Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Last Wednesday, for IWSG day, I announced that I'm being a NaNo rebel and working on selecting and revising short stories/flash fiction for some anthologies this month. I am happy to report that this work is proceeding nicely, and that I am really enjoying the process.  Editing novel-length works is often challenging and discouraging. Working with a story that can be read in five minutes, and has already been through the editing process once, if hastily, is a breeze by comparison. The best part about what I'm doing is that I'm no longer constrained by the 1000-word limit imposed on most of my flash fiction. I'm able to add those little bits that make the story more rounded, without (I hope) losing the tightness that makes short-short fiction work. I was even inspired to write one new story wholly from scratch (well, almost--I was writing in a universe already invented in other stories), with an eye toward tying the anthologies together. At this point, I've got stori

  Title: 81 Days Below Zero: the Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness Author: Brian Murphy. Ready by Richard Ferrone Publication Info: Audible Audio, 2015. 8 hrs, 42 min. (Hardcover Da Capo Press, 2015) Source: Library digital resources   Publisher's Blurb: Shortly before Christmas in 1943, five Army aviators left Alaska’s Ladd Field on a test flight. Only one ever returned: Leon Crane, a city kid from Philadelphia with little more than a parachute on his back when he bailed from his B-24 Liberator before it crashed into the Arctic. Alone in subzero temperatures, Crane managed to stay alive in the dead of the Yukon winter for nearly twelve weeks and, amazingly, walked out of the ordeal intact. '81 DAYS BELOW ZERO' recounts, for the first time, the full story of Crane’s remarkable saga. In a drama of staggering resolve with moments of phenomenal luck, Crane learned to survive in the Yukon’s unforgiving landscape. His

Bogged Down: A Vashon Island Mystery by Charlotte Stuart Bogged Down: A Vashon Island Mystery   Cozy Mystery 1st in Series   Publisher: Taylor and Seale Publishing (August 5, 2020)   Paperback: 244 pages   ISBN-10: 1950613445   ISBN-13: 978-1950613441   Digital ASIN : B08FBZMRYL     Publisher's Blurb: An ancient bog hidden away in a forest is the perfect backdrop for murder… BOGGED DOWN is a mystery set on Vashon Island, a place that has been described as Mayberry-meets-Burning Man. Its motto: Keep Vashon Weird. Lavender (Lew) Lewis moved there because it is only a twenty-minute ferry ride from Seattle, yet light years away in tempo and character. She grew up on a commune in Alaska, joined the army at 17, does woods parkour for exercise and HR investigations to earn a living. Life in her waterfront cabin with her two food-obsessed cats is predictable and relatively stress free. Until she leads a tour group into an ancient bog on the island and discovers a body.   This is where I

  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