Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Due to the US Thanksgiving holiday, I'm taking this week mostly off from blogging. I'll see you next week! Gratuitous photo content:  Icelandic coast--Rauthanes Peninsula.   ☕ Buy me coffee--or get my ebooks     ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025  As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 
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Here are the links to post #1     post #2     post #3   and post #4   of the 2-week trip, for those who want to read it in order.    We left off early on Day 6, as I headed into the Far North. Day 6 (Sept. 16): Sea Birds, Sea Stacks, and my Farthest North When I left Asbyrgi about half past 8, after my 45-minute explore of the canyon, I left the beaten track and headed for as far north as I could get. Most of the point was, in fact, just to drive the far north coast and see what it looked like. I did have a couple of goals in mind, however. First, I wanted to visit Rauthinupur, not far short of the northernmost point, and with a couple of cool seastacks notorious for the seabirds. I wasn't sure there would be birds, as late in the season as I was, but it seemed worth walking a couple of miles on a scenic coast to find out.  I came across that spit of land to climb the bluffs towards the lighthouse and the birds.     Probably at...

Time for one of my occasional writer's update posts!  I've been home for a month now, which means... I'm about to head about again, to spend Thanksgiving with the kids in the Bay Area. But it also means that I've had long enough to get into something of a habit of work. With what results? I'm 36K into the draft of  Painted Over,  which will eventually be #4 in the Seffi Wardwell mysteries. That's the big thing. I'm averaging nearly 2200 words a day, which is in my target range. I have also been tinkering with a couple of short stories, and trying to figure out where to start and what to say in a short memoir piece. Probably too much to keep in my head all at once. On the administrative side, I have set up a store with Buy Me a Coffee! That also means I have the link for people to donate if something I share really excites them, though I'm not going to hold my breath. But having the store means that when I am doing direct sales at events I can offer a lin...

I am grateful to the author for my copy of this book, which I won in a giveaway.   Title: Fires Burning Underground Author: Nancy McCabe Publication Info: Regal House Publishing, 2025. 146 pages. Source: Won it in a giveaway Publisher's Blurb:  It's Anny's first day of middle school and, after years of being homeschooled, her first day of public school ever. In art, Larissa asks what kind of ESP is her telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or telekinesis? Tracy asks how she gay, straight, bi, asexual, pan, trans, or confused? And thus kicks off a school year for Anny in which she' ll navigate a path between childhood and adolescence, imagination and identity. In a year of turmoil and transition, with a new awareness of loss after the death of a friend, Anny struggles to find meaning in tragedy, to come to terms with her questions about her sexuality, and to figure out how to negotiate her own ever-shifting new friendships. And when her oldest friend's lif...

We're approaching the midpoint of the trip! Today we'll roam about the northlands. Here are the links to post #1     post #2   and post #3 of the 2-week trip, for those who want to read it in order.    I left off early on Day 5. Day 5 (Sept. 15), continued: Leaving Lake Myvatn behind me, I followed the Ring Road west a short distance to Hverir, a small developed area with substantial geothermal activity. One hint about this was the large geothermal power plant I drove past on the way, with a strikingly blue lake (the blue of pale turquoise) next to the road. The color of the lake was just one of the effects of having the power plant there, I think. Only later, after visiting Hverir, did I discover how extensive the power plant is. Rt. 1 (the Ring Road) climbs above Blue Lake, and  some of the power plant buildings.   The sulfuric exhalations of the Hverir were the price to pay for the striking colors of the hillsides. Parking fees were somewhat h...

I've been on a binge, reading everything Robert MacFarlane has written (at least, that I can get from the library), mostly as audio books. This one's just out and I was lucky not to be too far down the queue.    Title : Is a River Alive? Author : Robert Macfarlane. Read by the author.  Publication Info: Highbridge Audio, 2025, 11 hours. Hardcover 2025, W.W. Norton, 384 pages. Source: Library  Publisher's Blurb: The renowned nature writer and author of the best-selling author of Underland delivers a revelatory book that transforms how we look at the natural world—and life itself. Hailed as “a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler” (Holly Morris, New York Times ), Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reporting, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyous exploration into an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagina...

Continuing to work my way through the photos from the trip. It looks like I'll be sharing them for several more weeks! Here's the link to post #1   and post #2 of the 2-week trip.      Day 4 (Sept. 14): Trollaskagi Peninsula, Gothafoss, Lake Myvatn  I wish I'd kept track of my daily driving mileage. It was a lot lower than you'd think for the amount of time it took, thanks in part to my propensity for the road less traveled.  As usual, there was at least some sun in the morning, after our wild night of wind and rain, and I headed north for the Trollaskagi Peninsula and the little town of Hófsas. My guidebooks raved about the ocean-side community swimming pool there, and I was feeling due for a swim as a change from hiking and driving. Morning light on the Austari-Herathsvotn estuary. Alas, when I got to Hófsas, the pool was temporarily closed and drained. Since the guidebook indicates it is open all winter, I must have just gotten unlucky. All was not ...