Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

Cayman Cowboys: Excerpt Friday #2

February 24, 2017 By Eric Douglas

The following is the second excerpt from the Mike Scott thriller novel, Cayman Cowboys. See the first excerpt here.

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Mike plunged into the warm, clear water and could instantly see why Tanya was so excited about this dive site and why she had wanted him along. It instantly reminded him of the way the island looked below the water line 10 years before. Maybe it was his “you should have been here when…” mentality kicking in. He had always hated the fact people didn’t realize that their memories were better than reality ever had been. But this place is certainly amazing, he thought.

Whatever his reason for thinking so, it was beautiful. And the sea life was everywhere. Fish of every description and color. The shallow nature of the dive prevented the water from leaching out the reds and oranges from the penetrating sunlight, which reflected off the vivid soft and hard corals, sponges, fish and other marine animals. It was a virtual fishbowl, and Mike slipped effortlessly into photographer mode. He quickly began choosing his shots and framing up his images in his mind long before he ever moved in with his camera.

It is often said that photographers are the worst dive buddies. They get so involved with the images they are making that they forget about everything else going on around them—including their buddy.

In the case of this dive Tanya was the perfect buddy for Mike. She wanted to show Mike her private reef, so she pointed out everything and helped him set shots up, and then stayed out of the way, hanging back and waiting—unless he wanted an underwater model. In those situations, her grace, natural beauty and comfort underwater allowed her to gracefully swim into frame with just a few simple hand signals from Mike and add just the right element to the image.

Mike had shot a lot on the dive, but still had room on his digital camera card as he and Tanya rounded the final bend underwater. What he saw made him glad he did. Incredibly, the coral reef appeared to have been scoured clean of all life. They were stunned by what they saw.

It looked as though someone had run a bulldozer underwater and leveled everything. There was absolutely nothing. No Elkhorn coral, no brain coral, nothing. No shape, texture or color, except for the pile of once-vibrant color mixed into a jumbled mess, like the colors of a bowl of kid’s cereal floating in milk. Parrotfish were everywhere eating the broken coral. Mike photographed the scene to record the devastation.

When they finally surfaced after the long dive, Mike and Tanya discovered they were the last two up. The rest of the teams of researchers and volunteers had finished their dives, and most were already out of the water. From the sounds of their voices, they couldn’t believe what they had seen any more than Tanya and Mike could.

“What in the world happened down there?” Tanya asked at the top of her lungs to no one in particular. She and Mike were floating on the surface of the water.

“You mean you haven’t seen this before?” Mike responded. “When was the last time you made this dive?”

“It’s been about a week since the team made this dive. We try to hit it regularly, but not so much as to attract attention. We don’t want a lot of people coming down here messing up our research,” Tanya explained. “I just can’t believe it. That’s a mess. Someone is going to pay for this.”

“So you’re saying that a week ago, this section of the reef looked exactly like the rest of it? Not this parking lot?” Mike said. “That’s amazing. Have you heard of any groundings or anything that could explain it?”

As they talked Mike and Tanya swam toward the exit point.

They climbed up the rope ladder and on reaching the ledge, Tanya headed for the nearest rock that offered comfort to her outrage and grief and slumped onto it. She was sickened by what she saw, and as the reality of the destruction and its effect on her work penetrated more deeply, she became completely withdrawn, like someone who had just lost a loved one. “I just feel numb,” she muttered as she finally stood up and stumbled across the rocks and back to her truck.

Tanya’s staff of researchers went wild all around. Mike didn’t know exactly how to handle things, so he quietly packed away his gear and disassembled Tanya’s as well. Upon reaching the truck, she cast him a glance that showed that the fire had returned to her eyes. Her pain had turned to anger. There was going to be trouble. “I’m going down to Government House to find out what is going on here,” she bellowed.

“You all go back to the lab and download everything. Log every single detail and record all your findings in the computer archives. Take extra time if you need. Don’t leave out a single detail of what you saw. I want everything in the computer tonight.”

Tanya looked at Mike who had remained silent, allowing her to formulate her thoughts without interruption.

“Someone did this on purpose, Mike. This is not like the damage caused by some cruise ship anchor or some other grounding. Sure damage occurs from time to time, but this is unbelievable. Usually it’s only localized and relatively minor. Something that will recover over time. But this is extermination. It’s scarred forever or at least for longer than I’m going to be around. This was deliberate, calculated, and systematic—almost neat. Besides, cruise ships don’t come up here and there is nothing else I can think of that would have caused it.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Mike asked.

“I’m sorry, Mike. I didn’t mean to take this out on you. I know this isn’t exactly the dive I planned to show you, but I’ve got to find out what is going on. Do you mind if I drop you off at Sunset House?” Tanya asked.

“Not to worry, Tanya. I have some things to catch up on anyway,” he lied. He had no plans for the afternoon, but it would serve no purpose adding guilt to her woes.

On the way back to the hotel, Tanya was quiet, but Mike could tell she was thinking—she was somewhere between finding a cause for the damage and planning a response.

“Sorry I haven’t been good company, Mike,” she said as they pulled up out front of the hotel. “Kelly and I will be by about 7:30 p.m. to pick you up for dinner. By that time I’ll have cooled off some and will hopefully have some answers.”

“See you guys tonight,” he answered, intentionally keeping it short to give her an escape. Anyway, he thought, she probably didn’t hear a word I said.

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Get your copy of Cayman Cowboys today, in softcover or Kindle. It is also part of the Mike Scott Boxed Set that includes the first five novels and two short stories.

Cayman Cowboys: Excerpt Friday #1

February 17, 2017 By Eric Douglas

The following is the first scene written for the novel Cayman Cowboys. It actually appears about a third of the way into the story. Cayman Cowboys was the first Mike Scott thriller, originally published in 2005.

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Out of the darkness, a third car slowly pulled into the drive behind the abandoned cottages and came nose to nose with the car already there. Two men got out. No one bothered with formalities or useless greetings. They had business. The men were both islanders and dressed in jeans, dark jackets, and hats. They did not want to be recognized by others. In the low light, it was nearly impossible to distinguish which one was speaking.

“Do you have the map?” Walker asked the new arrivals.

“Yeah, I got it. What do you think I’m here for? You got the money?” one of the men responded.

“You’ll get it when I guarantee these are what we need. For all I know, you brought the wrong ones,” Walker responded.

Walker turned and gave his driver an order. The man pulled out an electric lantern while the driver of the new car spread the maps out across the hood of his car.

“Here they are,” said the driver of the third car. “Environmental surveys of the area. It shows everything you’re looking for.”

“These appear to be perfect. Exactly what we need,” said Walker. “Do you have our map?” Walker asked Akins.

“Yeah, right here,” Akins said.

“Bring it up and put it in the light. We need to make sure it matches the original,” Walker instructed the politician.

“Don’t worry, man. I had the same man who made the real map make this one. He worked at the government land office for 40 years and is trying to make it by on his retirement. He needs money to live here. His services are for hire,” the passenger from the third car said.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from an abandoned house directly behind where the men were meeting, and they heard the sound of a young woman yelp in pain.

“Check it out and find out who’s in there,” Walker ordered. The Lincoln’s driver and both men from the third car rushed toward the house. Samson started to go as well, assuming this was one of the duties his boss was paying him for, but Walker reached out his hand and held him back.

Seeing the men come rushing out of the darkness, the girl, who was just sleeping in the house, ran out the side door to get away.

All three men shouted after her and one fired a gun into the air, hoping it would make her stop. It didn’t. Scared beyond all comprehension, the girl ran faster. She was a runaway, hiding out from her family and the law. Waking up from a sound sleep, she thought it was the police coming to take her back to her abusive father in the U.S. She had tried to run away before. When she was caught and taken home, the beatings were worse than they had ever been before.

Quite possibly the last thought the girl had was that these men would never take her back to her family, no matter what happened. She ran from the sandy soil that covered much of the island directly onto what the locals call iron shore, limestone rock left over from millions of years of coral buildup that has been eroded over the years by the rain to form jagged edges and crevices. Even in solid shoes, iron shore is treacherous. At night, with nothing more than sandals on her feet, no light, and fleeing in a panic, the girl didn’t stand a chance. Not a local, she only set foot there just a few days before. Using money she had stolen from a small liquor store near her home to buy the ticket and a friend’s passport to gain entrance to the island, she had fled during the night. She had read stories in magazines about the island and thought it sounded like a wonderful place to escape to. She hadn’t had a chance to learn the land yet. She didn’t realize just how treacherous running across the iron shore could be, especially down by the water’s edge where the wave action had made things even more hazardous.

She fell. Hearing the men’s voices, she stood up bleeding from her shoulder and tripped again just a few yards away. This time she tore a jagged hole in her leg. In agony, she struggled to her feet and tried to run again. Turning to look, she saw the lights the men carried swinging back and forth. Knowing she had to get away, she struggled to her feet one more time, pain searing through her body. Already dying from the increasing blood loss from a torn artery in her thigh, she fell for the last time in a crevice between the rocks at the water’s edge.

She could hear the gentle sounds of the small Caribbean waves lapping against the rocks and the iron shore coast. When the waves hit the shore just right, the water would work its way through the rocks and blast straight up into the air, like a blowhole from a whale.

“Do you see the girl?”

“Nah, I don’t see anything. I’m not even sure there was a girl.”

“Someone was out here, but I can’t find her,” the men argued at the edge of the iron shore field.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not climbing across this stuff at night.”

“You’re right; she couldn’t have gone this way. Let’s check the other side of the road.”

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Get your copy of Cayman Cowboys today, in softcover or Kindle. It is also part of the Mike Scott Boxed Set that includes the first five novels and two short stories.

Introduction to the book Heart Survivor

January 31, 2017 By Eric Douglas

The following is most of Chapter 2 from the book Heart Survivor. I thought it was important to help my readers understand that I should have recognized the signs and symptoms of impending heart issues, but even with that experience, I still denied what was happening to me. It nearly cost me my life.

Who I Am

My name is Eric Douglas and I am a heart survivor. I like that phrase, but I also find it a little odd. I survived a heart attack and quintuple bypass surgery. I’ve survived cardiac rehab and have worked my tail off to get my life back.

My story is important because it’s unusual and it’s not. I’m 49 years old and have no family history of heart disease. I am not a super athlete, but I have always been active. I’m a scuba diver and have made a living for the last 20 years or so traveling the world teaching about scuba diving and dive safety. I’m also a son, a husband and a father.

One of the keys to this story, though, is that I am a full-time writer. I work from home and go to work every day with my computer. I tell stories for a living. What I’ve gone through, and what I’m writing about now, is the most important story I will ever tell as far as I’m concerned.

To back up a bit, I was born in the summer of 1967 in Charleston, West Virginia. I grew up what I would call lower middle class. I didn’t have everything, but I don’t remember wanting for a whole lot either. My brother and I have talked about it many times that we thought we had a good childhood. We played outside, rode horses, swam and did all the things kids growing up in the 70s did. I remember getting a home weight set at 11 or 12 years old. My brother and I would work out and that expanded into high school and college. In my 20s, I could bench press 365 pounds and squat and deadlift more than 400 pounds each.

Of course, growing up in Appalachia in the 70s and early 80s came with lots of casseroles and fried food. I spent a lot of time in my 20s in the gym, but I also spent a lot of time at the bar, consuming loads of empty calories. Still, I could balance it all out. I never had six-pack abs, but I carried my body well.

I bring all of that up simply to suggest that while I was active and relatively fit in my youth, my guess is my heart disease began back then.

I’ve been fortunate to tell stories my entire professional life. My degree is in journalism from Marshall University. I’ve worked in newspapers. I’ve written for magazines. I’ve produced photographic and audio documentaries. I’ve even had a collection of my photographs exhibited in Russia, France and the United States.

Right out of college, I looked at my minimal resume and decided I needed to add something to it that would make me stand out. I decided to learn to scuba dive. That decision gave me the opportunity to move from West Virginia to California to North Carolina. It also took me all over the world, visiting every continent except for Antarctica. The experience and adventure of diving is probably what makes my story interesting.

I said many of the seeds of my heart disease were likely sown in my childhood or youth. My recent history is just as important, however. In the last eight years, I’ve gotten a divorce, lost my job, moved a couple times and remarried. My stress levels have seen better days. On top of that, working for myself, sometimes wondering how I am going to pay my bills, has kept things tense.

Especially in the last few years I have felt guilty about getting up from my computer and exercising. That was time I felt I should be spending working at my desk. My health took a back seat to the stresses and pressures of daily life.

As I said, my story is different in some ways, but I think it is also extremely typical, too. I’ve dealt with life stresses. I didn’t always eat well or take the best care of myself. Most importantly, I didn’t see it coming when the diagnosis came out of left field.

Why I should have known better

In 1998 I moved to California to work in the recreational scuba diving industry. I was working for the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and having the time of my life. Every conversation around the water cooler had to do with scuba diving. PADI is the world’s largest scuba training agency and we had offices and affiliates all over the world. I was already a diver and a divemaster when I went to work there, but I was hired as a writer. I worked on the quarterly magazine we published as well as on new course development.

Browsing a dive magazine in the office one day, I read about the role of the diver medic in the diving community and set out to earn the certification for myself. My first step was to complete an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course at a local community college. I often tell people that I took my first cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course when I was nine-years-old. I became a CPR instructor in 1999 shortly after becoming a dive instructor, but this was my first real taste of emergency medicine. While the role of the EMT is limited, I absorbed a lot of theory about human physiology and how to provide care in an emergency.

From there, I took a course at the local hyperbaric chamber on how to provide emergency care for injured divers. It was there that I first performed CPR on a real patient. That was an experience I won’t ever forget, but the details aren’t important. Suffice it to say that the patient did not recover.

That all led me to my next position at Divers Alert Network (DAN). I spent nearly 12 years there running the training department. My job involved developing first aid and CPR courses specific to the diving world. I wrote the organization’s first AED training course and then went on to develop a series of CPR courses for the lay provider and for the professional rescuer, writing the manuals and the video scripts. I also organized a course to teach others to be diver medics.

Every five years, I read the latest Emergency Cardiac Care guidelines from the American Heart Association and the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.¹ I revised our training programs and demonstrated CPR all over the world. I issued more than 1000 certifications to people who wanted to be CPR Instructors and Instructor Trainers.

Literally every week I discussed CPR, first aid and the issues of the body, health and resuscitation. I know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest as well as anyone. I’ve written the line that Denial is a sign of a heart attack dozens of times.

With all that information, why didn’t I recognize Denial in my own situation?

I denied the possibility that I was having a heart-related problem. I ignored it, or justified it away. Most importantly, I didn’t tell anyone how I was feeling. I didn’t want to alarm my loved ones. And then came my actual diagnosis.

If you want to read more, check out the book Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery.

Thriller author details personal recovery from heart surgery

January 26, 2017 By Eric Douglas

Author Eric Douglas decided to focus on a personal adventure for his new book Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery.

On January 25, 2016, Douglas failed a stress test and ultimately had quintuple bypass surgery. Looking back over the previous year, he recognized many times that he denied symptoms and ignored the possibility that his heart was in trouble. Following the surgery, Douglas made two promises: to be as public as he could about his own recovery process so others could learn from it; and to get back in shape so he could return to scuba diving.

Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery is available on January 25, 2017, the one-year anniversary of Douglas’ stress test and beginning his personal journey to return to health.

Throughout his recovery, Douglas wrote a series of columns for the community news section of his local paper and six stories that appeared on ScubaDiving.com. Douglas writes a regular dive safety column for the international magazine. After six months of work, Douglas was cleared to dive and made a series of scuba dives in Summersville Lake, coming full circle back to where he was first certified.

“My story is unique, and at the same time it isn’t. I wanted to share my experiences because many people out there are denying symptoms and damaging their hearts, right up until they have a heart attack or worse,” Douglas said. “I attribute a lot of my successful recovery to having a specific goal before I left the hospital. I was going to return to diving and that kept me focused.”

Douglas included his own story, along with those of a few friends who had unique experiences with their own heart recoveries. To further illustrate the recovery process, Douglas surveyed more than 100 survivors to learn about their diagnoses, the changes they made in their lives and how their own recoveries progressed.

Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery is for anyone diagnosed with heart disease whether they are treating their condition with diet and medications, received stents to open arteries or have had open-heart surgery.

Heart Survivor: Coming Soon!

January 16, 2017 By Eric Douglas

Thriller novel author and documentarian Eric Douglas decided to focus on a personal adventure for his new book Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery.

The book is on pre-order now, but will be available on January 25, 2017 in softcover and Kindle.

January 25 is significant because it is a year to the day from when Douglas failed his stress test and began his person journey through heart surgery and recovery. Looking back over the previous year, he recognized many times that he denied symptoms and ignored the possibility that his heart was in trouble. Following the surgery, Douglas made two promises: to be as public as he could about his own recovery process so others could learn from it; and to get back in shape so he could return to scuba diving.

Douglas included his own story, along with those of a couple of friends who had unique experiences with their own heart recoveries. To further illustrate the recovery process, Douglas surveyed more than 100 survivors to learn about their diagnoses, the changes they made in their lives and how their own recoveries progressed.

Douglas also appeared on the syndicated talk radio show ScubaRadio on January 14, 2017 to discuss Heart Survivor with Greg “The Divemaster” Holt. Greg followed Eric down the heart surgery path, but discusses that he felt prepared for the journey after following Eric’s recovery.

Advent Ghost Stories 2016

December 17, 2016 By Eric Douglas

This is my fifth year participating in I Saw Lightning Fall’s Advent Ghosts collection. Loren Eaton, owner of ISLF asks writers to craft their own “scary ghost stories” revolving around the season. The tradition of telling ghost stories around Christmas goes back to Victorian England, at least. You’ve heard of it before. Remember the line from the song Most Wonderful Time of the Year:

There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of the
Christmases long, long ago

The catch for these stories is that they are limited to 100 words, no more, no less. This is a fun writing exercise because it challenges you to tell a story with only the barest of bones. What you leave out is just as important as what you leave in.

Below are my 2016 submissions. You’ll find my previous flash fiction stories on the Free Fiction page. On this cold and rainy December day, it’s a perfect time to be creeped out, just a little bit. Do yourself a favor and check out the rest of the Advent Ghost stories.

See below the stories for a little background on each.

Birth of a god

This truly is the most glorious time of the year, don’t you think?

Absolutely. The lights, the pageantry, the gift giving.

And it is all about the birth of a god. Just wonderful.

Yes, we should never forget the reason for the season.

Too many people do at this time of year.

It’s a shame that people don’t know their history. They just want to indulge themselves or worry about presents.

Well, that’s not true of us.

Say goodbye to the Great Mother and welcome the reborn Horned god!

May he reign forever over the dark half of the year!

Data Breach Expected to Have Consequences

Reuters: Calling it the largest data breach ever, authorities have announced that a list of personal information, including names, addresses and personal preferences, has been stolen.

Rumors suggest that the data breach includes more information than reported, however. The list is maintained by a shadowy world-wide surveillance organization. The group maintains the list to track behaviors, especially those outside of social norms. To this point, the list has never been made public, and its purpose is poorly understood.

It is unknown what the theft of the list will mean. Simply being on the “naughty” list is said to have consequences.

Background

Birth of a god

In pagan times, the Winter Solstice was a time of renewal. The great Horned god was born and in the spring would bring revitalization and rebirth. The horned god was represented by an antlered stag. You didn’t think the story was talking about something else, did you?

Data Breach

As I was debating what to write about for this year’s Advent Ghosts, I saw a news story on the latest Yahoo data breach and a cartoon about a boy wanting to get his hands on Santa’s list of naughty girls. It suddenly clicked.