Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Today, while I'm busy with visiting my family, Young Adult author Ronel Janse van Vuuren has come by to offer some thoughts on the special pleasures of the novella. Ronel is the author of Once... Tales, Myths and Legends of Faerie; Dark Desires, The Fae Realm, and more, including her latest release, Magic at Midnight. Power of Novellas When you ask someone how they are, the standard answer has become: “I’ve been incredibly busy!” “Busy”. That seems to be what we all are at any given moment. Work, children, relationships, hobbies, exercise – we are kept quite busy. Unexpected things happen and we have to somehow fit it into our busy lives. There are ways to be less busy, of course. Hiring someone to do your laundry/clean your house/cook your meals/take care of your garden/chauffeur the children/pick up your dry cleaning/answer your emails: the list is endless on how you can outsource the stuff that eats up you time. Freeing you to do more work. To be more “busy”. But we need to take

This was supposed to be an excited "gone hiking" post about heading into the Canadian Rockies for a few weeks. Sadly, I developed a bad case of plantar fasciitis (if you don't know what that is... consider yourself lucky indeed), and won't be hiking for the next month or two, at best. But we're off to visit the family in Seattle, so there's that :)  Since we are staying closer to civilization, I'll have wi-fi more often than I'd expected, but since I'll be busy, I've lined up a guest post, as well as a few pre-arranged posts of my own, and am letting the book reviews go a bit. Please forgive me if I'm slow responding to comments, but I will get back to you!

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.  Every month, we announce a q

After driving the long way around from Christchurch to Te Anau (documented here and here ), We launched into the 3-night, 4 day, 33 1/2 mile Milford Track tramp. Possibly the most famous track in New Zealand, this requires a lot of planning and advance booking--a year or more in advance. In fact, we had intended to do it first thing back in January, but a tiny delay in booking the huts meant we got late February instead. As it happened, that was a good thing: the January attempt by others in our party was rained out, while we enjoyed fine weather, at least where it mattered. The participants were my husband, Eldest Son, Friend B, and myself.  The trip begins with an hour's boat ride up Lake Ta Anau; the start of the Milford Track isn't accessible by road (neither is the end, come to think of it). There are two or three boats per day; we were on the last boat, which was well-filled with those who would become our fellow trampers. A note on that: many of the Great Walks in New Z

I'm happy to report today that I'm making good progress on the revisions for Death By Library , the 4th book in my Pismawallops PTA mystery series. I had encouraging feedback from my editor (as in, no major plot issues!), and very helpful input from several beta readers on making the writing tighter and keeping the reader engaged in the story. So, after spending several weeks avoiding looking at the feedback I'd begged for, I finally got started and now am enjoying the process of polishing the words, trying to take the writing to another level. For a bit of inspiration, I have been listening to books by Richard Peck and Ivan Doig, two masters in the art of making language stand up and perform. I'm asking something different of my words, and have neither the desire nor the ability to emulate those masters, but I do take inspiration from the recognition of what can be done, just how perfectly each word can be chosen so that it sounds inevitable. That makes me think about

Title: Here Lies the Librarian Author: Richard Peck Publication Info: Dial Books, 2006, 160 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down.This novel, with its quirky characters, folksy setting, classic cars, and hilariously larger-than-life moments, is vintage Richard Peck – an offbeat, deliciously wicked comedy that is also unexpectedly moving. 
 My Review:  Richard Peck's historical fiction served in part as inspiration when I wrote my Ninja Librarian stories. I first read this one after I'd written at least the first book, which is maybe just as well, because if I'd read this first, I might have given up and left the librarians to Peck. Actuall

Back in late February, we did a trip from Christchurch down the east coast of South Island all the way to Invercargill, then up to Te Anau, the launching point for our Milford Track tramp. I've picked a few highlights from the trip south, into an area that gets a lot less attention than many parts of the island. We weren't sure what we'd find, but we found more than enough to fill our 4 days! On this trip were my husband and me, Eldest Son, and our son's friend, whom I'll call Friend B. Part I of the trip is here . The Catlins (Cathedral Caves, McLean Falls, Petrified Forest, Slope Point) The Catlins is the farthest-south region of South Island, encompassing both the Catlins Forest Park and some amazing coastline with a few hidden gems. We stayed two nights in Fortrose so we could spend an entire day exploring. Since at least two stops were dependent on the tides, we had to time things carefully. I ended last week's post with Cathedral Caves, so we&#

Title: Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race Author: Lara Prior-Palmer Publication Info: May 2019, Catapult. 288 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: For fans of Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk , this is the extraordinary debut memoir of a young woman who traveled to Mongolia to compete in the world’s longest, toughest horse race, and emerged as its youngest and first-ever female winner. At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to “the world’s longest, toughest horse race”—an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. As she boarded a plane to East Asia, she was utterly unprepared for what awaited her. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, a course that recreates the horse messenger system developed by Geng

Note: I shared a Spotlight for this novella during the Great Escapes blog tour, but thought it best to wait on my review, as I would probably not give this the requisite 3 stars, if I gave star, which I don't :D Title: Out of Options (Century Cottage Mysteries prequel novella) Author: Dianne Ascroft Publication Info: April 2019, 126 pages. Contains novella and bonus short story "City Sunsets." Source: Great Escapes Blog Tours Publisher's Blurb: Out of Options is a prequel novella to the Century Cottage Cozy Mysteries series, and introduces Lois Stone and her companions, Raggs and Ribbons, a pair of perceptive calico cats. A dry district, a shocking secret, a missing person. When Lois Stone’s friend, Beth Darrow, arranges to meet her to reveal an astonishing discovery, Lois’s curiosity is piqued. Then Beth doesn’t keep their lunch date and Lois becomes worried. What has happened to her friend? Middle-aged widow Lois is settling into life on her own in her neighb