Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

While I'm off playing in the desert (if I can find it under the snow), I'll share some stories from the archives, starting this week and next with a pair about a cat sometimes known as Dahlia, originally run in 2015. This week's story is a little longer than usual, at 1380 words. Dahlia Sings the Blues On a grey and gloomy day on moderately quiet street in a medium-sized town, a woman of more or less middle age moved from lamp post to lamp post, taping up signs. Each featured a photo of a large marmalade cat and read, “MISSING CAT! Dahlia is lost! She is lonely, cold and scared. Won’t you help me find her?” and gave a phone number to call if the cat was seen. The woman shivered as she worked, and drew her sweater more tightly about her shoulders.   Meanwhile, across town on a rather less quiet street, a large marmalade cat relaxed in a nightclub, enjoying the scene. Word of the notices came by roundabout means. The small furry dog who lived three ho

Before we get started—note that today is Transgender Day of Visibility. Please take this time to write letter to a legislator, or just talk to people, or join a march. I've been having fun with the adventures of James Campbell with Aunt Gertrude MacDonald at Campbell Castle! Follow the links to Parts I to III , Part IV, and Part V . This week I didn't get any inspiration from the #WritePhoto prompt, so I turned to my own photos of castles in Scotland. When last seen, the motley crew of defenders of the last free castle in Scotland (maybe) were working out how to withstand a siege--or to end it--with a few antique weapons and a set of over-sized chess pieces. Photo by Rebecca M. Douglass About 850 words. Part VI: Breaking the Siege Gertrude MacDonald was peering over the parapet, only half hidden behind one of the crenellations. James Campbell came up beside her.   “Careful of showing yourself. Their weapons have a crazy long range.”   “Perhaps.” S

Last month I combined a couple of #WritePhoto prompts and stories for a single tale of castles and aliens. You can read that here . This week, though I missed Friday (I really missed Friday. Thanks to working on my taxes, it never even crossed my mind about a Friday post), I have another installment for the intrepid defenders of Earth, at the base somewhere in Scotland. That's because last week's prompt (which I missed entirely) was a cannon, aimed out an embrasure. Continuing with my imaginary castle this week, James Campbell and his motley crew are preparing for another attack. Image by KL Caley, New2Writing.com IV   Preparing for a Siege The aliens had gone—for now. James Campbell wasn’t naïve enough to believe that driving them from this one castle one time was enough to save them. What was going on outside—beyond the castle and the village—was anyone’s guess. Radio signals had stopped a few days after they defeated the aliens.   Okay, a few days after Gertrude

 I found this in the archives from 2016. It made me laugh, and I hope it gives you a smile.  Sit back and enjoy a warm vacation as winter continues... 860 words The Devil’s in the Details   “Watch your step as you exit the bus. The ground may be uneven or extremely hot. Watch your step…” The guide droned on, words and intonation exactly the same as each person stepped down out of the tour bus. He seemed unaffected by the exclamations of the tourists.   “It’s sure hot here!” “Hope the hotel has AC.” “Darling, I don’t know…” “Well you said you wanted to go someplace warm.”   The man and woman, dressed in plaid Bermuda shorts (him) and a hibiscus-print sundress (her) clutched each other’s arms as they looked around the blasted volcanic landscape. All that hot lava looked very close.   “Hey! Keep moving!” Someone behind them called. “We want to get off this bus and see too, you know!”   “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” the woman whispered

Photo by KL Caley Participating in the weekly #WritePhoto blog hop at KL Caley's New2Writing blog.  I'm a little late with this--expect more of the same this week, and next, but I'll put up a post when I think about it :)  Meanwhile, everyone enjoy the holidays of your choice (me, I'm a little inclined to choose them all, especially any with food associated). Today, in 530 words, we have a little Christmas story for you. Carriage   “Careful how you stow those things.” The order wasn’t necessary, but he gave it anyway.   “Are you sure this is going to work?” That was Crocus, always questioning his judgement. Questioning everyone’s judgement, to be fair. Crocus couldn’t take anything as a given, which he supposed wasn’t all bad.   “I’ve tested the horses. They’ll do.”   “Why can’t the reindeer—” Crocus started to ask.   “They need snow. The bare stones and pavements hurt their feet. Hooves,” he corrected himself. This business of ha

Image credit KL Caley I am writing this for the weekly #WritePhoto challenge by KL Caley at New2Writing.com. Read all about it and join in if you'd like! I have decided to try my best to join in on this hop again, and while this photo is particularly challenging in my opinion (there's a lot of empty space there... what's that tractor up to?), I think I can pull off a bit of something, so here goes. Super short, just over 300 words. Farmer's Revolt Jane Amelia was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored. She’d driven the tractor across this field a hundred times, trying hard to keep the rows straight and even, as her father had instructed her. And for what? She left neat rows of cut hay for the next bored driver with the rake, then the baler, while she moved on to the next field, and the next, and the next. World without end, amen. The house was just over there, behind the trees that kept the yard separate from the fields. She could go home, have a cup of coffee a

A little fun flash fiction this week in response to a lovely picture from KL Caley of New2Writing.com for this week’s #writephoto prompt. Here's the scoop: Every Thursday KL Caley posts a photo prompt, and you have until Tuesday to post. Any kind of writing, poetry, flash fiction, haiku, whatever the photo inspires. Since I'm pretty busy just now, mine's not quite 300 words of pure goofiness.     Saturday Night at the Tidepool Sam the hermit crab was having a great night. He’d headed on down to the Tidepool after work for a few drinks a bit of kootchie-koo, and it was working out as hoped. Heck, he’d even managed to make a date for the following night with a promising she-crab with a suggestive tilt to her shell. For a hermit crab, or really for any sort of crab, Sam was a social being. He loved to hang out with the Limpets, who were surprisingly good company if a bit clingy. The Minnows were chatterers, but made a nice background noise if you just ignored them for the mos

WEP challenges are FREE and open to all. On the 1st   of the challenge month, there will be a   get-your-thinking-caps   on post. The badge will include the dates of the challenge and the winner’s   prizes. The InLinkz sign up will open on the third Wednesday and close 3 days later. It will contain no news, just the sign up. Participants link up with their DLs (Direct Links to their entry).  Learn all about it here .    My entry this time is based on an actual incident. Mom and my brothers will recognize it. My apologies to them for the non-trivial liberties I took with history and their personalities. We are now also meant to provide a tag line for our stories, so here's mine: What terrors lurk in the root cellar?     The Scream The house we lived in that year wasn’t much. The wind blew in everywhere you could imagine a draft, and some places you couldn’t. The old enclosed porch we used as a root cellar was worse. It wasn’t just the wind that could get in through the chinks a