The Forest of Mayhem

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Create then sell are common author goals but what to do when a book launch fails?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Kami Schmidt created a clever novel but she followed this with an epic faceplant in sales. Trained as a scientist Kami can correlate her poor book launch with the heartbreak of her parents' deaths but that insight doesn't lift her gloom and exhaustion. Not when she's now knee-deep in collectibles from her parents' estate.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Is there gold in them-thar knick-knacks? There's definitely dust on the vintage jackalope.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Kami finds snatches of serenity while walking a woodland trail that borders her rural road. She's astonished by the beauty and lethality of small species living just feet from her back door but the complexities of the forest community pale in comparison to the toxicity exuded by some of her neighbors. The ardent vegans disapprove of the local llama and free-range chicken farm a birder is furious at a cat lover who wants to install a feral cat colony and Kami is asked to host a multi-level marketing expert with an eager appetite for money-making.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When a swindler arrives in the neighborhood to manipulate the animal-rights activists Kami must blend science logic and story-telling to navigate through the nuances of diets and passions. With collectibles and essential oils stacked high and emotions running even higher how can Kami separate the hype from the truth?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Are the neighbors truly deadlier than the poisonous residents of the woods?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Winner of a 2019 IPPY Gold Medal for Best Regional Fiction (</span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Lichenwald</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) and a 2018 IPPY Silver for Best Regional Fiction (</span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Undergrowth</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) Ellen King Rice knows how to bring the secrets of the forest to the reader with clarity and joy.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Duncan Sheffels returns as a seasoned illustrator with twenty new pen-and-ink drawings of plants animals and fungi.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In this fifth book of the Mushroom Thriller adventures Rice highlights cryptic species that emerge in late spring. Treat yourself to a story of resilience in the season of new growth.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Enjoy </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Forest of Mayhem </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>today!</span></p><p><br></p>