Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

 Pop on over to IWSG Anthologies Blog and see what I have to say about writing, children's books, and a bit of this and that! Meanwhile, I'm in the wilderness once again. Heading into the Grand Canyon, having had some great fun in the slot canyons in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Peekaboo Canyon Approaching Harris Wash Proper National Park fashion for Ninjas! All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated. As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

 I seem to have missed by usual Wednesday update, but that's in keeping with how everything is going. After traveling to Colorado to deliver Eldest Son to start graduate school, I returned home with Second Son. Less than a week later, we left for Seattle, where he is spending his fall quarter (while attending UC San Diego... this is, indeed, a strange world we now inhabit!). Now I'm off again, for some exciting travel, including my first trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I'll share photos along the way, and maybe can come up with a story or two. Amid all that, what of the writing? Well, I've been picking away at the edits on Death By Donut, and have some hopes that I will be able to make it a book. And I'm working away at planning my next novel, which will kick off an all-new mystery series. More on that as it actually happens (NANOWRIMO? Maybe). And I still owe you all photos from the Weminuche Wilderness...  For now, a few bits of travel to and from Seattle.

The long-running Princelings of the East series has reached the final book... and it's coming soon! Before we can tell you about the book, you have to see the stunning cover, by artist Danielle English (kanizo.co.uk). Today is the Cover Reveal for the final book in the Princelings of the East series: Princelings Revolution. Princelings Publications is also kicking off the Launch & Anniversary Giveaway, which will run until midnight on October 23rd, to cover Jemima's tenth blogoversary on 21st October! There may be additional options for entries added between now and then, so check whenever you see it. Jemima Pett has come by to tell us about the Princelings series covers. NL: Cover art is a challenge for author-publishers. How did you managed to get such fantastic art for yours? JP: When I decided to publish the first three books, I needed a cover illustrator. Looking at the lists of people offering their services, I gulped. Then my niece mentioned her daughter was in her f

 I've been reading and listening to books more than I'm writing, but my writer brain is clearly turned on, because I've stumbled on--or over--some writing mistakes that I certainly felt shouldn't have gotten by the editor.  The worst, a constant irritant in an otherwise pleasant (if somewhat saccharine) series, have to do with what I'd have to classify as info dumps. I'll call this one, "The dog had three legs, he remembered." The particular author I'm listening to (who I see no reason to name) has a tendency that I don't think I noticed so much when it was on paper, to use "John remembered that blah blah" in order to get info dumps out there. To make it worse, some of them don't really even matter to the story at any time.  A subset of this, equally a clunky device for sharing background the reader may need but shouldn't trip over (from a different writer, whose works I also usually really enjoy), is, "She remembered sh

 I didn't feel like putting together a proper post for this week, so I'm just going to share a few random photos from my recent trip to Colorado (I wasn't traveling frivolously, lest you wonder. I was delivering Eldest Son to Boulder to start graduate school. I admit that while I was there I took the opportunity to do some backpacking, though!). A too-friendly deer One of the millions of Colorado trees killed by bark beetles. Virga--rain shafts that never reach the ground (though some very soon after this made the ground very wet indeed). Nevada sunset More Nevada sunsets A bit of the burn area in Glenwood Canyon along I70 in Colorado. We were lucky that the freeway reopened a day before we headed back west. (Photo on my phone by Griffen Dempsey) Train crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats I promised you random! I think that delivers :) All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated. As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs a

   It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means IWSG posting!  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! The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue!   Every month there is an OPTIONAL question: September 2 question - If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?  *** I've had some fun thinking about who I'd like to have as my beta partner. I mean, I already have some of the best, members of this group with a keen eye to plot and prose. But what could I learn from Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie?  Maybe not as much as I think. I love their books, but there's no denying their writing styles

    Title: Here If You Need Me: A True Story Author: Kate Braestrup Publication Info: Little Brown & Co., 2007. 211 pages Source: Gift from a friend   Publisher's Blurb: Ten years ago, Kate Braestrup and her husband Drew were enjoying the life they shared together. They had four young children, and Drew, a Maine state trooper, would soon begin training to become a minister as well. Then early one morning Drew left for work and everything changed. On the very roads that he protected every day, an oncoming driver lost control, and Kate lost her husband. Stunned and grieving, Kate decided to continue her husband's dream and became a minister herself. And in that capacity she found a most unusual mission: serving as the minister on search and rescue missions in the Maine woods, giving comfort to people whose loved ones are missing, and to the wardens who sometimes have to deal with awful outcomes. Whether she is with the parents of a 6-year-old girl who had wander

      The WEP posts every second month with a prompt and a bunch of short stories or other creative writing. This month's prompt has inspired me to something a little less conventional, but I'm feeling ready to write a little about it. This is non-fiction, and personal.  291 words; Comments only.  LONG SHADOW A small decision can cast a long shadow. The choice to go for an evening bike ride. Or how far back do you trace the decisions? A move to a new town? The refusal to give night rides after one accident? Or can we blame it on COVID? Because if not for the pandemic, we would have been deep in training for a strenuous July trip to the Swiss Alps. Or was May 8 too early to have shifted from bikes to trails? I can't be sure now. The decision he made was to ride his bike after dinner, when it was a little cooler, and the sun was no longer beating down on everything. It seemed like a reasonable choice at the time. As far as I know, it was the last decision he made, and the sha

These reports from our trip are feeling more and more like glimpses of a distant past, both personally and in this world where no one is traveling anywhere too far from home. Certainly not internationally! It's good to look back and remember, and this post is the first of two where it's all about history. In particular, the grim history of whaling.   Mikkelsen Harbor was used first by sealers, then in the early 20th Century by whalers. It's not much of a place, and I think they must have mostly just done some basic butchering before hauling the blubber off to someplace else (like Deception Island--I'll get to that in a couple of weeks) to be processed. Approaching the island in the harbor, where the whalers had what look like seriously inadequate shelter. (Photo by Dave Dempsey) The skeleton of the whaling boat is poignantly set off by hundred of whale bones. The animals rule here now. We tourists slogged a long way around through the mud when a large seal (out of sight