Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

  Time for the December WEP/IWSG 'writing together' competition.  The challenge is Ribbons and Candles.  Perfect for the festival/festive season. Perfect also for flashes not themed around festivities or holidays. All prompts here work year-round and are pan-global. Genre, themes, settings, mood, no bar. Only the word count counts. And you could ignore that too and come in with a photo-essay or art, minimal words required. A party. A power-cut. Gift-giving. Hair braids. Ribbons of roads, rivers, paper, love, hope. Candles in the room. Candles in the church. Candles in the wind. And any combo thereof. It could go in a thousand different directions, choose yours and step outside the square! The WEP admins are asking that we post as soon as we can, so there's more time to read the stories before the holidays hit. So I've managed to get mine up a few days early, anyway. And, since this is clearly the perfect time for a Christmas/winter theme story, I've written ...

  Title: Lily (Seed Savers #2) Author: S. Smith Publication Info: Published 2012, 184 pages. Source: Either a purchase or a giveaway Publisher's Blurb: It’s definitely not what she had in mind for summer vacation. When her friends disappear under mysterious circumstances, thirteen-year-old Lily sets out to discover more about the secret organization with which they had become involved. Her investigation unearths a disturbing secret from her own past, unsettling her world even more. In the meantime, Lily makes a new friend and falls for a mysterious young man, even as she remains unsure about whom she should trust. As her world crashes down around her, Lily struggles to decide what to do next. Lily is volume two of the Seed Savers series but can easily be read out of order. It is is a suspenseful and reflective book with themes of self-empowerment, trust, acceptance of diversity, gardening, and politics.   
 My Review:  First: I shared space in the BookElves Ant...

It's here! The Princelings of the North Book 8 of the Princelings of the East series by Jemima Pett Genre : older middle grade mystery adventure – age 10 and upwards. ebook: 47,000 words, ebook ASIN B0785RY891 / ISBN 9781370899159 paperback : 237 pages; ISBN 9781389104404 The Princelings of the North is the eighth in The Princelings of the East series. Princelings Dylan and Dougall, who live in the far northwest of an island off the northwest coast of the Realms, rescue an exiled prince, and battle against the odds to restore him to his birthright. Irrepressible Dylan and steady Dougall are inseparable denizens of the tiny castle of Haunn, so far away from the rest of civilisation that it’s almost off the map. And maps are one of the key elements of this intricate adventure. Dylan finds a treasure map inside a bottle washed up on the shore – and he reckons he knows where X is. Instead of treasure, he finds the exiled Prince Kevin of Castle Deeping, antagonist in the Talent...

Title: The Girl Who Drank the Moon Author: Kelly Barnhill Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers, 2016. 388 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Summary: Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her ma...

  #M is for Melly But first, a bonus M character. Mariusz: In a nutshell: bullishly confident ruler of Castle Hattan, and head of the Wozna cola 'global' enterprise, explorer of time tunnels and places he shouldn't put his nose into.   Strong sense of right and wrong, as long as right is in his favour. Biggest secret: he's really very kind and considerate, especially with his employees, as long as they don't notice. Mariusz is from the Princelings of the East series .    Now for the featured character! In a nutshell: Melly is a kitchen-wench in a village in Duria, where Halitor meets her under difficult circumstances. She has a mission to accomplish and she’ll do whatever she must to do it. Biggest secret : her real name. (What? You think I'm giving that away?) Favorite line:  Halitor is worried that Melly might be a princess, since she's just needed rescuing from an ogre. She responds, "Princesses don't peel potatoes....

Title: Withering-by-Sea Author: Judith Rossell Publisher: ABC Books, 2014. US edition by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. 261 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: High on a cliff above the gloomy coastal town of Withering-by-Sea stands the Hotel Majestic. Inside the walls of the damp, dull hotel, eleven-year-old orphan Stella Montgomery leads a miserable life with her three dreadful Aunts. But one night, Stella sees something she shouldn't have... Something that will set in motion and adventure more terrifying and more wonderful than she could ever have hoped for...   My Review: I believe I picked up this one on a recommendation from the Goodreads Great Middle Grade Reads group. I'm glad I did. The book is a sort of semi-humorous gothic mystery for kids. Which might not sound super appealing, but the book is both funny and scary (mostly in the "oh no! She's in trouble again" way), and certainly grabbed me and pulled me right along. Stella i...

Title: Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Tales Author: Terry Pratchett, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt Publisher: Listening Library 2015. Hardcover by Clarion, 2014 (337 pages). Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Dragons have invaded Crumbling Castle, and all of King Arthur's knights are either on holiday or visiting their grannies. It's a disaster!   Luckily, there's a spare suit of armour and a very small boy called Ralph who's willing to fill it. Together with Fortnight the Friday knight and Fossfiddle the wizard, Ralph sets out to defeat the fearsome fire-breathers.   But there's a teeny weeny surprise in store...   Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of time travel and tortoises, monsters and mayhem!   My Review: I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be disappointed, because these were among Pratchett's earliest published stories, and you know how that can go. I needn't ...