She got the idea from her father, who had witnessed hangings when he lived in the West and was unnerved by the creaking sound of the rope bearing the weight of the hanging body. The play won a state competition, and eventually $500 in a national competition after it was written into three acts.[33] With William W. Muir, husband of reporter Helen Muir, she authored a play called "Storm Warnings" loosely based on the life of mobster Al Capone. Some of Capone’s henchmen showed up at the theater, “add[ing] an extra tingle for the audience that night”, though no actual problems arose.[34] Douglas wrote the foreword to the Work Projects Administration's guide to Miami and environs, published in 1941 as part of the Federal Writers' Project's American Guide Series.[35]