Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

  It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group post. The IWSG is the brainchild of the amazing Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh. Since we are all insecure and can use all the support we can get, huge thanks to Alex and this month's co-hosts, Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria! Every month there is an optional question to spark our posts and discussions. This month's question is (stripped of all the explanation you will find here ): Why do you write what you write? Now for my post... I'll get to the question in a minute. First, the big question: to NaNo, or not to NaNo? That's right--November is National Novel Writing Month, and many of us like to use the energy of the event to push our work along. So am I doing it this month?  My answer to that appears to be a great big "sort of." When I first drafted this post on Oct. 30, I was still working on edits

 Blogging here has been pretty sparse the last couple of months, mostly because I've been on the road (and maybe because I haven't felt much like reviewing books). But I'm home at last, for the moment, and ready to share a few random fall color photos from my trip to Maine. There's no story with these--just photos. About half are from various parts of Maine, and the other half from New Hampshire. Through my travels, I made a point of working at least a little bit on my novel every night. I missed a few when I was traveling with a friend, but most places I managed at least a paragraph or two! Yes, you CAN write with gloves on! All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated. As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

  The Killer Outdoors (A Southwest Exposure Mystery) by Jodi Linton About The Killer Outdoors The Killer Outdoors (A Southwest Exposure Mystery)   Cozy Mystery 1st in Series   Independently Published (October 5, 2020)   Digital ASIN : B08C72CMSV     Welcome to Bushwhack, New Mexico: home to tourists, the great outdoors, and murder... Tourist season has hit Bushwhack and Andie Sullivan--owner of Sullivan's Adventure Company--is ready for her town to fill up with city slickers, snotty teens, and the dollars she needs to keep her business afloat after her messy divorce from Bucky Gunn--local celebrity rafting guide and Sullivan's main competition. With all her guided tours booked, it finally seems lady luck is on her side.  But then Bucky is found dead. Not great. And she's the prime murder suspect. Double not great. Being framed for murder sucks worse than a rabid chipmunk bite. Andie's determined to clear her name, and this time her survival training skills won't b

  It's time for the October WEP challenge, and after missing several this year, I'm back with a tentative offering. I couldn't do any of the horror-type stories that the prompt and badge suggest. It's humor, and I hope you all enjoy it as a sort of palate-cleanser after all the spooky stories out there this month. But be sure to pop on over to the WEP and check out the other stories in the hop! As for me--I'm back on the road again, and will be reading the stories when and as I  can, probably continuing into next month. If you leave a comment I *will* get back to you. Just don't hold your breath, okay? I don't want to be responsible for anyone turning blue in the face. 686 words. FCA Grave Mistake “It’s a lovely piece, don’t you think, dear?” “Mmm, yes. Is that the one you want, then?” “I’m not sure. This has a lovely color, and the fine grain would look well, I think.” “WIll it do the job?” “Well, any of them will be cold enough. And I presume we can get wh

  What's that you say? You're pretty sure slots are illegal in Utah? Well, not the kind I like! In fact, they thrive there, and in September I had some fun playing them. Well, okay, playing *in* them. Here's a bit of a photo essay from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, some of the most amazing landscape on earth (which, not to get too political, is under grave threat from the people currently in charge in DC). The expansive Navajo Sandstone of the Calf Creek wilderness Approach to Coyote Wash Now for some fun with slots! On the approach to Zebra Gulch Th The author in Zebra Gulch. Photo thanks to Zebra Guy, the nice hiker who coached me through and shared the photos! Zebra Gulch turned very wet and challenging. This final photo is about the point where I turned around and stowed my camera on dry ground! My hiking companion chest-deep. The water got more like neck-deep on us before we got through! So there you have it--My idea of slots worth playing with--and

Since I'm off in the Maine woods and more into kayaks and moose right now than I am writing (and this is an automated post because we're out of range of wi-fi), this is meant to be a quick update.  The editing in which I rejoiced last week in my IWSG post is still going on at a pretty good rate. I've hit some of the harder bits, the places where I need to rewrite if not rethink stuff, but I'm still hopeful of finishing by the end of the month. Some of the 47K I've finished with are actually new words, part of the 10K or so I need to reach my target novel length. Finishing the draft and sending it to my beta readers would be good, because I would really like to give the new cozy series that's brewing in my brain a chance to come to life. For now, I'm keeping it under wraps--it's too soon and I don't want to risk an early frost nipping it before it's even begun to grow. But much as I love my Pismawallops PTA crew, I'm excited to invent a whole

This isn't really a proper review post, because my mind just doesn't seem to be working that way. But I've recently finished a couple of works of non-fiction, one audio, one on the Kindle, and at least have a few thoughts.  First, the books. Both were fairly random selections from the library's Overdrive collection, nabbed in something of a hurry for my road trips. As a result, the print book was read in snatches, the audio book with whatever attention was left after driving. In general, for me the mark of a good work of history is that it makes me care about something I may not have known I was interested in. Both of these books managed that. In print we have:          Title: Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II Author: Adam Makos Publication info: Ballantine Books, 2019. 395 pages   From the author of the international bestseller A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner’s jour