‘Murder in Wasilla’ author at book signing Saturday

WASILLA — Alaska may have more homegrown authors per capita than any state in the union, and in her two published books thus far, Mary Wasche has made the Last Frontier the setting.

She lived in Eagle River for more than 20 years, but moved back to her home state of Minnesota last spring to be closer to family.

She’s back this weekend for a book signing at Barnes & Noble in Anchorage from 1 to 3 p.m.

She’ll have with her “Escape to Alaska”, a combination thriller-love story, and the crime drama “Murder in Wasilla”, even as her next book, a novel set during the Civil War gets ready for print, hopefully by year’s end.

Wasche said she’s eager to return to Alaska before winter darkness sets in, the same winter darkness she credits with getting her writing career started.

“My first winter there I knew nobody and my only friend was my dog,” she said. “I just had to fill my days somehow — and I was working but still — finally I’d gotten my chance to follow my passion and write all the time. That was it.”

Along the way she ran into a number of fellow Alaskans of similar persuasion.

“I just had the best peer group of writers for over 10 years,” Wasche said. “We met monthly, and they were my resource for everything… We helped each other so much. There’s a multitude of writers’ groups in Alaska. It’s a very tight group and they’re all really to help you learn.”

In her first novel, 2014’s “Escape to Alaska”, Wasche cast the lead as a Minnesota native, just like herself, who runs away to Whittier after seeing her husband commit a murder, only to run into the 1964 earthquake.

In 2015’s “Murder in Wasilla”, Wasche paired a very unique means of murder with a city that had gained a good deal of notoriety in the national press in recent years.

“I’d started thinking about Sarah Palin and how there was a lot of interest in Alaska, the State Troopers and people who survive in the wilderness — a lot of interst throughout the nation,” Wasche said. “Anything an author can do to draw more readers or draw public interest, so I decided to do it Sarah Palin’s hometown — it could have been anywhere; I wanted all the publicity.”

That decision, Wasche said, has paid off in local sales, especially at the Costco in northeast Anchorage, where, Wasche said, “It sold really well.”

Wasche, who said “Escape to Alaska” is getting looks from screenwriters, said that when she started writing on those long, cold Alaska nights, she never thought about financial success or fame.

“No, my dream was, just once to hold a book in my hand that had my name as the author,” she said. “I didn’t even care if it sold, but I learned so much from these peer groups. They motivated me and challenged me.”