Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

It's next week! Get your post ready for the March Fiction in 50 blog hop! What is #Fi50? In the words of founder Bruce Gargoyle, "Fiction in 50: think of it as the anti-NaNoWriMo experience!" Pack a beginning, middle and end of story into 50 words or less (bonus points for hitting exactly 50 words). The rules for participation are simple : 1. Create a piece of fictional writing in 50 words or less, ideally using the prompt as title or theme or inspiration. That’s it!  But for those who wish to challenge themselves further, here’s an additional rule: 2. Post your piece of flash fiction on your blog or (for those poor blog-less souls) add it as a comment on the Ninja Librarian’s post for everyone to enjoy.  And for those thrill-seekers who really like to go the extra mile (ie: perfectionists): 3. Add the nifty little picture above to your post (credit for which goes entirely to ideflex over at acrossthebored.com ) or create your own Fi50 meme pic…. and 4. Link back to

This week's Wendig Challenge sent us to this marvelous website, which gives you a pair of unlikely partners in crime fighting. Chuck said we could make them do anything, not just fight crime, so I made a few changes, and got... A Match Made in Heaven Domestic bliss wasn't what they got, but Anita and Olga did well enough. That is, if you take 'well enough' to mean they hadn't killed each other. Mixed marriages have their own special challenges, and even the happy couple had to admit that theirs was about as mixed as they came. Still, neither one would have given up. They'd met in a bar, as though it was the start of a joke. "A vagrant matador and a belly-dancing day-care provider walk into a bar... " Only it wasn't a joke. It was love at first sight, and a whole lot more than met the eye. # Anita entered the bar in Pamplona with nothing on her mind but a drink. Bullfighting was dry work, and she'd had a tough evening. The last bull had ripped

    Title: Two Heads Are Deader Than One Author: Elena Hartwell Publisher: Camel Press, 2017. 274 pages (Kindle) Source:  purchased Publisher's Summary: Private Investigator Eddie Shoes is enjoying a rare period of calm. She’s less lonely now that Chava, her card-counting mom from Vegas, is sharing her home. She also has a new companion, Franklin, a giant dog of curious ancestry. Hoping for a lucrative new case, Eddie instead finds herself taking on a less promising client: her best friend from her childhood in Spokane. Dakota has turned up in Bellingham in jail, where she is being held on a weapons charge. Eddie reluctantly agrees not only to lend her friend money for bail but to also investigate who is stalking her. Soon after Dakota is freed, she disappears again, leaving Eddie to answer to the local cops, including her ex-boyfriend Chance Parker. Has Dakota been kidnapped? If not, why did she jump bail? What are Eddie’s business cards doing on the bodies of two murd

I've listened to a couple of books lately that were about the Olympics in the 1920s and 30s, so I'll comment on both of them here. The first was: Title: Fire on the Track: Betty Robinson and the Triumph of the Early Olympic Women Author: Roseanne Montillo Publisher: Random House Audio, 2017. Original published by Crown Publishing Group, 2017. 304 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary:   When Betty Robinson assumed the starting position at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, she was participating in what was only her fourth-ever organized track meet. She crossed the finish line as a gold medalist and the fastest woman in the world. This improbable athletic phenom was an ordinary high school student, discovered running for a train in rural Illinois mere months before her Olympic debut. Amsterdam made her a star. But at the top of her game, her career (and life) almost came to a tragic end when a plane she and her cousin were piloting crashed.

We got no new flash fiction challenge from Chuck this week, so I went back to the last one and picked another title from the list. I'd already decided to write another story for Xavier Xanthum, Space Explorer, so I just used the title to give me an idea where to take it. Larry makes reference to a couple of Xavier's previous attempts at a little R&R, so I threw in the links to those stories. The Princess’ Game “Larry, I’ve signed us up for a week’s R&R on G37-X.” “Indeed.” The AI materialized in front of Xavier Xanthum (in his standard form, a pair of glowing eyeballs). His tone sent a clear message to the human half of the partnership that ran the Wanderlust. “Do you have some objection?” “Not at all, Captain.” Xavier sighed. Larry only called him “captain” when he disapproved of something Xavier was about to do. This was probably about Xavier’s choice of a rustic retreat for his holiday. Larry liked vacation in high-tech centers where he could find

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! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! If it links to Google+, be sure your blog is listed there. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back. Let’s rock the neurotic writing

Title: Shirley Link and the Treasure Chest (Shirley Link #3) Author: Ben Zackheim Publisher: Independent. 2013, 120 pages Source:  Purchase Publisher's Summary: Shirley Link loves pirates. Well, she loves the idea of them. She wouldn't like them if they were running up the street stealing bikes. But digging for treasure and swashbuckling adventure are on the top of her to-do list. So when a clue pops up that there's a hidden pirate treasure under her hometown, Shirley gets to work. In Shirley Link & The Treasure Chest, the third volume in the critically-acclaimed Middle-Grade Mystery series, our heroine takes on her biggest challenge yet. But this time the stakes are higher than ever. If she fails to find the treasure, or if it ends up being a hoax, then Shirley's elderly neighbor, Mrs. Smiley, will lose her home to the bank.   
 My Review:   Before I begin, a disclaimer: I have an on-line acquaintance with author Ben Zackheim, and have shared space in the

When fellow blogger and author Chris Fey appealed for people to help spread the word about her mom's new book, how could I say no? I mean, you have to support moms! So here's the scoop on the soup... my part of this is to let you know my favorite soup, and the recipe. And it just so happens that I've recently gotten into making split pea soup, just like my mom used to make! I don't really follow an exact recipe... a pound of split green peas, a ham bone, a lot of water, onions, carrots, garlic, and boil until it's soup! Then you can take out the bone, pick off any meat that remains and dig in. I tried for years to make split pea soup without the ham bone, and I'm here to say... just don't. It's not right until you've cooked it with the bone! And now for the book: BLURB: Gregory Green loves his mom’s pea soup, but when he eats it at school, all of his friends make fun of how it looks. He doesn’t think it looks like bugs, and it tastes good! The

  Flashback Friday is a monthly meme that takes place on the last Friday of the month . The idea is to give a little more love to a post you’ve published on your blog before.  Maybe you just love it, maybe it’s appropriate for now, or maybe it just didn’t get the attention it deserved when you first published it. Thanks to Michael d’Agostino, who started it all, there is a solution – join Flashback Friday! Just join in whenever you like, repost one of your own blog posts , including any copyright notices on text or media, on the last Friday of the month. Use the Flashback Friday logo above, as designed by Michael d’Agostino. Link it back to host Jemima Pett (there's a linky list!) and add a link to your post in the comments on Jemima's post (or mine, or any other participant's). Since Friday is my flash fiction day, I've been sharing stories from the archives. This one dates back to 2013, and since it is a mystery featuring my heroine, JJ MacGregor of Pismawallops