Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I have a little time, so thought I'd let you all know what the status of my writing is. Since we have now been on the road for about 6 weeks, spending no more than 3 nights in any one place (and those with friends, making visiting, not writing, my priority), you will be unsurprised to learn that not much has happened. I did receive a rejection on my one story submission last month, but with a suggestion to submit to another place, which unfortunately is currently closed to submissions. I have managed to write my Fiction in 50 piece, which will go up on Friday in lieu of any longer fiction (or more photos) for my Friday post. I even spent a morning updating the blog and indexing the posts on the relevant Pages (see top bar) (though they still need to be better organized in there. Chronological order seemed good enough when I had only a few dozen posts...). And Dani has been hard at work on my cover, reminding me that I need to get my blurb written. I'm including the current draf

Just a reminder that it's Fiction In 50 time again! And what is that? Read on! 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

Since all hope of a regular blogging schedule is lost, I'm going to work on this post and share it when I'm done, whenever that may be [as it happened, I finished on Thursday evening, so it really is a Friday post]. On the up side, I am back with a real computer, so no more of those horrid issues with the iPad. On the down side, transferring my photos from the iPad is an annoying process and has resulted in some chaos, though not, I'm happy to report, the loss of my edits. These photos are a somewhat random collection from our two months in Christchurch, including both views around town and from hikes and trips in the Port Hills and farther out on Banks Peninsula. One of the first things we did when we settled into our Christchurch digs was purchase a couple of second-hand bikes. Christchurch is a great biking town. Not only is it flat, but in the post-earthquake recovery they have made a point of expanding the biking infrastructure to make it easy, comfortable, and safe to

Title: A Stitch in Time Author: Daphne Kalmar Publication Info: Feiwel and Friends, 2018. 256 pages (hardback) Source: Library digital resources Publisher’s Blurb: Donut is an eleven-year old geography buff who keeps her taxidermied mice hidden in her late mother’s hope chest. Her pops passed away, leaving her an orphan. Aunt Agnes has moved in, bringing along her lumpy oatmeal, knitting, and a plan to drag Donut off to Boston forever. Donut stands to lose everything: her friends, her village, her home, the woods, and walks where the memories of her pops are stored up. While Donut dodges the ache of missing her pops, she and her best friend Tiny plan how to keep her where she belongs. Holed up in a cabin on Dog Pond, Donut clings to the hope that Aunt Agnes will throw in the towel and leave Vermont without her. A Stitch in Time is shot through with gorgeous, evocative language, and gets right to Donut’s heart.   My Review: Maybe I never grew up, because I think my reaction

  The IWSG took me by surprise—the first Wednesday shouldn’t be allowed to be on the first of the month! But it’s sort of fitting, because we have been on the road and I’ve had no time for writing-and that includes blogging! So at the moment I'm a very insecure--and frustrated--writer, but I'm absorbing experiences like crazy, so that's good. My only writer news, aside from a quick-and-dirty draft of some flash fiction that I haven't edited yet, is that feedback is starting to trickle in on Death By Library , which is also well on the way to having a cover (early sketches have been bandied about and approved). If anyone would like to add their beta-reader feedback to Book 4 of the Pismawallops PTA mystery series, I'd love to hear from you! Here's the quick-and-dirty blurb:  JJ has a new job at the library, and everything is looking peachy. But when things in the stacks turn deadly, she has to figure out who might have killed the local gadfly. It’s not like sh

  Title: Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics Author: Katheryn J. Atwood Publication Info: Chicago Review Press, 2014. 256 pages (hardcover) Source: Library digital resources Publisher’s Blurb: In time for the 2014 centennial of the start of the Great War, this book brings to life the brave and often surprising exploits of 16 fascinating women from around the world who served their countries at a time when most of them didn’t even have the right to vote. Readers meet 17-year-old Frenchwoman Emilienne Moreau, who assisted the Allies as a guide and set up a first-aid post in her home to attend to the wounded; Russian peasant Maria Bochkareva, who joined the Imperial Russian Army by securing the personal permission of Tsar Nicholas II, was twice wounded in battle and decorated for bravery, and created and led the all-women combat unit the “Women’s Battalion of Death” on the Eastern Front; and American journalist Madeleine Zabriskie D

Flashback Friday:    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! And thanks to  Jemima Pett , who has kept it going--visit her blog to  add your name to the list ! 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. I found this one from 2014 that seemed appropriate, given that we are definitely on the road, and will be starting across the country about the time this posts up! This story is a merging of two Chuck Wendig challenges. A couple of weeks ago he ran a random title challenge that sparked the story, and I finished it of

The big news: we are back in the USA, and on the same day as my family! Since we have been on the road so much this month, I haven’t been posting regularly. Nor have I been writing much besides my journal. But I have been thinking about a couple of things. One is a short story that I will probably pop out in a week or two, and the other is what it is I need to do with Gorg the Troll. I was re-inspired by seeing quite a lot of rocks lately that are what I think of as Gorg and his kinfolk! I think at some point I’ll run a contest for the best photo of a face in a rock—when I am ready to start promoting the Gorg book :) A final note: I could still use another reader or two for the beta draft of Death By Library . I unfortunately forgot to mention this with my WEP post, but I’ll be sharing that need for the next severeal posts. Just drop me a note in the comments if you want to read for me, or send an email through the “Contact Me” page of this blog. This one might not be Gorg so much as G

It’s #FictionIn50 time again!  Please consider sharing your own 50-word creations, and join the hop. 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 l