Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Warning, arachnophobes! This story is about fighting spiders! Last Tuesday, in a post about finishing your work, Chuck Wendig wrote "Writing is a journey. Driving is a journey. Sometimes driving means taking the exit — get off the highway, and find the backroads. Drive down the backroads, you might see some unexpected sights. You might see a weird little restaurant, or a pretty bridge, or some guy riding an elk hunting giant spiders with a flaming crossbow." He then went on urge someone to write that story about the guy riding the elk. Well, Chuck, you were wrong on one point--that rider's no guy. But for the rest...here's your story. Huntress “They’re back.” Artima looked up from the weapons she tended with the attention a woman lavishes on that which keeps her alive. “What?” Herbert of Callia always looked like he’d lost his last friend. His expression now suggested that he’d found that friend rotting behind the castle. “The spiders.” “I thou...

Today we are fortunate not only to have a great read to review, but author Leslie Nagel has stopped by with a guest post! Read on for my review and her post. Title: The Book Club Murders Author: Leslie Nagel Publisher: Alibi, 2016. 256 pages. Source: Great Escapes Tours electronic review copy Publisher's Summary:  In a charming cozy mystery series debut, Leslie Nagel’s irrepressible small-town heroine finds that her fellow mystery book club members may be taking their Agatha Christie a bit too literally—and murder a bit too lightly. Charley Carpenter has poured heart and soul into her clothing store, Old Hat Vintage Fashions. She’ll do anything to make it a success—even join the stuffy Agathas Book Club in order to cultivate customers among the wealthy elite of Oakwood, Ohio. Although mixing with the most influential women in town has its advantages, Charley finds the endless gossip a high price to pay. But after two women with close ties to the Agathas are brutally murde...

Sort of a dual review of Homecoming and Dicey's Song,  the first two books of the Tillerman cycle by Cynthia Voigt. A review of #3, A Solitary Blue, will come separately as these two are the books of the cycle that are really about Dicey.      I couldn't find an image of the cover of Homecoming from the hardback I read. I did find it for Dicey's Song, so I'm including it. I think I like it better. Publisher: Homecoming: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1981. 320 pages. Dicey's Song : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1982. 204 pages. Source: Library Summary: Homecoming follows the four Tillerman children--Dicey, age 13, James (10), Maybeth (9), and Sammy (6) after their mother walks away from them in a shopping mall parking lot. They find their way, mostly walking, to their great-aunt's house in Bridgeport, but nothing there is what they expected. So the Tillermans set out again, in search of the home they need. In Dicey's Song, the siblings are settl...

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending 3 days in Colorado, hanging out with friends of the backpacking persuasion and doing a little hiking. I thought I'd share some photos. We were camped at about 9500' in the mountains near Golden, CO (home of Coors Beer and the Colorado School of Mines, two facts which I hope are unrelated). Aspens near camp where just starting to turn. Food was a central theme of the weekend. That's not surprising--not only is it natural in any gathering of people, but backpackers are particularly obsessed with food. Something good was heating in the dutch oven. The member from Louisiana made gumbo. On Saturday, a few of us went off to try our sea-level lungs against 13,605' Grey Wolf Mountain, from Guanella Pass. This is the same trailhead as for the heavily-traveled Bierstadt Mountain trail, but we quickly left the trail for a cross-country route we had all to ourselves. Bierstadt on the right, and we are headed left--once we get through the ...

Work slowed down over the weekend as the Ninja Librarian was checking out the fall color in Colorado and finishing an editing project for writer Lisa Frieden . But The Problem of Peggy is entering the final editing stages (we hope!), and the cover should be ready for release next week. In other book news, the price for The Ninja Librarian has dropped to 99 cents for the ebook, at Amazon or Smashwords . So get a copy and discover the world of Skunk Corners for yourself! Don't forget to take a look at Book 2, Return to Skunk Corners! And now, just for fun, a glimpse of the golden aspens in Colorado. It was just a little early for the best color, but the weather was beautiful and so were the trees.

Title: White Sands, Red Menace Author: Ellen Klages Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2008. 344 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Summary: It is 1946. World War II is over--ended by the atomic bomb that Dewey Kerrigan's and Suze Gordon's scientist parents helped build. Dewey's been living with the Gordons since before the war's end, before her father died, moving south with them to Alamogordo, New Mexico. At the White Sands Missile Range, Phil Gordon is working on rockets that will someday go to the moon; at home, Terry Gordon is part of the scientists' movement against the Bomb. Dewey and Suze have conflicts of their own. Where does a girl who likes physics and math fit in? How do you know the right time to speak up and the right time to keep your head down? And, most important of all: What defines a family?   My Review:  I read and reviewed The Green Glass Sea a few weeks ago, and liked it enough that I hunted up the sequel to follow up on ...

I'm pleased to share that The Problem of Peggy: The Ninja Librarian Book 3 has come back from all the editors and beta-readers, and progress is happening once again. I expect to complete edits--mostly minor--in the next few weeks, before sending it out for a final edit and proof-read. The cover is also nearly done--except that part where I remembered I needed a blurb for the back cover, for advertising, etc. I've obviously waited too long between books, to be forgetting that sort of thing! I'll be doing a cover reveal in a couple of weeks, and if you'd like to participate, drop me a PM. By then I should have all the pre-order stuff set up, and have polished that all-important blurb. The cover was a struggle this time, but I think among us (that would be my cover artist, Danielle English , my co-worker Laurie, and yours truly) we came up with a good one. It will be a match for the first two, so that the trio (oh no! have I written a trilogy? I might have to write a four...