Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I apologize for the lack of a cover photo--I'm on the road and my antique laptop wouldn't cooperate! Title: As I Saw it in the Trenches: Memoir of a Doughboy in World War I Author: Dae Hinson Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2015. 177 pages. Source: Library Summary:  This is the memoir of a WWI soldier, written down by him sometime in the years after the war, and discovered and transcribed by his nephew decades later. Hinson's goal seems simply to have been the accurate description of his WWI experiences. It is full of details about the war as he lived it. Review: This book reads very much as what it is: the account of a person who was not a professional writer, but a good observer and who obviously put a lot of effort into his narration. The editors have had the sense to leave it alone and not try to polish it up, and there are some places where errors slipped in or bits are missing, but the whole makes sense and it maintains the author's voice. The result is a ve

Chuck Wendig gave us a sub-genre mashup this week , and the dice gave me "creature feature" and "sword & sorcery." That's almost too easy a fit, but I was pressed for time, so that was a good thing. In 998 words, I give you: Some Heroics Required “You have to, Eeyla. You’re our last hope.” The knight shifted uncomfortably. She was the last hope? To go after a monster that had destroyed how many knights? “It’s defeated every other knight in the realm?” “Well, no.” Lord Altain looked uncomfortable in his turn. “But you have what none of them do. You have magic.” Eeyla sighed. She might have known. “So some fool of a wizard created a golem that’s run out of control. Why me? Let him fix his own mess.” The Lord Chancellor grimaced. “The monster ate him for breakfast, minutes after it was created. It had most of the village for elevenses.” It was the knight’s turn to grimace. It didn’t look like there was any way out. With a small groan for the joints that had bee

Two weeks ago I returned from a week of backpacking in the Ansel Adams Wilderness (California; just south of Yosemite) with my husband and oldest son. It's hard to capture a week's worth in a single blog post, but I'll take a shot at the highlights. It started with the drive from San Francisco, through Yosemite, and on to Lee Vining, where we treated ourselves to dinner at the Mono Cone, an old-school burger joint. After a night camped in an unnamed location, we picked up a backcountry permit and hit the trail about 10 a.m. A typical preparation scene. The trail heads right up the wall, though unfortunately it leads to a trio of lakes that were dammed before the wilderness area was created. We thought the tramway was no longer in use, but when we got to the top we found that it's still the way workers commute to the job site when the dams need attention. I'm sure they actually ride the brakes hard, but it looks like a roller coaster to me! Eventually we found a tran

Title: Murder is Bad Manners Author: Robin Stevens Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015. 307 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: Deepdean School for Girls, 1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia's missing tie. Which they don't, really.) But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident - but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls  know  a murder must have taken place . . . and there's more than one person at Deepdean with a motive. Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove a murder happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police

After his long hiatus from issuing flash fiction challenges (only partly responsible for mine from writing flash fiction), Chuck Wendig is back, and urging us, appropriately enough, to write a story about a vacation . Any genre, up to 1500 words. My tale wrapped up in a bit over half of that. I probably should practice writing longer stories, but that's what came out. Genre is somewhere between humor and horror? 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 land

This month's IWSG Question: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published? So before I get into my main topic, I'll see if I can answer this. Of course, there was the epic "Look into the Future" I wrote in grade school, in which I featured as a genius with a horse farm, thereby showing up my big brother and getting the horses I was crazy about, all in one. Other more sophisticated (but still rather puerile) stories and novellas followed in high school. My first real novel--the first to get close enough that I (rather naively) shopped it to agents--was a mystery novel about bike messengers in Seattle called Dispatched to Death . Coincidentally, I was working as a messenger at the time...and though I retain a fondness for the book, that one will remain in my files. Okay, on to the main bit of insecurity, which hasn't really changed from last month: I'm not writing. I know the reason f

  Title: Bread and Roses, Too Author: Katherine Paterson Publisher: Clarion Books, 2002. 275 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: Rosa’s mother is singing again, for the first time since Papa died in an accident in the mills. But instead of filling their cramped tenement apartment with Italian lullabies, Mamma is out on the streets singing union songs, and Rosa is terrified that her mother and older sister, Anna, are endangering their lives by marching against the corrupt mill owners. After all, didn’t Miss Finch tell the class that the strikers are nothing but rabble-rousers—an uneducated, violent mob? Suppose Mamma and Anna are jailed or, worse, killed? What will happen to Rosa and little Ricci? When Rosa is sent to Vermont with other children to live with strangers until the strike is over, she fears she will never see her family again. Then, on the train, a boy begs her to pretend that he is her brother. Alone and far from home, she agrees t

Title: At the Water's Edge Author: Sara Gruen Publisher: Spiegel & Grau, 348 pages Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary:  After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie,

This is a book I picked up because my Maine friend mentioned it (see last week's photos) . I think the author's a friend of a friend or some such. Close enough to make me pick it up (especially since we just visited a lake in Maine) and far enough not to affect my review in the least :)   Title: The Island of Beyond Author: Elizabeth Atkinson Publisher: Carolrhoda Books, 2016, 288 pages Source: Library Publisher's Summary:  Eleven-year-old Martin can hardly imagine a worse summer. His dad is sending him to his great-aunt Lenore, who lives on a tiny island called Beyond. Martin's dad wants him to like "normal" boy things--playing sports and exploring the outdoors. Martin's afraid he'll never be the son his dad wants him to be. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere won't change that. But nothing about Beyond is what Martin expects. Not peculiar Aunt Lenore, not mysterious Uncle Nedâ-and certainly not the strange, local boy who unexpectedly bef