M.L. Rowland | Cheap Thrills

Because I write adventure mysteries and base much of what I write about on my own experiences, I was asked recently, “What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?”

Since the answer to that question was long and involved and complex, and included some boring topics like “perceived risk” and “managed risk,” I decided to rewrite the question into “What’s the earliest adventurous thing you remember doing? What’s the one experience that started it all?”

When I was fourteen, my father, who at the time was working as a marine zoologist, accepted a research assignment on the island of Tutuila, American Samoa. My mother--not to be left behind for the summer--plucked my two older sisters and me out of our cocoon in a conservative western-Michigan town and flew us 5700 miles west to the tiny island in the south Pacific. It didn’t take long for my sisters, ages 18 and 20, to pal up with some of the island palangis (whites)--university students manning a satellite tracking station. If anyone minded little sister tagging along, no one ever said anything to me.

It was a summer of adventure firsts for me: my first close encounter with a shark--while snorkeling the airport lagoon, my first mountain climb--to the top of Matafao, the island’s tallest peak (only 2100 feet of elevation gain, but, hey, it was my first one). But one adventure stands out above the rest.

At that time, only one plane departed the island each day--at 1 o’clock in the morning. I don’t remember why or how I was out so late at night, but I do remember crouching beside my sisters and three or four young men behind the heavy vegetation lining Pago Pago airport’s one runway. Off to our left, the Pan Am jet moved into position, its lights brilliant white starbursts in the darkness. The jet lumbered forward, engines growing louder and louder until it rolled by us. As a group, we ran from our hiding places and lay down half-on, half-off the runway pavement. At the end of the runway, the jet made its turn, then surged back toward us for take-off. I squeezed my eyes closed and pressed my hands over my ears to shut out the screaming engines.

I can still feel the blast of heat and stones from the massive jet engines as the wing passed right over our heads.

About M.L. Rowland

Born, raised and, except for one year of high school in Hawaii, schooled kindergarten through college in Michigan, Rowland comes by her adventurous spirit honestly. Her mother was Grand Rapids, Michigan’s first woman city commissioner. Her father—a neurosurgeon and marine scientist—was a world traveler and member of The Explorer’s Club. After college, Rowland lived and worked in Florida, Missouri, Connecticut and New York City, finally settling in the mountains of southern California where she and her husband, Mark, joined the local Search and Rescue (SAR) team.

During her twelve years on Search and Rescue, Rowland participated in hundreds of search and rescue missions and trainings, including technical ropes rescues and recoveries, helicopter insertions and evacuations, and searches for lost children, hikers, snowboarders, mountain bikers and criminal evidence, in alpine, desert and urban environments. She served as the team’s Training Officer and participated in community events and public speaking engagements. Trained in land navigation, and desert and winter survival, including avalanche awareness and self-arrest, she also holds a certification in tracking from the State of California. Much of what she writes about in her Gracie Kinkaid Search and Rescue Mystery Series is drawn from her and her husband’s SAR experiences.

Rowland also served on the advisory Board of a Colorado County Sheriff’s Department All-Hazards Incident Management Team (IMT) which manages local search and rescue operations, brush and wildfires, planned community events and other critical incidents.

Rowland is an avid political activist, naturalist and environmentalist. She’s an accomplished painter and loves to snorkel. Topping her bucket list: snorkeling with whale sharks. She has traveled to all fifty United States and throughout the world, including Kenya, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Europe. As often as possible, she hikes and explores the slot canyons of Utah.

Rowland lives with her family in south-central Colorado.

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About MURDER ON THE HORIZON

The Search and Rescue mystery series returns readers to Timber Creek, where the hot, dry Santa Ana winds are blowing. But more than just the threat of wildfire endangers the tiny mountain community...

Gracie and her Search and Rescue teammates are searching along the highway in the middle of the blisteringly hot Mojave Desert when they make a grisly discovery—a trash bag containing human body parts. Not long after, Gracie's growing friendship with a ten-year-old runaway draws her unwittingly into the secretive, hate-filled world of the boy's family—a group of gun-toting extremists. As a wildfire roars into Timber Creek, Gracie finds herself caught up in an explosive plot that, unless she stops it, will destroy countless innocent lives.