Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

The Ninja Librarian is busy driving across the country, having finished pulling up roots. I have scheduled posts for most of my usual dates, but am skipping some to stretch the available posts until I'm a bit settled and able to post again. I'll do my best to respond to comments and visit my visitors, but it may be a challenge, so please don't give up on me! I am also chipping away at the WEP list, and hope to read everyone's stories before the next posting date! Riding off into the sunset. Well, actually into the sunrise, since we're headed east.

I stumbled on one of the books in this trio--not really a series, but 3 books that go together--and had to read them all. Here's my take on the whole set of them.   Title: Stolen Child Publication info: Scholastic Canada, 2010 (with a note on Goodreads saying originally published 2000). 154 pages. Scholastic (US) appears to be releasing an edition in 2019, changing the title to Stolen Girl . Publisher's Blurb: Stolen from her family by the Nazis, Nadia is a young girl who tries to make sense of her confusing memories and haunting dreams. Bit by bit she starts to uncover the truth — that the German family she grew up with, the woman who calls herself Nadia's mother, are not who they say they are. Beyond her privileged German childhood, Nadia unearths memories of a woman singing her a lullaby, while the taste of gingersnap cookies brings her back to a strangely familiar, yet unknown, past. Piece by piece, Nadia comes to realize who her real family was. But where ar

Fiction in 50 is a regular feature in the last week of every month and I invite any interested composers of mini-narrative to join in!      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 acrossthebor

Part II: Shepherd Pass to the mid-Kaweah Basin Last week, I shared the beginning of our 9-day backpacking trip into the Kaweah Basin in Sequoia NP. This week, I'll take us into the middle of the trip, and the middle of the basin. Give me a couple more weeks to get through the trip, because the scenery was amazing, and it's hard to pick just a few photos to share here. Day 2 We left off in the middle of the second day of the trip, as we entered the National Park at 12,000' Shepherd Pass. Descending from the pass. It's a broad, very gently sloping valley, in sharp contrast to the east side of the pass. Still dropping from the pass. We have to descend to the confluence of the deep valleys in the center of the photo, then climb up the valley to the right, and up to the basin below the dark peaks. We found more than one old cabin, probably reminders that before the area was a National Park, miners and sheep herders wandered everywhere. This cabin had a new door with new hing

    Write…Edit…Publish (WEP) is an online writing community now partnering with the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG). We post the third Wednesday of every second month. WEP challenges are open to all.  I'm supposed to post my feedback preferences, but I'm not sure what to ask for... I'll learn as we go here, so for now I'll just ask for whatever reactions you had to the story. Change of Heart “There you go, Ma’am. There was a bit of nastiness, but it’s all clear now.” Jason tipped his hat to the absurdly grateful homeowner and collected his payment, smothering his smile until he was out of sight in his van. Then he allowed a broad grin to escape as he straightened the bills—more than he had asked for, no doubt as a token of her gratitude for cleaning up that “bit of nastiness”—and filed them in his wallet. “The spirits won’t like you mocking them.” Jason shook his head. He kept hearing Great-Aunt Mathilda’s voice. How had the old biddy known what he was up to, a

    Title: The Shadow of the Minotaur (Shadows from the Past #2) Author: Wendy Leighton-Porter Publisher: Mauve Square Publishing, 2012. 234 pages. Source: Purchased from Amazon Publisher's Blurb: Ten-year-old twins Joe and Jemima Lancelot continue the search for their missing parents who are trapped somewhere in the past. Together with their friend, Charlie, and their unusual talking cat, Max, they are whisked back in time to ancient Crete and the palace of Knossos, where the fearsome Minotaur resides in its labyrinth, feeding on human flesh. Can they help Prince Theseus of Athens overcome the terrifying monster before it devours them all? And will the children survive the terrible storm which threatens to wreck their ship as they attempt to flee the island? My Review:  This is such a great series! The adventure ramps up right from the start, and doesn't quit. It helps that this time, the kids know what's happening, and what to expect (they learned fast from their

I'm finally ready to start my trip report on our recent backpacking extravaganza, 9 days into the Kaweah Basin in Sequoia National Park. The trip really began back in 2015, when my husband, Eldest Son, and I backpacked out of Mineral King in Sequoia NP. Midway down that trip report is a picture of the Kaweah Peaks, one jagged and intriguing crest. I'm not sure how we got from "those are impressive peaks" to "I hear there's an amazing basin on the other side of those peaks," but we did, and found a couple of on-line accounts of accessing the (trail-less) basin. Thus was a plan begun, but until this summer we didn't have the two-week time block we needed to acclimatize and tackle what we would want to do as a 9-10 day trip. Fast-forward to July, 2018. My husband retired, I quit work, and we had the time to train and to do the trip right. I shared some of our acclimatization activities here . Now we had 10 days food, and a plan to enter the Sierra via