Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm nearing the end of my photos from the April trip to Utah, but I still have a couple more posts' worth. After spending the early morning at the Devil's Garden , we headed into the town of Escalante for  snacks and  showers (about $9 with tax at the Escalante Outfitters, so one of my pricier showers but much overdue--as some will remember from my May IWSG post ). We promptly undid much of the effect of the showers by launching on a late-morning hike up the Escalante River to Escalante Arch and Cliff Ruins Arch. I usually avoid hiking in the desert at mid-day, but the trail was flat and promised at least some shade, so we went for it. Spoiler alert: it was hot. Overlooking the Escalante River. The line of trees following the curve of the cliff shows where the river runs. Cottonwoods and red cliffs. The Escalante River. The word "river" is an elastic term; in the desert things are "rivers" that in Western Washington would barely qualify as "streams...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  Since this is Pride month, I'm focusing my MMGM book reviews on middle-grade books about sexual orientation and gender identity.  A note for those wondering if books like this are appropriate for middle-grade kids: 9-13 is exactly the age when kids are entering puberty and starting to think about love, sex, and increasingly, gender identity. That makes it exactly the age when they need books that openly address the things that happen in middle school besides using a locker and changing classrooms six times a day. If 10-year-olds are old enough to be thinking about kissing their girl/boy friends (and they are thinking about it, so... yeah), then they are old enough to read about it.  Today I'm featuring two books by Kyle Lukoff that address similar issues in very...

The Devil's Garden is probably the most accessible bit of cool geology in the Grand Staircase-Escalante. There is a picnic area and outhouse, a quarter mile off the Hole-in-the-Rock road, and the bizarre sandstone formations start right by the parking lot. In a fairly thorough ramble of it all I covered about a mile, though I could have hung around playing among the towers and hollows much longer. Morning seemed like the best time to photograph the hoodoos, and I went twice for first-thing-in-the-morning photography before moving on to other things. The photos are all mixed up together. To prove the point about being right by the parking, here's the sign and the first set of hoodoos. Hoodoos like these are formed via a lot of erosion--but in places where there's a hard layer atop softer ones. That's all this English major is going to say about the geology, but I love the results. I think most of these formations have names, but I didn't pay much attention to that. T...

I know I just checked in with a writer's update last week for the IWSG, but when I'm editing, I need all the check-ins I can get. I think I'm making progress, and I fear I'm failing to see something huge. Big thanks to Jemima Pett for agreeing to take another look. I can always count on her to give it to me straight!   Back in April I reviewed Matt Haig's  The Comfort Book .  A wonderful friend saw it and gave me a hardback of it for my birthday. Inspiration from a piece called "It's Okay" "It's okay to be a mess... It's okay not to make the most of every chunk of time. It's okay to be who you are. It's okay."   As for the actual writing update... I'm making progress. That's the best I can say, but it's okay :)   Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 
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I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  Since this is Pride month, I'm focusing my MMGM book reviews on middle-grade books about sexual orientation and gender identity. It kind of started with my review of Ollie In Between last month.  A note for those wondering if books like this are appropriate for middle-grade kids: 9-13 is exactly the age when kids are entering puberty and starting to think about love, sex, and increasingly, gender identity. That makes it exactly the age when they need books that openly address the things that happen in middle school besides using a locker and changing classrooms six times a day. If 10-year-olds are old enough to be thinking about kissing their girl/boy friends (and they are thinking about it, so... yeah), then they are old enough to read about it.  Title:  Just Lizzie A...

Last week I shared photos from Day 1 of a 2-night, 3-day backpack into Coyote Gulch. This was part of my larger trip with 2 friends to explore the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument back in April.  Today, we'll cover Day 2, with an 8-mile dayhike to Cliff Arch, and Day 3, the hike out. Despite the rain, hail and even snow the night before we started our trip, we were in early-rising mode to dodge the heat of the day. That country can change at the drop of a hat from cold to hot and back again. Moonset at sunrise. For a while, it's all about the reflected light. We were on the trail before 8 a.m. and soon hiking past lots of places that might have been nicer camps (but wouldn't have divided our days so neatly). I do recommend taking advantage of the wider parts of the canyon to camp away from the trail. About 35 minutes of walking took us to Swiss Cheese Falls, named for the ways the water has eroded holes into the rock. Coyote Natural Bridge was the next special f...