Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Thanks to Great Escapes for the chance to read and review the latest in the Accidental Detective series!   Something Prowling in Paradise Park: A Kate Tessler Amateur Sleuth Mystery (The Accidental Detective   Book ) by Kris Bock About Something Prowling in Paradise Park Something Prowling in Paradise Park: A Kate Tessler Amateur Sleuth Mystery (The Accidental Detective Book) Humorous Mystery 7th in Series Setting – Arizona Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tule Publishing Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 2, 2026 Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1969218965 ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0G32HDV59 Three cases. One body. Zero chance of staying out of trouble. Kate Tessler may have thought her days of chasing danger were over. But the former war correspondent’s “retirement” in sunny Paradise, Arizona, is anything but quiet. With her eccentric circle of friends and colleagues, Kate has built a new life—full of mysteries, mayhem, and the occasional stakeout—as she works ...

I'm checking in again with Crimson's Creative Challenge for the prompt I need to write a bit of flash fiction. Huge thanks for a little spark for a small story, though I've blown way past the 150-word limit--100 words past it, in fact. Two of the photos connected themselves in my mind.           Perfection   It’s so close to being perfect. The house is adorable, the small working farm a rarity in this day and age of corporate farming. Or maybe that’s not so much a thing on this side of the pond. Rowan, being American, doesn’t know. Just that the place is almost perfect.   It’s too bad about the road that runs too close to the front of the house now. It must have been farther off once. Maybe there was no road at all when the house was built. Rowan wonders for a moment when that was. Did they have indoor plumbing then? Insulation? The place predates electricity, but someone will have wired it up by now. They can shoot around the ...

Another selection from my "random historical stuff nabbed from the library" collection.   Title: Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women who Travelled and Worked Aboard Them Author : Sian Evans Publication Info: Macmillan Audio, 2021, 11 hours. Original publication by Two Roads/Hachett UK, 2020, 355 pages hardback.  Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Migrants and millionairesses, refugees and aristocrats all looking for a way to improve their lives. After WW1 a world of opportunity was opening up for women ... Before convenient air travel, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and never more so than in the glory days of the interwar years. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some travelled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. Their stories have remained largely untold - until now. Maiden Voyages is a fascinating...

That seems a good title both to describe what I'm posting, and to explain why it's late (though I suppose my distraction came before the weekend). In any case, I lost track of the days of the week and the tasks of the day, so here you get a (random) collection of sunrises, some of which I may have posted before in trip reports.   I'm not sure which peak, but this was taken on the Tongariro Crossing (New Zealand) in April 2019.   My favorite way to wake up: in a tent, next to a gorgeous mountain. Mt. Kenya, Feb. 2024. A series of mornings in the mountains from last August. I tried to pick ones I didn't use in the trip report so recently completed! Sunrise over the desert works for me, too. Hole In The Rock Road, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah.   Off the Burr Trail Road, same national monument.  Same state, different trip. Utah Sunrise Kilimanjaro from Mt. Meru, Tanzania  I'll end with one of the many fantastic photos my husband shot one particular decorative mor...

It's the first Wednesday of the month (how has another month gone by already?), and time for the 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 (and come on, we're all insecure in some way)! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writers - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! ...

I wrote a partial draft of this during the last session of the writing class I've been teaching, then realized I needed a different approach, so I rewrote it, cut it down by several hundred words (it's still too long, at 1140 words), and here it is.    Seatmates Keri James settled into the window seat at 47A with an air of excitement that drew cynical smiles from her fellow-passengers. A sixteen-hour flight in economy class wasn’t going to be fun for any of them. Keri knew that. They’d have to use a crowbar—or a crane—to get her out of her seat when they reached Aukland. She’d drooled over the business-class seats, with their little cubicles and seats that made up into beds. On her budget, she’d have to settle for airsickness meds that would put her to sleep. Keri occupied herself with setting up her little space, everything she might want during the flight within reach. She’d change to slippers once they were airborne. Earbuds, e-reader… she knew what she was doing. I...