee in the morning. I am a Seattlite after all.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: seafood. Do you sense a repeating theme?
Things you always put in your books: pets and humor. Two things that make me happy.
Things you never put in your books: I’ll kill off people in every book, but I’ll never write about hurting an animal. There’s probably something to discuss with a psychologist in that statement, but it’s the truth.
Things to say to an author: I loved the passage in your book where . . .
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I liked your book, but I found a small typo on page 222.
Favorite places you’ve been: the outdoors and history are two of my passions so several of my favorites include St. George Island wildlife sanctuary, British Museum, and Moran State Park on Orcas Island.
Places you never want to go to again: Florida in August. Being from a northern state, I instinctively want to travel during the summer, but I thought I was going to pass out in Key West when it hit 106 degrees.
Favorite books: cozy mysteries, naturally, but I also enjoy historical fiction and fantasy novels.
Books you would ban: I don’t like horror or serial killer novels. They’re too dark and keep me up at night, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the monsters to get me.
Things that make you happy: having my pets snuggle in my lap after a long day.
Things that drive you crazy: plumbing. I’ve become pretty handy over the years, but plumbing never fails to drive me up the wall.
Proudest moment: winning awards for my first book. The validation of someone acknowledging my writing felt amazing.
Most embarrassing moment: throwing up in the garbage can in Kindergarten. I can probably let that go at this point, but my brain refuses to cooperate on that front.
Best thing you’ve ever done: marrying my wife. I know it’s cliche, but I’d do it a thousand times over if I could.
Biggest mistake: buying a brand new Saturn. Wow, that thing was a hunk of junk. I did learn a whole lot about maintaining a car, though.
The last thing you did for the first time: I went on a horse drawn sleigh ride for my 18th anniversary.
Something you’ll never do again: buy tickets to see the famous medium John Edward. He was extraordinarily rude when I told him my dead grandfather’s first name didn’t begin with the letter G.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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