Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

This will be a very quick writer's update, as I've been busy and distracted and haven't much to say.  I am currently deep in the weeds on the revisions of Washed Up With the Tide . I've transferred notes from my beta readers to my MS and am working my way through changes and corrections, with some waffling from day to day if not minute to minute about possible big-picture changes to the story. One minute I think I see a way to make it all so infinitely much better, if I just change this one huge thing, and the next I decide that I'll just tweak two lines in that scene and it will be fine. When my brain is too full or too empty to write, I'm editing photos. Just one more day of the first safari to go! (That first safari was nearly 1/2 the total photos, so it's more encouraging than it sounds).  I'm headed out hiking for a couple of weeks, but will be posting at least one book review and, if I get my act together, won't miss my weekly photo posts! Mean

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12). I have another good MG LGBTQ novel, age-appropriate and realistic. I'm going to briefly address those who wonder if this is appropriate for kids this age. The obvious answer is that since by 4th or 5th grade (9 or 10) many kids are dealing with puberty, crushes, and all the rest, of course it is. And yes, kids that age need to know that there are options out there besides boy/girl, because not knowing only adds to the confusion. For the same reason, I'm hoping to find some good stories about kids coming to grips with being trans, because for many (like my daughter) puberty is when that begins to make itself known to them. I am a firm believer in knowledge. No knowing what the options are (and that they're okay) doesn't keep a kid from being gay or trans. It just leaves them confus

 Participating today in a Great Escapes blog tour for a Hawai'i-set cozy. Molten Death (An Orchid Isle Mystery) by Leslie Karst   I appreciate the opportunity provided by the publisher and Great Escapes tour to review this mystery with a non-traditional sleuth!  Molten Death (An Orchid Isle Mystery)   Cozy Mystery 1st in Series   Setting - the Big Island of Hawai‘i Publisher ‏ : ‎ Severn House (April 2, 2024) Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1448312167 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1448312160 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CKWF5VWT A glimpse of a quickly melting corpse at the foot of a volcano has amateur sleuth and food enthusiast Valerie Corbin shocked. But how can she investigate a murder, when there's no evidence the victim ever existed? The first Orchid Isle cozy mystery, set in tropical Hilo, Hawai'i, introduces a fun and feisty LGBTQ+ couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions! Retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have come to the Big

Last week we visited Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. This week, I'm making a start on our time in Ngorogoro Conservation Area, specifically the South Serengeti. It ought to be one post, also, but true confession time: this is as far as I've gotten in editing photos, so the next chunk will have to wait. This also means I get to post more photos :D The drive between the two parks/reserves was pretty long, and involved a change of plans. We broke the trip by spending the night in the Marera Valley Lodge, a short way outside the south entrance of the reserve. It was a beautiful hotel (also much higher and cooler!) and a gorgeous morning.  Petey Possum does like a bit of luxury. Sunrise from the balcony. We hit the road early, with the intention of going for a hike in Embakaai Caldera in the Ngorogoro reserve--the high part, where it would be cooler. However, something somewhere didn't happen, and we couldn't get our walking permit (I am pretty sure you have to have an

  It's the first Wednesday of the month--time for the IWSG post.       Why? The IWSG is here to share and encourage, to offer a place for authors to admit their insecurities and offer help and support to each other. How? The official IWSG posting day is the first Wednesday of every month. Hop around the list and see who has worries, triumphs, and news to share.  Every month we have an optional question to spark discussion.  Our motto:  Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.   The awesome co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, and Pat Garcia! Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.  April 3 que

I've been reading Ellen Jacobson's hilarious cozy mysteries for years now, and we are (full disclosure time) fellow members of a cozy-mystery-writers' group and share beta reads, etc. Despite all that, it took me a long time to come around to read  Smitten With Ravioli , mostly because I kind of have an unfair attitude about romance. I should have had more faith in Ellen's sense of humor.  Oh, and yes, I noticed that I'm rather late with this post. It was a busy weekend. Title: Smitten with Ravioli Author: Ellen Jacobson Publication Info: Published 2020. 237 pages (paperback edition) Source: Honestly, I'm not sure. The author may have given me a review copy when it came out, or I may have picked it up on a free day or as a 99-cent ebook. In any case, the review is purely my own take on the book. Publisher's blurb: Love is on the menu in this sweet romantic comedy set in Italy. Ginny's Italian cooking course was supposed to be a peaceful escape from

Continuing the saga of my mind-blowing trip to Africa. Given the hundreds of photos I took in Tarangire, and how amazing the animals there were, this might get long, even though we only spent about 30 hours in the park. At this point I'm totally fishing for sympathy for having to choose a couple dozen photos out of maybe 400 (after editing) from the park! We left Arusha first thing in the morning, piling happily into the Toyota Landcruiser (special safari version, and the successor to the traditional Land Rover) with all our luggage. Naturally, on the drive to the park (3 hours?) we got very excited about pretty much everything we saw. Our driver, Said, pointed out some herds of wildebeest and zebra, noting that at their foaling season they tend to migrate out of the park onto the Masai lands, where the Masai herders keep the predators away. He was correct when he told us we wouldn't see any in Tarangire NP (but we saw plenty more later on the Serengeti). Petey Possom, and our