Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

It's the first Wednesday, and time again for the Insecure Writers' Support Group post. I'm delighted to be a co-host this month.   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! 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 writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!   Don't forget you can post your link on the IWSG Facebook page !   Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter handle...

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.  I'm pretty sure I learned about this book from one of my fellow MMGM bloggers--they've been tipping me off to the best books lately. Wherever I learned about it, it struck the right note with me.   Title: Ollie in Between Author: Jess Callans Publication Info : April 2025, Feiwel & Friends. 225 pages (ebook) Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted.When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means t...

I've been there four times now, and probably shared photos each time, but I can never get too much of these twisting and narrow slot canyons. You'll have to put up with the repetition! In four visits, this was not only the first time the slot has been dry, but the first time it's had anything less than chest-deep pools of cold, murky water. It's more pleasant without the wet. A hike of just under 3 miles takes you into the wash and across to the opening to Zebra slot. A close eye on the weather is essential here--rain anywhere in the area could result in a flash flood through the slot, and that would be... bad. It would be bad, also, to do this in the heat of a summer day, as the climb back up to the car is hot and exposed. We found it so even at noon on a comparatively cool April day (the wind was no fun, either). Once, long ago, there were sand dunes. Zebra is a popular hike, so it's easy to follow the trail and the footprints to the opening.   On other visits, th...

After my lovely week plus in the canyons of Utah, I'm back at the computer, and finally taking the dive into the notes on my next Seffi Wardwell mystery, Edited Out. Things don't look too bad, but there is plenty of work to be done. I love hiking and scrambling around the canyons, but you know the best part of this trip? Little to no cell coverage, and thus a lovely news block-out. I know I can't keep my head in the sand all the time (hmm... given the stuff the winds were blowing around into faces, meals, etc. for a couple of days, that might be more literal than intended!), but a true break from all the scary news is a good thing sometimes! Since I was traveling with a couple of good friends, for once I didn't do a lick of work. I had my draft with me, and my laptop with a couple of other projects I could have messed with, but chose to be social, and just to read when we were hiding in our cars because the weather got... interesting! In other writer news, just before ...

A couple of weeks ago I offered my seniors' writing class a selection of wonky characters to work with, and nabbed a pair for myself. The following is the result, though I could see making some changes and turning it into a full-length short story (is that an oxymoron?) Among the Dunes “Damn!” Bargo let the air-cruiser coast toward the surface of the planet he’d come to pillage. Once again the blasted impulsion motor had cut out and he was about to be stranded… where? He pulled up his map and tried to figure that out. Somewhere in the middle of something called the “Mojave Desert.” His home planet had only one biome, the one inside the domes, so he wasn’t sure what that meant, but based on what he was seeing below him, it meant nothing good. He shifted to concentrate on landing in one piece, for all the good it might do him. The air-cruiser landed gently in one of the clear spaces, where he was pretty sure he’d not rip the belly out on the sharp rocks or po...

I found Matt Haig's The Comfort Book in the library listings while looking for his fiction, and decided that in these times, a book with that title was worth a closer look.    Title : The Comfort Book Author: Matt Haig. Read by the author Publication Info :  Penguin Random House 2021. 3 hours. Hardcover by Penguin Life, 2021, 272 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads) : “It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.” The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to Haig’s future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. Incorporating a diverse array of sources from across the world, history, scienc...

While I'm out playing, I'm re-running some flash fiction for your enjoyment. This one dates to something like 2017, and I think came from a challenge where people wrote a first paragraph and we selected one to complete. 1160 words.   Millions of Cats   Things never work out according to plan when there are cats involved.   I knew that, and I should have known better than to take the job.   But Keelan made it all sound so easy: we just had to pick up the consignment from Alpha-Centauri 4 and take them to Exilion 17.   Four days, max, and two of them in hyperspace.   “What could go wrong?”   I should really have run when Keelan said that, because I know darned well that anytime those words are uttered a disaster is sure to follow.   Unfortunately, we needed cash, and the cat people had it.   So we went and picked up the load of cats.   That was where the trouble began.   They were supposed to be cr...