Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Way back at the end of July, a couple of friends and I joined a guided kayak trip to the Sucia Island Marine State Park (San Juan Islands, Washington). The tour was run by Anacortes Kayak Tours , which did a fantastic job. Note on the photography: many of these shots were done with my iPhone 15 Pro Max, which does a very good job, for a phone. I didn't want to take a good camera onto the salt water, so the rest are shot on a long-retired Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot, as the one of my old cameras with the longest zoom. It was not without issues.  Since the meet-up time was 9 a.m. on Orcas Island, we drove up and took the ferry to Orcas the day before. That gave us time to poke around the island a bit and get a seafood dinner. We camped at Moran State Park (it turned out that all the members of our tour did that, though of course we didn't know each other then and were in different campgrounds). As it happened, the morning ferry was 45 minutes late, so we all hung out at the b...

  Edited Out is Out! Book 3 of the Seffi Wardwell Maine Mystery series is out today! Seffi's continuing adventures see her taking a part-time job taking care of plants and helping out at the local B&B during an Artists' Residency.   Winter wraps Smelt Point in an icy blanket, and Seffi just wants to stay warm, enjoy some plants, and get her exercise. Now she has a bigger question to face:  Who erased the writer?   Winter in Maine is long, dark, and cold, and California transplant Seffi Wardwell is combating the winter blues with a full calendar. Tending the plants at the local bed-and-breakfast, writing reports for the library, and keeping an eye on events in Smelt Point barely leaves time for pastry and gossip at Sweet Dreams, the local bakery and heart of the village. When the participants at an artistic retreat held at the bed-and-breakfast grow combative, Seffi is there to smooth things over, stiffen the spine of the innkeeper, and keep things going. B...

I got home a couple of days ago, so I haven't had time to get all the photos edited (ha!). So this isn't a trip report--it's just a selection of a few good shots from my latest wilderness adventure, to keep you entertained for a little while until I can get my next real post out.  I was backpacking in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana with a couple of friends. Our route included some trails that barely qualify for the name, and some totally off-trail hiking, so we didn't do high mileage. We did do high altitude and high reward hiking! I started the trip with a couple of solo dayhikes (and you can bet I had my bear spray handy; though this area doesn't have a lot of grizzlies, it is just north of Yellowstone, which is griz central for the Rockies!   This was my first real hint of the kind of country I'd be seeing, though where we backpacked was a little less jagged, for the most part. You know I love a good rock. Talk about deformation!   The drive ove...

With the new book finished (well, mostly. Still working on the LT book!), I'm looking at the question of what to do next! This is always both a fun and a scary moment, when I don't know clearly what the next task is.  Here's the list of options: 1. start planning the next Seffi book. 2. write new short fiction/flash fiction for the blog and/or publication 3. work on existing short stories in need of revision, which I've neglected for months while editing  Edited Out .  4. work on the memoir project, maybe an essay. What's not on the table is starting right into edits on Seffi Wardwell #4, Logged Off at the Library,  which I drafted last fall. I definitely need a break from editing and a dive into generating new text!   Oh, yeah. And I won't be doing much of whatever it is for a while, because I'm going to Iceland! September in the far north... waterfalls and northern lights and chilly nights in a campervan... what could be better?  Tasks 1 & 2 lend them...

As a little teaser for the new book coming soon, we have an excerpt from Seffi Wardwell's 3rd Maine adventure,  Edited Out.     From Chapter 4:  Back in her own house, Seffi shrugged off the tensions from the inn. The sun was up, the weather beautiful, and she was going to try out the snowshoes Nikka gave her for Christmas. She needed exercise, which meant a walk—there was no gym at Smelt Point for indoor workouts. Anyway, Seffi wanted the outdoors. She needed the woods, where she hadn’t been able to hike since the ice moved in. She was going to visit the reserve, come hell, high water, or deep snow. After a rest and a snack, she layered up and headed across the meadow toward the Painter Head Reserve. Invigorated by the tramp through the snow—once she’d got the hang of the snowshoes, it had gone well—Seffi hummed happily. She stopped at the research station, using her key to let herself in and check on things. There was no plumbing in the sta...

Just before my book launches, I'm doing what any sane, marketing-savvy author would do... I've gone hiking. Enjoy a few random photos, and some more images of the completed paperback cover :)  Three more photos of Zebra Slot , because I like them.  And a coyote. We are just 2 weeks out from launch for  Edited Out ! It even looks like the paperback (maybe even the LT?) will be ready by then as well! \   ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025    As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 
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