Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Title: Confessions of a Red Herring (A Red Herring Mystery)  First in series Genre: Cozy Mystery Publisher: Kensington (May 29, 2018) .  Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages ISBN-13: 978-1496716569 Digital ASIN: B075C8FDT5 Publisher's Blurb: As a reporter, she’s used to covering the news. Now she’s the headline. Alex Vlodnachek has been a reporter for 12 years, a P.R. rep for three months, and a murder suspect for all of 24 hours. When her agency’s double-dealing CEO is stabbed, scheming co-workers cast the new redhead as a compelling red herring. The story is media catnip—especially her salacious nickname: Vlod the Impaler. Even Alex has to admit she looks guilty. Out of a job and under suspicion, Alex is running low on cash when she’s visited by a second disaster: her family. Soon her tiny bungalow is bursting with her nearest and not-so-dearest. To keep herself out of jail—and save what’s left of her sanity—Alex returns to her reporting roots. She goes undercover to rec

Fellow Tick Tock Anthology author C. Lee McKenzie has a new book out, and it looks wonderful! I haven't had time to read it, but I want to share it now to help out the release, and I'll do a review when I read it. I just love that title :) Title:  Some Very  Messy Medieval Magic (Book 3 in the Pete and Weasel series) Author: C. Lee McKenzie Publisher: Dancing Lemur Press, May 15, 2018. Pete’s stuck in medieval England! Pete and his friend Weasel thought they’d closed the Time Lock. But a young page from medieval times, Peter of Bramwell, goes missing. His absence during a critical moment will forever alter history unless he’s found. There’s only one solution - fledgling wizard Pete must take the page’s place. Accompanied by Weasel and Fanon, Pete’s alligator familiar, they travel to   1173 England. But what if the page remains lost - will Pete know what to do when the critical moment arrives? Toss in a grumpy Fanon, the duke’s curious niece, a talking horse, and the Circle of S

Fiction in 50 is a regular feature in the last week of every month and I invite any interested composers of mini-narrative to join in!      What is #Fi50? In the words of founder Bruce Gargoyle, "Fiction in 50: think of it as the anti-NaNoWriMo experience!" Pack a beginning, middle and end of story into 50 words or less (bonus points for hitting exactly 50 words). The rules for participation are simple : 1. Create a piece of fictional writing in 50 words or less, ideally using the prompt as title or theme or inspiration. Bonus points for hitting 50 exactly. That’s it! But for those who wish to challenge themselves further, here’s an additional rule: 2. Post your piece of flash fiction on your blog or (for those poor blog-less souls) add it as a comment on the Ninja Librarian’s post for everyone to enjoy.  And for those thrill-seekers who really like to go the extra mile (ie: perfectionists): 3. Add the nifty little picture above to your post (credit for which goes en

Damsels in distress, curses, echoes of faery tales and tragic love affairs swirl together in sixteen stories found in a dragon’s lair by a curious half-fae. Unexpected changes to reality causes more than one damsel to turn into a strong, independent woman who takes charge of her own life. A collection of short stories about Faerie and the fae that live in the human realm. A few of the stories had won competitions and all of them had enchanted readers. Learn their secrets and enter the realm of the fae… Title: Once... Tales, Myths and Legends of Faerie Author: Ronel Janse van Vuuren ISBN EPUB: 978-0-6399476-2-4 ISBN Paperback: 978-0-6399476-3-1 Out today! Available on most online retailers. Also available in Afrikaans as “Eens…”. Excerpt: Mortals cannot perceive the veil unless they are invited to – or extremely gifted. For centuries, Man and Fae have been kept apart, for nothing good ever comes from them mixing. The collection of The Adventures of Saphira the Faery Dog is proof of this

Thanks to a lot going on this weekend, we seem to have forgotten to post our usual heads-up for Fi50. So here it is. Fiction in 50 is a regular feature in the last week of every month and I invite any interested composers of mini-narrative to join in!      What is #Fi50? In the words of founder Bruce Gargoyle, "Fiction in 50: think of it as the anti-NaNoWriMo experience!" Pack a beginning, middle and end of story into 50 words or less (bonus points for hitting exactly 50 words). The rules for participation are simple : 1. Create a piece of fictional writing in 50 words or less, ideally using the prompt as title or theme or inspiration. Bonus points for hitting 50 exactly. That’s it! But for those who wish to challenge themselves further, here’s an additional rule: 2. Post your piece of flash fiction on your blog or (for those poor blog-less souls) add it as a comment on the Ninja Librarian’s post for everyone to enjoy.  And for those thrill-seekers who really like to g

Today we're helping promote Elaine Kaye's new picture book by participating in the Dr. Mom blog hop! DOCTOR MOM BLOG HOP PROMPT: Share a favorite memory you have of your mom. Or just share a picture of your mom that you cherish. Or you can do both! Hey, this is harder than it looks. My mom is 89. I'm... uh, not 20 anymore (notice she's old enough to brag about her age. I'm young enough be trying to forget). That's a lot of amazing memories! I'm tempted to share the wonderful little book I wrote about my mom when I was in the 1st grade or thereabouts, but I don't want to distract from Ms. Kaye's adorable book, so I'll do that another time. Instead, let me tell you about a favorite family photo (sadly, it seems to have been lost). This was back in the days when cameras not only used film, but if you didn't advance the film yourself, you could take two pictures on top of each other. One of Dad's favorite possessions was our bright red, 17

A month or so back I did a wildflower post focused on desert wildflowers, and promised to get to the alpine flowers in another post. Then I got distracted... so here is a collection of alpine flowers from the Washington Cascades and a few from the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. These first 2 are more sub-alpine flowers, found in the forests. I'm not actually sure what this is. This is a saprophyte--it gets nutrients from the soil, not photosynthesis.     This one grows in wet places, both above and below tree line, and in both mountain ranges. Shooting star. In fact, most of these flowers grow in both the Cascades and the Sierra, though some show variations between. This one, I think, is Cascades only. At least, I don't think I've seen it in the Sierra. Pasque flower. The gone-to-seed stage.  Believe it or not, this is the same flower, in bloom. I wish I had a picture of the in-between stage, because it looks totally different again. Sadly, none of those shots came

Being part of the IWSG anthology (that would be Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime ) has been an education for me. Not only did I pick up a new awareness of some minor writing issues I have (mostly in the area of comma abuse), but the whole marketing process has been educational. Probably not educational enough, but I have picked up a few things to contemplate. 1. Get the word out, early and late. The publisher, Dancing Lemur Press, started early with tweets and FB posts, and got all of us authors to set up a blog and do regular posts about our stories, writing process, whatever. And they started early to set up a blog tour, or at least appearances on a number of blogs, with interviews, reviews, and so on. The book came out May 1, and that publicity push is still going on (including a Rafflecopter giveaway of a cool Tick Tock tote bag running to June 6!). This one isn't so hard. I'm learning how to get more people involved in a release, and I know that I can arrange a blog tour thro

  Title: The Grave's a Fine and Private Place Author: Alan Bradley Publisher: Delacorte Press, 2018 (US edition). 363 pages Source: Library Publisher's Summary: Flavia is enjoying the summer, spending her days punting along the river with her reluctant family. Languishing in boredom, she drags a slack hand in the water, and catches her fingers in the open mouth of a drowned corpse. Brought to shore, the dead man is found to be dressed in blue silk with ribbons at the knee, and wearing a single red ballet slipper. Flavia needs to put her super-sleuthing skills to the test to investigate the murder of three gossips in the local church, and to keep her sisters out of danger. But what could possibly connect the son of an executed killer, a far too canny police constable, a travelling circus, and the publican's mysteriously talented wife?   My Review:   Okay, Flavia is not enjoying the summer. She hasn't been enjoying anything for about 6 months (I won't go int

Chuck Wendig is back on the job with our Friday flash fiction challenges, and in honor of May the Fourth commanded us to write a space opera, in 1500 words or less. So, more like a single aria from the opera, but I went for the melodrama of an early Star Trek episode. It's just under 1200 words. Long Odds “There’s no way we can win, on the face of it.” Captain Kira Andashar of the Earth Federation Starship Endurance didn’t believe in sugar-coating matters to her officers. “The invaders outnumber us three to one, and based on what they did to EFS Consequence they outgun us by far as well.” “Should we surrender, then? Or run?” Lieutenant Albert Percival knew better. His captain wasn’t the surrendering sort, and they’d already proved they couldn’t outrun the aliens. When he asked his question he heard a few gasps, and at least one snort of derision. He ignored them and waited for the answer. “We fight. And dammit,” Captain Andashar raised her voice, “we will win!” A few young offic