Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Where has the month gone? I think I was due for a writing update last week, but something happened. Let's see... oh, yes. That was the day I was planning trips for later in the year. (Nor was it the first day I've spent lately on trip planning. That's always so much more fun than working!)  I'll save the details for next week's IWSG post, but today, let's talk about... really lousy moments in MS editing. Here's the thing: my beta readers were mostly happy with the new novel, but everyone mentioned the ending not quite working. That's obviously not okay, so I started thinking about how to fix it. And I got a pretty good idea! Alas, that idea means a major rewrite from about 2/3 of the way through. Since I thought I had the end in sight, this is pretty much like when you're climbing a mountain and you think this next little rise will be the summit... and you top the rise and see another thousand feet of climbing ahead of you. Now, if I were out hiking,...

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.    In honor of Pride month, I am also seeking out, reading, and reviewing MG books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes.     Title : A World Worth Saving Author : Kyle Lukoff. Read by Will Malloy, with notes read by the author. Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2025. 9 hours. Hardcover by Dial Books, 2025, 344 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):   A groundbreaking, action-packed, and ultimately uplifting adventure that intertwines elements of Jewish mythology with an unflinching examination of the impacts of transphobia, from Newbery Honor winner Kyle Lukoff. Lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he still barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the ...

Last month I went down to New Mexico and did a mellow 6-night backpack trip up the Middle Fork of the Gila River, and down the West Fork. I'm still working on the photos (I'm also working on some significant revisions to the new novel, and selling books live on weekends, so it's been hard to focus on my photography, no pun intended). The hike was exactly what I needed, a bit of mountain, a bit of desert, and a bunch of trail nights, but it wasn't as exciting photographically as some. Still, I think I got some good shots, and I'll share a dozen or so here from the first couple of days, which is as far as I've gotten with the edits.  About a hundred yards from the car, we spotted a herd? troop? pack? of javelinas. The hallmark of the Gila River trail is... river crossings. Since the trail follows the river up a canyon, it is forced to switch from side to side frequently. VERY frequently.  First crossing, and a fairly deep one--over my knees. Most were ankle to mid...

I meant to do another series of LGBTQ+ books for Pride month, but here we are in the middle of the month and I'm just getting started. I also totally missed the deadline for the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday postings, but check them out anyway. Better late than never!    Title : Mountain Upside Down Author : Sara Ryan. Read by Elena Rey Publication info : Listening Library, 2025, 6 hours. Original hardback, Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025, 240 pages  Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : A funny and heartfelt LGBTQIA+ middle grade novel set against the backdrop of family drama and a library funding campaign in a small town. Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is wo...

    Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the chance to read and review Terri Karsten's  A Necessary Death.    A Necessary Death Historical Cozy Mystery Setting – A tavern in Colonial Pennsylvania (1764) Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wagonbridge Publishing Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 15, 2025 Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages Paperback ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1953444202 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1953444202 Digital ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1953444219 ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FLDWVCJW With Penelope Corbitt in the kitchen, the tavern will never be the same. Penelope Corbitt can turn a lump of meat and a bit of flour into a mouth-watering pie or make a tasty meal of cabbage and vinegar. But all her skill can’t save her family in the spring of 1763, when she loses everything to pay off her missing husband’s debts. Walking a tightrope between the freedom of poverty and the confines of propriety, she must accept her stingy brother-in-law’s reluctant charity to keep her fam...

Last month I took a "little" road trip to New Mexico, by way of California. The California part was family business, but once I turned my nose south and east from there, things got fun. For one thing, I spent the first night out in a favorite camping spot, and the weather was perfect. Mono Lake at sunset. The lake and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the morning. I then took some fairly obscure roads south through Nevada. I had to stop a couple of times for the flowers on the roadsides. The next day I stopped at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, a place we visited when I was a little kid (I also always have to correct myself when I call it "Petrified National Forest"). I found the locations of a couple of old photos we'd been looking at recently, which was kind of fun. The Visitor's Center area. It was noon, and pretty hot, but the wind was blowing enough to make it bearable to be out for a while. I checked out the short trail and trees by the Visitor...