Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

That seems a good title both to describe what I'm posting, and to explain why it's late (though I suppose my distraction came before the weekend). In any case, I lost track of the days of the week and the tasks of the day, so here you get a (random) collection of sunrises, some of which I may have posted before in trip reports.   I'm not sure which peak, but this was taken on the Tongariro Crossing (New Zealand) in April 2019.   My favorite way to wake up: in a tent, next to a gorgeous mountain. Mt. Kenya, Feb. 2024. A series of mornings in the mountains from last August. I tried to pick ones I didn't use in the trip report so recently completed! Sunrise over the desert works for me, too. Hole In The Rock Road, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah.   Off the Burr Trail Road, same national monument.  Same state, different trip. Utah Sunrise Kilimanjaro from Mt. Meru, Tanzania  I'll end with one of the many fantastic photos my husband shot one particular decorative mor...

It's the first Wednesday of the month (how has another month gone by already?), and time for the IWSG posting! Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds (and come on, we're all insecure in some way)! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writers - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! ...

I wrote a partial draft of this during the last session of the writing class I've been teaching, then realized I needed a different approach, so I rewrote it, cut it down by several hundred words (it's still too long, at 1140 words), and here it is.    Seatmates Keri James settled into the window seat at 47A with an air of excitement that drew cynical smiles from her fellow-passengers. A sixteen-hour flight in economy class wasn’t going to be fun for any of them. Keri knew that. They’d have to use a crowbar—or a crane—to get her out of her seat when they reached Aukland. She’d drooled over the business-class seats, with their little cubicles and seats that made up into beds. On her budget, she’d have to settle for airsickness meds that would put her to sleep. Keri occupied herself with setting up her little space, everything she might want during the flight within reach. She’d change to slippers once they were airborne. Earbuds, e-reader… she knew what she was doing. I...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  I believe it was Jemima Pett  who tipped me off last month with a review of Dahl's memoirs. Many thanks! First up, the early years:    Title: Boy: Tales of Childhood Author:   Roald Dahl, read by Dan Stevens Publication info : Books on Tape, 2013, 3 hours. Originally published 1984, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 160 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : Where did Roald Dahl get all of his wonderful ideas for stories? From his own life, of course! As full of excitement and the unexpected as his world-famous, best-selling books, Roald Dahl's tales of his own childhood are completely fascinating and fiendishly funny. Did you know that Roald Dahl nearly lost his nose in a car accident? Or that he was once a chocolate candy tester f...

Way back in January (feels like forever--I've been home for over a month! How can I bear it!), I took a little trip down to Sedona, Arizona, to find a bit more sun and daylight. The weather cooperated, mostly, and my friend Jan and I had a good time. Funny thing about Sedona: because I'm not into the New Age aspects of the place, I've tended to avoid it (well, also because that New Age stuff draws a lot of tourists during the season). January proved a reasonable time to go--though there were plenty of tourists around, they weren't overwhelming. And the landscape is sufficiently amazing that it needs no mystical stuff to make it a place to visit. The trip started with an amazing flight south (in part because it wasn't full and I had a whole row to myself!). It was very clear and very calm and the pilot got permission for a close fly-by of Mt. Rainier. How close? Close enough it was almost scary! If there'd been climbers on the mountain, I'm pretty sure I coul...

  What I have today might be a question. Maybe it's just an observation. Maybe it's a deep-seated flaw in how I work. Here's the thing: everything I read, and indeed my own logic, tells me to do big-picture edits without messing with the prose. But here's my reality: I can't. If I see how to improve a sentence or spot confusion about who's speaking, I have to (at the very least) mark it for fixing. If I have a sudden realization of how to reword something, I have to do it now, because that insight may never come my way again (even if I leave a bookmark). Is this a problem? The reality is that most of my original prose stays in the finished book, albeit rather polished up. But it's there. So very little of that work is wasted.  But wait--isn't it distracting me from the more important (at the moment) task of fixing the story arc? Well, probably? That actually isn't a helpful observation, since I don't seem able to restrain myself. And maybe there...

I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately. One of the areas I often read in is natural history or ecology. In this case, the ecological survival of the planet. Sometimes what I read gives me hope. Sometimes it reminds me that it may already be too late. This book did both.   Title: Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet Author: Kinari Webb, M.D. Publication info: Macmillan Audio, 2021, 11 hours. Original Flatiron Books 2021, 304 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : When Kinari Webb first traveled to Indonesian Borneo at 21 to study orangutans, she was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realized that their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to the rampant logging, which in turn imperiled their health and safety even further. Webb realized her true calling was at the intersection of med...