Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.

               Novelist, Psychologist, Catalyst

           Doris Gaines Rapp is an Indiana author and Ohio transplant. 

Writer by birth, psychologist, and teacher by education and experience, she is a former counseling center director at Taylor University, Upland and Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN. She was the lead psychologist at a men’s prison for a month. 

Dr. Rapp is passionate about people and understands the characters she creates. She has taught grades first through third and found the students to be funny little creatures. Teaching seventh-grade and the special education resource room in a high school were experiences that broadened her understanding of teens. Undergrad and graduate school psychology classes informed her concept of the wide variety of young adults. Private practice put her in the heads of people age three to eighty-three. She has also edited a few doctoral dissertations. Rapp has led professional continuing education seminars for psychologists and currently presents Promote Yourself at Write Now! – A Seminar for Writers. Proud to be an indie author, Dr. Rapp has written eight novels and is writing the ninth.

As the wife of a pastor, she and her husband, Bill, have six grown children and live in Indiana. She writes full time. 

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                                 Publisher: Daniel's House Publishing 

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Tucker McBride and the Christmas Gift  (Released June 11, 2024)

Fourteen-year-old Tucker McBride wants to buy a special Christmas gift for his grandmother, Gramma Moyer. When his billfold is stolen with his after-school earnings in it, he must find another way to get the money. In Tucker's usual active way and friendly manner, a new adventure unfolds. And, an adventure with Tucker would not be complete without his friends at his side. Visit Tucker's 1947 community and surrounding area to learn about his time, his family, and his continued adventures. Tucker learns several life lessons. You will be entertained while living a brief time in years gone by. Come, and visit with Tucker in his world, where an active life and adventure await at every turn.

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A Man of Significance   (Released July 25, 2023)

I opened my genetic DNA results, and excitement turned to bewilderment. The bubble I live in nearly burst as it stretched to the other side of the world. I discovered my 5^th great-grandfather was Thomas Christopher Gowen, African, and Cherokee. His son, Richard Gowen/Gaines, was White/African/Cherokee. How can that be? My ethnicity estimate didn’t include any people from Angola, Africa. And I’m blond, freckled, and blue-eyed. I was amazed. I had to research my family, regardless of how they differed from me. In the paper trail, I found that my 7^th great-grandfather, John Gowen, arrived in the Jamestown Colony of British Colonial America on the White Lion, the ship that brought the first indentured and enslaved people to North America in 1619. Filled with a sense of connection to all God’s people, I must tell you about John Gowen. He was truly A Man of Significance.

An Amazon anonymous review of A Man of Excellence: “An outstanding read. Should be required reading in every high school. With thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter for the reader. Kudos!!”

Honeysuckle Rose    (February 28, 2023)

After all the curtain calls and the audience's uproarious cheers, Aden Malloy, a new Broadway musical star, is attacked in an alley after opening night. Left broken and crumbling among the hard bricks and cold stones just outside the theater's stage door, she wanders through the alley like a spirit, caught between her injured body, her lost voice and lofty dreams, and the gate to Glory. Will her friend, Scotty Russel, be there if Aden's assailant and stalker strikes again? Will Christian personal growth be the key to overcoming her crippling grief over what she has lost? If she accepts the garden her grandmother planted, is that giving up, or giving in to God's new plan? (High schoolers and adults.)

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The Boy with the Golden Horn       (May 2022)

"Jackson Jones, you are the one," the red deer announces.

Jackson wonders, “The one what?" 

To everyone in Waddyshine in 1846, fifteen-year-old Jackson Jones could do anything. But Jackson believes no one notices his creativity and hard work. When the evil Shaman-fey blasts icy wind across the heath, it threatens to freeze the village and all those in it. Jackson and his friend Becky set out to discover what the deer means and save their village. Will the music from his golden horn be strong enough to stop the Shaman? Is Jackson Jones the one? 

The Boy with the Golden Horn is dedicated to all those who want to be somebody and don’t realize they already are.              (For fifth grade through adults.)