River Ridge Press, Dominica

07/07/2025

🌴📚 Summer Reads with River Ridge Press 🌞

July is heating up, and so is your next must-read! First in our Summer Reads series is Climbing Jacko’s Steps – Terror in the Rainforest by Kristine Simelda — a bold, imaginative adventure rooted in real events.

When 14-year-old Flora Durand vanishes from the quiet Caribbean village of Plaisance, junior reporter Maxi Alexander is determined to uncover the truth. Inspired by a real-life disappearance in Dominica, this story twists through rainforests thick with secrets, myth, and danger. As Maxi ventures deeper into the woods, she’s forced to question whether the legendary Papa Bwa and Mama Glo might be more than just folklore...

✨ “From the moment I met Maxi... I was completely hooked… Simelda brings the setting to life so vividly, from the dense, whispering trees to the eerie, ancient legends that seem to rise up from the ground itself.” — Fran Clark Author

Whether you're curled up by the beach or chasing shade in your backyard, Climbing Jacko’s Steps delivers a suspenseful journey through the tangled vines of mystery and magic.

Get yourself a copy on amazon today!: bit.ly/4nAx9Be

is looking for the “scoop” that will boost her career and skyrocket her to journalistic fame. When her fourteen-year-old classmate Flora Durand goes missing from the sleepy Caribbean village of Plaisance, she tackles the case. Maxi is convinced that Flora is lost somewhere in the adjoining rai.....

07/07/2025

DASSSA is an educational charity which supports schools in the Commonwealth of Dominica Project Aim:… Kathy MacLean needs your support for Books for Dominica

06/07/2025

Here is the Roseau River looking toward town after Hurricane Maria

05/07/2025

🌊 River of the Month: Roseau River 🌿
Once the lifeblood of the capital, the Roseau River has quietly witnessed generations pass, markets grow, and the city evolve around it. In this throwback photo, we’re reminded of the river’s quiet strength and the stories it carries—of resilience, change, and the people who’ve always called its banks home.

Do you have a memory tied to the Roseau River? We’d love to hear it. 💭

05/07/2025

It's Fiction Flow Friday! 🌀
This week’s prompt asks: What if the mountain disappeared? Whether it’s Morne Diablotin, Morne Trois Pitons, or a peak from your own imagination—what secrets did it hold? What power was unleashed? And what does its absence mean for your characters?

Let your creativity erupt and don’t forget to tag us if you share! 💬✍🏽

03/07/2025

📚 RRPD Publishing Tips: Self-Publishing on Amazon 🚀

You’ve edited, proofread, polished your manuscript, and created a beautiful cover. Now what? The final step: Publishing on Amazon—and while it sounds easy, optimizing your book for real sales takes strategy and precision.

From formatting files correctly to choosing the right keywords and categories (yes, there are over 16,000!), RRPD is here to guide you through the maze. 🧭💡 RRPD’s Wendy Walsh breaks it all down in this week’s blog post — and if it feels overwhelming, that’s okay. We offer a supportive service through River Ridge Ready-Made Press to help bring your book to the world, the right way.

🔗 Tap the link in bio or visit https://kristinesimelda.wordpress.com/2025/07/02/river-ridge-press-publishing-tips-july-bonus/ to learn more.
📩 Ready to publish? Contact [email protected]

Self-Publishing on Amazon Dear Writers, Publishing your book on Amazon is easy. Doing it correctly, to optimize your book sales, is quite difficult! Once you have your perfect book cover and your f…

30/06/2025

🌿✨ Read Caribbean | Final Week: Memoirs & History ✨🌿
This week, we're closing out our Read Caribbean celebration with four powerful life stories that invite us into the real, raw, and reflective corners of Caribbean identity. These memoirs and biographies trace the threads of history, heritage, and personal transformation—each one offering a unique voice that stays with you long after the final page.

📖 How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
📖 The Loss of El Dorado by V.S. Naipaul
📖 Loving This Man by Althea Prince
📖 The Dominica Story by Lennox Honychurch

From poetic resistance to ancestral remembering, these reads remind us that our stories matter. 💬✨

📚 Which Caribbean memoir has stayed with you?

25/06/2025

📚✨ Publishing Tips Wednesday: Cover & Layout ✨📚

This week in our June blog series, River Ridge Press, Dominica shines a spotlight on Cover Art and Interior Layout—two of the most important steps in making your book reader-ready. 🎨📖

From choosing a high-res image that grabs attention to picking a readable, beautiful font that keeps readers turning pages, RRPD designer Giselle Laurent shares the essentials you need to know to bring your book to life—visually and professionally.

Need guidance through the design process? Our team is here to help, whether you're printing locally or going digital.

🖋️ Read the full blog here https://kristinesimelda.wordpress.com/2025/06/25/river-ridge-press-dominica-publishing-tips-cover-design-and-layout/
and email [email protected] to start your publishing journey.

23/06/2025

📖✨ Read Caribbean – Poetry Spotlight ✨📖

This week, let your heart drift through powerful verse and rich rhythms from across the region:

Madwoman by Shara McCallum

Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting by Shivanee Ramlochan

A Caribbean Dozen (anthology edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols)

Polkadot Wounds by Vahni Capildeo

These collections are not just books—they’re immersive journeys through identity, folklore, resistance, and beauty. 🌺

Which one resonates with you most? Let us know below—and hold tight for next week’s Read Caribbean feature!

20/06/2025

What would you ask the last mango tree that still bears fruit? 🌿🥭
This , we’re tapping into the strange and sacred. Is the tree blessed, cursed, or just misunderstood? Let your imagination bloom—story, poem, voice note—however your fiction flows, we’re here for it.

18/06/2025

🔍✍️ Publishing Tips with River Ridge Press – Week 3: Proofreading

At River Ridge Press, Dominica, we help bring island voices to life—and every great book deserves a clean finish. This week’s blog, part of our June publishing series, dives into the essential (and often underestimated) final step: proofreading.

RRPD team member Wendy Walsh shares how growing up surrounded by books—and reading with care—sharpened her eye for detail. From catching missing words and punctuation to navigating American vs. British English, Wendy shows us that proofreading is more than scanning for typos—it's about restoring rhythm, clarity, and flow.

Whether you're polishing poetry or fine-tuning fiction, proofreading is the quiet hero of the publishing process. 💡📘

✨ Read the full blog here: https://kristinesimelda.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/publishing-tips-from-river-ridge-press-dominica-proofreading/

📩 Interested in RRPD services? Email [email protected]

18 June, 2025  Dear Writers,  River Ridge Press, Dominica is an independent Caribbean publisher that helps bring island voices to life. In June, I have been posting a series of website bl…

16/06/2025

It’s about that time again! Be sure to participate!