Diana Cummings is from Toronto, so when she needed a quiet, slow-paced place to finish her movie script and consider her failing marriage, Nova Scotia’s Rossignol Valley seemed the perfect retreat. She couldn’t have been more wrong! After answering an advertisement in the local newspaper, Diana becomes the “Extraordinary Secretary” for the Prince County Woodlot Owners Association–a rag-tag gang of woodsmen and farmers embroiled in a losing battle over the government’s forestry policies.

Susan Haley’s first two novels, A Nest of Singing Birds and Getting Married in Buffalo Jump, were made into movies for CBC-TV. Most recently she has published The Complaints Department (2000), Maggie's Family (2002) and The Murder of Medicine Bear (2003). Haley lived in Fort Norman, Northwest Territories, for 15 years where she ran a charter airline with her partner. Haley now lives in Black River, Nova Scotia.

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“The plot alternates between the forestry theme and Diana’s relationships with the valley’s locals as she struggles to end her marriage. The result is a hilarious romp through the woodlands and rural communities of the valley.

Haley’s gift for characterization is immediately apparent in Blame it on the Spruce Budworm. She creates real characters, people I wanted to learn more about.” Trudy Kelly Forsythe, The New Brunswick Reader